Maraire Leaves Seattle With A Thriving Legacy

Dumi Maraire, traditional and original compositions, University of Washington's Kane Hall, Room 120, 8 tonight, opening act for guitarist S.E. Rogie. Tickets $8-$10; 548-0070.

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When Zimbabwean musician Dumisani ``Dumi'' Maraire wanted to feel at home when he came to Seattle 20 years ago, he simply started his own marimba band and dance ensemble, the first in the United States.

``I like to go out and dance,'' the musician says in his strong, animated voice. ``But when I first arrived here, African music wasn't being played in any of the local clubs. So I put a band together to make the music primarily for myself.''

What began as a need for Maraire to play music from his own culture has since developed into a distinctive part of Seattle's musical identity. It's difficult for today's local music enthusiasts to imagine a time when traditional or popular African music was not regularly heard on the radio stations, at festivals and in clubs.

``I have a lot of respect for the people here who have taken this music seriously right from the start,'' Maraire said of his playing partners, who are also his students. ``Now that the music has become part of the culture, I think Seattle is proud, the local bands are proud, and Zimbabwe is proud, too.''

Maraire, along with three of his children, will sing and play traditional and original compositions at Kane Hall tonight as the opening act for touring ``palm wine'' guitarist S.E. Rogie from Sierre Leone. The concert will also be Maraire's last local performance before he returns to live and teach in his native country.

``I really feel as if I now have two home countries, and I hope and pray the music continues to thrive in Seattle as it has for centuries in Zimbabwe,'' he says.

Teaching, performing, recording, composing and preserving the music of his home country has been an obsession which Maraire seems to have passed on to his many students. Locally, there are at least five active African marimba (handmade wooden xylophone) and dance ensembles headed by Maraire's former students, such as Sukutai (featuring Lora Chiorah Dye), Kutamba, Anzanga, Shamwari and Chibata.

``One thing I noticed about studying with Dumi is that he always gave everyone who truly wanted to learn the sense that they could do it,'' recalls Sheree Sparks, founding member of the group Anzanga and former Maraire student. ``His motto used to be: `If you can talk, you can sing, and if you can walk, you can dance.' There was never any racial or ethnic barrier involved. Everyone was given the same chance.''

Sparks, who teaches African music at the Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center and has traveled to Zimbabwe to do research, says she learned to play the marimba and other traditional instruments of Zimbabwe's Shona people from Maraire, who belongs to that ethnic group.

``Outside of learning to play the instruments, Dumi gave me a real sense of how important traditional Shona music and culture was to his people. Especially at a time when that was being repressed under colonial rule,'' Sparks says.

In 1968, Maraire left his country, which was then known as Rhodesia under English colonial rule. He had been invited to UW as artist-in-residence in the ethnomusicology department. While teaching at UW, Maraire's courses were so popular that his one-year appointment was extended to five. In 1971 he made one of the first American recordings of traditional African music at UW, which was titled ``The African Mbira: Music of the Shona People of Rhodesia'' for New York's Nonesuch Records.

The mbira (often referred to as a ``thumb piano'') is probably the oldest and most important instrument in Zimbabwe. In solo performance, the musician can play as many as three different instrumental lines on the forged iron keys that are secured with wire to its small wooden body, while vocally improvising melodic and rhythmic lines over the top.

Maraire also has recorded a series of locally produced albums and cassettes with many of his students, such as ``Rufaro,'' ``Chiwoniso,'' ``The Spirit of Mbira'' and ``Mweya.'' Most recently, he recorded ``Chaminuka: Music of Zimbabwe'' for New York's Music of the World label. And in the midst of his exhaustive recording activity, Maraire has found time to earn a master's degree and, more recently, a doctorate in ethnomusicology from the UW.

Having emerged as an authority of Zimbabwean music in America, Maraire has found himself in greater demand.

The Kronos Quartet, an innovative string ensemble, featured one of Maraire's compositions on their American tour last spring. In fact, the ``Fab Four of classical music'' liked the piece so much that Maraire has just been awarded a composers grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to score more music for the quartet next year.

``Someone in San Francisco who had seen me perform asked me for some work, and the next thing I know Kronos is asking to perform some of my music,'' says Maraire. ``I will probably return to the U.S. next year to perform and record with them as well.''

Maraire returns to Zimbabwe this year to establish an ethnomusicology program in the department of African Language and Literature at the University of Zimbabwe. It will be the first program of its kind in that country, and it is something Maraire says he's wanted to do for a long time.

``Now,'' he says, ``the people of Zimbabwe will be able to study their own music the way other people outside of the country have done.''