After a bustling Southern African tour, FLAME comes to The Mannenberg in Harare on 5 and 6 June - a colourful kaleidoscope of African music by four of our region's top women artists: MINGAS (Mozambique), Mpumie Twala and Ndithini Mbali (sax) of South Africa, and Zimbabwe's DUDU Manhenga.

 

 

After a good first meeting with Mpumie Twala and Ndithini Mbali at Johannesburg’s bustling Park Station, the gruelling bus ride Johannesburg-Maputo is now over, and we have landed safely, well met by our friends from LOGARITMO, Litho and Adiodata. After a much needed rest (the travelling hours! the heat!), we were warmly welcomed by MINGAS and her band, currently including our very own Zim drummer Blessing Mparutsa who has been rehearsing in advance with the band for 2 weeks already.  The first full rehearsal took place on a balmy Maputo evening, where the rehearsal room is live and lively!  It's the space where people get to know each other, explore each other's music, and although it's only Day 1 Rehearsal 1, it's already cooking!

 

 

While some (Zimbabweans) are busy enjoying the Africa Day public holiday, FLAME have been hard at work here 'in the region', with an afternoon press conference at Hotel Tourismo, Maputo, with about 15 journalists, cameras, TV, and all the ladies on proud display:  Hello Mozambique!  The cameras followed to the rehearsal studio also, to catch some of the action.  Things are coming together, and everyone is excited.

 

 

Now we are exploring the city (and shopping!) and resting by day, with rehearsals  scheduled for the cool hours of the early evening.  Suits everyone fine!  Maputo is a beautiful city, successfully combining beautiful old buildings like the ancient market place which is still bustling and thriving through the centuries, with high-tech modern structures like the Maputo shopping mall with a wide variety of shops and diverse array of restaurants.  The galinha is lovely, the people are friendly, there's a wonderful music festival going on in the streets, and Maputo is alive!

 

 

My seat on the amplifier is hard, in this backroom studio in the centre of Maputo, but I’m caught up in the FLAME rehearsal the day before the first show of the regional tour.  The repertoire is a rich and colourful mix of original music of Africa by the four divas – Mingas, Dudu, Mpumie and Ndithini (sax).  Each has her own distinctive style and flavour, following each other in an ever-changing kaleidoscope of colours which keeps me rooted to my amp in amazement, while my spirit dances within me.  All that makes for ‘feel good’ is there.  The artists have just decided on 12 bars of ‘freestyle’ on Ndithini’s ‘Ilanga Litshonile’ with solos by the formidable musicians of Mingas’ band - Jorge ‘Jojo’ Salomao (keyb), Carlito Gove (bass), Jorge Nhacocane (percussion), Antonio ‘Dodo’ Milisse (guitar), joined for this tour by Zimbabwean drummer Blessing Muparutsa, who is doing Zimbabwe proud.

 

Mingas takes it up-tempo with one of her own much-loved tunes, pausing suddenly to ease into the verse, and picking it up again later.  Each of the ladies is enjoying the luxury of having some of the regions top voices as backing vocalists and it sounds heavenly.  ‘Saxophonista’ Nditihini Mbali gets to play on a host of different music, as well as teaching and delivering her own compositions – a rich and empowering experience for any musician, and a trailblazer for women instrumentalists of Africa. 

 

Dudu’s ‘Inspired by Nature’ brings out the jazzist in everyone, with tight jacks giving way to a smooth and melodious verse, interspersed with African bird calls and punctuated with dramatic counter-rhythms; ‘Stop Crying’ is some smooth reggae with a theme borrowed from the old lullaby “Mama’s gonna buy you a diamond ring” – a tongue-in-cheek reference to newly discovered diamond mines in Zimbabwe!

 

The powerful voice of Mpumie Twala delivers all that is good in African song, the life, the vigour, the sheer joy of music, and what is turning out to be something of a theme tune “Africa”.

 

Contrary to stereotype of famous divas – which each of the women are in their own right, normally ‘in charge’ of their own stage – there is a strong and humble sense of ‘sistership’ with each one working to support and complement the others.

 

What a rehearsal !!   What a show this is going to be!!

 

 

This is it, the day of the first performance in the regional tour – and in between the rush of setup, soundcheck, Logaritmo host a lunch at the seafront Club Navale for all artists and production team including the sharp, ever-courteous and cheerfully tireless Adiodato to whom we will be forever grateful!  Sponsor Mcel present FLAME with fantastic coffeetable publications on Jazz, and the wine flows along with the prawns and calamari in a leisurely fashion until the whole team bounces back to action in final preparation for tonight’s show. 

 

And what a show.  The Centro Cultural Franco Mocambicano is a wonderful semi-open air venue in the centre of the capital which hosts music and the arts from around Mozambique and the world.  Hundreds fill the venue, the divas take to the stage, and everyone is soon on their feet, fully engaged, in that wonderful Mozambican way.  People of every kind and colour are enrapt by the performance, the place is bursting with life and energy and every song earns tumultuous applause.  CDs are selling like hotcakes outside, with people ducking out of the concert to make sure they get theirs.  (Ivan the CD-seller misses the show altogether…).

 

It’s hard to separate the divas from their fans and, still bathing in that special after-glow of a high-energy, spirited musical performance, FLAME must turn to the practicalities of tomorrow’s journey to the next stop – Swaziland!

 

 

Swaziland’s popular and growing Bushfire Festival is a wonder to behold, as we land just in time for soundcheck after a four-hour drive and friendly border post.  There’s all kinds of things going on – music, poetry, food, wine, paintings, carvings, Swazi basketwork, artists, crew, revelers, crazy paving, artwork everywhere.  The programme boasts a host of African artists, descending on this peaceful misty valley to entertain crowds from all over the region.  FLAME is on stage at 1300, and although it’s cold and wet, the fire burns! and a crowd soon gathers, dancing through the rain, roaring their approval, loving every minute!  After meeting Janneke Xulu of tour partners MMINO, and enjoying the opportunity to see other artists, it’s a short drive ‘home’ to royal treatment by the luxurious Royal Swazi Villas, nestling in the picturesque Ezulwini Valley.

 

 

The Swaziland/South Africa border is busy, but it’s a fast track thanks to veteran transporter Kenneth, well-known and highly respected transporter for music stars around the region; he knows the ropes, the raps, the right music to play in the bus, and it’s a pleasant drive to Jozi and the start of the third leg of the tour.

 

 

Johannesburg is Johannesburg is Johannesburg.  It’s bustling, it’s fast, it’s alive!  It’s home to Mpumie Twala and Ndithini Mbali who are now our hosts!  And so begin preparations with African Synergy for shows coming up at the famous Newtown venue BASSLINE, on Wed 2 and Friday 4 June.  Stand by Jo'burg!

 

 

Another riveting delivery of the tour repertoire with a new flavour in this huge cosmopolitan metropolis.  As the tour unfolds across southern Africa, the music also tightens and grows and each FLAME performance is smoother, brighter, hotter than the last!

 

 

Harare now waits with bated breath for the final two shows in the tour, Sat 5 (9pm) and Sunday 6 June (8pm) at The Mannenberg, in Fife Avenue.  By this time, the performance will be honed to its sharpest delivery, and promises to be a fantastic finale to the collaboration which has blazed through the four countries in the last weeks.  At Pamberi Trust the phone is ringing off the hook with enquiries, and the team of the original FLAME project (Female Literary Arts & Music Enterprise), are standing by to welcome the regional collaboration.

It will never happen like this again; there may be more and there may be others, but the magic of this particular collaboration is here and now.  Don’t miss it!