NORTON – Tuku opens his 2011 diary with a family show in his Norton hometown on Saturday 5 February. He is backed by his band The Black Spirits plus supporting artists Munya Mataruse and Kazevezeve, the harmonica-man Donald Kanyuchi and the legendary Golden Girls. The show starts at 12pm.

To allay rain fears the show is indoors in the now fully air-conditioned Sam Mtukudzi Conference Centre - a new facility for conferencing and performances at the sprawling second phase of Pakare Paye Arts Center. The hall is in its final stages of completion in terms of fittings but certainly habitable now having already been used during the 2010 SPAR Solofest Pakare Paye in December.

Left: Tuku and The Black Spirits

For many of our fans, who could not catch up with Tuku and The Black Spirits last year, perhaps this is the opportunity for a family outing away from the more hectic venues.

The family show line-up is not entirely new but diverse in every respect of music. Tuku is Tuku - he plays a brand of music known internationally as Tuku Music blending a myriad of Zimbabwean traditional sounds, acoustic traditional instruments and adult Afro pop contemporary patterns including some patterns. He is backed by The Black Spirits a household group that has passed the baton from generation to generation of artists since the early 1970s.

Munya Mataruse has come from our talent development programme at the Centre and is on the verge of releasing his debut Dengu Remhodzi (Bowl of Seed) album.

Donald Kanyuchi is a master of the harmonica and guitar. In short he plays both instruments and simultaneously so with amazing detail and discipline. His music is largely inspired by West African rhythms but is distinctively Zimbabwean in style and form.

Munya Mataruse.	Donald Kanyuchi.

As for the Golden Girls – this is your blast from the past that will certainly always invoke the memories of the iconic Mahotela Queens amongst the older fans of music. The Golden Girls performed with Tuku during the late 1970s and 1980s as backing vocalists and have since reunited for occasional shows.

^ The Golden Girls.

On catering we have a restaurant Daisy’s Kitchen and a good number of bars for refreshments. On a day free of rain there is ample space in our garden for children to play while adults relax in the marquee-size gazebo lounge and bar adjoining the conference centre named after the younger Mtukudzi, Sam, who passed away tragically in a road accident in March 2010.

For all enquiries on the Family Show please visit the Contact page on the site and post your message right away. We will gladly get back to you promptly. – Shepherd Mutamba /tukumusik.com