Chaka Chawasarira - Useza (2025) [Hi-Res]
![Chaka Chawasarira - Useza (2025) [Hi-Res]](https://www.dibpic.com/uploads/posts/2025-06/1749127165_a2055410326_10.jpg)
BAND/ARTIST: Chaka Chawasarira
- Title: Useza
- Year Of Release: 2025
- Label: Nyege Nyege Tapes
- Genre: World, African
- Quality: FLAC 24/44100; 16/44100; MP3 320
- Total Time: 00:38:36
- Total Size: 90; 235; 427 MB
- WebSite: Album Preview
Useza is a powerful musical statement by Sekuru Chaka Chawasarira, an 83-year-old Zimbabwean artist and educator known as one of the last true masters of the matepe, a complex mbira-like instrument played with both thumbs and index fingers. The album showcases his meticulous technique and deep cultural knowledge, with the title “Useza” (Shona for someone of great skill and precision) aptly describing his life’s work.
Matepe music, once central to Shona spiritual rituals, is now endangered, with fewer than ten master musicians remaining due to decades of suppression by evangelical and Pentecostal churches, which associate it with witchcraft. Despite growing up in a Catholic mission and leading a church choir, Chawasarira remained committed to traditional Zimbabwean music, even blending drums and mbira into his church work and composing a mass for the karimba.
On Useza, Chawasarira overdubs intricate, hypnotic matepe sequences, creating shifting polyrhythms and harmonies—what ethnomusicologist Andrew Tracey once described as "kaleidophonic". Recorded at night in his home in Chitungwiza, the album recreates the transcendent sound of Shona ritual. Chawasarira chants over layered rhythms, producing haunting musical illusions that echo the work of minimalist and avant-garde composers.
Ultimately, Useza is both a celebration and a preservation of a fading tradition, embodying Chawasarira’s legacy and ensuring the matepe’s profound cultural voice continues to be heard.
Tracklist:
1-1 Chaka Chawasarira - Hurombo [5:02]
1-2 Chaka Chawasarira - Kuvachenjedza [7:10]
1-3 Chaka Chawasarira - Wako Ndiwako [7:04]
1-4 Chaka Chawasarira - Ndonda [7:12]
1-5 Chaka Chawasarira - Msengu [4:56]
1-6 Chaka Chawasarira - Marume Azere Dare [7:12]
Matepe music, once central to Shona spiritual rituals, is now endangered, with fewer than ten master musicians remaining due to decades of suppression by evangelical and Pentecostal churches, which associate it with witchcraft. Despite growing up in a Catholic mission and leading a church choir, Chawasarira remained committed to traditional Zimbabwean music, even blending drums and mbira into his church work and composing a mass for the karimba.
On Useza, Chawasarira overdubs intricate, hypnotic matepe sequences, creating shifting polyrhythms and harmonies—what ethnomusicologist Andrew Tracey once described as "kaleidophonic". Recorded at night in his home in Chitungwiza, the album recreates the transcendent sound of Shona ritual. Chawasarira chants over layered rhythms, producing haunting musical illusions that echo the work of minimalist and avant-garde composers.
Ultimately, Useza is both a celebration and a preservation of a fading tradition, embodying Chawasarira’s legacy and ensuring the matepe’s profound cultural voice continues to be heard.
Tracklist:
1-1 Chaka Chawasarira - Hurombo [5:02]
1-2 Chaka Chawasarira - Kuvachenjedza [7:10]
1-3 Chaka Chawasarira - Wako Ndiwako [7:04]
1-4 Chaka Chawasarira - Ndonda [7:12]
1-5 Chaka Chawasarira - Msengu [4:56]
1-6 Chaka Chawasarira - Marume Azere Dare [7:12]
| World | FLAC / APE | Mp3 | HD & Vinyl
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