01. Fast 02. Mama 03. See The Storm 04. Down In My Shoes 05. Try A Little Harder 06. Tisauke 07. Sunshine In My Hair 08. Have You Got It 09. Doggy Rock 10. Lullaby
Bass – Norman Muntemba Drums – Alex Mwilwa Guitar – Jackie Mumba
Leornard Koloko (Zambian Music Legends): The name may not be very appetising, but this was one of the most enterprising bands of their time. They specialised in classic rock and released one self-titled album under Teal. Norman Muntemba, who was a member of the outfit, also designed the cover depicting a a cartoon dog salivating and licking its lips. The three-man band was formed at Zambia National Service Camp in Kabwe and featured Jackie Mumba on lead guitar.
Strawberry Rain Music: One of the most obscure albums of the Zamrock period, this self-titled psychedelic long-player from Zambia was recorded privately without any pressure from the record label. Modelled after the Jimi Hendrix Experience, with a name that is slang for “sperm,” the three-piece band recorded the album at dB Studios in Lusaka in 1976. Full of killer guitar, English vocals and great songwriting.
SHARP-FLAT Records: Strawberry Rain joins the ranks of Shadoks and Now-Again in coaxing the evasive coelacanths of Zambian rock from the murky depths of the Zambezi River. This time it’s the face-melting fuzz of Salty Dog (circa 1976) that breaks the surface of forgetfulness to wreak havoc on unsuspecting tympanic membranes. A trio of army boys from Kabwe put the LP together and bassist-stroke-designer Norman Muntemba slapped artist Trevor Ford’s iconic hairy-eyeball mutt on the cover. Tighten your paisley tie to keep from drooling.
101. Musi-O-Tuny Tsegulani 6:24 102. Musi Mpondolo 7:57 103. Musi-O-Tunya Walk And Fight 7:53 104. Musi-O-Tunya The Sun 5:11 105. Musi-O-Tunya Dark Sunrise 8:26 106. Musi-O-Tunya One Reply 5:41 107. Musi-O-Tunya The Wings Of Africa 7:05 108. Musi-O-Tunya Jekete Yamankowa Part1 2:43 109. Musi-O-Tunya Jekete Yamankowa Part2 2:43 110. Musi-O-Tunya Chalo Chawama 3:45 111. Musi-O-Tunya Ng'ombe Shala 3:47 112. Musi-O-Tunya Mpulula 3:37 113. Musi-O-Tunya Smoke 4:21
201. Rikki Ililonga Sansa Kuwa 4:35 202. Rikki Ililonga Sheebeen Queen 4:53 203. Rikki Ililonga Stop Dreaming Mr. D 3:33 204. Rikki Ililonga The Hole 4:42 205. Rikki Ililonga Hot Fingers 4:09 206. Rikki Ililonga Se Keel Me Queek 4:56 207. Rikki Ililonga The Nature Of Man 3:54 208. Rikki Ililonga Musamuseka 3:01 209. Rikki Ililonga Zambia 3:18 210. Rikki Ililonga The Queen Blues 4:46 211. Rikki Ililonga Love Is The Way 4:15 212. Rikki Ililonga Lovely Woman 4:03 213. Rikki Ililonga Munzi Wa Kangawana 2:36 214. Rikki Ililonga Working On The Wrong Thing 3:45 215. Rikki Ililonga Ulemu 1:50 216. Rikki Ililonga Sunshine Love 3:15 217. Rikki Ililonga Take It Light 4:15 218. Rikki Ililonga Angel Black 3:22
Bass – Peter Giraudo (tracks: 2-11 to 2-18) Bass Guitar – Ndara "Derreck" Mbao (tracks: 1-1 to 1-13) Drums – Sparky Behrens (tracks: 2-11 to 2-18) Instruments [All Instruments] – Rikki Ililonga Lead Guitar – Riketzo Makuyu "Rikki" Ililonga (tracks: 1-2 to 1-13) Lead Vocals – Ndara "Derreck" Mbao (tracks: 1-1 to 1-3, 1-6 to 1-13) Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Bass, Drums – Rikki Ililonga (tracks: 2-11 to 2-18) Percussion [African Drums], Vocals – Siliya Lungu (tracks: 1-1 to 1-13) Percussion [Western Drums] – Brian Chengala (tracks: 1-1, 1-8 to 1-13) Percussion [Western Drums], Vocals – Aliki Kunda (tracks: 1-2 to 1-7) Rhythm Guitar – John Bobby Otieno (tracks: 1-1 to 1-13) Soprano Saxophone – Kenny Chernoff (tracks: 1-1 to 1-13) Trumpet – Charlie Sekano (tracks: 2-1 to 2-10), Brother Njenga racks: 1-1 to 2-10) Vocals – Rikki Ililonga (tracks: 1-1 to 1-13)
Mui-O-Tunya "Wings Of Africa" album (tracks 1-2 to 1-7), recorded at Sapra Studio, Nairobi, Kenya on January 24th, 1975. Originally released on MOT Records LMOT 1017.
