The first issue of WITCH’s debut LP. 1972. INTRODUCTION (TO THE WITCH) influences gravitated to the dark side of the rock and The sales base for this new musical movement was rock, soul, funk, jazz, afro-beat, Congolese rhythms funk spectrum. From the little of the Zambian 70s small: if you think that Nigerian rock records are and Zambian folk music, was a pioneering album in By the mid 1970s, the Southern African nation rock and funk music that has been spread via small hard to source, Zambian records are impossible. the country. He produced Paul Ngozi’s first single; known as the Republic of Zambia had fallen on hard blogs and bootlegs (the likes of Chrissy Zebby Tembo, Thirdly – and directly related to the above two he considered most Zamrock bands peers. Ililonga times. Though the country’s first President Kenneth Paul Ngozi and the Ngozi Family, and the Peace) and points – the Zamrock records that did surface in the settled in the Netherlands in 1980 and in 2007 he Kaunda and his United National Independence Party this label’s previous investigation into the genre (Rik- “collecting-community” of the moneyed European, posted a Myspace profile which included an email ad- had thrown off the yoke of British colonialism, the ki Ililonga and Musi-O-Tunya’s Dark Sunrise – NA Japanese and North American record-obsessives in dress. I’d heard his landmark Zambia album thanks new federation found itself under his self-imposed, 5067) we learn that fuzz guitars were commonplace, the mid 90s were often in worse condition than worn to a generous record collector ahead of the curve single party rule. He partially nationalized the coun- driving rhythms as influenced by James Brown’s funk Frisbees. The condition of the average Zambian enough to have sourced four Ililonga albums in the try’s copper and mineral mining operations – the as Jimi Hendrix’s rock predominated, musical themes records found “in the field” is on par with those of 90s. It was enough to hook me. I dashed off an email main source of Zambia’s wealth – and engaged what were often bleak, and that bands largely sang in the the war-torn discs found occasionally in modern day to the man, inquiring as to whether he would be in- was then Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in a country’s constitutional language, English (though Angola. Seldomly did Zambian ex-pats bring their terested in issuing an anthology of his 70s work. He political fencing match that damaged his country’s occasionally they would pepper their albums with record collections – fodder for fortuitous collectors agreed. We hatched a plan. And then I started ask- ability to trade with its main partner. The Portuguese Nyanja- and Bemba-language songs). - with them. Those with the resources and passion to ing him questions about those other bands from that colonies of Angola to the West and Mozambique to It’s not surprising that so few Zambian records have resurrect this scene had little to work with. great, overlooked scene that he helped found. the East were fighting their own battles for indepen- been officially reissued. First, Zambian records are That’s not to say that the same types of European Ililonga is a gracious man, not prone to protection- dence; conflict loomed on all sides of this landlocked extremely rare, even by African standards. Wretched and North American compilers that had, say, fallen in ism or petty jealousy. He told me that he loved the nation. poverty made worse by the nose-dive copper - Zam- love with the wonders of Nigeria’s 70s scene music that bands like Amanaz and WITCH This is the environment in which Zamrock - the bia’s main export - suffered, and never recovered via an afro-beat introduction and created when they were all young scene that flourished throughout the 70s in Zambia’s from, in the late 70s made music a luxury in which journeyed to Lagos to investi- men, taken by a desire to create capital of Lusaka and Copperbelt cities - emerged. few – even the relatively well-to-do in Zambia’s cit- gate ever bothered to visit and foster a Zambian take Though full of beacons of hope for its numerous ies – could afford to indulge, and record collections Zambia. Perhaps this on the rock n’ roll they musical hopeful (the 60s saw the birth of the Zam- an extravagance that few could afford to maintain. is because even the heard on European- bia Broadcasting Service, Zambia’s national radio Second, Zambia’s population in 1976 – the height largest of the 70s pressed albums. station), this was a tumultuous time. At the dawn of of the Zamrock movement – was just north of five Zambian record- He even knew independence, more than seventy