Mashasha is a Zimbabwean-born, UK-based recording and performing artist who has been described by music critics and writers around the world as “a revelation”, an “extraordinary talent”, an “important new voice in African music” and an “original musical voice from the Zimbabwean Diaspora.”
Mashasha” since his childhood (the nickname translates roughly as “skills of a champion”), he became a professional bass player at the age of 19, and very quickly found himself working with leading names in Zimbabwean music such as Chiwoniso Maraire, Busi Ncube, Andy Brown & the Storm, Tanga Wekwa Sando, Rute Mbangwa, Zimbabwean rock band Bush Guru and poet/activist/comedian Comrade Fatso. Besides his career as an instrumentalist, Mashasha began developing his skills as a musical director, producer and arranger, contributing to projects by artists such as Edwin Hamma, Godfrey Sango, Chiwoniso Maraire and the seminal Zimbabwean jazz trio Too Open, of which he was a co-leader for 3 years.
The years that followed were an arduous journey for Mashasha. When the Zimbabwean crisis was at its apex, he found himself, like so many of his peers, struggling to survive a low-paid worker in the factories of England’s industrial heartland in the East Midlands,. He continued composing, recording and performing throughout this experience, never going even one day without making music, even after a 12-hour night shift.
Still based in the UK, Mashasha has been wowing audiences with his masterful and passionate live performances in London and beyond, building a following both as a solo artist and as half of the unique African bass & drums duo “Mashasha & Sam.” His audacious, genre-bending eponymous debut release was acclaimed by critics and audiences around the world. He is now studying composition and production at university and recording his second studio album.
Mashasha is an astonishing musician, inventive composer and compelling performer. He has created a hard-hitting, intricate and hypnotic sound, inspired by deep African grooves, and influenced by jazz and improvisation, trance-rock edginess and polyrhythmic funk in a way that is adventurous and unexpected, mentally stimulating and emotionally charged, as well as being entirely danceable. This is authentic, modern Zimbabwean and global music for the mind, the body and the heart. Mashasha’s songs cover a wide range of subjects, telling stories of mothers and wives, immigrants and workers, children and adults with empathy, compassion and humour. Presenting a free-spirited set full of spontaneity and surprising ideas, Mashasha is an exhilarating live act to watch. Intense and exuberant on stage, he combines breathtaking musicianship and skill with a mix of credibility and intimacy that immediately engages the audience.
