RAVEN DUCHESS fuses Kalimba vibe with a deep African cultural Shona -Karanga hymn , sweet eardrum rousing urban pop and , a blood warming Afro Jazz beat. In her rhythmic filled and harmonica laced Wakauya Wega Mudzimu Wababa , paying a befitting tribute to her ancestry and rebukes male on corrupting and forcibly dominate everything spiritually. She reminds her conscious famished audience that the gift of spirituality is serene and pure , hence cannot be savaged by barbaric and corrupt habits . The Poet , African culturist and Afro-Jazz pays homage to her original roots and her renditions are laced with passion , emotion and African beat. The use of Karanga Shona lyrics brings the vibrant songstress and her audience to find each inside this vibrant musical trance. Raven songs are plaques of our identity as the songstress cum culturalist reconnect with her departed kindred elders through heart thumbing Kalimba, blood raving urban pop , soul caressing Afro- jazz and wind throttling percussions. And we dance to stitches of this revered ,harmonized traditional anthem. Duchess reminds the African to be content with their African cultural dignity . Her moral lesson is genuine , that spiritual talents are feminine as much as their masculine . The Poet and Jazzist in Raven Duchess seeks to reverse tragedies hatched by modernity as her Kalimba vibe arouse bones and spirits to rise and heal the land yoked by the bondage of savagery .Her scintillating cultural renditions takes Zimbabweans and other Africans back to the sacred centuries of legendary Chaminuka , mighty Gumboreshumba, powerful Munhumutapa and Nehoreka, Iron spirited Nyanda ,Tovela, Murenga and the raining making Njelele , revolutionary Tangwena and Chingaira, the land of Madzimbabwe.Raven Duchess is a renowned Afro Jazz singer , well travelled Poet vocalist and has done collaborative projects with musicians and artist in Zimbabwe , Kenya , East Europe and United States. AFRICA WRITERS CARAVAN is excited to feature Iconic Artist , renowned Singer , mesmerizing Jazzist and rising Poet Raven RAVEN DUCHESS -( Blurb by Mbizo CHIRASHA).
*MESMERIZING WAKAUYA WEGA SONG IN VISUALS*
Raven Duchess and All That Jazz,NEWSWORTHY MESSAGE FROM BUSINESS WEEKLY,Zimbabwe.
“I can no longer endure the dreadful sound of jazz. It pains my ears like a rusted, broken pipe that leaks acid straight onto my heart.” Said nobody ever.
Listening to jazz, with each note like a lounge lizard scribbling along the wall looking for shade, and you, so sultry in that blissful look winding your way down poetic melody, you realise, Jazz is an open ended music designed for open minds.
There are many different types of music in the world. Each one is different because of certain different characteristics that help to make that genre stand apart from all others. Jazz is a type of music that was created mainly by African Americans in the early twentieth century and is a combination of American and African tribal music and rhythms.
Jazz artists in Zimbabwe, are perfect examples of a whole living culture of its own, especially in the hands of the veteran jazz artists who still grace our stages and the new ones emerging to step into their footsteps.
These musicians are willing to give their entire lives to a moment, melody, lyric or chord that will stir the soul, in a world where art is constantly evolving and things changing. That is why we are drawn to it.
Jazz is now almost being treated as a museum piece. It’s now a counterpart of classical music in the conservatory. Or an acquired taste.
From the memories of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday or records blasting at their fullest in a township shebeen, jazz music is a reflection of the cultural diversity and individualism of different souls. The genre is often referred to as the only musical genre that was completely a product of the New World, was a musical voice of the Black Power movement.
As we learn now, in its earliest days, jazz was three kinds of music in one, a folk music, an entertainment music and an art expression. Raven Duchess, a Harare singer and song writer, perhaps short in height as if to confirm the legendary saying, dynamites come in small packages. She is dynamite to reckon with.
Raven embodies folk culture, entertainment and she is an expression of art. Whenever she performs at Jazz Fridays every last week of the month at ArtiSana Gallery Café, the place is always fully booked.
She has performed at the Amanzi Festival, HIFA, Zimbabwe Jazz festival, Miombo Magic Festival, Shoko Festival and Fountain Valley Cetris Lapa (Pretoria). She is a singer, song writer and recording artist who performs at private and corporate events as well.
Her well acclaimed international collaborations include saxophonists Denise Wilkinson (Germany) and Mats Bengtsson. This year, she has collaborated with Matt Austen, Klara Wojtkoskwa from Poland and Jam Signal.
