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MP3 Erica Azim - Healing Dreams: Ancient Mbira of Zimbabwe
9 MP3 Songs in this album (68:55) !
Related styles: World: African, New Age: Healing, Mood: Dreamy
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Details:
The ancient Shona mbira music of Zimbabwe is a vehicle for communication between living people and ancestors extending back to the dawn of mankind. Playing or listening to mbira is known to heal both physical and mental illness, far beyond the boundaries of cultural expectations, often taking one to states of trance or vivid dreaming. As a musician, it is humbling to be a vehicle for such powerful music. Performed in a gentle style that supports rest, relaxation and meditation, the pieces on this recording have been played from time immemorial.
The primary instrument of Zimbabwe''s Shona people, mbira has been played for over 1000 years. A traditional repertoire, transmitted for centuries, is brought into the moment with improvisation, making each performance unique. The shimmering sound of the mbira''s bottle tops, or metal beads, assists in inducing trance.
Tracks 1,2, and 3 are played in Katsanzaira ("first gentle raindrops before a storm") tuning - a sweet-sounding high-pitched tuning with intervals similar to Dorian mode…reminiscent of twinkling stars and childhood music boxes. Track 4 is played in Nyamaropa tuning, variants of which are the most common mbira tunings in Zimbabwe. Almost every family of mbira players has a different tuning, and few people give names to their tunings…unless asked by a foreigner! Track 5 is played on a Dambatsoko tuning mbira, a low-pitched tuning played by the Mujuru family, "Dambatsoko" refer to their ancestral burial place. Tracks 6 through 9 are played on a Nemakonde tuning mbira, a low-pitched version of the tuning called Mavembe or Gandanga.
Erica Azim fell in love with Shona mbira music when she first heard it at the age of 16. In 1974, Erica traveled to Rhodesia, then in the throes of the liberation war to become Zimbabwe, to be one of the first foreigners to study mbira there. Since then, she has studied and performed with many of Zimbabwe''s top mbira masters. Erica has played mbira, solo and with others, at venues as varied as Zimbabwean village ceremonies, the Kennedy Center, the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, as well as many universities; she also performs in South America. Erica has recorded 3 solo CDs, as well as playing on 9 other CDs.
In 1998, Erica founded the non-profit organization MBIRA (https://www.tradebit.com). MBIRA supports the Shona mbira tradition by offering mbira workshops and performances, instruments, and field recordings of 220 Zimbabwean musicians, to enthusiasts around the world.
Erica loves to share her passion for mbira music, and teaches workshops throughout the US, and the world, as well as internationally-attended mbira camps at her home in Berkeley, California.
Erica dreams that the peace and healing mbira music brings will spread throughout the world. She hopes that mbira will contribute to global remembrance of the common ancestry of humankind.
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