Live Music at The Annex: Mbira dzaSoko: Salani and Friends celebrate Mbira Music from Zimbabwe

Wednesday August 24, 5-7:30pm will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex)  – “Neighborhood World Music Sessions at The Annex.”

Mbira dzaSoko: Salani and Friends celebrate Mbira Music from Zimbabwe

Celebrate mbira music with Mbira dzaSoko-led by Zimbabwean mbira player, Salani Wamkanganise and friends

Mbira dzaSoko performs celebratory and spiritual mbira music from Zimbabwe, led by mbira maker, musician and teacher, Salani Wamkanganise, along with his musical friends. The mbira is a sacred instrument created and played by the Shona people of Zimbabwe. It is made of metal keys attached to a wooden soundboard, and usually has bottle caps or shells which help create a buzzing sound along with the tones. Mbira music instantly draws people together. Mbira music blurs the lines between audience and musicians, excluding none. The music is celebratory-come and be transformed by the joy of Zimbabwe!

Salani Wamkanganise is a Zimbabwean mbira maker and player, teacher, and cultural ambassador, who now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. After performing, recording and touring nationally and internationally, Wamkanganise moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, California, and continues to build mbira, teach, and perform. He has worked with The KTO Project, PIWAI, and heads the group Mbira dzaSoko with his solid bass singing and rhythmical mbira playing.

When asked about making mbira instruments, Salani stated in an interview: “The art of making the mbira instrument requires persistence for perfection, precision, attention to detail, mindfulness, a sense of beauty and commitment. There is a mixture of three trades in one, carpentry, metal fabrication, and a musical soul; thus, mbira making falls between art and engineering.”

We are proud to present this series in partnership with Modupue (Javier Navarrette) and SunJams.

Javier Navarrette’s Modúpue Productions continues to bring live music to several venues around the Bay Area. Javier has been a professional musician and music educator in the Oakland Unified School District for the past 20 years. Over the past 2 years Navarrette has produced outdoors events that have proven instumental in enabling musicians to deal with some of the fallout of the pandemic and shutdown that followed. Most recently he has been curating “Modúpue Sundays at the Brooklyn Basin.” These musical productions ran from June–November 2021 at the new Oakland hot spot, the Brooklyn Basin, with internationally known, Bay Area musical legends.

SunJams is committed to funding children’s music education in underserved public elementary schools. Your donation will help support this ongoing program.

In addition, we need to raise funds to continue bringing you this exciting new live music program. All of the proceeds will go directly to our network of local musicians, each of whom have been severely impacted by the lack of events during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Whether you donate $10, $100, or $1000 – any amount helps and will allow us to keep bringing music to our community! As always, your donation to our 501(c)3 may qualify as tax exempt.

COVID RELATED SAFETY MEASURES

Please be safe. Feel free to wear a mask if you prefer.

TICKETS

Tickets are NOT required for this venue, you can simply come in, order food and beverages at the Annex counter and pay at the registers.