Raven is the realisation of why Jazz players do it standing up. Her voice was her first music instrument and it was natural, impulsive, improvised. Within her father’s old records, the first musical sounds to birth out of her were those of Jazz singers present and past.
Her music is poetic, covering issues such as depression, relationships and culture – issues that are not openly spoken about. “If I can’t feel it, I don’t want to sing it.” She says, “I have to feel it first and sing it. I have been doing music all my life so every day when I get up I expect music will be part of it.”
Her father who she credits her own build of self-discipline, now a retired family man who in his free time does stone sculpturing and is a martial arts and swimming coach, forms her fondest jazz memories with the music he played as she grew up.
“I remember my dad playing a lot of jazz as I grew up, I would listen to Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday and the band Queen.
“He would dance, and initiate us to dance along with him. I am different in how I have been shaped by artists I grew up listening to, and no one can say I sound like the next artist.”
Born Ruvimbo Mapanda – Raven Duchess – as she has come to be known, named herself Raven, and had the title Duchess bestowed to her. Ravens have different symbolisms in different cultures. She adopted the raven as a symbol of a messenger, thus, she calls herself a messenger. Duchess came about the way she carried herself in everything she did and with discipline.
The raven as a totem is also the keeper of synchronicity. Raven duchess believes she is a master of bending and folding time and space in music. Therefore, you are precisely in the right moment at the right time whenever you witness her grace the stage like the duchess they say she is.
In her beginning, Raven wasn’t too sure about herself, but she showed the determination that required her to move forward as a musician. With her career beginning in her early twenties, she believes her first cries at birth were probably melodic and the nurses danced towards her in attendance.
As we hear often, sometimes it takes one person in a crowd to believe in someone for them to make something out of themself. When someone overheard her singing and told her she was good, it was a private moment but it also became a moment of confirmation that she wanted to be a musician.
“I remember my first stage performance was at the old Book Café Open Mic. A friend of mine asked me to come with them, with a bit of persuasion they asked me to hop on stage. I told myself, if anything went wrong or if I failed to deliver a good performance I would stop there and then and forget about singing.”
“Book Café was a different vibe all in all. If you gave a bad performance, the audience was rarely forgiving, but the second I got there, I had everybody’s attention and they were hooked. People stopped what they were doing to see who was singing. I had hope, a star was born, now I do everything else without self-doubt but confidence, people can always tell when you’re faking it. ” She says.
She started working with Outspoken, people saw her on stage and they saw more future in her than she saw in herself. They started demanding more of her own music at a time where she was performing covers and throwing her own original songs here and there.
“That is how I began my solo career, I started getting recognised in places I went as the amazing jazz singer from the place they had seen me last and it had nothing to do with Outspoken. People would always see me and say ‘we want to hear your songs Raven’ and at the end of the performance, I would get into the ‘please play one more’ dilemma.”
While jazz has always been recognised for its experimentalism and diverse sound, nothing international before quite matches the variety of influences that it has been able to absorb in Zimbabwe.
Over the years we have enjoyed jazz music from artists such as Taka Wekwa Sando, Dudu Manhenga, Prudence Katomeni-Mbofana (who rose to prominence when she was the lead vocalist in the band Jazz Invitation releasing hits such as ‘BP’ and ‘Ruva Rangu’ and Filbert Marova who has created platforms for many Jazz musicians.
“I would have been nothing with local jazz artists who have supported me. Dudu Manhenga has been a big sister. When I started singing, she gave me good advice and always told me ‘I am my sister’s keeper’. I have a song with Dudu, and I have also collaborated with Cool Crooners, Filbert Marova and Silus Miami.”
In a world where black female artists are socialised into supremacy battles and to compete against each other, Raven does not believe in all that, to her it’s much ado about nothing. She believes in the reign of all female supreme artists, without anyone having to step on the other’s toes or side-lining each other.
There’s always an incomprehensible need for people to compare black female artists against each other, as she has often been compared to artists such as Prudence Katomeni-Mbofana.
“My originality is a gift on its own. They will never be another Raven Duchess and I hope to make my mark that way. I have been taking my time to mould myself as a musician and as a brand.
“Music is the art of the soul, and the art I make from my soul is exceptional, I dare anyone to judge.”
