One Love Festival of Reggae & Ska

At the forefront of the UK Reggae and World music scene for over 11 years is One Love Festival of Reggae and Ska in the beautiful countryside of Somerset. Also known as the people’s festival of undividing peace and unconquering love, the festival creates a world where hope and love unites everyone into a combined and unbreakable positive force – where everyone is welcome and no-one’s judged – an atmosphere of acceptance where there are no borders - creating one people and one world.

This year, the festival introduced the Kaya World Music Stage – an outdoor stage introducing a line up of exciting music from around the world. My band, Otto & The Mutapa Calling, had the great honour of performing on the Kaya World Music Stage.

Here is a little clip of one of the songs we played.

-- LYRICS --

Wakasiya, vana vachingochema (You left the children crying)

Vachingotenderera chikomo chiye (They went around the hill)

Cha' chimurenga (It is now war)

-- ABOUT OTTO AND THE MUTAPA CALLING --

Otto and The Mutapa Calling is a lively London based marimba band playing energetic, joyful music from Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe, including folk songs, original songs and popular southern African covers. The band's set-up includes soprano, tenor and baritone marimbas, mbira, hosho, drumming and singing, with both traditional and contemporary dances. The marimba band’s sound is full of energy and pulsating rhythms - and their music shares the rich cultures, histories and stories of the people of southern Africa. Otto and The Mutapa Calling is a unique and colourful experience and is the only active professional marimba band of its kind in the United Kingdom.

www.ottogumaelius.com

-- SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS --

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Heritage Zimbabwe Culture Day

My band and I spent the day in Coventry at a Zimbabwean culture day event. I shared some marimba songs with the young children and had a general jam towards the end of the afternoon with some of the attendees who grew up playing marimba in Zimbabwe. I find that's always the best part of these days out - meeting people who haven't played or seen a marimba in many years, and being able to give them the opportunity to reunite with the instruments and the songs. 

In the evening we got the pleasure of performing an hour long set for the attendees at the culture day event, before joining Stella Chiweshe on the stage. We performed two of her songs with her - Cha Chimurenga and Huya Uzoona. 

Here are a few pictures and videos from the day!

Marimba workshop at Heritage Zimbabwe Culture Day

Combined marimba & dance workshop