admin
Senior Arts Reporter
Visiting American singer and songwriter Robert Earl “Kool” Bell, one of the founding members of the American funk band Kool and the Gang, has described Zimbabwe as safe and peaceful, with loving and welcoming people.
Robert, who has been in the country for the past two weeks and is returning back home to the United States today, made the revelations on Wednesday at the Diamond Studios in Harare where he was signing a deal with the recording label and two local artistes as part of his tour project.
The musician and his band are well known for yesteryear greats such as “Celebrations”, “Cherish” and “Get Down On It”.
“This is my first time to be in Zimbabwe and I am happy with what I have seen so far, the peace and loving community,” he said.
“I am here because I have a partnership with Diamond Studios where we are scouting for raw talent under the international development artist programme.
“We spoke of this initiative some seven months ago, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic it was difficult to make it happen earlier, but we waited for borders to open then we can begin.”
Robert, who also shared his music history and success, said for artists to make it, they should sing music that is timeously.
“I have been in the game for the past 55 years. I am happy to be associated with raw talent, especially in Africa. I have been to 10 African countries which include Liberia, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Mozambique and DRC.
“I have decided to come here because I have heard about the coolness of this country. To the young artistes, if you want to stay relevant and live longer in the music scene, just have timeously lyrics.”
Asked if he was going to perform in Zimbabwe apart from the mentorship programme he was conducting, Robert said fans could expect him next year.
“We are coming back in 2022 and this time around, it is for a show and we hope the Covid-19 pandemic issue will be something else. Yes, we can’t wait to be on stage in Zimbabwe. Right now we are working on an album called ‘Perfect Union’ which will be released this August with a single scheduled for July which will help promote the album.
“I am happy that the single, ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ has been sampled here. On the album, we have reunited with remaining Kool Gang members, Dennis Thomas and George Brown. We have been working for 10 years.
“Surprisingly, our next album will be released in August same time in 1969, July-August where we started off our careers although I started to perform in 1964.”
Robert said it was like the old school meeting the new school, and was happy with the development in the music industry globally.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Diamond Studios founder member Steady Munyanyi, said they planned a great initiative of mentoring and scouting artistes as they aimed to put them on the international level.
“We have hosted Robert Kool for the past weeks where he toured and also had a chance to meet some of our raw talent we have signed. We have a programme together, which will see us putting local talent on the map.,” said Munyanyi.
“I can say we need to up the game to meet the international standards. This is a business negotiation with Robert Kool and it will go a long way in developing our artistes. Today (Wednesday) we have signed two artistes who already have their music ready for airplay.
“We are not only limited, but we want to have more artists under our stable.”
The two artistes who signed yesterday are 14-year-old rapper Brendon Msipa and Christian Kagona affectionately known as Kruz.
Online Reporter