Tracks 1 assumed to be recorded at Sapra Studio, Nairobi, Kenya in 1975. Originally released on MOT Records MOT 101. Other singles (tracks 1-8 to 1-13) assumed to be recorded in Kenya in 1973. originally released on Pathe East Africa.
"Zambia" album (tracks 2-1 to 2-10) recorded at Sapra Studio, Nairobi, Kenya between June 9th and 25th 1975. Originally released on Zambia Music Parlour Records ZMPL 10.
"Sunshine Love" album (tracks 2-11 to 2-18) recorded at Sapra and Phonogram Studios, Nairobi, Kenya 1976. Originally released on Sepiso Records RILP2.
Recording of Zambia and Sunshine Love albums courtesy Richard "Heavyfuzz" Leckie, "Tsegulani" 7" single courtesy Miles Cleret and other Mui-O-Tunya singles courtesy db Applications, Lusaka.
"Musi-o-tunya" means "the smoke that thunders," the original name for Victoria Falls.
Singer-guitarist Rikki Ililonga may have lived in Denmark for 30 years, but he’s also an originator and ongoing steward of Zamrock. In the early 1970s, Zambia enjoyed, if that’s the right word, a set of circumstances finely tuned to instigate a rock and roll subculture. The landlocked central African country had been independent of English rule for about a decade, long enough for the first president to become the first dictator and to pick an economy-throttling fight with major trading partner Rhodesia … but not long enough for the white, English commercial class to pack up and leave. Since they had the money, the foreign-born folk exerted inordinate influence over what records made it into the shops and what got played on the radio. Take a legacy of hope, confront it with impending economic collapse, mix in an influx of international pop sounds in a newly emergent urban metropolis with strongly rooted rural cultural practices, cut off easy transit in and out of the country, then let it all simmer in the hot tropical sun — the result was a small circle of interrelated, mutually supportive psychedelic combos that included Witch, Amanaz, and Ililonga’s Musi-O-Tunya.
Collectively they displayed a penchant for fuzz guitar and heavy beats inspired by Cream and Hendrix, but there are also differences. At least on record, Witch and Amanaz could have been from anywhere where the guitars were loud and the tape decks cheap; Musi-O-Tunya’s singles and one album sound very much like music of Africa. The band’s burning guitar freakouts often took off from a foundation of skipping beats that could have originated in neighboring Congo or further west in Nigeria and Ghana, and even though English is Zambia’s official language, they sang a lot in Benba, Chinyanja, and Silozi. They also used an indigenous name; Musi-O-Tunya is the pre-British name of Victoria Falls and translates as “The Smoke That Thunders,” which isn’t a bad name for a band that aspires toward heaviness. Musi-O-Tunya’s earliest recordings date from a sojourn in Kenya in 1973, and while the drum-chant-whistle workout “Ng’ombe Shala” on one of its early singles displays the band’s roots, the flip side “Mpulala” shows that rock ‘n’ roll was part of the equation from the beginning. The crisp guitar sounds fresh out of the garage, the drumming and the song’s structure owe a lot to Mersey Beat, and the guitar and bass duel in the middle sounds like some kids trying to realize their favorite Yardbirds jam and not quite succeeding.
The recording quality on Wings Of Africa, Musi-O-Tunya’s sole album and the source of most of Dark Sunrise’s first CD, is a huge leap ahead of the one-take murk of the singles, and the music keeps pace. “The Sun” is lithe and lively; Canadian Kenny Chernoff’s soprano saxophone and Ililonga’s tart guitar fills snake in and out of the massed vocals and dynamic percussion. It’d sound just right next to your favorite tracks on the Nigeria Special and Ghana Soundz compilations. But it’s the tunes where Ililonga pushes his rock influences to the front that mark Musi-O-Tunya as a band apart. “Dark Sunrise” totally rocks, with a towering backbeat and big, fat guitar leads that’d bring a tear of jealousy to a nascent pedal-hopper’s eyes. The riff of “One Reply” sounds stunningly similar to Lou Reed’s “Charley’s Girl”; since it was recorded in 1974, two years before Reed debuted his tune on Coney Island Baby, one wonders if he could possibly have heard Musi-O-Tunya’s song first? Probably not, but in any case, the Zambians kick more ass than Lou did in his “playing football for the coach” phase, especially when Ililonga’s guitar tries to muscle to the front of the mix.
