Thomas Mapfumo & The Blacks Unlimited “Mabasa”

Thomas Mapfumo & The Blacks Unlimited
Mabasa
Earth Walk (UK) 1987
ERT 1007 (LP)
sleeve : NM
media : NM/NM

Thomas Mapfumo is a Zimbabwean singer who has been active in Africa for a long time, first as a founder of the Hallelujah Chicken Run Band in the early seventies, and since the late seventies with his band The Blacks Unlimited. The style of the album is a modern rock interpretation of the traditional music of the indigenous Shona people of Zimbabwe, in the vein of the classic albums "Hokoyo! and "Gwindingwi Rine Shumba", with a mix of laid-back rhythms and polyrhythms, a horn ensemble that absorbs American soul/funk, and Lingala pop stylings, all the while delivering groovy Afro-beats and Afro-rock of the highest order. All tracks recommended.