The Green Arrows: 4-Track Recording Session CD

The Green Arrows, lead by the immortal Zexie Manatsa, dominated the Zimbabwean music scene in the 1970s. This extraordinarily progressive group took the country by storm, fusing the different rhythms of the region into one unique and ebullient sound. A milestone in Zimbabwean music history! The Green Arrows, "discovered" by celebrated South African producer West Nkosi, were the first Zimbabwean band to record an LP, which was released in February 1976. So popular were the Green Arrows in the ’70s that when Manatsa got married on August 25, 1979 a crowd of about 60,000 thronged Rufaro Stadium. Some of the performers at his wedding included Oliver Mtukudzi and Thomas Mapfumo. This compilation presents 20 critical tracks that the Green Arrows recorded from 1974 –1979, all painstakingly remastered. The song "Musango Mune Hangaiwa" still holds the record for the longest stay at #1 in Zimbabwean music history. Carefully prepared 24-page booklet is absolutely overflowing with a complete history of the band (edited by renowned critic Banning Eyre), a full detailed discography, and numerous extremely rare photographs and artifacts. After a long absence from performance, the band reunited on stage on the last day of the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) on May 1, 2005.

"The Green Arrows' music is eccentric and exuberant and it communicates the urban spirit of 1970s Zimbabwe in a way that still sounds fresh today. ...Compiled and annotated by Samy Ben Redjeb, this is a model compilation with excellent notes that put the music in context and even convey the personalities of the artists. This release is the first in Ben Redjeb’s Africa Analog series. We look forward to much more!" - Banning Eyre, www.afropop.org

"Zexie Manatsa's Green Arrows were, in their prime, the greatest band in Zimbabwe, armed with a triple guitar attack that took the floating soukous style of Zaire to a much grittier place, courtesy of judicious wah, delay, and fuzz. They were famous for playing literal all-nighters, shows that would begin on Saturday when the sun was headed for the western horizon and rock Harare with songs about Steve McQueen and Paul Newman until it came back up in the east. Their Newman tribute, "Towering Inferno", is one of their few songs in English, and it's an amazing collision of ska-inflected rhythms, funky drums, and garage rock fuzz splatter--complete with two-part harmonies. Zimbabwe has never been an easy place to make a career in music, and it was no different for the Green Arrows, who collapsed at the end of the 1970s after Manatsa became involved in politics: There's an especially telling shot in the generous liners of him performing in face paint with a bemused military officer standing just behind him onstage. Stuffed with photos, information, and great recordings, this is one hell of a package from a moment in popular music most of the world never knew existed." - Pitchfork

"In the 1970's, when Zimbabwe was Rhodesia, the Green Arrows were one of the country's top bands; they were the first to release a full-length LP, in 1976. The exuberant compilation 4-Track Recording Session (Analog Africa/Alula) includes that album plus 10 songs from 1974 to 1979. Four-track tape neatly captured grooves that drew on local six-beat Shona rhythms, the bounce of South African rock, even a reggae song in English (about "Towering Inferno," of all things). The band is perpetually crisp, and its staccato precision brilliantly offsets whichever voice or instrument is allowed to wander freely amid the patterns, especially when the lead guitarist unleashes imported technology: a wah-wah pedal the South African producer brought from Johannesburg. Translations of the songs, which occasionally got the band in political trouble during Zimbabwe's war for independence, are all that's missing." - Jon Pareles, New York Times

"Back in the 1970s, the Zimbabwean Green Arrows were so popular in their homeland that tens of thousands filled a stadium just to watch the band's vocalist-bassist Zexie Manatsa get married. This reissue of the (recently reunited) Arrows' terrific low-fidelity recordings from that era shows why the group's following should become far wider. Lead guitarist Stanley Manatsa displayed a unique take on psychedelia as he made notes sound like they were breathing against an incoming tide. On top of his electric fuzz-tone lines, the band laid down mid-tempo, yet unyielding, dance grooves that set the stage for the future of southern African pop." - Aaron Cohen, Chicago Tribune