RENOWNED producer and multi-instrumentalist, Clive “Mono” Mukundu on Wednesday night marked 30 years in the music industry at a colourful event that also saw him launching a new album, book and documentary at Theatre in the Park in Harare.
BY TAFADZWA KACHIKO
Mukundu unveiled his 10th album, a book about life in the music industry, Poor and Famous, and Tutorial DVD.
Drawing from his experiences, Mukundu cautioned that while life as a musician in Zimbabwe could see someone shooting to stardom, it was hardly synonymous with being wealthy.
“Being famous in Zimbabwe doesn’t translate to getting rich. Becoming famous doesn’t mean you should go astray. Some musicians think that prominence is a passport to exhibit nuisance behaviour appearing in newspapers. In the book, I express that you can be a famous and well-behaved musician,” he said.
Mukundu said he wrote Poor and Famous after scanning the state of the music industry in Zimbabwe.
Renowned music critic Fred Zindi, who was among the guests, said the book was a true reflection of what happened in the local music industry.
He said he had since started reading the book and was enjoying it immensely.
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“The book describes vividly what happens to musicians here, what happened to the Bundu Boys. Biggie Tembo, the man with the microphone, was so big-headed that he forgot that he had the rest of the band behind him. I was there when he stood up and said to his bass guitarist f**k you (sic),” he said.
Zindi described Mono as one of the hard-working artists in Zimbabwe and it was not easy that he had produced two books within two years.
Mukundu’s former lecturer at the Zimbabwe College of Music, Joyce Jenje Makwenda, described him as a professor in his own right. “Really, I don’t know what to call him. Let me call him Professor Mono Mkundu because what he has done is exactly what is done by so-called professors,” he said.
Several musicians who have received training from Mukundu — including Somandla Ndebele, Hope Masike, Derrick Mpofu and wheelchair-bound Talent Chipo Muchegwa — performed during the launch.
