Masvingo puts Macheso to the test Mai Patai bounces back

RENOWNED sungura ace, Alick Macheso will descend on Masvingo today for a performance at the rebranded Club Lagoon garden (former Ritz Night Club) tonight.

This is the first time Macheso will be staging a show in Masvingo this year and it remains to be seen whether he is still the Macheso of yesteryear or has indeed reached a musical menopause as some critics have started to suggest.

The failure by Macheso to release a new song or album in a long time has not done him any good as music critics have started describing him as a spent force.

They say he keeps on feeding his legion of fans on “stale” music compared to other artistes who are constantly releasing new songs.

Macheso last released an album — Dzerwendo in 2016.

It seems since the death of his biggest competitor in the world of sungura music, Tongai Moyo, Macheso has relaxed. The late Igwe, as Moyo was affectionately known, would give Macheso a good run for his money which was a healthy competition most sungura fans now miss.

Igwe, many argue, had managed to wrestle the limelight from Macheso and had it not been for the Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma cancer which claimed his life on October 16, 2011, the late Kwekwebased singer would have been the “team to beat” in the music industry.

Today’s show will confirm whether or not Macheso still commands a huge following.

Joshua Moyana of the Munotidako fame will curtain raise for Macheso at what is promising to be a thriller.

Since the brief closure of Ritz Night Club last year, there have not been any meaningful shows in the ancient city, save for the two Jah Prayzah and Winky D shows at Caravan Park that both flopped late last year.

Meanwhile, Gweru gospel musician Respina Patai, who made a grand entrance into the music industry with her husband in 2005 with their hit song Mazambara is now back in the game after an Tsoka eight-year sabbatical and will today launch a new album Punish the Devil.

Baba na Mai Patai as the couple is popularly known, are also set to release a DVD album for their yesteryear musical which they did in 2010.

The couple now has six albums under their belt but on Mai Patai as Respina is affectionately known, who is supported by Voice of Prophecy, has decided to go it alone while her husband Ephraim takes a fringe role as a backing vocalist.

Some of the songs on the new album, which was recorded at Diamond Studios by producer Bothwell Nyamhondera, include experiences. There’re things I encountered in life that made me decide to pen some of the songs on this album,” she said.

“I know that I had let my fans down by going for eight years without releasing an album. Most fans asked me to come back to music and I obliged. As such, I hope my latest offering will not disappoint them.”

Baba na Mai Patai endeared themselves with gospel fans with their sungura-fused gospel. Some of their albums include