JAZZ musician Melusi Khumalo has again set himself apart as a rare artiste with the release of his single Mambo Jesu. SILENCE CHARUMBIRA ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER
By any measure, the track, that is off his forthcoming album set for next year, oozes maturity that is slowly diminishing in Zimbabwean music.
This is one that can effortlessly make it into the class of African greats like the late Jabu Khanyile.
Interestingly, the album comes on board just a year after the musician released his debut uThando which he agrees made great strides for him.
Talking to NewsDay this week, Khumalo said the new track draws him closer to God.
“It has got some profound sense of meditation that draws me closer to the Lord and makes me want to explore more and more of God and understand the reason why Christ had to agree to this mission of saving my life through the cross,” he said.
“Of course, it is difficult to quantify what uThando achieved in monetary terms, but in terms of awareness for me as an artiste I think it has been good; out of a scale of 10, I would easily give it a seven.”
Mel, as he prefers to be called, announced his arrival last year with uThando, an album that apart from his small stature on the local music scene did fairly well on local radio.
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But that was after huge disappointment back in 1991 when he had visited Gramma Records (formerly Gallo Records then situated in Southerton) attempting to record.
The hours spent in anticipation outside the studio and the producer’s comments dampened his hopes and he parked the dream in the corners of his “uncherished” memories.
It was only two years ago when a prophetic message came and restored his hope, giving birth to the journey that he has now embarked on. Yet now he appears to have unlocked the talent that his bad experiences had condemned.
“The album will be titled Reflections and, God willing, it will be launched in March or April of 2015,” he said.
