Nhema Musasa - Oran Etkin | Musekiwa Chingodza | Open Arms Zimbabwe Africa Shona Mbira Bass Clarinet

Live Version of Third Single in the Open Arms Project: Monthly release of singles & music videos of collaborations recorded around the world! Hear the official version of this song that we recorded in the studio in Harare on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, BandCamp etc. and subscribe to / oranetkin or Oran Etkin's channel on Spotify, Facebook, Instagram etc to hear new collaborations in Harare Zimbabwe, Paris, Prague, São Paulo and more each month!
This video was filmed outside Musekiwa's home in Marondera, Zimbabwe. Etkin had some time off in his tour schedule between concerts in France and Zimbabwe, so instead of returning to New York in between, he went to Zimbabwe early and stayed with the Chigamba and Chingodza families. The night after he arrived there was an all-night ceremony and for the rest of his stay, the families invited him to play music every day. In turn Etkin invited them to perform on his concerts and to go into the studio to record several tracks which will be part of the Open Arms Project. This is a traditional Shona song called Nhemamusasa and is about building a new home... a very relevant theme for our time as we struggle with the injustices of the past and reopening our world in a new way.
“Open Arms to me is an attitude”, reflects Etkin. “It’s felt in the warmth with which I was greeted in each country and how we welcomed each other into our musical worlds. It is at the core of how we approach making new music together with open ears, unafraid to discover a new side of ourselves outside our comfort zone. And it’s also an answer to the rigid isolation of hate and fear that has been growing in the political discourse all around the world, in almost every country I’ve traveled to.” Now as the world starts to open up after the closures of Corona, often having been unable to even embrace their loved ones with open arms, this soulful musical call for a new approach to how we relate to each other seems even more prescient and relevant to our current times.
A big thank you to Musekiwa and his whole family as well as the Chigamba family, Sam Mataure & Eren Levendoglu.
Oran Etkin plays Selmer clarinets, bass-clarinets and saxophones