Zambeze

The Zambeze is an additional contribution of Mozambican musicians for the development of culture via music. It was formed in 2005 at Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) with the main purpose of turning it into a sort of “(hands-on) school” or “study group”, using music performance as a pretext. For that end, two phases were defined for its implementation: one of performance of classic jazz, commonly called “standard” and another one of performance of original compositions with the most diverse influences, having jazz principles and concepts as main support, giving reason to the theory that says that “jazz provides quality to popular music”. Upon two years of performance within the first phase, in 2007 the second phase was implemented that in methodological terms co-exists (and shall always co-exist) with the first phase. The “pieces” composed and interpreted in this phase are identifiable with world music. The following elements are part of the project: Larsen Vales (piano / synthesizer), João Luís – “J.Lú” (saxophones), Almeida Ngoca (drums), Mindu Salato (bass / voice). A common aspect among these musicians is that they do not exercise the musical activity at full time. Thus they do not bear the statute of professionals although searching it at performance level. Throughout their three years of existence, contact with the public has been mainly materialized through jazz and / or world music sessions in pubs and their most prominent appearances were in the National Jazz Festival in 2007 and in the International Jazz Festival called ‘Mozambique Jazz Festival”, in 2008/09. As any other musical group whose way of being necessarily passes through the stages, it is a must for the “Zambeze” to intend to make even more concerts and make itself known throughout the World what shall enable the musicians to acquire more experience and to divulgate the project. As a militant for the cultural and artistic development of this land that still has a lot to be explored, the “Zambeze” has as its main work philosophy research without bias. In this way it will be possible to “sell” the good image of Mozambique to the world what, by the way, is the role of any culture agent. I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V4.4 (www.strikefile.com/myspace)