He plays mbira just like his father, Cosmas Magaya! – strong and steady, so that you can hear every note clearly. This is an excellent album that mbira players with Magaya pitch nyamaropa tuning (B flat) will be able to learn from, and play along with. Read more »

This Mhondoro Communal Area group will get you stomping with the perfect combination of strong soaring vocals from Jenny Muchumi and Simon Hoto, and powerful duelling kutsinhira bass lines from Hoto and Mudavanhu Magaya. Nyamaropa tuning. Read more »

These threee romping mbira players from Mhondoro Communal Area will get you up and dancing!!! And, the vibrant vocals of the late Ambuya (”Grandmother”) Jenny Muchumi and Simon Hoto are not to be missed. Enjoy the lively interaction of mbira bass lines between Hoto and Magaya, and vocal lines between Muchumi and Hoto. Read more »

In this special recording, three generations of the Magaya family play the mbira classics with their trademark confidence - you can hear clearly every single beautiful note that Cosmas, and son Mudavanhu, play on mbira. The late Sekuru Joshua Magaya joins them with improvisational vocals, sung the way people used to sing with mbira “in the olden days”. Read more »

The many international students of mbira player Cosmas Magaya will enjoy this Discount Download only collection in the tuning they play, nyamaropa tuning in approximately B flat pitch. Read more »

Introduction

Friday Chamunorwa is known internationally through his mbira recordings, his top quality hosho rattles distributed by MBIRA worldwide, and visitors to his village. He is also known in his rural area by his totem (Shumba) Mhazi and a family nickname Bhakuza.

Recordings Available From MBIRA

Use the links and listen to samples of Friday Chamunorwa's albums, both ... Read more »

The next generation of the famed Mhuri yekwaRwizi (literally 'Family from Chief Rwizi's place'), recorded here at age 20 to 25, already rock! Moses Mude's beautiful vocals, and Mudavanhu Magaya's powerful kutsinhira playing, follow in the footsteps of their fathers with honor. Mbira students with instruments in the Magaya family's 'standard' pitch of nyamaropa tuning will enjoy playing along ... Read more »

Introduction

(written by Denver Banda) A voice rings out loudly under the star-studded sky of an August night in Mhondoro. Its familiar energy and clarity seem to be taunting the spirits of the ancestors to rejoin the living, and moving the living to a wild crescendo... Suddenly, she ululates, ululates again as the high notes on the mbira ring out complementing her ululation. She ... Read more »

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These musicians at age 18 to 21 already played strong clear mbira in the style of their fathers – Cosmas Magaya, Hakurotwi Mude, and Mondrek Muchena of the famed Mhuri yekwaRwizi mbira group. They are joined on tracks 6-8 by big brother Frank Mude. Mbira students with “Magaya standard” nyamaropa tuning (around B flat pitch) mbiras will enjoy playing along! Read more »