Oliver Mtukudzi Downloads
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From: Africa > Zimbabwe

Genres: Chimurenga, World Pop, Jit, Tune Your World

Oliver Mtukudzi

 With his soul-inflected Tuku style, singer/songwriter/guitarist Oliver Mtukudzi alone rivals Thomas Mapfumo for the mantle of Zimbabwe pop's spiritual father. Mtukudzi recorded his first hits in the late `70s and remains active today. Though it includes elements of Shona and other Zimbabwean traditional music, Mtukudzi's sound also draws heavily on South African township pop and classic R&B. Mtukudzi adores Otis Redding, above all, but his own husky, mellifluous voice sounds closer to Jamaica's Toots Hibbert.

Claiming no overriding stylistic model, Mtukudzi believes in the interrelatedness of all African music, "from Cape Town to Cairo." Just the same, Oliver's winning personality pervades his sound, rendering the Tuku style instantly recognizable. Mtukudzi always packs in a dance crowd at his frequent shows in Harare's hotel/club scene. His rollicking songs and long-legged dance moves go down well, but Mtukudzi says it's his message, not the beat that sells the songs. Acting as a kind of national conscience, Mtukudzi concentrates on family stories, sensitively exploring the social issues people face in their daily lives, including new problems surrounding AIDS and the premature deaths of adults in a family.
Oliver is revered in his native land for his ability to construct thoughtful, popular songs that address Zimbabwe's struggles in a profund yet apparent way that has endeared him to the public but often put him at odds with the ruling powers.

"I have tried to combine some of the beats which are the true, free expressions of Zimbabweans in order to make a national rhythm." -- Afropop.org Senior Editor Banning Eyre
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Oliver Mtukudzi

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Ziwere Mukobenhavn

Mutukudzi and his eight-man band recorded this spirited album in Copenhagen during their 1993 tour of Europe.

Ziwere MuKobenhaven is a dance album with punch but without synthesized drum machines. He utilizes the Bantu African structure of interlocking patterns, thus creating a unified sound collage that is mesmerizing. This is how the Tuku beat becomes a dancing image of the life and spirit of the township. Trance and ecstasy overtake the dancer and he or she is one with the community ritual. The music unites the bush with the city and thus ameliorates the alienation from the roots of culture, a very important matter. His lead vocals, sung in Shona and English, tell the event he's describing and the response of the chorus confirm and enhance what has been sung. Listen to him sing "Kusaziva," which means "Ignorance," and "Hear Me Lord."

It is a circle of song, of community, and mystical unity in the round. A truly mystical album with that South African danceable drive underpinning it all.

Indicates Most Popular Song

Title

Length

Sample

Ziwere

6:30

Ndirangarirei    

6:06

Hear Me Lord

7:43

Ndipeiwo Zano

7:09

Street Kid

6:10

Ndikarangarira

6:58

Why

6:15

Kusaziva

5:48

[Untitled Track]

1:02

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Tsivo (Revenge)

This is Tuku's 47th album and it represents a new beginning of sorts for he and his band, The Black Spirits. It is the very first acoustic studio album that the band has recorded and it is also the first recorded in Tuku's own Samanyanga studio at his home in Norton, Zimbabwe. Everything but the mastering was done in the studio, which took Tuku a few years to build. Over the years he has collected acoustic instruments including an acoustic bass given to him by one of his biggest fans, fellow musician Bonnie Raitt. In a way however, it's like turning the clock back to 1975 when Tuku recorded his very first song 'Stop After Go'. Then it was just him and his guitar and the idea was just to hear his music played on local radio. Almost three decades on, Tuku's music has, like a good wine, improved with age and is played and sold all over the world. Of course Tuku is older - he turned fifty three in September 2005 - but he still maintains the work ethic that has made him one of Africa's leading and most loved musicians.

Indicates Most Popular Song

Title

Length

Sample

Hariputirwe (Nothing Remains a Secret Forever)

5:21

Chara Chimwe (Many Hands Make a Light Work)

4:27

Totutuma (We Celebrate)    

5:15

Dame Rinetapira (Words Are Sweet)

4:57

Wagona Fani (You Have Done Very Well)

6:47

Changu Chii? (What Is It With Me?)

5:08

Ungamugone (You Cannot Satisfy a Person)

6:14

Pawatsiurwa (When You Are Advised)

5:42

Vanereva Nepasipo (They Exaggerate)

4:31

Budiriro (Success)

5:23

Pa Kasimbwi (At Kasimbwi)

5:46

Unetyei? (What Are You Afraid Of?)

4:31

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Vhunze Moto

The latest from this pioneering Zimbabwe pop musician is a beautiful, brooding bundle of energized melancholy. You can feel Tuku's instinctive good will and optimism struggling to blossom through the gloom of Zimbabwe's forever delayed springtime. From the first track, "Ndakuvara" (I am hurt), there's a wounded edge in his voice. The song is about a man who has been kicked by a young ox he was trying to train. The heavy beat and minor key suggest a special urgency, to the point where you wonder if there isn't a larger message. "I thought this young ox would be like its elders," sings Tuku, "and yet it has ignored its elders." Could this possibly be a comment on the violent gangs of youths who currently terrorize Zimbabwe?

