Preview

This spectacular 10-piece band from Harare and Bulawayo are fronted by the charismatic Albert Nyathi, Zimbabwe's premier performance-dub-poet. Winner of the Zimbabwe National Poetry Award, Albert is known as 'the voice of the people' and is a well-respected, popular playwright and composer who has performed before Nelson Mandela.

Consisting of 6 dancers and vocalists, keyboards, guitars, trumpet and drums, Imbongi provide highly charged performances of African music at its finest. Explosive, dynamic and visually stunning, the band is a high-energy fusion of words, song, music and dance; an exciting and vibrant blend of the traditional and contemporary.

Storming Glastonbury Festival, Sidmouth and WOMAD on their last visits in 2000 & 2001, in addition to many appearances around the country, delighted audiences were left spellbound by the sheer diversity and energy of Albert and the band. 2004 festival bookings already include WOMAD, Belfast Festival, Larmer Tree Music Fest, Trowbridge, Hull Jazz Festival, Belfast Festival and many more.

If you like your African music from the heart and reaching into the depths of your very soul then Imbongi are the band for you: a celebration of sound and colour. Don't miss them, and remember bring your dancing shoes!

'They were fantastic - the audience adored them and we were all transported and impressed by their energy & spirit' - Hull Jazz Festival

'More in tune with the WOMAD spirit were Imbongi and Albert Nyathi from Zimbabwe who performed an energetic and joyous set, which allowed us to forget the problems of that troubled country.' - The Times

Review

A straight line is the shortest distance between two points, we're told, and these eleven redoubtable travellers en route from Margate to Tregaron, on board a minibus that's seen much better days and with brake pads down to the metal, adopted an admirably African approach to map-reading, and opted for the obvious short cut - the Abergwesyn mountain road! At the same time as increasingly ashen-visaged Cambria Arts honchos struggled to contain their panic and to reassure the growing queue of restive punters, Imbongi members were escaping death by a whisker beneath the wheels of their recalcitrant vehicle as they physically manhandled it up the 1-in-3 Devil's Staircase ... yet when the band eventually pitched up at 9.15, their irrepressible spirit and beaming faces endeared them to one and all. Eschewing pre-gig food and following the most perfunctory of soundchecks, Imbongi hit the stage at 10.00, many in full tribal regalia, and launched into a lengthy full-value-for-money performance that made the nail-biting delay thoroughly worthwhile.

The band's line-up - drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, trumpet, and guest Dutch saxophonist - is augmented by four dancers, two male and two female, and all of them not only spectacularly athletic but also stunning vocalists. So it's a visual feast, as well as a full-on carnival of Zimbabwean music that exudes joy and energy on a level suggesting that whatever woes befall their beloved homeland, its spirit is unbreakable. Relentless rhythmic intensity, driving bass lines, a guitar sound that's an essay in earthy fluidity, and virtuosic keyboards (Mine Jovial Host's plastic Casio instrument was hijacked, and was soon yielding up organ and horn section sounds surely beyond its manufacturer's wildest dreams), combined with the ecstatic dancing and rich vocal harmonies, brought delighted grins to all faces and healthy dance-floor action. The icing on the cake is Albert Nyathi, who hosts proceedings with boundless charm, and whose song-poems speak eloquently of love for family, fellow man, and country, of hope and optimism in the face of odds that we in our obesely complacent western world would surely see as insuperable. It's also worth noting that there's a sort of frank sexiness to their show that is refreshingly celebratory of the physical, but without a hint of the tiresome western nudge-wink ... 'Grace, space, pace', ran the Jaguar motor company's 1950s advertising slogan - Imbongi's show had all these elements aplenty, infused with a level of communicative humanity and warmth that was infectiously moving, uplifting, and an example to us all. It was a real privilege to host Albert and his lovely companions, and with people as naturally gifted and well-adjusted as this on it, maybe our besieged planet has a slightly brighter future than the doom-peddlers would have us believe ...