“Tadzungaira” is one of the old Shona mbira pieces, played at ceremonies when a family calls on its ancestors to end a run of hardship: a drought, a stretch of poverty, a season where nothing comes right. The word means we are lost, and some traditional players refer to the piece as “Todzungaira”, others as “Muroro” or “Nehondo”. The Mbira Renaissance Band played it at Paper Birch Books in Edmonton on 21 February. They have reached for the word before: “Daira”, from their 2018 album Famba, has the line “Tadzungaira, tadzungaira musango”, we are tired, we have been wandering in the forest a long time.
The song opened their session for the Pocket-Sized Series, a monthly recording run by the band’s drummer, Tony Flanagan, made among the shelves of the bookshop and released as video, modelled on Tiny Desk and funded by the Edmonton Arts Council.
The Mbira Renaissance Band came out of the Canadian city’s music scene in 2013, started by mbira player Chaka Zinyemba with bassist James Stuart. Chaka and lead singer Chiedza Zinyemba are from Zimbabwe and sing in Shona, with Chiedza also on hosho and congas. George Koufogiannakis plays guitar and brings thirty years of jazz behind it, Flanagan drums, and Munya Viyali is on keys.
Their repertoire sets the mbira alongside jazz, reggae and afro-pop, and the songs are usually about family and coming together. They toured Zimbabwe for the first time in July 2025 and released the album Roto the following January: half of its eight tracks carry a horn section with parts written by Koufogiannakis, “Zunza” brings in West African djembe from Reckie Lloyd and closes on mbira, and “Mufaro” features the Afro-Cuban duo OKAN with pianist Jeremy Ledbetter.
Stream, listen to and get your copy of Roto HERE