Is there any scenario more typical of ’70s rock than the talented guy saying “I don’t need these jerks” and going it alone? That’s just what Ililonga did in 1975, the year he recorded the first of the two LPs that make up Dark Sunrise’s second CD. The set comes packaged in a swanky hardcover book, and most of its pages are given over to Ililonga’s very specific remembrances of Zamrock’s circumstances and personalities. According to his telling, the rest of the band didn’t want to keep learning new songs, so he ditched them; certainly his solo LPs are powered by a hunger to play in a myriad of ways that Musi-O-Tunya did not. “Hot Fingers” is a shameless and aptly named bit of guitar flash; “Stop Dreaming Mr. D” memorializes his old band to the accompaniment of an acoustic guitar and harmonica that could have been played by Richie Havens; “The Nature Of Man” could be early Traffic mixed with a little Buffalo Springfield; “The Hole” is brazenly explicit get-it-on funk; and “Working On The Wrong Thing,” with its sparse groove and rude synth, would fit right in on that Shuggie Otis record. Whether the songs muse on the travails of Zambian urban life or Ililonga’s love life, they articulate a first person singer-songwriter stance that foregrounds the “I” (as opposed to the voice that represents or describes the community) in a way rarely heard beforehand in African pop.
Ililonga’s willingness and inclination to operate as a man apart has served him well. He left Zambia in 1980, around the time that the economy completely tanked but before AIDS wiped out his generation (to this day, 10 percent of the population is infected). He’s sustained his music career around Europe, and also facilitated the dissemination of Witch and Amanaz’s music in recent years alongside his own. One of Dark Sunrise’s chief pleasures is reading his reminiscences about his old mates and the scene they briefly inhabited.
Listening to the first five or so tracks on this, I thought of Funkadelic and Sonny Sharrock. It's a funky dark slab of heavy jams. Fantastic stuff, really phenomenal music. The rest of the tracks are a mix of garage rock, acoustic bluesy stuff and funk. Not every piece is amazing, but as a career body of work this is very impressive and deserves the highest rating.
01. Love Is So Strange 02. You Got The Fire 03. My Destiny 04. Soweto a) Pray For Soweto b) Soweto c) Blow Your Mind d) Soweto Explosion 05. Shebeen King 06. Fire High 07. Sunshine Queen 08. Afri-Koko
Bass Guitar, Synthesizer [ARP 2600] – Peter Giraudo Chorus – Tutuga Yeni (tracks: A4a) Drums – Franco Otieno Synthesizer [ARP], Organ – Francis Njorege Vocals, Guitar, Percussion, Engineer
"PS: This record should be played at speaker shattering volume, especially if you're doing the deep shaft horizontal mambo. Have fun !" - Rikki Ililonga
Enjoying massive popularity, Rikki added a third album titled Soweto in 1977. With a full colour cover depicting him behind bars, the album was dedicated to the 1976 Soweto Uprising in South Africa. The title track was divided into four segments; a South African hymn, the song, a chorus and explosions. Rikki was at his poetic best.
My best guess of this album's release date is 1977, based on the evolution of his synthesiser and guitar tones and song style from his first two albums. It's really not a good evolution, as seems to be the case with the majority of every other musicians' evolution towards the 80s. He's softened up considerably with only two zam-rock tracks out of 8 (both of which include the word "Fire" for some reason), and this time the rock tracks are far more funky than the zam-rock of the mid-70s. Which isn't a bad thing at all; it's just that they're the only listenable tracks on the album. The only other track that caught my attention was "Shebeen King". The music is boring, but the lyrics which brag about his sexual prowess are really entertaining: "All the women they call me: The population maker / The men they call me: The marriage breaker / The mothers call me: The statutory raper / The fathers call me: The cherry breaker"
01. The Hole 02. Shebeen Queen 03. Zambia 04. Hot Fingers 05. Musamuseke 06. The Nature Of Man 07. Sansa Kuwa 08. Stop Dreaming Mr. D. 09. The Queen Blues 10. Se-Keel-Me-Kweek
The realm of Western-influenced African music is consistently dominated by such powerhouse names as Fela Kuti, Victor Uwaifo and other West African legends whose 60s and 70s recordings have been reissued by companies like Soundway, Strut and Analog Africa. One can't possibly hope even to scratch the surface of the continent, however, without giving mention to Zambia's Zamrock scene which, alongside the music that arose in Ethiopia in the late 60s and early 70s, is leagues deep and largely misunderstood.
