This Africa Day,
PRUDENCE KATOMENI-MBOFANA and HOPE MASIKE, two of Zimbabwe’s most delightful
daughters of music, join together in a lively double-bill at Book Café on
Friday 25 May at 8pm, to celebrate with the rest of the continent some of its
most colourful music over the ages, with a modern twist, fresh originals and
strong mbira-jazz crossovers from present-day Zimbabwe.
Prudence has
been delighting Zimbabweans since her young days, first as a young star on the
film screen, and evolving over time into a first-rate jazz singer and
songwriter. Honed by her jazz studies at the Zimbabwe College of Music a
few years ago, Prudence has a deep understanding of jazz theory, which is fired
by her natural gift, perfect pitch, and powerful vocal abilities. Topped
with the ‘art of entertainment’, Prudence always delivers a great performance
featuring new originals from the 2011 CD ‘Prudence’, and some all-time old
favourites.
Hope Masike is
back from travelling in the world, and brings with her a fresh sound with
influences from all over, in which she is creating exciting musical
experiments, backed by her group KAKUWE, formed by Hope from her days in the
ZCM jazz programme. Featured regularly at the Book Café in the last four
years, Hope’s career has taken off strongly and fans have been able to track
her swift progress through her website www.hopemasike.com.
Hope released her second CD ‘Hope, Love and Chocolate’ this year, hitting the
shelves now.
Both artists
performed at the recent International Jazz Day event at Book Café, which is now
being staged more regularly, by popular demand, and were also featured at HIFA
at the beginning of May where they reached an even wider audience.
Both artists
also participate in the FLAME programme (Female Literary, Arts & Music
Enterprise) by Zimbabwean arts development organisation Pamberi Trust,
attending and facilitating various workshops, staging promotional events, and
encouraging younger women artists at the Sistaz Open Mic – a platform for
exposure for women artists.
Prudence and Hope
are the new faces of African jazz and world-music in the world today, predicted
by this writer to rise up to international status along with the likes of older
African sisters Miriam Makeba, Dorothy Masuka. They have already reached
audiences in the region and Europe for some years, and this show is a rare
opportunity to catch them on the same stage before they bustle on in their
individual careers.
