Stella Chiweshe

Stella Chiweshe- a tradition of breaking taboos in africa
Double Check

Two Sides of Zimbawe’s Mbira Queen. Stella was the first Piranha recording artist way back in 1987 and just in time for Piranha's 100th release Stella's first double album appeared early this year. On her first double album Stella is traveling on one path in two different directions. One half is the Trance Hits in which she journeys throughout the world of her ancestors, preserving traditions. With the other half Classic Hits she revisits the urban streets in Harare and calls on the younger, westernised generation to take pride in their culture. This is the 100th Piranha album and features production by John Peel and Ben Mandelson, Colin Bass and a special guest appearance of the rhythm section of the 3 Mustaphas 3.

"When you hear Stella Chiweshe perform, you are swept away. Swept away by the majesty of the striking otherworldly figure onstage, by the mesmeric power of her mbira and by her voice - now a whisper, now full-throated and soaring - welling up from deep within her Shona soul." (Songlines June 2006)

"It's trance music, but in the oldest sense of the word, setting up hypnotic rhythms that lull." (Sing Out!)

BIOGRAPHY
Born 1946 in Mujumhi, a village in Mhondoro Zimbabwe, the woman now known by her people as Ambuya Chinyakare (Grandmother of Traditional Music) has had to struggle hard every step of the way to becoming her true self, the Queen of Mbira. The colonial power, Britain, had banned the mbira during the first war of liberation, the Church told her that it was the work of the Devil, even her own people told her that it was taboo, an instrument that a woman could never play. Yet by the mid-sixties, she had become recognised as a gifted maridzambira, playing at healing ceremonies, weddings, funerals, concerts and parties and her debut single, Kasahwa, had gone gold. After Zimbabwean independence in 1980, she joined the National Dance Company and toured throughout Zimbabwe, Mozambique and then Australia, India, North Korea and Europe. Since 1987 she has been on a continual tour of Europe, North America and Zimbabwe. So far she's recorded 22 local singles and 7 international albums, became the first Zimbabwean female mbira player to gain international recognition, been awarded an MA from Harare University, won two ZIMA Awards in 2005 plus the National Arts Merit Awards from the National Arts Council in Zimbabwe early this year and healed countless troubled souls. (Max Reinhard)

DISCOGRAPHY
2006 "Double Check: Two Sides of Zimbabwe's Mbira Queen"0
2002 "Talking Mbira. Spirits of Liberation"
1994 "Shungu"
1991 "Kumusha"
1990 "Chisi"
1987 "Ambuya?"