#kalindula

peter kalumba chishala was born on 10 october 1957 in kitwe. he did his primary education at mambilima mission school for the blind — pk chishala was blind, having suffered from smallpox in his early years that left him without sight. he later attended sefula secondary school in western province before working as a social worker at the mindolo ecumenical foundation in kitwe.

he began his music career while still at school, recording his debut single "icisosa cipamano" at malachite studios in chingola. the title-track won him the 1987 soloist of the year award. it made him zambia's representative at the 1988 WOMAD festival in the UK — a blind young man from the copperbelt performing at WOMAD the same year samuel matete ran at the seoul olympics and kalusha bwalya scored three goals against italy.

pk chishala dominated the zambian music scene from the mid-1980s until his death in 1995. his music: kalindula as social commentary, as moral philosophy, as the copperbelt's specific voice describing the specific life of the zambian working class.

his songs: "pole-pole" — the hypocrisy of church elders who preach one thing and live another. "common man" — the suffering of the ordinary zambian amid economic hardship and rising mealie-meal prices, an anthem for ordinary zambians squeezed by late 1980s economic crises. "impumba mikowa" — a lament from orphans about their plight. the full texture of copperbelt life.

he died on 15 june 1995 — thirty years ago this month. he was thirty-seven years old. his album "pk chishala: the collection" still sells internationally online. afunika, one of the most successful contemporary zambian musicians, has cited pk chishala as the primary influence on his musical style.

he could not see the copperbelt. he described it better than anyone who could.

the zambian music series continues. 🇿🇲🎵

amayenge was founded in choma, southern province, in 1978 by kris chali. started as crossbones — one of many zambian acts playing gigs based on rock in the zamrock era. after a change in direction they became amayenge — a name unchanged for nearly fifty years.

the musical style: kalindula — the distinctively zambian popular music genre that emerged from the traditional music of the bemba-speaking peoples of luapula, northern, and copperbelt provinces. originally played on homemade banjos, a four-stringed bass called the mbabadoni, ngoma drums, chisekele shakers, and metal bells. amayenge replaced the homemade instruments with electric guitars and modern drums — but the rhythmic foundation, the call-and-response structure, and the dance-oriented energy remained.

what makes amayenge's contribution extraordinary is not just the longevity — it is the scope. they have songs in tumbuka, lenje, tonga, lozi, kaonde, nkoya, and luvale — in addition to bemba and nyanja. they have embraced the musical traditions of all 73 tribes of zambia and made the entire nation feel a part of their unique vibe. in a country as ethnically diverse as zambia, this is not an easy achievement. amayenge achieved it.

kris chali died on 30 may 2003. the band continued — under fraser chilembo and then alice chali, the founder's widow. more than two decades after the founder's death, still performing, touring, recording, winning awards.

seven times the ngoma award for best band. the brath award for best kalindula band. the zambia international trade fair best band award.

the band has a song called chipolopolo — recorded in honour of the zambian national football team. the series that began yesterday with the 2012 AFCON has a soundtrack. amayenge gave it to them.

the band that started in choma in 1978. that never stopped. that is still playing.

the zambian music series continues. 🇿🇲🎵

zambia has 73 ethnic groups. each of them has music. each of them has specific instruments, specific rhythms, specific songs for specific occasions — for birth, for initiation, for marriage, for harvest, for rain, for war, for mourning.

the royal ceremonies series has shown how the ceremonies of the lozi, the ngoni, and the nkoya are inseparable from the music that accompanies them — the lozi drums that announce the kuomboka, the ngoni war songs that drive the nc'wala regimental dances, the kazanga drums that carry the nkoya's identity assertion. this is not background music. it is the expression itself.

the traditional instruments of zambia: the thumb piano family — the kalimba, the likembe, the mbira — whose soft, melodic, introspective sound is the quintessential solo instrument of the zambian plateau, played in the evenings, in the fields, in moments of personal reflection. the drums — in extraordinary variety, from the royal drums of the lozi kingdom to the ngoma drums of the ceremonial dances to the talking drums that carried messages across distances. the bow instruments — the chipendani, the musical bow played by pressing the string against the teeth or chest. the xylophones — the marimba family of eastern province. the flutes and ivory horns of the lozi royal court.

from this extraordinary traditional foundation, zambian music has grown through the colonial era, the independence explosion, the zamrock years, the kalindula emergence, into the contemporary scene that this series will trace post by post.

close your eyes for a moment. think of the sound of zambia.

if you are nsenga from petauke, you hear the kalimba — the plucked metal tines of the lamellaphone that the kingdoms series named as the signature instrument of the nsenga people, whose music has accompanied initiation ceremonies and social gatherings in eastern province for centuries. if you are lozi from the barotse floodplain, you hear the silimba — the xylophone-like instrument whose deep, resonant wooden notes carry across the floodplain at the kuomboka ceremony. if you are from kitwe in the 1970s, you hear zamrock — the psychedelic rock that zambian bands built on foundations of british blues, congolese rumba, and the electric energy of a newly independent country that was also, briefly, rich from copper and full of possibility.

the traditional instrument traditions: the kalimba of eastern province. the silimba of western province. the bemba ingoma — the talking drum that communicates across distances in the forest. the luvale makishi masquerade music that accompanies the ancestral spirit performances the kingdoms series described. the tonga ngoma and the ceremonial music of the lwiindi ceremony. each of zambia's 73 peoples has a musical tradition that carries their identity the way language and food and ceremony carry it.

kalindula — the popular music genre that emerged in zambia in the 1970s and 1980s, rooted in copperbelt urban culture, blending traditional zambian musical elements with electric guitar, bass, and drums. named for the one-stringed bass instrument that anchors its distinctive rhythm. zambia's contribution to the great wave of african popular music that swept the continent in the post-independence decades.

zamrock — the psychedelic rock movement of the early 1970s built by bands including witch, the ngozi family, amanaz, and musi-o-tunya. blues-rock transformed with a zambian energy specific to the moment — the early years of independence, the copper boom, the political confidence of a country that had just become itself. largely unknown outside zambia for decades. a reissue campaign by now-again records in the 2010s introduced it to a global audience of collectors who recognised immediately that something extraordinary had been happening in the copperbelt studios of the early 1970s that the world had missed.

contemporary zambian music: macky 2. chef 187. yo maps. slap dee. artists creating the soundtrack of zambia's present in the same way that witch and the ngozi family created the soundtrack of zambia's 1970s.

the zambian music series will explore all of this — from the kalimba's tines to the zamrock guitar to the contemporary studio — as a continuous story of a country expressing itself in sound.

zambia has always had a soundtrack.

PK Chishala – Church Elder mp3 download

Download church elder by PK Chishala and more kalindula and old zambian Music here Download

Zedlyric in this brief blog post attempts to list who are the all-time top 20 best Zambian musicians.

Zedlyric in this brief blog post attempts to list who are the all-time top 20 best Zambian musicians. This listing entirely looks at the musician’s popularity and positive influence, quality of intonation or voice, successful live performance, and the repertoire of the music libraries such artists have created. This is ul (unordered list) and follows no rank but allows the path of the musicians…