“How?”
That was the only question that came to Bulawayo jazz
musician Hudson Simbarashe’s mind when he first saw Leonard Dembo on television
after the release of one of his early hits, Venezia.
Simbarashe could not believe how the young man who used to
live just three houses from him in the high density suburb of Sizinda, had
suddenly managed to get on national TV, which at the time was a near impossible
task for young musicians.
“I remember one of the first songs that he did was a song
called Venezia. There I was, sitting at home and all of a sudden I saw Lenny on
TV. Those were the early 80s and being on TV was a big deal. It was unlike
today where anyone with a camera can suddenly be on TV,” Simbarashe told Sunday
Life last week, a week that marked the 23rd anniversary of Dembo’s passing.
Over two decades since the sungura ace passed away, Dembo
is fondly remembered and rightfully regarded as music royalty in Zimbabwe. His
compositions have comfortably outlived the man who made them. His superior
writing, complemented by the craftsmanship of his Barura Express, made him a
genre defining artiste. Practice makes perfect, the adage goes, and Dembo’s
mastery of both the pen and instrumentals must have required hours of tireless
practice and refinement. This is where Simbarashe comes in. It all began in
Sizinda when Simbarashe was a 15-year-old musician taking baby steps in a
career that, in a short while, would eventually lead him to the doorstep of
Dembo, then living with his grandmother and two brothers.
“I think when I was first playing the guitar it was back in
1975 and this was after we had gone to see a South African group called The
Flames at a local bar. Later on Marks Mankwane and the Mahotella Queens would
also come. Due to the fact that we were young, we were not allowed to see them
at the bars where they were playing.
“During those times bars were very strict with their
policies and wouldn’t allow minors anywhere their doors. If you were under 18
you just could not get in. Fortunately they came to Sizinda, the platform that
they were using was a bit higher up and we could see them tuning their guitars.
I don’t know but he managed to come and greet us. That was Marks Mankwane yet
at the time I didn’t know who he was.
When he greeted us I felt something and from that moment I was just
inspired,” he said.
Simbarashe would then team up with fellow young musicians
to form Montana Ray, a group that played the blues, jazz and rock. The band
comprised of Simbarashe, George Phahlane, Davidson Chipembere and two other
musicians he recalls only as Silver and Joseph.
“I wouldn’t say the group was successful because we weren’t
getting paid but I remember we would play in places like Bambi Lodge when I was
just 15 and this sparked a lot of debate at home because my father didn’t want
to hear about music. I had started as a vocalist but I learnt to play the
guitar with time so we started playing at Hlanganani Cocktail Bar in
Tshabalala.
“Because I was never satisfied with what we could have been
doing as Montana Ray, I would go back to Hlanganani to listen to other
musicians. That’s when I found out that some people who went there craved an
African sound. As Montana Ray we were mainly playing the blues, jazz, rock and
other American styles. So I was wondering how I could cater to those people
that didn’t want those American sounds. That is when I met Leonard Dembo,” he
said.
In Dembo, Simbarashe had met a man who was in search of his
own identity in music and together they would try to find a sound that could
blend Montana Ray’s staple of jazz, blues and rock with local languages that
seemed initially at odds with those alien genres.
“He was also, like me, still a teenager back then. He was
already a very good writer of Shona lyrics at that age. So what we would do was
that we would go and connect our instruments and we would play blues, jazz and
rock songs. As we were playing, Leonard would sit down and come up with a Shona
version of whatever we had been playing and people would love that.
“Then at the same venue we discovered a guy called Legion
and he would play music that sounded like mbaqanga. So we would end up playing
a Shona, English and Ndebele song all at once. So we formed one group. Later on
we were joined by Jonah Mutuma. He was from Mpopoma but he would come all the
way to Sizinda and he took over the vocals because he was a rock singer. It was
a full band made of many different genres. There was no pay and we did it for
the passion,” he said.
For Simbarashe and Dembo, teenagers in culturally vibrant
Sizinda, music became a way of life and living three houses apart, both knew
that it took only a shout to bring their partner in song running.
“With Leonard Dembo music was an everyday thing. When
someone lives three houses from you, it means I could even shout his name from
my house and he would respond. I would just shout Lenny! Lenny! Because that’s
what we called him and he would say, let’s go. We would then just go and play
music because at the time it was all purely about music. This happened until he
got to Harare,” he said.
Eventually, Simbarashe’s father, who had been against his
son’s chosen career path, was to get his way and he managed to pry his son away
from the stage and onto the warehouses of Bulawayo’s then thriving industries.
He subsequently retired, thereby making his son the family’s sole breadwinner.
The coup de grace was complete and Simbarashe’s desire to follow his friend was
from then on out of the question. Although he had little love for work, he
would later spend 23 years a locomotive driver at the National Railways of
Zimbabwe. Dembo’s own career, and life, would take a different path.
“He got work (in Harare). So that’s how he left Bulawayo
for the capital. He didn’t go there because of music initially. He went there
because he had found work like me. The greatest thing I remember about him was
how he was sincere. Even after he had made it in Harare, he still came back
this side and try to beg me to come with him. But what stopped me from going
with him was that I now had responsibilities at home. If it wasn’t for that I
would’ve followed him to Harare,” he said.
Now regarded as one of Zimbabwe’s finest on the guitar,
Simbarashe remembers those days in Sizinda with Dembo with fondness. Another
day that also still stands out in his mind is 9 April, 1996.
“I remember the day he passed away. I was going to work so
I took my bag and I walked towards the gate and my son came running to me. He
said there’s something about Leonard Dembo on the news. When I got to the house
that’s when I found out he was dead. I had a hard time at work that day.” Sunday News
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