"It was all a dream," words sang by legendary hip hop maestro Christopher Wallace
Once upon a time we sang with a a fat outspoken boy that called himself Beans!" This will be how the story of my time in the choral industry will be told.
The birth of Gwenyambira was to share my love for Zimbabwean music with the world, my passion for what describes us through beating of ear drums of well wishers and innocent bystanders by vibrations that come from the rhythms created and inspired by children of the soil. Gwenyambira was created to tell the Zimbabwean story and in January 2016 I now had a new platform to make my favorite breed of music and not be a an armchair critic, I actually had a chance to tell the world what I was thinking about and share the music that was in my head, I initiated the creation of the choir that is now known as Note2etoN.
The choir was mostly comprised of my friends and a few good people, a combination of my drinking buddies, friends through rotary and some people from the all souls church. The goal was to sing Eisteddfod 2016, a bunch of socialites together for a common goal, "let's just relive your high school days and sing the Eisteddfod just once more!" It was a beautiful thing, we had fun. The song we had selected as our competition piece was Ndikhokele Bawo, a rendition by Michael Barret, a South African gospel classic arranged by a white man is such a beautiful way bringing in European harmonies while maintaining the songs authentic African feel.
The first time we made up a decent harmony of our competition song was at our fourth practice and despite the fact that we could now sing it, we knew it was still way off, we were happy because of the progress we made. There were numerous intervals during our practices where we would break into various random songs. The songs varied from Senzenina, Thula Sizwe; to some chimurenga and kongonya songs. I always looked forward to our sessions every Saturday.
Competition day came and wow, the nerves murdered us. The Choral set was at Gateway Highschool scheduled for 14:00, it was a warm afternoon and because the set was sheduled during the week we did not know if people would make it on time as the majority of the choir were working individuals and students. Slowly we gathered under a tree, and the numbers were swelling up. We needed to be 17 to be a recognised as a choir and out of a possible 23 we eventually ended up being 19 singers. Note2etoN, Note2etoN is that all of you? we will be calling you in to settle down in 20 minutes so you line up next to the hall in your order" a sweet lady called out. It was the moment of truth. the nerves caught on through the whole team which got the attention of one of our members Farai Gwaze who felt there was a need to calm people down. Farai got us to relax through some crazy facial exercises.We did them against our will however they worked. We broke into song and eventually we calmed down. By the time we got to walk into the concert venue we had taken an apathetic approch where we decided we will do our best and we will appreciate whatever result we get.
The hall was full of school students from various schools which were mainly from the more 'affluent'
schools in Zimbabwe. We realised at this moment that we might get our butts kicked by a bunch of high school students however because of our apathetic approach it did not phase us, we just wanted to sing and get out of there. First up were the schools, they did an amazing job, we were scared to death. Their choir sizes were much bigger than ours and the sound they produced was nothing short of magical. Our turn came up and we waled onto the stage. I remember walking on and looking at the crowd, a few factors popped into my head which spanned from our age all the way up to we might embarrass ourselves however we were on the stage and we did not have any way of escaping.
We stood on stage calmly and waited for a signal from the ajudication pannel to start singing. The
gave us a not to go ahead and led by our soloist Tinaye she started the song. Like an angel she sang out "Ndokhokhele bawo" and the male voice came in on cue, the harmony was so beautiful I could not believe it was us singing. By the time the female voices came in we were complete and for the first time sounded like a choir in a way we had never sounded like before. We went through the whole song and ended it perfectly. The one memory I have of the moment we ended the song was the standing ovation we got from the Chisipite Senior School girls, which was an honor because their AVA choir had sang a beautiful version of "Mawere kongonya' an Andy Brown classic and they are a choir I have respected since I was in high school.
The time for the adjudication came and in true Eisteddfod fashion they called up choirs to come and get their certificates of recognition starting with the lowest to the highest. We watched them as they proceeded to call various grades leaving us confused because we did not believe we could get the higher awards. Eventually we were the last choir called up, and the lady called out "honors plus!" The feeling we got was nothing short of shock, joy and jubilation. If I was ever to win a world cup I believe this is the same feeling I would get. In addition to the honors we received the Rotary Trophy for Traditional Music. What a time to be alive. We left the venue and as we drove off I remember calling our choir director an telling her this recognition is the worst thing ever to happen to the choir, and I believe at that at that moment I had officially become a prophet of doom.
For this story to make sense I have to break down the relationship of the choir director and I. We met in 2012 when I became a Rotarian with the Rotary club of Borrowdale Brooke. We were not friends at first but the relationship grew as we interacted more to a point where she became an older sister. When she became the president of the club, I was her right hand man. Through her year as my president we fought many battles I was her shoulder to cry on and consultant on many issues. She mentored me and encouraged me to attend courses that would prepare me to assume presidency one day. In my getting to know her I eventually learnt of her passion for music and her vast experience musically. We had something in common, a common love, music. The difference was that she loved western influenced music and I had a passion for African music. She was a pianist for Chitungwiza Harmony Singers, I watched her perform and wow, what a pianist. Music became our connection and our relationship became one where we constantly shared clips of various choirs and in the process of
looking for music I discovered the South African youth choirs whose style I immediately fell in love
with and she concurred.