In the same vein,the genius of multi-instrumentalist Rikki Ililonga, and the famed Musi-O-Tunya band he helped found, have been afforded little international light. Ililonga's charismatic presence and unparrelled musicality - coupled with his ability to pen deeper lyrics than most in the genre - and Musi-O-Tunya's transcendent ability to deal in difficult traditional Zambian rhythms, deep funk and unrestrained fuzz rock in equal measure, have made for some amazing albums.
Rikki Ililonga started playing the guitar at the age of 18. Has played with almost every band in Zambia. Travelled extesively in Africa and abroad in search of musical knowledge. Founder member of Musi-O-Tunya who are know based in Nairobi – Kenya. In this, his first album, Rikki composed and arranged all the numbers. He switches from electric guitar to acoustic and slide guitars, bass, drums, congas and harmonicas with ease. He played all the instruments and does all the vocals himself. If you want to listen to African sound with a difference, this is the one. The sound of Rikki Ililonga of Zambia.
There’s a little more polish to this stuff (and a lot of acoustic guitar-based singer/songwriter stuff), as opposed to the wildass in-studio jams of the Musi-O-Tunya album, but Ililonga doesn’t restrain himself that much — he takes one of his scorching guitar solos through the entirety of “Sansa Kuwa,” and the funk groove of “The Hole” is unstoppable. Ililonga’s English-language lyrics are frequently dark, dealing with depression and social problems in Zambia, as opposed to the party anthems many other African groups were recording at the time, and his voice is weirdly compelling, more reminiscent of Damo Suzuki than peers like Fela or Sir Victor Uwaifo.
A solo album that is more literally solo than usual in that every instrument and vocal is done by Rikki Ililonga, with the exception of a couple brass riffs (the one type of instrument he apparently couldn't master). The downside is that he's not much of a rhytm section, so you get really basic drum-and-bass backings that are more utilitarian than musical. And he's focusing a lot more on fairly uninteresting singer-songwriter material. Yet there's still enough of the classic acidic zam-rock to keep it from getting boring, which he curiously distributed very evenly so that you never go more than two songs without it.
01. Who's That Guy? 02. Niwanji Walwa 03. Pano Calo Chapanshi 04. Musaniseke Vigamba 05. Yangu E Mwebaleya 06. Let's Get Up Brothers 07. I Believe The Man In The Sky 08. Mavuto 09. Fwebana Zambia 10. Away From Home
Drums – John Mengo, Jukes Kasuba, Peter Lungu Instrumentation By, Vocals, Composed By – Ricky Banda
One of the most esteemed and sought after bassists of the Zamrock era, Ricky Banda was involved in a broad array of collaborations and associations over the course of the 1970s. He started his career in a band called the Vendors with childhood friend Rikki Ililonga and both went on to support He-She Mambo (who later rose to fame as a Zambian soul, funk and disco figure). Alongside Keith Mlevhu in a band called The End, Banda toured the Democratic Republic of Congo and allegedly caught the attention of rumba legend Tabu Ley Rochereau. Banda also backed Teddy Khuluzwu of Dr. Footswitch fame and is prominently featured on the 1975 album Liquid Iron.
Providing almost half of the songwriting duties on the album, Liquid Iron was a pathway to Ricky Banda's first solo release entitled Niwanji Walwa Amwishyo in 1976. With both Rikki Ililonga and Keith Mlevhu inaugurating Zamrock's rise of the solo artist, Banda got in on the action with a sturdy offering of his own. Emulating his contemporaries, he performed all of the instruments on the album with the exception of the drums, for which he enlisted a handful of session musicians including Peter Lungu of Born Free. The result is a laid-back and well-balanced singer-songwriter outing that had the honour of following WITCH’s acclaimed Lazy Bones!! as the second release on Teal's Zambezi imprint. Like Amanaz, the album cover photo juxtaposes the modern and the traditional with Banda in hip garb waving a ceremonial African fly swatter in one hand while raising the other in a peace symbol.
