CD Reviews

Stella Chiweshe

Double Check | Piranha

By BANNING EYRE | August 15, 2006

3.0 Stars

This two-CD set is both a new chapter and a career retrospective for one of Zimbabwe’s most innovative roots musicians. The first disc consists of nine new songs, most performed with just voices and percussion — shaker, handclaps, and the hand-struck ngoma drums. “Wanyanya/That’s Too Much” simmers with restless, pent-up energy. Chiweshe’s voice, whether alone or leading a chorus, is deep and husky, conveying moral force and mystic detachment. She summons tremendous energy on the percussion pieces, even on one whose title translates as “Boredom.” Four tracks showcase her prowess on the metal-pronged mbira, with stately introspection. CD #2 reprises 13 pieces from earlier albums featuring the Earthquake Band. The ensemble’s rootsy core is usually not mbira but mallet-struck marimbas that give a crisp, racing energy to the sound, as on the pumping hunters’ tune “Machena,” or “Mikono,” which is about a bull or a strong man. There’s more exuberance and celebration on the older songs, from the classic “Chachimurenga,” which was created in the 1980s with help from British musicians of the group 3 Mustaphas 3, to the cranking “Huya Uzoona/Come and See,” a marimba-driven romp filled out with feathery, electric-guitar strumming.

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