Because of her talents and passion, I knew this could be taken to another level, I knew given a chance to teach she will do well, the same she had done with me as my mentor. I put the idea of leading a choir in her head and she told me she had been thinking of the same thing however she did not know where to start. As a former student of Prince Edward School, I knew the school used to have a strong music program which was not so deep into choirs anymore. Knowing my former choir mistress Katie Greener was still taking the schools senior choirs I respectfully asked her over the phone if she would be willing to take the junior choirs. Her response was a yes, a joyus yes. Despite the fact that I could not see her I could tell she was glowing and knew nothing would make me happier than to make my sister happy. I tried hard to get the school to get the school to give her the junior choirs however all my efforts were fruitless. At a point in time we accepted the reality that Prince Edward School would not give us their choirs and my sister fell into a state of depression as the excitement and anxiety had come to an abrupt end. Seeing her heartbreak I then decided to sound the idea of forming a choir of her own just for the Eisteddfod in 2016 as a consolation. She was up for the idea and we put a plan.in action. I invited my friends through various platforms including Facebook and the response was amazing. This is how Note2etoN was born.
After the Eisteddfod performance the choir was on a high. There was a great sense of achievement the team was a single unit and the choir was a family. The director was not spared of this feeling and she could sense that we wanted more. We had done what we did not expect to do. She asked if we would want to continue and what the goal was. The decision was unanimous, we wanted to go to the world choir games in 2018. We were not sure what the world choir games were, but we had seen videos of different choirs from many countries singing and it was an atmosphere that was attractive to us. We wanted to go. and we knew we would be able to go.
In the build up to the Eisteddfod that we had just completed we had sent out fillers all over for people who want to join the choir to come through various music circles. We needed a unit of at least 17 people to be considered a choir. The word fell on the ears of a young man who I would like to call Awononge, I have been advised I cannot use real names in this but this is the perfect name for him. I call him this because he is a Zambian chap and it describes what his actions did to some of my friendships and the choir as a whole. Awo came in on a Saturday and in our true fashion we welcomed him. He was a friendly character and to my surprise he was a past acquaintance of one of my best friends and respected choir members Mufasa. Mufasa and I had been friends since high school where we met in choir and had developed what was a friendship into a brotherhood, in fact our friendship was so deep he was a groomsman at my wedding, I absolutely trusted him. Mufasa’s endorsement was all that I needed to trust Awo however, it did not take me long to realise that Awo had come only to steal our music. Because we needed more voices and he could read music we looked past it and compelled him to sing with us for the eisteddfod.
When the decision to
make forge ahead and go for the world choir games, it became apparent that we
will spend more time with each other and learn about each other. The first
order of business was to set up a committee that would be responsible for the unit.
There was the music end that was run by the director and the administrative
side that was to be run by me Kuda. My history in the music industry has been
one of heart break. Initially I was involved with the Chamhembe boys but the
failure to capitalise on the opportunities they had made me lose heart for the
industry and I left. I then ran an audio house called Rebirth Audio with my 2
friends Narcs and Gidi, Narcs found Jesus and abandoned us despite the fact
that he was the main music producer of the unit and after he left I felt like
Gidi was riding on my efforts so I quit too and went back to school and vowed
never to come back to the music industry. But as fait will have it I came back
in what seemed harmless at the time, choral music and boy was I wrong.
Previously I was credited for establishing the Rotact club of Borrowdale
Brooke, Rebirth Audio and many other projects that had done well, This was a
passion project it was going to be a walk in the park, or so I thought.
I remember getting a
phone call from the director one day and she wanted to chat. She told me that
one of the guys in the choir was trying his luck on her, to my surprise it was
Awo. My immediate reaction was a “no, do not do it, you will kill the choir!”
However the director had decided to seek advice from Mufasa as well who was of
the idea the relationship should happen as they are consenting adults and they
will be mature enough to keep their relationship away from the choir. I even
remember having a discussion with Mufasa where I told him the relationship was
too close and he distinctly told me not to be a cock blocker and not put a dent
in a players game, because of my respect for Mufasa I ignored and let it happen
against my better judgement.
The choir continued to move forward but largely with the same people. We had a lot of social events. New songs were learnt to a point where we had less than 10 songs each not more that 3 minutes long. Most of them were choruses. I remember Awo, now unofficially the directors boyfriend pushing for the choir to have shows. As the manager I always refused, the reason for this was always we are not ready and we do not have enough songs. At this point in time I must confess, I should have made better decisions when it come to shows however the perfectionist in me always wanted to put one hell of a performance and we were not ready according to me. My arguement to the directors was show me a product I can sell