Many of these ten songs raise questions like that. After the massive flap Tuku inspired in Zimbabwe in 2000 when his song "Wasakara" (You're worn out) was taken as a comment on aging President Mugabe, one inevitably listens for hidden messages in his work. But if they're there, they're well hidden indeed. Unlike his peer, Thomas Mapfumo, who blasts Zimbabwe's failed leaders with unvarnished broadsides in his new work, Tuku is disinclined to spell out political intentions. "I sing the songs," he typically says, "and people interpret them as they will." -- Afropop.org Senior Editor Banning Eyre

Indicates Most Popular Song

Title

Length

Sample

Ndakuvara

4:58

Gondo

4:56

Ziva Nguva    

5:00

Kusekana Kwanakamba

4:56

Wongororo

7:15

Magumo

5:36

Kucheneka

7:00

Moto Moto

6:56

Yave Mbodza

6:27

Tapera

7:30

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Paivepo

Mtukudzi’s style, known as Tuku music, is a unique combination of several elements: South Africa’s hard-driving mbaqanga rhythm, jit—a fast percussive Zimbabwean dance beat—and the gentler, repetitive mbira rhythms of Zimbabwe's Shona people.

Indicates Most Popular Song

Title

Length

Sample

Mkuru Mkuru

5:55

Kunze kwadoka    

5:29

Mutzerendende

6:10

Chiri Nani

5:48

Ndaqarwa Nhaka

4:53

Pindurai Muambo

6:16

Muranda Kumwe

4:50

Sandi Bonde

5:16

Ndine Mubvunzo

5:40

Ngoma Nehosho

6:31

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Greatest Hits, The Tuku Years, 1998 - 2002

Indicates Most Popular Song

Title

Length

Sample

Todii

6:51

Ndagarwa Nhaka

4:51

Dzoka Uyamwe

6:02

Mutserendende

6:09

Magumo (How Will It All End?)

5:35

Kunze Kwadoka

5:29

Mabasa

7:16

Ndakuvara (I Am Hurt)

4:58

Mkuru Mkuru

5:55

Raki    

7:06

Chengetai

3:53

Neria [Live Mahube Version]

4:35

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Tuku Music

The world famous 1999 release.

Indicates Most Popular Song

Title

Length

Sample

Rirongere

5:57

Todii

6:53

Mabasa

7:17

Dzoka Uyamwe

6:03

Mai Varamba

6:27

Tsika Dzedu

6:30

Tapindwa Nei

6:35

Wake Up

6:12

Ndima Ndapedza    

6:28

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Collection 1991 - 1997

It's amazing how time flies but memories stay alive and fresh

Indicates Most Popular Song

Title

Length

Sample

Chinhambwe

7:01

Hear Me Lord    

7:43

Ndikarangarira

6:56

Ndotangira Poyi

7:36

Matibaya

5:00

Ndakuyambira

7:32

Mutorwa

5:17

Andinzwi

5:57

Neria (original version)

5:29

Street Kid

3:22

Madanha

5:30

Makaitei

4:46

Hakuendwe

7:31

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Ndega Zvangu

Indicates Most Popular Song

Title

Length

Sample

Cheka Ukama

7:09

Mwana Wamambo

6:31

Andinzwi

7:30

Unodada Nei?

4:47

Chirimundari    

6:50

Zivai Nemoyo

4:17

Handiende

5:09

Neria

4:59

Kwawakabva

6:29

Ndima Ndamakura

5:31

Ndakuneta

3:54

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Shoko

Shoko presents a set of Classic Tuku hits.

Indicates Most Popular Song

Title

Length

Sample

Mwana Asingacheme

4:40

Ndiri Bofu    

4:30

Baba

4:34

Shoko

4:41

Timbvumbamireyi

4:27

Kumhunga

4:15

Madzongonyedze

4:02

Bvongodza Muto

4:44

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Collection 1984-1991

A collection of Tuku favorites from his middle years.

Indicates Most Popular Song

Title

Length

Sample

Chipembenene

5:58

Munoshusha    

5:30

Ngwarai Vana Vangu

4:15

Rugarwe Rwamangwana

5:08

Kuvhaira

5:18

Mean What You Say

6:04

Zindoenda

4:16

Pss Pss Hallo

4:54

Messanger

6:24

Mukombe

5:30

Zvauya Sei ?

4:01

What's Going On

5:01

Unodada Nei?

4:28

Gona

6:56

Chengetai

3:36

Handsome

2:20

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Neria

Neria is an international award winning film from Zimbabwe, and this is the soundtrack, written by Tuku.

Indicates Most Popular Song

Title

Length

Sample

Neria

6:05

Chengetai

3:54

PSS.... PSS.... Hallo    

5:53

Tinomuchema

4:55

Tarirai

5:28

Muchatuta

6:28

Ghetto Boy

5:29

Mean What You Say

5:44

Right Direction

5:48

Kugara

3:54

Neria [Mahube]

4:36

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Bvuma/Tolerance

Indicates Most Popular Song

Title

Length

Sample

Wasakara

7:29

Shanda

7:34

Pahukama

5:46

Akoromoka Awa

4:46

Wenge Mambo

5:06

Rurimi

5:05

Raki

7:06

Murimi Munhu

6:15

Hatida Hondo

5:40

Mhakure    

4:29

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