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Burning ember
‘Tuku’ fans the Zimbabwean flame
BY BANNING EYRE

International success was a long time coming for Zimbabwe’s Oliver Mtukudzi. Sitting in a New York hotel room the night after his debut on The Late Show with David Letterman and midway though a two-night sold-out stand at Joe’s Pub in NYC, he seems humbled. He explains that the past year has been the busiest of his career, filled with composing, recording, near-non-stop touring, and the making of a new documentary film. "I never aimed to be where I am now," he says, looking back to his start in the mid ’70s. "I just wanted to be better than I was yesterday."

A whole lot of tomorrows later, the 50-year-old star, called "Tuku" by his fans, has never flagged in Zimbabwe. But whereas his countrymen Thomas Mapfumo and the Bhundu Boys rode the world-music wave during the ’80s, "Tuku music" remained a well-kept secret overseas. Finally, late in the ’90s, Tuku, who comes to the House of Blues this Tuesday, signed with the American world-music label Putumayo, toured the US as part of Africa Fête, and enjoyed a boom in popularity back home that led to fame in South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi, and Botswana. The next thing he knew, Letterman was calling.

Tuku plays acoustic guitar and sings in a husky, soul-tinged voice while his spare, tight band fill in with bass, drums, restrained keyboard, clear-toned electric guitar lines, percussion, and rich backing vocals. The choreography and pacing in the set I caught at Joe’s Pub were masterful. Tuku’s showmanship is polished but free of artifice. When he shimmies his slender frame, or kicks a leg up in synchrony with his front-line singers, he seems genuinely happy, and when he introduces one of his proverb-laden songs, he takes you deep inside Shona language and thought patterns. This is music that has as much affinity with gospel and classic soul as with any purely African form. It has enough in common with American roots pop that Bonnie Raitt borrowed music from one Tuku song on her 1999 release, Fundamental, and she covers his "Hear Me Lord" on her new Silver Lining (Columbia).

Tuku’s latest, Vhunze Moto, is shot full of folksy, fatherly wisdom. " ‘Vhunze moto’ literally means, ‘an ember is still a fire,’ " he explains. "An ember is a dying fire, but it can still grow into a flame again. The theme of the whole album is that people shouldn’t take life for granted. We all live once, and it’s advisable to make the best of it."

This theme re-emerges in song after song. In "Ndakuvara" ("I am hurt"), Tuku is training an ox to plow his fields, but the animal turns vicious and kicks him. In "Kucheneka" ("Cruelty"), a dark meditation animated by simmering, polyrhythmic trap drumming from Sam Mataure, Tuku taunts the casual killer with this grisly thought: "You may as well go all the way and eat my body as well."

Throughout these energized, melancholy numbers, there are veiled hints of commentary on Zimbabwe’s dire political climate. Could that "ox we used to admire" be a reference to embattled 77-year-old President Mugabe? And might the "casual killer" number among the thugs that terrorized and murdered supporters of Mugabe’s opposition in the run-up to the presidential election this past March?

Such questions have arisen before about Tuku’s songs, but he never tips his hand. "This has been happening since before independence. If you can use this song to suit your needs, and someone else can use the same song to suit his needs, that’s my definition of a good song. I don’t want to point a finger at somebody, because that makes my song limited. If that somebody dies, what happens to the song? I believe in a song that can be used yesterday, today, and tomorrow."

Tuku’s caginess about political messages sets him apart from Thomas Mapfumo, whose recent work launches angry broadsides against Mugabe. This may be one reason why Tuku still works out of Harare whereas Mapfumo makes his home in Eugene, Oregon. Tuku was out of the country during the election and so offers no opinion on the widely criticized process or the predictable Mugabe win.

He does describe a change in his home audience before and after the vote, however. "People are not talking. And Zimbabweans, I know them. They are people who if they want to celebrate, they celebrate. If they are pissed off, they are pissed off. But this time, they are too cool, too quiet. It’s like nothing happened." Are they exhausted, terrorized, satisfied, or scheming revenge? Tuku won’t say, but in his own way he conveys the sense that something is very wrong in his country. That subtle, artful communication speaks volumes about his success, and his survival.

Oliver Mtukudzi performs this Tuesday, May 7, at the House of Blues. Call (617) 491-BLUE.

Issue Date: May 2 - 9, 2002
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