by Noah Pomo
Ilanga made an impression on the Zimbabwean music scene in the mid-1980s. The band was formed by Don Gumbo (bassist, composer and vocalist) and Andy Brown (composer, guitarist and vocals). Keith Farquharson, the youngest member, was still going to school when he started recording music. He teamed up with Dick “Comrade Chinx” Chingaira at Berny Miller’s studios in Harare. Keith was a keyboard player. Dick was a vocalist and percussionist. The final piece of the jig-saw puzzle was Busi Ncube who joined as a vocalist having recorded music before this with Oliver Mtukudzi and Comrade Chinx among others. This interview sampled quotes on record from Ilanga members. Only 2 of them remain alive. It also includes quotes from other leading musicians influenced by Ilanga.
Other members were Gibson Batishta (drums), Adam Chisvo (percussion), Munya Brown, Gibson Nyomi, and Virgillio Ignacia, who was from Mozambique.
“Our audience is from the little boy to the old man, domestic to industrial work, university students, it’s really everybody from different parts of society. We felt that we needed to take Zimbabwean music to a higher level. So we started to play around with different rythms of Southern Africa, as such, including Zimbabwean. That’s why we came up with this sound that we call hybrid and it’s happening man,” said Andy Brown in old ZBC Interview.
Andy Brown told Gary Thompson: “I always appreciate a lot of music. I like different rythms from Africa and around the world. I try to fuse the best of something else.”
“I like Santana. I still like Jimi Hendrix. He was a fantastic player. There is a lot of new African musicians that coming about hard, Salif Keita, Baba Mal, Chimbetu. We used to have great fun with Comrade Chinxe. Human Rights concerts: We made them jump. It was the first time I got stage fright. I had never see so many people. Bruce PSringsteen was very nice, introducing the band and making it easy.”
“I wanna setup a platform where the young people can be introduced. Some of them they haven’t got room to do that right now.”
Comrade Chinx: “This music is a transition from liberation music up to music for development and reconciliation. At the present we have got this unity, we want it so much. We have to develop our country. To develop our country we must be reconciled fully. And all my music should touch on these lines. The way I do it is I will have to say where the bad s and where the good is.
Speaking to Masceline Bondamakara of Malante media in his last recorded interview Comrade Chinx said: “If all the other pieces were a feature of the time and its mindset, one song truly stood the test of time. “True love” opened with Andy’s guitar, Keith’s keyboards and Don Gumbo’s Bassline. The lyrics resonated with the innocence of 23 year old Busi Ncube in her first song. This was the peak of Ilanga. She moved around freely with graceful dance moves. She could also back the male lead vocalists on their own songs.
“Ne Ilanga takazoona tave mukati kuti (it became apparent that with Ilanga) we had really gathered talented guys. Gramma and ZMC (recording companies) were moving away from choirs. We had so much emotional baggage and anger directed towards the Smith regime. I asked Benny Millar and his partners from his studios where I was recording for an instrumentalist. I would hum a song and they interpreted it on a keyboard and we produced “Marching together.” Our anger was thawing. Don and Andy of Ilanga were also doing their songs in Ndebele as a duo. I discovered Ben’s friend the young Keith and he would interpret my songs on keyboard and we produced our own record same time as Ilanga. Don on bass and Andy on lead, I (was) on the lead vocals. My background was my vocals during the war. Charles Chimambo said; ‘Let’s go for the band.’”
“Everything we did with Ilanga was memorable.”
“The guys tended to be jealous of me when I would make my own recordings. On the day I recorded ‘Ngorimba’ the (Ilanga) guys didn’t pitch up. So I had the mbira unit from the revolutionary recreation group. I knew they could produce the same (sound). I tried to rehearse with them on ‘Ngorimba.’ ‘Rodger confirm’ I had rehearsed with Ilanga. I knew they wouldn’t come. I was right. They didn’t come. When they came back and (they) heard I had done an album they were worried. They had to now follow my studio recording. Oliver Mtukudzi and I were born just 5 days apart in 1952. I needed backing vocalists so Oliver brought Busi and her sister Doreen and I said to them let’s go and do this. It’s the 3 of us who sang the original ‘Ngorimba.’ It did very well and my name was put on bottle top competitions by ZBC. And people won awards.”
Busi Ncube spoke to Enthusemag in 2020 and answered the qustion: “Now looking back over 30 years, did you think the song’s lifespan would be so long and why do you think is its undying power? Like what makes a classic song?”
Busi responded: “When we were recording the song in the studio, a lot of people that dropped by during True Love’s recording talked about how big of an impact the song was going to make, but I just thought it was the excitement. At the time, I believed in the song of course. I figured it would do fairly well. When I look back I realise that I was proven otherwise! Thankfully, it’s still here, a classic song makes its resonance. The message still relevant, and now more than ever as I see dating is more difficult for this generation.”
Mateo (of Mateo & Friends) said: “My sister Busi Ncube’s vocals on “True Love” were absolutely amazing, coupled with those distinct warm and jovial under tones. Busi’s voice resonated her very warm and exuberant personality, just as most of us remember her.”
Dickson Chingaira a descendant of chief Makoni hated his English first name.
Keith Farquharson the youngest member said: “Ilanga played anything. Andy took Ilanga further experimenting with Sungura, jit, reggae to pop. The styles were wider. Ray Phiri and Stimela were more experimental and the band loved to play together on stage and that’s where the magic happened.”
