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Goodwill Zunidza
Rastafarians and all who stand under the reggae banner savoured their most memorable night as one of the world’s truly great musicians Burning Spear delivered a tight show awash with message and rhythm at the Glamis Arena on Friday.
Appearing on stage like a nuclear explosion in the countdown to midnight, the elder statesman of roots music needed no introduction as he beheld the crowd before him, his own set outlined against the blue sky with the weather extra-calm for all to dance the night away.
This was the first visiting roots reggae group in a whole decade since King Sounds landed in Harare in 2014 and predictably the air was steamy-thick from both excitement and expectation with reggae-muffins regarding it as their own holy communion.
At a pricey US$20 per advance ticket (or US$40 at the gate), the atmosphere was generally high-end and the environment incident-free all night, just peace, love, and harmony flowing through the veins of the “sons and daughters of His Imperial Majesty” as the septuagenarian put it himself.
There was not a dull moment from the night’s first track until Spear rung down the curtain most disappointingly around 2.30 am.
The choice of his show-opener ‘Door Peep’ was especially haunting, particularly since it is the veteran Jamaican artist’s first-ever single recorded in 1969 and seemed to take Spear – born Winston Rodney at St Ann’s Bay 79 years ago – back in time.
But it propelled the skankers and revellers below his canvas well into the future, or at least the short future of the magical offering they were in store for in the following few hours.
An animated percussionist himself, Spear’s high-energy performance would only be overwhelmed, in a few instances, by the Burning Band’s heavy-pounding drums and their infectious blend of the jam guitar and powerful horn section.
His second tune of the night, one still to be released in Zimbabwe, was again catchy and eerily received by an eager and souled-out audience but what rocked the floor was the third delivery titled ‘The Youth’, a popular recording off the ‘Live in Paris Zenith’ album of 1988.
With a mutual cord now established between the singer and his fans, it was now time for Burning Spear to shift to his renowned spiritually-uplifting releases that streamed out like ‘Marcus Garvey’, the self-refining ‘Tumble Down’, ‘We Go There’ and ‘Rainbow’.
“Do you want some more?” the beloved international vocalist occasionally kept asking the crowd in between the music.
“Talk to me people, talk to me if you want some more!”
Without exception, the thunderous response remained: “Yeeeeeeeeah”.
The enchanting ‘Jah is My Driver’ was unequaled for the most famous song gong but also wildly received were the hits ‘Creation Rebel’ and ‘Rocking Time’ whose recorded versions already grace many cabinets in the homes of local reggae collectors.
What must have stunned the multiple Grammy Award nominee was the receptive nature of the roughly 3 000 attendants inside the venue, with some flying Zimbabwean flags in appreciation of the Elder’s teachings.
In actual fact, the stage lights were switched off shortly after 2 am closing ‘Rocking Time’ which had been marked as the full-stop on the playlist but the unique character of the audience (that listened to music more than they danced to it) prompted the grey-bearded African Teacher to call for the lights again and resume jamming.
Two final cuts ‘Feel Stupid’ and the footnote ‘African Postman’ put the lid on his performance and left a hungry crowd at akimbo, relentlessly asking for more.
But the ‘Fittest of the Fittest’ had completed his repertoire and was already focused on the next stop of his One Africa Tour in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Online Reporter