JOHN BERGER / JBERGER@STARBULLETIN.COM Zimbabwean musician Sheree Seretse holds an mbira in her left hand and the mallets for playing a marimba (the xylophone-looking instrument in front of her) in her right.

Sharing Shona sounds

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By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com

The Shona people of Zimbabwe live almost exactly on the opposite side of the world from Hawaii, but their approach to music sounds very local kine.
"If you can talk, you can sing, and if you can walk, you can dance," Sheree Seretse said, explaining that Shonas consider music and dance an integral part of daily life, and something to be shared from one generation to the next.

"Shona culture is very rich in categories of songs. There are children's lullabies, there are work songs, there are rites-of-passage songs, songs of installation of a chief, or songs of death. The whole culture is kind of immersed in song, and what has grown out of that is the instrumental musical forms of these songs."

Seretse is in Hawaii this week to perform with Matanzima Marimba, a local group of Zimbabwean music enthusiasts, at the ARTS at Marks Garage tomorrow night. The group, which includes five percussionists on drums and other instruments, and Seretse, who is certain to add the melodic sound of the mbira, will play marimbas of various sizes (soprano, tenor, baritone and bass).

She is also conducting one-time workshops on Zimbabwean drumming patterns and basic Shona musical concepts utilizing the marimba this weekend.

The marimba and the mbira are cousins of instruments that some Americans may know in altered forms. The marimba -- a finely-crafted xylophone made from hardwoods and with a resonator tube beneath each key -- is known to Americans either in the Latin-Americanized form that evolved over several centuries, or as the vibraphone, as popularized by Lionel Hampton, Arthur Lyman and Gary Burton.

The mbira is an instrument with metal strips of different lengths and widths fastened to it. Americans will be forgiven for calling it a kalimba -- the kalimba is actually a similar instrument from Zambia that was introduced to American music in the early 1970s. Fans of Earth, Wind & Fire should remember seeing and hearing leader Maurice White plucking on the instrument.

The mbira can have as few as four keys or as many as 64. Seretse's mbira uses a large fiberglass bowl as a natural amplifier. In ancient times, the bowl was made from a large gourd and flat shells were attached to it to provide an additional buzzing sound when the keys were played. Modern musicians have found fiberglass bowls and bottle caps much more durable.

"The bottle caps provide the buzzing sound ... that is the inherent sound that you find in African music, kind of the human spirit and soul to the vibrations of the earth and the ancestors. The literal translation of the name of the instrument I have here is 'Mbira of the Ancestral Spirits,' and so it's used more in a spiritual context than a secular context, but they are instruments used primarily for social occasions or recreation."

SHARING the traditions of Shona music and culture has been Seretse's calling for almost 30 years. She discovered Zimbabwean music in 1970 while she attended the University of Washington and studied African dance, as well as Shona music, with the late Dr. Dumisani Maraire. She began performing with his group in 1971 and started teaching two years later. It was also in 1973 that she founded the Gwinyai Dance Ensemble as a vehicle for performances combining the mbira with singing and dance.

She has also shared Zimbabwean music with students of all ages in the Pacific Northwest since that time and founded her current group, the Seattle-based Anzanga Marimba Ensemble, in 1986.

She has spent some time studying the music at its source and also speaks the Shona native language -- essential, she points out, when working with a language in which inflection can determine meaning.

"I think the Shona people have a very strong musical culture and there's a lot of focus on the music ... but their music also has that appeal because it's been out there (in the public eye) a little bit more."

Even with that heightened visibility, there is much research to be done. Seretse says that the origins of the mbira are unknown, but that it was in use by the 13th Century; the marimba appears to reflect the influences of several neighboring countries.

And, to come full circle, the musical traditions of the Shona are continuing to evolve, as with Hawaiian music.

"The marimba, as it will be played here, in an orchestra-style ensemble, is a relatively new phenomenon within the last 30 or 40 years that was found in a teachers' college in Zimbabwe, and it has really flourished in the continental United States. The thing that's amazing is that there is no written notation for this music. The information is passed orally from one generation to the next. Isolated artists are writing their material down, but it's much more rare."

Generation of music An Evening Of Marimba and Mbira Music of Zimbabwe Where: The ARTS at Marks Garage, 1159 Nuuanu Ave. When: 8 p.m. tomorrow Admission: $10; $5 children Call: 521-2903 (show) or 422-4681 (workshops)

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