Windhoek
Only four years now since their emergence on the Namibian music scene, the Savannah Afros trio is surely taking over the live music.
The afro fusion band of talented young family artists, are Tapuwanashe ‘Tapz’ Munyayi, Takunda ‘Stunt’ Chiwaze and Nayasha ‘Nyasha’ Chirau.
Foundedin 2010 by Tapz, they have been criss-crossing the globe attending workshops, local events like the Independence celebrations, world music day celebrations, and international music competitions and festivals. The band has so far scooped different international awards such as Music Crossroads, Young Africa Youth Festival, Music Crossroads national finals and Inter Regional in just three years. “We are being received with open arms and many people are relating to our sound. We are quite happy with the number of people who shows up for our live shows,” says Tapz. Last weekend the band hosted the Mystic Acoustic Session at the JoJo’s Music and Arts Café in the capital.
Setting the mood for the show, local artist, Stunt, introduced the band with his Mokoomba’s Masangango rendition, a tribal chant. This was complimented by Fran with his artistic display. It was now left up to Tapz and crew to do the rest and given his soulful self, together with Nayasha and Darius, they soon had the crown right where they must have wanted them to be, right on their feet.
Closing the show, the band was joined by artists of Jestina, Tendai Figoh and Slicka on stage rendering an excellent performance which left lots of audiences crying for more.
Savannah Afros also performed at this year’s Namibia Annual Music Awards (NAMAs) and this had given them a growth platform and have opened doors to them to interact with different genres. It was also an opportunity for them to perform with Black Valcunite, one of the best Hip Hop artists and Poetry in Southern Africa.
Currently the band is busy working on their debut album for launch on September 25 at the Warehouse. The album will be titled Cheivhu, literally translated meaning life is from the soil. The album will have ten tracks plus two bonus ones. “So far we can safely say Jester Joker, a producer from Angola, is one of the few artists who are going to feature on our album, some are still to confirm yet,” says Taps. Three studios and producers have been lined up now which are Wouter from Groove Studios in Klein Kuppe, Christian Polloni from NBC Studio 6 and Jester Joker from Angola..
Taps adds that they have been trying to work with different producers for the album to have variety. The executive producer of the album is Pedro Mendoza from Open Arms Trust/New Mission Films.