The album opener is the standout track and a unique piece of songwriting in the Zamrock canon. Foreshadowing the eery perspective of "Every Breath You Take" by the Police, "Who’s That Guy?" casts Banda as a creepy voyeur obsessing over a wealthy man courting the woman of his affections. Responding to President Kaunda's call for Zambian music to explore nation-building themes, the album’s title track criticises alcoholism and its effect on families and community. Ricky Banda went on to record a second album for Teal, using a backing band this time and turning his moral radar to the vice of gambling. Decades later, Ricky's brother Rupiah Banda would serve as the President of the Republic of Zambia from 2008 and 2011.
01. Nizakupanga Ngozi 6:15 02. Everything Is Over 4:50 03. I'll Be With U 3:24 04. Atate 3:34 05. U Don't Love Me 4:39 06. House Of Fear 3:05 07. Timwenge 4:04 08. Hold On 4:03 09. Tichenjele 3:56
Tommy Mwale: Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals Chrissy Zebby Tembo: Drums, Backing Vocals Paul Ngozi: Guitar, Vocals
Paul Ngozi was the wild man of the Zamrock scene, an artist who embraced the accoutrements and antics of rock and brandished the electric guitar with a signature primitive style and brutal sonic intensity. Drenched in fuzz, phaser and wah-wah, Ngozi's tone and face-melting guitar solos are instantly recognisable in his capacity as bandleader of the Ngozi Family, supporting drummer Chrissy Zebby Tembo's outings or recording as a solo artist. "Ngozi" means danger, making the substation electrocution cover of his 1977 album 45,000 Volts particularly appropriate. The album's stylised sleeve was designed by bassist Norman Muntemba of the group Salty Dog, a man who played an important role in cultivating the aesthetics of Zamrock and tellingly went on to establish a successful advertising business in his later years. The LP was also released in Kenya with alternate artwork depicting an illustrated fist holding a bolt of lighting.
Paul Ngozi was born in the mean streets of Lusaka's Chibolya township on 10 January 1949 and cut his teeth with childhood friend Chrissy Zebby Tembo in the bands Scorpions followed by Three Years Before, a witty nod to British blues-rock giants Ten Years After. Filling the boots of departed co-founder and guitarist Rikki llilonga, Ngozi joined Kenya-based Zamrock pioneers Musi-O-Tunya for a brief stint and appeared on the non-album single "Tselugani." His debut album with Ngozi Family was the Zambia Music Parlour release Day of Judgement in 1976, an unschooled channelling of raw power that stretched Zamrock into the spectrum of proto-punk.
45,000 Volts on the Chris Editions label captures Ngozi Family at a creative peak in 1977 and the set provides a good balance of English and vernacular offerings set to some of Ngozi's most confident and accomplished fuzz riffing. The recording was beautifully captured by engineer Detef Degener at Sapra Studio in Nairobi with Chissy Zebby Tembo's drums and Tommy Mwale's bass prominently mixed to prop up Ngozi's guitar shenanigans. Noteworthy moments include the utterly obnoxious guitar intro/outro to "I’ll Be With U" and shades of Black Sabbath that creep into the ghost story "House of Fear."
01. Amanaz 02. I Am Very Far 03. Sunday Morning 04. Khala My Friend 05. History Of Man 06. Nsunka Lwendo 07. Africa 08. Green Apple 09. Making The Scene 10. Easy Street 11. Big Enough 12. Kale
Jerry Mausala: Bass Guitar, Vocals Watson Lungu: Drums, Vocals Isaac Mpofu: Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Vocals John Kanyepa: Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Vocals Keith Kabwe: Vocals, Maracas, Percussion
In the mid-70s, vocalist Keith Kabwe received a call from disbanded Mabeth bassist Jerry Mausala, who pitched the idea of starting a new band. Former Wrong Number guitarist Isaac Mpofu was enlisted and rhythm guitarist John Kanyepa was so impressed by the trio's early take on Wishbone Ash that he left the Black Souls to join as well. Watts Lungu filled the drummer's seat and the band moved to Mfwila to hone their chops at the local country club before joining the competitive live circuit in Ndola. Mpofu's guitar antics made him one of the band's big draws but vocalist Kabwe was not easily outdone, taking on a creative approach to costumes and stage gimmicks. Having seen Alice Cooper perform with a python wrapped around his body and taken by David Bowie's glam persona, Kabwe came up with unannounced and often shocking stage outfits. His pièce de résistance was a coffin on stage from which pounced to open the show in a skeleton costume.