“Working with Ilanga helped shape my style as a keyboard player. Don Gumbo was very much influenced by Ray Phiri and Stimela. They were doing a lot of shows in Zimbabwe. We ended up sounding a little bit too similar at times. Don played left handed and was a great writer. His style was different to Andy, who was also a great writer. Andy was probably one of the greatest musicians I have ever played with, like Louis Mhlanga who can switch between genres. Andy was a great guitar player and songwriter for the Pop ear with pop melody while mixing that with Zimbabwean Guitar. That was also Chioniso’s strength as well. She wrote melodies that appealed to everybody. They both had remarkable ability.”
“We went through a couple of drummers like Munya Brown, Gibson Nyoni, Charles Mangena. Rodger Mambo. When Andy left Rodger became the guitar player. Busi Ncube was still there. When Busi joined, on the strength of “True love” she could do Lead vocals on a bunch of songs of songs. In fact we had 3 with Andy. Virgilio Ignacio was a Mozambican guitar player. He had a different style than I did. It was a very enriching time for me to play with some different styles.”
Don Gumbo, the band leader, was a great vocalist. His recorded music online was ahead of its time. They performed all over Zimbabwe. Live videos were played on ZTV.
Quotations from Ilanga are very rare. But some colleagues who were influenced by the music shared their memories.
In one interview with Sunday News Ncube said: “I had the best band you could imagine with the crème de la crème.”
Don went on to do successful session work in South Africa as a bassist including for Jabu Kanyile and Ringo. His son Don Gumbo Jnr used to watch Ilanga practice and was also taught guitar by his dad. He pursued a career in music and was part of Sam Mtukudzi’s band before Sam died. He took part in a commemorative show of Ilanga with Andy and Busi in 2009.
Keith, a very successful producer and engineer, once moved to UK. He has now settled in South Africa where he operates the Academy of Sound Engineers in South Africa. He was awarded a SAMA award for best sound engineer in South Africa in 2011.
Andy worked as a session musician in Zimbabwe and South Africa. He featured on Alexio Kawara’s 2008 hit song, “Shaina.” His daughters Amara and Chengeto continue his legacy.
Kawara was working on Shaina with producers Flash Gordon and Macdonald Chidawaenzi. Andy overheard the song. He insisted on featuring on the song. They didn’t know each other. Andy laid down his guitar lines on the song.
Kawara said: “He put his signature guitar line on the song that same day. It’s the signature solo. But we discovered one string was not in tune. He invited us to his Shekeza studio at his home in Cranborne. He re-recorded his line and also played on “Mai vevana” and “Hatizive.” After that we did a performance at 7 Arts. He never put any visible effort. It just came naturally to him. It was a God-given talent. On familiar songs he was so flexible that he would improvise exceptionally. He also played the simple lines well. Simple lines are what people really like and he did them well. His performances were always well-received and people really appreciated his Art.”
The song won ‘Song of The year,’ and came second in “Video of the year’ at the ZIMA awards in 2008.
Kawara also interacted with Comrade Chinx: “We were recording a song called: “Zva Zvinhu.” The producer requested we borrow a line from “Zvikomborero.” We called him and went to see him in Chitungwiza. We met him and he gave us his blessing to use the lines. We visited him in hospital when he got sick and sadly he got worse and he died. He was a happy accommodating guy even though we grew up seeing him on TV. He really loved people.”
Going back into time, Kawara was in Grade 2 when “True Love” was released. He says: “It’s an anthem, a song that never grows old. It was an all-star cast. Everyone made their own household name. The song was just easy to the ear. You could sing along to the drums, keyboards, bass, the words. It was made by masterminds. The impact, as a musician, the creativity, those are the songs that shape you. When we talk about songs that are easy on the ear those are the songs we refer to.”
“I met Keith when he was doing sound engineering for Willom Tight. I later heard he was in Ilanga and was now producing “Fleshly Ground” in South Africa. When I was recording, in my quest for good sound, I approached him and he mixed some of my songs including the whole album “Tose” (2012.”
“Tose” album included several songs with fusions of mbira like on “Newe” which was track number 9 just like the Piece of Ebony project Keith produced in the early 1990s which introduced a mid-teens Chioniso Maraire.
Mateo who released songs like “Pamuhacha” has fond memories of Andy Brown. In fact Mateo had an album produced by Andy Brown. It featured vocals by Amara Brown (in her teens) and her mum Nadine on the song “Washayeyi” and “Ray of hope” (A song on HIV/AIDS).
Mateo said: “It’s virtually impossible to describe Andy Brown’s impeccable talent and incomparable ability to play the guitar, in a few words. The man was clearly a genius, a maestro and a very gifted player of numerous (if not all) genres of music styles. From his own typical brand of Zimbabwe jit, reggae, funk , rock, jazz or even classical music. He was that versatile and such a rare innovative talent that will be sadly missed.”
“I worked with him on my album “Another Level” in 2007. He played both lead and rhythm guitar on most of the tracks. He produced 6 out of the 7 tracks on that album. The album was never officially released. You can sample Andy’s brilliant riffs and rhythms on my YouTube channel (Mateo Kawunda Official) or www.youtube.com/@mateokawundaofficial.”
Guitarist Clive “Mono” Mukundu became friends with Andy around 2008. He said: “He was born in Mberengwa in 1962. He started playing on home-made guitars. His music was totally different after Ilanga. He created his own sub-genre. He was inspired by Salif Keita. He proved you can play an acoustic guitar and not sound like Oliver Mtukudzi. His voice was also original. He spoke and sang with the same voice. He had a wide variety of grooves. His albums are not boring. He had an identity. He left a huge body of work and a huge legacy.” (Quotes summariseds from Clive Mono Mukundu’s Youtube page).
Busi came in later but established herself firmly within the group. This was not a small achievement. She is now in her 60s.
