Analog Africa have recently released the album 4 Track Recording Session showcasing the Green Arrows' music from the mid 1970's.
The Green Arrows were the coolest thing around in 1970’s Rhodesia with a sharp dress sense, putting on a real performance for their fans and proving they were accomplished creatives, all the while using their homeland as their work's inspiration.
Their own evolution as musicians from a group that played ‘beer music’ in bars around Bulawayo and then Harare, to a group that set new records in the Zimbabwean music industry, and climaxing as a politicised hopeful group defining the birth of Zimbabwe as it moved towards independence is a fascinating story and is showcased in this album 4 Track Recording Session released by Analog Africa last month.
The Green Arrows, despite their energetic and apparently carefree sound were at the forefront in defining the ‘Chimurenga’ style of music that has come out of Zimbabwe over the last few decades and is now epitomised by Thomas Mapfumo and Oliver Mtukudzi.
‘Chimurenga’ is the Shona word for ‘struggle ‘. The term goes back at least to the first uprising against the British in the1890s when the Shona majority of Southern Rhodesia rose up, only to be narrowly defeated.
The 1960’s saw in a new struggle, although the protagonists were the same, but this "second chimurenga" would result in the emergence of an independent Zimbabwe in 1980. The music created during this time expressed the needs, hopes and world views of black Zimbabweans and was a crucial narrative of the struggle.
The Green Arrows were the first group to record an LP in Zimbabwe and one of their tracks broke records staying in the No1 position of the country's music charts far longer than any that came before them and no other group have beaten them to this day.
The 20 tracks are taken from the groups recordings of 1974-1979 and even in that short five years the story of the band, as well as the story of Zimbabwe can be heard. Listening today it’s interesting to hear how modern the Green Arrows sound was. The music is designed to get feet moving and hips swaying for sure with catchy frisky guitar and percussion and rousing vocals from the larger than life frontman Zexie Manatsa. But the group experimented with both the new and the old so the ‘wahwah’ pedal they were famous for is crucial for helping the Green Arrows create their unique sound but so is mimicking the way in which Zimbabwe's traditional instruments were played on the guitar.
The music is funky, electric and modern using age old home grown ingredients from Zimbabwe – traditional phrasing, rhythms, language and ideas. A perfect combination. Even today.
Green Arrows 4 Track Recording Session released 23rd April 2007 on Analog Africa/ AACD 061
