Cheso, Musoja invade-conquer SA

Sungura kingpin Alick Macheso and trailblazing contemporary musician Jah Prayzah proved their mettle as outstanding crowd pullers by staging four separate sold out shows over the weekend in South Africa.

The two music heavy weights were both in SA over the weekend but on different turfs.

Macheso kicked off his Mzansi tour on Friday with a debut performance in Port Elizabeth at the Raymond Mahlaba Sports Centre.

The well attended show lit up the usually sleepy tourist town as the sungura master led the revellers into song and dance.

Also in attendance, and not to be out done , Nox Guni- the urban grooves artiste gave a good account of himself as he brought the house down with his flawless live act.

Saturday night was ‘The night’ for most Zimbabweans living in Johannesburg as rarely do they get spoilt for choice.

Macheso and his Orchestra Mberikwazvo performed at the Ekhurhuleni Hotel in Boksburg and approximately 30 km away Jah Prayzah and his troops entertained revellers at the Bassline in Johannesburg Central.

An unusual feat but yes both rocked Jozi on the pomp filled night.

The turn-out at Jah Prayzah’s Jozi gig seemed to have also surprised the promoters as the venue proved to be too small.

Revellers struggled to gain entrance and frustrated; they bull dozed their way in resulting in chaos and the security dispensing tear gas.

Another let down factor came after the over a thousand fans had calmed the musician took too long to come on to the stage which irked the bumper crowd.

However it was when the lanky musician got on stage that order was restored and he made up for delay by putting up a polished act.

Meanwhile at Boksburg Hotel one would have expected a low turn-out considering the fact that Macheso has been at the venue more than four times this year while Jah Prayzah has not frequented Mzansi.

Reasonably the odds were against Macheso but that was not the case on Saturday.

With a beefed up line up of performers, the hotel was filled to the brim.

Controversial lyricist Jacob Moyana got the ball rolling around 7pm.

Although the crowd was still small the sungura artiste did a good job in preparing and setting the tempo.

After Moyana came in Pah Chihera who too did not disappoint though her performance was too brief.

At 10pm songstress Ammara Brown was on stage and like her predecessor, Brown put up a spirited but brief performance.

The duty of warming up the stage for Macheso was entrusted into the hands of Tedious Matsito and his Ngwenya brothers.

Matsito, in his clutches ushered, the now filled up auditorium into frenzy by belting up his yester year hits.

They clamoured for more as the stage was getting fired up by the group’s dance routines led by popular dancer Gede.

But just after two songs Matsito made way for Extrabasso, as Macheso is also known.

With the thumping bass guitar strumming backstage, Macheso made a grand entrance igniting thunderous applause from the audience who had by then reached their crux.

But Macheso was just starting as he kicked off his set with Charakupa sending the auditorium into delirium.

Nox who was also part of the crowd then made a cameo appearance on stage joining Macheso in song much to the delight of the revellers.

Talented drummer Obert Gomba showed why he remains one of the best as he went into a drum beating solo act receiving wild cheers from the crowd.

However it was Macheso’s current hit Gungwa which proved too much to handle for his legion of fans as they went into frenzy from the first note of the song.

Other tracks that he played include Tafadzwa, Mude Mude and the classic Mundikumbuke.

Maybe to cement his word on giving his loyalists another album next year, Macheso threw in unknown lyrics in some of his popular songs.

Macheso’s Johannesburg gig handler Donald Nikisi attributed the success of the show to the massive support the Hotel has been recieving from the Zim folk in SA.

Donald Nikisi, proprietor of Ekurhuleni Hotel said: “We are so happy with the turn out as you know Jah Prayzah was in town too it could have gone either way but l can confirm to you that we sold I690 ordinary tickets, 309 VIP and 38 VVIP, what else can you ask for as a promoter.”

As Macheso boarded a plane back to his Harare base on Sunday morning Jah Prayzah was casting his net wider as he flew with his entourage to Cape Town for an afternoon performance at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.

Organised by the Biodeversity Institute, the gig saw kids below the age of five gaining free admission.

The multi award winning musician got on stage at exactly 17:30 pm sending the massive over a thousand fans into song and dance as he churned hit after hit.

managed to keep the audience on the edge with his mbira antics and energetic drills as they also joined in singing along in most of the tracks.

Wrapping up the weekend events Macheso and Jah Prayzah came out and stamped their feet why they remain among Zim’s finest draw cards. After the double bill in SA, Macheso is preparing for his next tour to Ireland, which is yet another first in the coming week.