thousand Euro- million. To put this number in perspective, Nige- ing artists never were the surviv- peans – many of whom had reaped imperialistic re- ria’s population in 1976 was nearly sixty-six million; made any im- ing members wards - called Zambia home; it’s no wonder that the by a conservative estimate, in 1976, the population pact on a global of each band Zambian musicians taken by European and English of Lagos alone eclipsed the entirety of this nation. scale. (Prior to were located. reading this, He promised had you heard that, the next of Paul Ngozi time that he or kalindula, journeyed to the innovative his home city of Zambian musical Lusaka, he would style he popular- track them down. ized in the 80s?) True to his word, Before 2000 – and in October of 2009, infrequently since then battling a bout of malaria – few Europeans or North but undaunted, Ililonga Americans outside of university- emailed me with news: he had funded ethnomusicologists more inter- contacted Emmanuel Kangwa “Jag- ested in the country’s folk music than its pop culture ari” Chanda, WITCH’s vocalist. Though Chanda even journeyed here to search out the progenitors of lived in Lusaka, he spent most of his time mining for the Zamrock scene. Travel to – and within – Zambia precious stones in remote villages in “the bush” of is expensive, and the markers for the Zamrock scene Zambia’s central provinces. Chanda had removed are few. Only a small number of the Zamrock godfa- himself from music beyond hawking CDR compila- thers that remained in the country survived through tions of WITCH’s Zamrock gems, but, after Ililonga the late 90s, when the music recorded in Zambia vetted me and vouched for my intentions, he spoke became the final frontier for global-psychedelic rock to me at length about his band, and – most surpris- junkies searching for their next fix. AIDS decimated ingly to him - the renewed interest in his music (due this country, and uncontrollable inflation forced the to a Shadoks Music vinyl reissue of WITCH’s first Zambian rockers that could afford to flee into some- album, Introduction, and its third, Lazy Bones!!). thing resembling exile. He legitimized Shadoks’ reissues and authorized a One of those marooned rockers is the afore- pressing of each on CD. mentioned Ililonga: guitarist, singer, songwriter, All of Chanda’s WITCH bandmates had since producer and arranger of the highest caliber. He passed on, and he conveyed an obvious sadness as founded one of the first Zamrock bands, Musi-O- he described the band’s fall from its 70s heights to Tunya; the band’s Wings Of Africa, with its fusion of 80s obscurity, after two ill-advised disco/boogie The second issue of WITCH’s debut LP. Clockwise from left: Chris WITCH’s highest selling single, the title track from their third album. Mbewe, John Muma, Boyd Sinkala, Emmanuel Chanda, Gedeon 1975. Mwamulenga. 1974. LPs (recorded and released after Chanda and three of Still, there have been high points since his re-dis- WITCH’s founding members left the group) flopped. covery: the television network Adult Swim paid (well) Yet he was upbeat and optimistic when he discussed to use WITCH’s music in its “bumps;” the hip-hop the present and future. Since that first conversation producer Oh No sampled “Tooth Factory” for an ad; we’ve talked dozens of times, and we rarely go a few the actor Elijah Wood stated that Introduction was weeks without checking in with each other. These one of his favorite discoveries of 2010. discussions have sparked memories long dormant: And Chanda acts as a bridge between we, the in- Chanda had all but forgotten that WITCH privately terested yet removed, and those Zambians who can released their first two albums before undertaking a benefit from Zamrock’s resurgence. It was Chanda licensing deal with the Ahmet Ertegun of the Zam- who sought out Paul Ngozi’s heirs so that this label rock scene, Edward Khuzayawo. He promised he could broker a deal to reissue the Ngozi Family’s im- would find copies of each. In between mining opera- mense catalog. Chanda found the late Chrissy Zebby tions, he placed ads on radio and in newspapers and Tembo’s octogenarian mother to legitimize Shadoks’ eventually sourced one of the three hundred covers of issue of My Ancestors. He’s happy when his peers or the band’s first press of Introduction and an original their families can benefit from the long tail of hope In The Past record. This was a Herculean task, but and energy they carried in the 70s as they forged a such is Chanda’s drive to cement his band’s deserving musical path for their country to follow - a path that reputation on the world music scene.