adminMarshall Munhumumwe on lead vocals and drums, Edward Ulaya Zulu on lead guitar and Never Mutare on bass who formed the band in 1977 were not related at all.
The band at times even increased its membership to five. After leaving their individual bands in 1977, these four unemployed musicians joined together to do one song at Shed Studio in Harare.
The producer, Chris Matema, asked the four musicians to provide him with label information at the end of the recording.
They failed to come up with a name for the group. Chris then decided to call them the Four Brothers arguing that he could not release the record unless he had a collective name for the musicians who had recorded it.
That was meant to be a temporary name but when the record came out, it made such a great impact that the four musicians decided to form a permanent band and, naturally the name Four Brothers stuck.
Following the success of the record, a contract to play at Chikwanha Nightclub in Seke was secured. The Four Brothers did a one-year stint at that nightclub until they moved on to Machipisa Night Club in Highfield around May 1978.
It was at Machipisa Nightclub that their popularity really began as a string of recordings such as “Sara Ugarike” and “Adiwa Usamuzvonde” became hits both at the club and nationwide.
By 1979 they had sold over 100 000 records throughout the country and in 1980 immediately after Zimbabwe achieved its independence the single “Makorokoto” (Congratulations) went gold.
From then onwards there was no looking back as the “brothers” churned one hit after another. “Rudo Imoto” became every woman’s song in the townships and later “Vimbai” became a top seller for over six weeks in 1985.
Despite this success in record sales, the band remained poor and was based at Machipisa Night Club for six years.
Most of their earnings came from playing live every night at Machipisa.
Somehow they did not earn enough royalties from record sales which would have allowed them to purchase their own equipment.
They were receiving 4 percent in royalties from Gramma Records and for every 100 000 records they sold they received an estimated amount of $400 which was not even enough to sustain them.
Gramma Records argued that their expenditure was high, as they had to pay for the recording, pressing, sleeve design and printing plus distribution of the records.
Thus The Four Brothers could not afford to buy their own equipment. It was only after an offer was made by one equipment owner for them to tour the country that they decided to break away from the chains of night club life.
A short period was also spent recording the work of Patrick Mukwamba, who did the nationwide tour with The Four Brothers to promote his national hit “Jonasi Wapenga nayo Bonus”.(A lot of people mistakenly titled it “Bonus” because Mukwamba sang about how Jonasi foolishly squandered his bonus money one November month).
During this period with Mukwamba, the band members had increased to five, but the name remained The Four Brothers. However, the relationship with Patrick did not last long and Marshall, the drummer, found himself becoming the lead singer again.
In 1986 the band was approached by an international promoter, Stuart Lyons, who had heard of their success through Stern’s African Records, a distribution and sales company specialising in African music in Europe and Brazil.
Lyons wanted them (The Four Brothers) to tour Europe. The following year contracts were signed and between 1987 and 1990 the Four Brothers had performed in over 10 countries, which included
Italy, Britain, Switzerland, Denmark, Canada, Austria, Holland and West Germany.
Stuart saw this opportunity as God-sent. According to him: “This was the easiest band to promote. There were only four musicians to deal with who at the end of each gig would just jump into one taxi and go home, and there were no money hassles, unlike the 18-member band called the Real Sounds who needed two minibuses each time they had a gig.”
The late BBC Radio 1 disc jockey, John Peel, described their music as “out of this world”. Peel championed The Four Brothers in the UK. They recorded four radio sessions for his show between 1988 and 2000.
The band played at Peel’s surprise 50th birthday party at his home and he selected “Pasi Pano Pane Zviedzo” as one of his favourite records of all time on the radio show.
Peel is often quoted as describing The Four Brothers as “the best live band in the world”. Andy Kershaw, another BBC DJ who had previously been an advocate of the Bhundu Boys decided to switch camps as he followed The Four Brothers wherever they performed.
Despite this seemingly newly found success The Four Brothers remained loyal to their roots as they came back to do concerts in Zimbabwe and had rehearsal sessions at Chengawose Night Club in Chitungwiza where they all lived.
The Four Brothers recorded many albums some of which include “Rugare”, “Tichanosangana Ikoko”, “Uchaenda Wega”, “Ziva Kwawakabva”, “Mbereko Yakaramba”, “Kumawere Zino Irema”, “Wachiveiko” and “Mambakwedza”.
Serengeti Records in the UK released a special singles package.
The list of singles is endless but here are some of them:
“Uchandifunga”, “Vimbayi”, “Rumbidzai”, “Makorokoto”, “Rudo Imoto”, “Pasi Pano Pane Zviedzo”, “Mashoko Ababa Namai”.
“Guhwa Uri Mwana Waani”, “Wapenga Nayo Bonus”, “Siya Zviriko”, “Rugare”, “Ndakatadzeiko”, “Pamusoroi”, “Nhaka Yemusiiranwa”, “Sara Tasangana” and “Ndakatambura” are some of the singles they did.
After two successful overseas tours, The Four Brothers finally managed to buy a set of musical instruments for themselves and toured Zimbabwe extensively.
Overseas record companies including Serengeti Records exploited much of The Four Brothers music, but according to Marshall, they never saw the royalties as an arrangement had been made between Serengeti and Gramma without their knowledge.
Unfortunately, Never, Marshall and Alex have all passed on now and their families, despite the seeming success of the band still remain in poverty in Chitungwiza.
Marshall, who was the nephew of Chimurenga music maestro, Thomas Mapfumo left behind several children some of whom are also trying their hand at music.
Alex Phiri Chipaika was married to Gloria (nee Shasha), sister to the late famous Zimbabwean drummer, Jethro Shasha. Gloria is single-handedly fending for their children.
Today record shops are still selling The Four Brothers’ music and Radio Zimbabwe and Power FM still find their music appealing to many, but none of the family members of the band are receiving any royalties. Where is this money going?
One would think that Gramma or Serengeti would come to their rescue since their empires were built through the sweat of these illustrious musicians, but no such luck. Such is the life of a musician in Zimbabwe and even today not much has changed.
- Fred Zindi is a professor at the University of Zimbabwe. He is also a musician, producer and an author of several books on music. He can be contacted via e-mail on [email protected]
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