“Music is what we have in common, genre is also a common denominator, but at the end of the day we all do things differently. We are sisters and not competition. I have opened for both Hope and Prudence.”
Over the years, Jazz in Zimbabwe has been low-key fading, typically being broken down for the elitist masses. It had slowly started becoming a sound and social scene reserved for the more mature (middle-class) listener.
With new artists from various backgrounds on the rise such as Raven Duchess, they seem to be new audiences drawing in, which can only be a good thing. With more enthusiastic and passionate artists like her in jazz, we’re witnessing new crowds break free from the stifling assumptions that have surrounded jazz for many years.
Having been muffled by its inaccessibility or lack of mainstream prominence, Zim jazz is experiencing the growth that has been stunted but it so deserves.
So this is me . . .
Drinking tea, writing, listening to Jazz.
RAVEN DUCHESS is a Jazz and contemporary singer/songwriter. Her jazzy voice and fusion of Afro folk music has enabled her to collaborate with artists from Kenya,Poland,South Africa,Spain,Switzerland and some of the best Zimbabwean musicians. Raven specializes in performing at Weddings, corporate events ,live performances and weddings.The Dutchess of Jazz has performed at HIFA,Miombo Magic,Shoko festival, Cetris Lapa festival Pretoria and this year’s Afro fest Canadian online music festival. From ancient Afro folk music to classic jazz ,her music takes you on a spiritual journey.Her debut video Wakauya wega is currently available on YouTube.Raven is an advocate on mental health
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MBIZO CHIRASHA, Chronicler at Africa Writers Caravan. Founder and Author of the Time of the Poet. UNESCO-RILA Affiliate Artist. Featured Poetry Artist at WorldBeyondWar.Org. Freedom of Speech Fellow to PEN- Zentrum Deutschland,Germany..Literary Arts Activism Diplomatie 2020 Poet in Residence at the Fictional Café (International publishing and literary digital space). 2019 Sotambe Festival Live Literature Hub and Poetry Café Curator. 2019 African Fellow for the International Human Rights Art Festival( ihraf.org) , Essays Contributor to Monk Art and Soul Magazine in United Kingdom .Arts Features Writer at the International Cultural Weekly .His Profiles , Interview and Poems are featured on poesis.si ,in Slovenia. Founder and Chief Editor of WOMAWORDS LITERARY PRESS. Founder and Curator of the Brave Voices Poetry Journal. Co-Editor of Street Voices Poetry triluangal collection( English , African Languages and Germany) intiated by Andreas Weiland in Germany. Poetry Contributor to AtunisPoetry.com in Belgium. African Contributor to DemerPress International Poetry Book Series in Netherlands. African Contributor to the World Poetry Almanac Poetry Series in Mongolia. His latest 2019 collection of experimental poetry A LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT was released by Mwanaka Media and Publishing and is both in print, on Amazon.com and at is featured at African Books Collective. Mbizo Chirasha is the Originator of the Zimbabwe We Want Poetry Campaign. Founder and Creative Director of Girl Child Talent Festival and GirlChildCreativity Project. 2003 Young Literary Arts Delegate to the Goteborg International Book Fair Sweden (SIDA AFRICAN PAVILION) .2009 Poet in Residence of the International Conference of African Culture and Development (ICACD) in Ghana.The Vice President of Poetsof the WORLD,poetasdelmundo.com ,African Region. Global Peace Chain Ambassador. 2009 Fellow to the inaugural UNESCO- Africa Photo- Novel Publishers and Writers Training in Tanzania. 2015 Artist in Residence of the Shunguna Mutitima International Film and Arts Festival in Livingstone, Zambia. A globally certified literary arts influencer, Writer in Residence and Recipient of the EU-Horn of Africa Defend Defenders Protection Fund Grant, Recipient of the Pen Deutschland Exiled Writer Grant. He is an Arts for Peace and Human Rights Catalyst, the Literary Arts Projects Curator, Poet, Writer, publicist is published in more 420 spaces in print and online.
AFRICA WRITERS CARAVAN– This is an African Literature’s Scholarship and Young Writing Artists based Platform to feature writings, essays, experiences, reflections, poetry, commentary and hybrid by African Writers ,Poets and Thought leaders in Colleges , Universities AND out of School Writers. We aim to shape the African Youth through Literary prowess, Creative diversity and Poetry Arts Scholarship. The platform also proffers regular mentor- ship and opportunities to the budding creators of words and literary arts.
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