Alexio is not an urban groover

approached Shamiso Entertainment whose producer was Delani Makhalima, with a single entitled “Amai”. At the time, the lead singer of a band called Guess had just left during the compilation of ‘Urban Grooves Volume One’, a compilation album which included the likes of David Chifunyise and other real urban groovers.

“They saw an opportunity to include my single in this compilation album and that was that. Everybody started calling me an urban groover. But as my music matures, I would like the public to know that I am more of an Afro-Fusion artiste than an urban groover.”

Indeed, urban grooves is a new genre of Zimbabwe’s popular music — a more sparse version of dancehall and hip hop. It is characterised by faster rhythms which are mainly due to digital instrumentation from computers.

Songs such as “Love YeMusoja”, “Wainira Musoja”, “Madrinks” and “Happy” can easily be associated with the urban grooves movement. The urban grooves movement which started in 2002, encouraged Zimbabwean artistes to develop their own music which would replace the British and American music which was being played by the then Radio 3.

Thus young artistes began to showcase their talents at Government-organised musical galas throughout the country.
The youths saw this as an opportunity to develop a new genre of music. The names Roki, Mafrik, Extra Large, Stunner, Sniper, Ex-Q, 2BG, Nasty Trix, Decibel, David Chifunyise, Roy and Royce, Sanii Makhalima, Tehn Diamond , Junior Brown and Maskiri have since then been associated with urban grooves.

Included in this category are names like Leonard Mapfumo, Plaxedes Wenyika, Betty Makaya and Alexio Kawara, but a close analysis of the music coming from these last four artistes shows that their music is crying for a different category and Alexio is right in declaring that he is not an urban groover.
Indeed, Alexio can make such a declaration because he can sing. Not everyone who makes a CD can sing as evidenced by the music most rappers and hip hop artistes bring out with the help of computers.

Alexio is in a different category. This is why he finds it fit to state that he is not an urban groover.
I had the opportunity to listen to his latest album, “Tose”, and can confirm that his music is certainly different from the one coming out of the likes of Roki, Mafrik, Stunner, Sniper Storm or Nasty Trix, plus all the artistes who wear the urban grooves mantle.

Songs such as “Save”, “Chihwandehwande”, “Chinyanye”, “Tose”, “Mwana waAmai”, “Newe”, “Gomba Remoto”, “Kuchanaya” and “Dear Sons and Daughters” have all got afro-fusion mixes except “Paunoda” which has a reggae sound track.

Alexio says that, what he has in mind when he writes songs, is to find the ways and means with which he can inspire people. His music, he says, aims at giving a positive impact and inspirational messages to its listeners.

Alexio and friends came together in 1999 to form a group called Shades of Black, and they soon attracted the attention of urban music patriarch Delani Makhalima.
Under Makhalima’s watch, Alexio wrote and put his vocals on the song, “Amai”, which was released on a compilation CD in 2000.

He has since released a lot of albums and done everything he needs to do in promotions, but marketing CDs in this day and age is a very difficult task.
In 2003, Alexio released his debut album, “Usazondisiya”, which had hit songs like “Kumba Kwenyu” and the epic, “Ndinomhanya”. His next project was a contribution to the compilation album, “Machikichori”. The track “Musikana Akanaka” was a gem which would be remixed and re-released on his next album, “Pfimbi Yangu” which spawned the hit, “Tinodanana”.

Alexio’s fourth album, “Kana”, was the final statement that he had arrived.
The album featured top artistes including Andy Brown, Clive “Mono” Mukundu, Newman Chipeni and Philip Svosve of the late James Chimombe’s Ocean City Band.
The album was pregnant with hit songs including the chart topping “Karwiyo Aka”, “Nyaya Yerudo” and his undisputed biggest hit of them all; “Shaina”.
“Shaina” had a powerful message relevant to a Zimbabwe, then begging for answers in the mid of political upheaval and economic challenges.

Alexio was now unstoppable. He had, after all, defined the turn of the decade with the most electrifying ballad of modern times in “Shaina”.

The song shattered the stereotypes. Young, old, black, white, male and female all caught the “Shaina” bug. But, as Alexio puts it, “Although ‘Shaina’ was recorded in August 2008, it’s impact was only made when the band was invited to sing at the Miss Tourism Show the following year which was attended by close to 9 000 people at the Harare International Conference Centre. Suddenly sales went up after this show and Alexio became a household name”.

Alexio comes from humble beginnings. He was born on November 28, 1978 and attended primary school at Shiriyedenga in Glen Norah, Harare from 1985-1991. He then moved to Mazowe High School from 1992-1995 where he completed his O-Levels. After that he proceeded to do his A-Levels at Vainona Secondary School between 1996 and 1997.

On completion of secondary education, he developed a passion for radio communication. He then followed his dreams and pursued this programme at Harare Polytechnic before becoming a musician.

He formed The Shades of Black in 1999 and the band is still intact to this day.
Currently supplying Alexio with musical labour force are six other musicians namely, talented Ndomupei Nelly Masendeke on backing vocals who is blessed with one-in-a-million voice; Tawanda Ndoro (nephew to Oliver Mtukudzi) on lead guitar; Edwin Mutambira who provides the heart-stopping bassline that could stop an elephant dead in its tracks; Cornelius Mponda who makes his keyboards sound like a million dollar brass band; Leslie Gurumani, the drummer who keeps the rhythm on track and Roy Zuka, the sound engineer.

Together they make the Shades of Black.
In the past, musicians used to live comfortably off royalties coming from record sales. With piracy going on, the tables have turned and musicians now resort to live performances as the sole means of livelihood.

Alexio has already learned from past experiences that to get further up the musical ladder, he has to concentrate on working with prominent artistes such as Oliver Mtukudzi and other international musicians.

Last month he was one of the opening acts at the Zahara show and not only did he shine in his own right, but he was also invited by Zahara to take part in the song “Incwadi Encane”, a song she recorded with Zimbabwean DJ George Munetsi of Kaya FM.
She invited Alexio Kawara to sing George’s part in the song.

He did it so well and that indeed elevated Alexio to a higher level.
At the end of this month, Alexio will be giving yet another performance at the Harare Festival of the Arts with Prudence Katomeni-Mbofana.
With help from Don Gwese, he is moving in the right direction and it is just a matter of time before Alexio reaches the superstar status and enters Zimbabwe’s big five hall of fame.