Taking a queue from WITCH, the band name Amanaz (pronounced Amanazee) stands for “Ask Me About Nice Artists in Zambia.” The group's solitary release Africa in 1975 carries a good dose of concept album gravitas, challenging hegemonic narrative with “History of Man” and lamenting slavery and colonialism with its title track as well as the album closer “Kale.” The tone of the record was set by a cover displaying a photo session of the group in hippie regalia (including bell-bottoms, platform shoes, puffy scarves and floppy hats) while posing in front of the thatched houses of a traditional African village.
The story of the making of the album bolsters its mythological status as vocalist Keith Kabwe confesses that only three days were dedicated to the writing and preparation of the material that was recorded. Moreover, the band as well as Zambia Music Parlour A&R Billie David Nyati who oversaw the sessions were unconvinced by its unusual sound and lathered an alternate edition of the master in reverb to try and improve it. Little did they know that both versions of Africa would go on to be equally admired and that the album would be rightfully identified as an African rock masterpiece when the first wave of Zamrock reissues was introduced to the rest of the world in the 2000s. Amanaz reshuffled after the release of Africa, bringing Ricky Banda on board and recording a pair of singles as the Kabwe-led outfit Drive Unit while Mpofu went on to launch and record as the Heathen.
01. Introduction 02. Try Me (Instrumental) 03. You Better Now 04. Feeling High 05. Like A Chicken 06. See Your Mama 07. That's What I Want 08. Home Town 09. No Time
Geddy King Mulenga: Bass Guitar Chris Kima Mbewe: Lead Guitar, Vocals Star McBoydie Sinkala: Drums Paul Jones Mumba: Organ, Drums John Muma: Rhythm Guitar, Vocals
About twenty-five years ago going through the "Collectors Items" (Read Highly Prized) section of one of my favorite record shops in Amsterdam (Forever Changes, now long gone.) I bumped into this album by a band I didn't know, and I couldn't even say if the name was Witch or Lazy Bones, but, damn it looked promising, bunch of cool looking trendy black dudes on a raft. I grabbed it, spent the better part of of my food money for the month on it and ran home. Buyers remorse settling in all the way to my student room. What if it sucks? I didn't even asked to listen to some of it... Oh Oh! And then the music started and my love affair with Zamrock was born. I have posted Lazy Bones (1974) in the past, so I decided to go for this brand new reissue of their 1972 privately released album.
Cover of 1974 reissue
The WITCH occupy a vaulted position in the history of Zamrock owing to a discography that maps the decade-long trajectory of the genre itself from garage beginnings through psychedelic experimentation to progressive heights and even later into disco and boogie. While none of their albums are weak links, Lazy Bones!! in 1976 is often cited as the band's magnus opus and was certainly a high-water mark in terms of lyrical songwriting. As a historic document of Zambian popular music, however, nothing beats the group's debut Introduction. The privately pressed edition of the album was heralded as the first Zamrock recording ever to be carved into wax. From a cover depicting parachutes dropping out of a UFO in the sky to the "here it comes" chant of the title track album opener, Introduction boldly announced the arrival of Zamrock as a sonic artform with the vinyl record as its medium.
Taking as their name the abbreviation of the phrase "We Intend To Cause Havoc," the original lineup of the WITCH included Chris Mbewe of the Twangs on lead guitar, Boyd Sinkala of the Black Souls on drums as well as John Muma (rhythm guitar) and Gedeon Mwamulenga (bass) from the Boyfriends. Fronting the ambitious ensemble on vocals was the band's youngest member Jagari Chanda, who had cut his teeth in Kingston Market as a schoolboy. Under the management of Phillip Musonda, WITCH recorded Introduction and its follow-up In the Past independently at Malachite Studios and took the master tapes to Kenya to be pressed. It is estimated that around 200 or 300 copies of these private pressings were manufactured for distribution at live shows.
Parting ways with Musonda, WITCH approached executive producer Edward Khuzwayo in Ndola, who financed a re-recording and re-branding of the albums for release in the wake of LPs by the Tinkles and Edward Mulemena on his fledgeling Zambia Music Parlour label. Gone were the cute illustrations of the private pressings as the new editions displayed slick photos of the band instead. And while the production values of the Zambia Music Parlour editions were an improvement, Introduction was no longer the spontaneous garage snapshot of the genesis of Zambia’s most beloved rockers.
