Bhundu Boy Rise Kagona

Rise Kagona

Rise Kagona is a guitar hero to many on two continents! The BBC's Andy Kershaw sights him as having changed his life, and the late John Peel famously broke down in tears the first time he saw The Bhundu Boys perform live.

Back home in Zimbabwe, Rise is attributed with starting a whole new guitar genre, called Jiti, and his band, The Bhundu Boys, topped the Zimbabwe charts countless times.  In the 1980's and 1990's, the band toured the world extensively, and everywhere they went, people danced to their infectious Jiti music.

The legendary Rise is currently based in Edinburgh, and performs with talented musicians who are all active in Scotland's music scene. He released a CD with Champion Doug Veitch in 2007 that led to performances at major festivals including Glastonbury and the Big Chill.  

Rise Offers

An acoustic Jit trio: guitar, bass and african drums.

A Jit Jive band: two guitars, bass, drum-kit and marimba.  Also a horn section for bigger gigs.

Rise has been recording new material with his trio - contact Rise if you would like to hear these songs.

Reviews

    “Rise Kagona is a real music legend... Recently Rise Kagona played with his new band in London, and the BBC Africa’s Lewis Machipisa went to see him”  BBC Africa Today podcast (2012): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19902080

    “...First up was Zimbabwean guitarist, singer and ex-Bhundu Boy Rise Kagona, backed by his three-piece Jit Jive Band on bass, drums, xylophone and shekere (a beaded gourd drum/shaker). Jit is a catch-all term for roots-based Zimbabwean pop music, exemplified by Kagona's sunny, intricate, agile yet rock-steady guitar lines, whose easy suppleness and sparkle belied their formidable technical prowess. With his incantatory or call-and-response vocals shifting between mellow, expansive warmth and deeper gravitas, and rhythms between a laid-back lope and quickfire choppiness, the hypnotic momentum cast a winning spell.”  Sue Wilson, The Scotsman, 14 July 2011

    "despite the weather, if you could measure the warmth in the music, then this would be hotter than an african summer"  Scot Williams, Glastonbury Review, 2007

    "it was the dazzling quality of the music, the harmonies, the sparkling guitar playing.  The Bhundu Boys were simply one of the greatest pop groups I ever heard"  Andy Kershaw, BBC Radio 1

Recent Shows

London African Music Festival, Sept 2012

Edinburgh Fringe Festival, August 2012

Ben and Jerry’s Sundae Festival (Manchester and London), July 2011

Tartan Heart Festival, July 2011

Doune the Rabbit Hole, June 2011

Rough Beats Festival, June 2011

Links

Facebook Page - Rise Kagona and the Jit Jive Band

Vimeo video - taken at Ben and Jerry's Sundae Festival, 2011

Freewall Art Project video - Rise’s song Ishura Matongo was chosen to accompany this.

Contact Rise:

+44 771 9981163, bhunduboy@gmail.com