Top 8 Things You Didn’t Know About Jonah Moyo

Jonah Moyo is one of Zimbawe’s legendary old school musicians whose career stretched from the late 1970s. Moyo, who leads the Devera Ngwena Jazz band rose to stardom in the early 1980s with hits such as ‘Soro naMutsai’ and ‘Barbra’ which topped the charts. He is also considered as the founder of Sungura music genre.

1. He is young brother to renowned author, Aaron Chiundura Moyo .Jonah’s wife passed away in 2008.

2. While many musicians are driven by money or fame, Moyo was driven by the desire to win girls’ hearts. Thats when he started playing the banjo.

3. He only seriously considered doing music when he moved to Kwekwe at an early age in the late 1970’s.

4. He had a passion for music that drove him to to play at train stations with one of his friends. He played at the stations for sometime until another friend introduced him to a band which used to play at Garandichauya bottle store in Mbizo Township.

5. He went to recorded his first single, ‘Devera Ngwena Zhimozhi’ which went platinum in just a month after its release.

6. The group music was a fusion of rhumba from Congo, benga from Kenya and mbaqanga from South Africa, blended with traditional mbira-influenced rhythms. This created a unique sound which was different from genres at that time. Moyo soon secured a recording deal with the then Teal Recording Company now called Gramma Records.

7. At independence, the band became one of the best and the hit ‘Solo na Mutsai’ made waves and propelled the group to national stardom. At their peak, the band had the likes of Oliver Mtukudzi and Leonard Dembo to curtain-raise for them.

8. Devera Ngwena Jazz Band was became the first group from Zimbabwe to sell music outside the across the boarders including in South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Botswana, Kenya, Malawi and Swaziland.