{"id":3129,"date":"2014-01-01T22:21:10","date_gmt":"2014-01-01T22:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jazzusa.com\/st-michael-zulu\/"},"modified":"2011-01-01T22:21:10","modified_gmt":"2011-01-01T22:21:10","slug":"st-michael-zulu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/?p=3129","title":{"rendered":"St Michael Zulu"},"content":{"rendered":"

We chatted before the ceremony and St Michael was very pleased to be carrying the flag of Zambia \u0096 in fact the first nominee from that country.
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And little did he know at that stage \u0096 the first winner.
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\u201cThe musicians of Zambia are the hardest working, but Zambian music has never been explored, it is unknown. You really struggle as an artist to make contact and get to know artists across borders.\u201d
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What about the involvement of this American R&B music at the kora\u2019s \u0096 is this necessary?
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\u201cAs much as it is diluting the focus \u0096 it is emphasising the point that the core of the earth is Africa.\u201d
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And the core of your musical background?
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\u201cI come from Zambia which is a landlocked country and a musically landlocked country too. My music has to be social commentary.\u201d
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\u201cMy country says I am one of the most controversial because I don\u2019t mince my words \u0096 I wont call a spade a big spoon \u0096 I call it a spade. It is very important for artists to be a reflection of society because most of the media is government controlled. Personally I don\u2019t find myself controversial. I do have a song called the presidents daughter talking about corruption. Sometimes I have had guns pointed at me, I\u2019ve been threatened, but it should be an example to other artists. There\u2019s a lot more that needs to be put on the table. For example in Zambia there is some of the best copper but now we are 80% below the poverty line.\u201d
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\u201cIt is the policy makers \u0096 in my country there is no ministry that looks at music. They don\u2019t recognise music. The only time a musician is important in Zambia is election time. Like now. Thereafter you are back in the backyard.\u201d
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And where does the solution lie?
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\u201cIt took 400 years, the reversal takes time.\u201d
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St Michael is a rastafarian \u0096 we chatted briefly about Mutaburuka\u2019s rasta re-patronisation plan and the value of the religion to this continent:
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\u201cThey call Zambia a Christian nation but look at the churches \u0096 there is a lot of aids and divorce. At the end of the day every African is a Rastafarian they may not know it. Like the Chinese have their gods, a Rastafarian is a reflection of Africa and it sets an example of what an African should be.\u201d
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Okay, he\u2019s playing reggae, he\u2019s talking Rasta \u0096 but what makes him Zambian and what is Zambian?
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\u201cFirst of all my nature makes me Zambian. I have a lot of Zambian influence \u0096 this acoustic kind of sound. Some danceable rhythm, which is exclusive to us. It is called Kaludoula.\u201d
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\u201cWe have had various influences since time immemorial \u0096 everyone has gone through Zambia \u0096 the Arabs, the missionaries. Zambia has been a focal point as well as a distribution point. There is no particular Zambian culture \u0096 there is a mixture of world cultures. But within that you will always notice Zambian music.\u201d<\/font><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Africa Beats<\/b> is brought to you each month courtesy of the Afri-Beat Web Site<\/a>.<\/font> <\/p>\n\n\n
Visit the Afri-Beat Web Site and enter the world of African music.
\"AfriBeat\"<\/a>
http:\/\/www.afribeat.com<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

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We chatted before the ceremony and St Michael was very<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}