Music runs in their blood

music exploits that spawned the late Wacko Jacko who was touted as the “King of Pope”.
While Zimbabwe has had families that have churned out its own fair share of popular musical siblings, it seems a few have made it on the music production  side.

The Masango family is an exception, and music production runs in their blood.
The family has defied odds by producing four music producers who have been instrumental in the works  some of the country’s established musicians.
Some of the musicians, whom they have worked with  include Fungisai Zvakavapano-Mashavave, Progress Chipfumo, Sniper, Rute Mbangwa, Shinso Man, Pastor Haisa and the late Simon Chimbetu, a clear testimony of the kind of producers you are dealing with.

The musical projects have been made possible by the high level of ingenuity of four brothers —  Spencer, Zivanai, Trevor and Davies — who have made Track Records into the recording stable that it is today.
“We come from a musical family. Our father Shame was a music director in the Police Band and he is the one who rubbed off his music passion onto us.

“He taught us how to play mbira and keyboards. But we later diversified our talents by learning sound engineering and recording,” revealed Trevor (29), who is also a music tutor together with Mbangwa, who does vocal training.
The brothers started off by producing the music of  Joice Simeti, Betty Makhaya and Jamal in 2001 at One Left Sound Studio.

They then merged with Tonderai Music Corporation which amalgamation resulted in them working on the late (Simon) Chimbetu’s album, “Ten Million Pounds”.
Realising their capabilities, they immediately worked on Chipfumo’s “Mangerengere” as well as Kudzi Nyakudya and Zvakavapano-Mashavave’s albums.
“The merger was necessitated by the need to work on something bigger than what we had done before.

“It needed to be something that would have an international appeal to a cosmopolitan audience,” Trevor said. While Trevor, Davies and their elder brother Spencer — who owns Track Records — are based in Zimbabwe, Zivanai (32), has since relocated to the United States where he is running a band.
Trevor, however, lamented the scourge of piracy as one of the challenges they were facing.

“We are producing music with the aim of sustaining ourselves and artistes, but the biggest challenge is piracy.
“We are challenging all stakeholders in the industry to come together and find ways of dealing with this problem,” he said.