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Describe the atmosphere and live music at a local pub, restaurant, festival, church or temple, club night.... inspire other people to check it out!
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Musician: Chartwell Dutiro
Location: Ashburton, Devon
Instruments: mbira and vocals
Music: Zimbabwean/ Shona
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HOW I CAME TO THIS MUSIC听听听听听听听听听听WHERE I PLAY听听听听听听听听听听A FAVOURITE SONG |
  
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 听听Listen (5'12) to 'Chaminuka' sung by Chartwell Dutiro and the Ashburton Community Singers, accompanied by Chartwell on mbira and Tom Kegode on percussion
听听Listen (12'53) to 'Gamura Makaka' sung by Chartwell Dutiro who accompanies himself on mbira. From the album, Voices of Ancestors(Digital Music Archives, 2000)
听听Listen (2'55) to Chartwell Dutiro talk about his music
Where I Play:
I play in Ashburton's Methodist Church Hall in Devon every Tuesday night where I lead a Shona choir made up of local people from farmers and teachers to business people from Totness not to mention the landlady of the local B & B. I also play in local schools. I never thought that the mbira would take me to England but I believe that music can build bridges. So here I am in Devon, a Zimbabwean missionary if you like, playing mbira in schools and community halls, creating a space where people can explore cultural differences through the Shona tradition. I also teach mbira at S.O.A.S, (the School of Oriental and African Studies) where students can actually take mbira playing as a credit. Now they go and play in mbira ceremonies back in my village in Zimbabwe. I also regularly play in large venues both here in the UK and abroad.
I lived in London since 1994 but since I moved down to Devon in June, 2001, I find that there's a greater sense of community in a small place like Ashburton. I'm encouraging the choir here to sing wholeheartedly so that we can experience how the music can move inside our bodies and provoke the spirit of the ancestors. We're gradually getting to the point where people from the most mixed of backgrounds are living through the music. I know that when we mix through music, it's a process of decolonisation which will enable us to free ourselves from mental slavery.
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