Zimbabwe: Where Are They Now?

I am curious to find out what has happened to some music legends of yesteryear. Magical music never leaves the memory. It is the magical music of these legends that I still cherish to this day. The likes of Michael Lannas, Rosalla Miller, Thomas Mapfumo, Lovemore Majaivana and David Scobie are true living legends who churned out magical music during their time here but none of them have been in Zimbabwe for a while.



One yesteryear group, Talking Drum was a band formed in 1987 by Michael Lannas, a qualified pharmacist, guitarist and singer/songwriter. Together with bass player, Brian Paul, Brian Jerome Williams and Wellington Mandizha on vocals, Temba Gumbo on lead guitar, Stuart Hutchinson on keyboards and the late Sebastian Mbata, who also worked for a period with Dr Thomas Mapfumo, on drums, the band became a formidable force on the Zimbabwe music scene in the late 1980's.

Their first release, "Iyi Ngoma" hit the airwaves in 1987 and was well received nationwide.

It immediately put the band on the Zimbabwe map as many music enthusiasts fell in love with this hit single.

As if not satisfied with the results of their first hit single, Michael Lannas went on to write more songs in the same year and came up with a hit album entitled, "The Song, The Dancer" which again received popular support throughout the country.

Immediately after its release, the band set out on a tour of the country with Lannas leading his troops on vocals even though there were two other vocalists in the band.

However, after a brief period together most of the musicians decided to leave the band. Wellington Mandizha said to me after he left the band, "I found working with Talking Drum rather frustrating. Michael Lannas was in charge. "He owned the instruments we used and we would only work when he decided to.

"I wanted to perform at least once a week. Michael would tell you that he was going out fishing and cannot afford to sacrifice his fishing for a band performance.

"In the end I decided to quit and started looking for greener pastures."

Talking Drum continued with Sebastian and Michael Lannas as the original members after the rest of the band members had left.

They then recruited session musicians, Brian Rusike, the composer of the classic song, "Ruva Rangu" which has seen many renditions from a variety of singers, on keyboards and vocals, Kelly Rusike of the Rusike Brothers and later Jazz Invitation on bass, Louis Mhlanga now based in South Africa on lead guitar, Henry Peters who replaced Kelly on bass and Rick Van Heerden on the saxophone. Henry Peters now lives in Botswana while Brian Williams who recently suffered from a strange condition that affected his legs is in the UK.

These session musicians kept the band going for approximately three years and in the process the band recorded three more albums which included hits such as "Come to Me (Hapana Mazwi)" and "The River". One session musician, Glenn Taylor, who played the pedal steel guitar on the recordings came from as far afield as Denver, Colorado in the United States of America.

After 1989, Michael Lannas could not be bothered with Talking Drum anymore and the band died a natural death. In 2006 he also got fed up of running his pharmacy at Montague Avenue shopping centre in Harare and he also closed it down.

By Fred Zindi

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Zimbabwe: Where Are They Now?