Complementing the short musical excerpts embedded throughout Sekuru’s Stories, this section offers details descriptions of the many instruments featured in Sekuru’s Stories. It is also home to full-length versions of many of these clips, along with several bonus songs. Many tracks feature Sekuru Chigamba performing solo on the mbira dzavadzimu, the chipendani and mukube single-string mouthbows, and the acoustic guitar. On other recordings, Sekuru Chigamba is joined by his children, grandchildren, and friends. Among these tracks are both traditional songs passed down orally, and original compositions by Sekuru Chigamba.
Joining these recordings, other tracks feature Sekuru Chigamba’s grandson Brian Chigamba playing the chipendani, and his friend Sekuru Compound Muradzikwa performing the kambuya-mbuya groundbow. Field recordings made by Erica Azim for the non-profit organization MBIRA feature several of Sekuru Chigamba’s siblings playing mbira dzavadzimu, drumming, singing, and telling stories from the Chigamba family’s rural home in Guruve. Finally, field recordings by ethnomusicologist Lucy Duran and BBC presenter Tessa Watts present the matepe and drumming traditions of Nyanehwe village in Rushinga.
The material on these pages ranges from professional studio recordings to field recordings produced over several decades, and on a series of changing technologies that include DAT, cassette, MiniDisc, and hand-held digital recording devices.