On Wednesday, September 23, I attended the concert of Zimbabwean mbira master and vocalist Chartwell Dutiro accompanied by the group Timbila. Chartwell Dutiro grew up in rural Zimbabwe, and begun playing the mbira at a very young age. Between 1986 and 1994, Chartwell went on tour with Thomas Mapfumo, an influential Zimbabwean musician. After that, he moved to Britain where he has been teaching mbira, dance, percussion, and singing. Nora Balaban, although American, is musician that focuses on traditional African music and was trained in Zimbabwe. She founded the Tribal Soundz music store in New York, where she sells ethnic music and instruments and has a music education program.

The concert was held in Middletown, Connecticut at Wesleyan University’s World Music Hall. This event was unlike any other concert that I have ever been to because the performance was not solely for the audience to be entertained; it was something the audience was supposed to undergo with the performers. At the end of the first song, Dutiro told us about how Shona music is traditionally played at ceremonies to connect with the spirits of ancestors, and that spoke to me because during the entire concert, the way that the performers engaged with one another and the audience made me feel like I was supposed to be there right with them, rather than just watching from afar. Shona music is not an individual experience, but a group connection.

The World Music Hall is a big, wide open space with seating like that of an amphitheater. There is no stage, and because I was sitting up at the front on the floor, the performers were on the same level directly in front of me. The performers were affable and talkative; they told us about themselves, so they no longer felt like strangers. Although Dutiro was the lead, you could tell that he did not see himself as the star; each person played a part in the music. Because of the informal setting, I did not feel constricted to just observing. It was a participatory experience; they all wanted us to react and move along to the music.

The first song involved just Dutiro and Balaban on their mbiras. The mbira is a South African thumb piano that is attached to a wooden sound box. The music was very lively and high energy, consisting of different sound profiles. One of the Pan-African musical features that they used during the whole performance is filling the sound spectrum. Dutiro had seashells attached to the outside of the sound box, and Balaban had bottle caps. You could hear how when they flicked the metal keys of the mbira, the whole instrument shook. The dynamic between the light and soothing sound of the mbira and Dutiro’s deep and powerful voice kept me engaged with the music and on my feet.

In the second song, Dutiro and Balaban were accompanied by Eyre and Westervelt who are also musicians highly trained in Zimbabwean music. In this song, another Pan-African musical feature they use is polyrhythm; while Westervelt’s deep bass mimicked the rhythm and light sound of the mbira, Eyre’s guitar played a different acoustic rhythm. Throughout the concert, I noticed that Eyre was tapping his foot to a beat different from Dutiro’s. The strumming of the guitar stood out while the mbira and bass blended in to one another. The addition of sea shells and bottle caps created a rattle that added a whole other rhythm that sounded almost like percussion. Balaban sang as well, and her mellow voice complimented Dutiro’s profound and vivid voice.

Dutiro asked us to sing along for the third song. He taught us the words, so we could participate in the performance. This is expected because it makes Shona music more successful. During this song, Dutiro was extremely passionate; he held his notes for extended amount of time and closed his eyes while singing which showed the audience just how affected he was by the music. Participating in the music completely changed the entire feel of the song. I noticed that Dutiro could not help but smile through the whole performance.

Before the fourth song, Dutiro told us about how Shona music had a rough time during colonialism. Colonialists believed that when Zimbabweans sung and danced to connect with spirits, they were contacting the devil, so the music was banned. Once the song began, I noticed the dynamic of the music was heavier than the other songs, which made sense considering what he prefaced with. The song was not necessarily less upbeat than the others, but we could feel how it held more meaning than the rest because of the deeper sound profile.

In the fifth song, Eyre switched to an electric guitar. Eyre also worked with Thomas Mupfumo, so I associated his use of the electric guitar to Mapfumo’s influence. I noticed sharper plucks of the strings, creating a shrill tinge, and I got the feeling that Eyre was adding a little twist of his own. I thought this was inspirational because he was putting more of himself in the music. Dutiro then ceased playing his mbira, and got up to dance and sing. He invited members of the audience to participate, so a few students joined in while the rest clapped along.

The audience consisted of mostly Wesleyan students and teachers and their friends and family. Because Wesleyan is predominantly white, much of the audience was white, with some attendees of other races, but that did not seem to be on the mind of any of the performers. During the performance, Dutiro told us that “music can build bridges between cultures and people”, and I felt like that was what he was trying to do that night. He engaged and educated us, so we could understand the music with him. Dutiro further expressed his theory by making the concert consist of both the African mbira and the Western guitar and bass. This event was not just about listening to music, but relating everyone in the room using the ritual of Shona music.