2012/12/16

PAPA ZODIAC


THE WEED, 04'00 - 04'44'

"- Something for the head, man !
 - Something for your brain ?
 - Yes man !
 -I have something specific for you, Kronika.
 - Kronika ?
 - Test it !"

https://myspace.com/zodiacvibes/music/songs

Papa Zodiac (his real name) was born in 1965 in Zimbabwe, Africa. From a young age he felt drawn to music and sang in a gospel choir. This gospel choir performed the opening act for the 1980 Independence concert at Rufaro Stadium in Harare, where among other, Bob Marley and The Wailers played.

 "I remember Bob Marley live in Rufaro stadium for the liberation of Zimbabwe. After Bob concert I got involved more in reggae music, e.g. from Steel Pulse, Burning Spear, Isaacs G., Culture, Third World, Peter Tosh, Scientist and UB 40."

Later Zodiac left Zimbabwe for Kenya, then Europe where he met with Gloria Synthetic, a Soukous- band from Zaire in Athens, Greece. After two years, Papa Zodiac formed the ‘BDR’ (bass, drums and riddim) and played in festivals like Larisa, Likavito and the "Festival Against Apartheid in South Africa" in the university hall in Thessalonikki. 

Papa Zodiac came to Germany in 1986 and started a new project, a multicultural percussion group named "Ngoma Yaya". Papa Zodiac played African tradition music and reggae in an African style He recorded his first album in 1996: "The Signs".  In 2000 Papa Zodiac recorded the album "Pachoto" (Three stones) and "Mbuya na mai"  in 2004. Since summer 2009 he worked together with the reggae band DUB TUB (www.myspace.com/dubtub) from Freiburg and with other artists. Right now Papa Zodiac’s music is a mixture of Roots, Dub and Dancehall in an African Jamaican style . Papa Zodiac's message is based in human rights, the freedom of mother Africa, its suffering and the unification of the one world people.

"...One heart, one reggae, one way is blessed ... !"



God Bless !!















I met Papa Zodiac in Saint Denis, Paris' northern suburb, at a friend's, Jossh Chambel, who sang with a small band headquartered in Pantin. The two bands were in touch to organize an event together at the time. He told us of his youth in a farm where they had the luck to own a beautiful cow that was the pillar of the family's wealth, the very cow represented on the album 'The Signs'.




UPDATE 12/2018

I listen to the above record in my car and, the more I hear it, the more I like it !!
Great rhythms, simple and 'african', with the natural power, and the tempo never 
lost, fabulous beat!! and great melodies, and voices, original, above time, and space,
true art people !!!! The sound of the African immensity, the majesty of the wilderness,
and its sensibility, never frozen, never lost in common - vanity would I say as is 99%
of music.




***
Paris friends :)



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