King Isaac
This is my debut album, released in 2002 by the Zimbabwe Music Corporation (ZMC). On the album, “Keeping It Away” was the first song to be recorded. I recorded this song on my very first trip to Jamaica in March 1998. Dean Fraser and Daniel “Axeman” Thompson (Also known as Danny) built the rhythm. This song marked my first entrance into the recording scene in Jamaica and this was indeed an exciting experience. Having met Leroy Sibbles earlier that year when I opened up a show for him in Detroit, I linked up with him in Kingston. Gracious and generous as always, Sibbles lent a hand in the recording process. I released the song as a single in Zimbabwe later in 1998. The song received great airplay and support on the radio, staying on the radio phone-in charts for several weeks.
In the summer of 1999, I invited Danny to Michigan we began to lay down the basic tracks for a full album. I had written most of the songs during the time I was with the group Zimbeggae in Bloomington, Indiana where I had formed the band to play in local nightspots. The band and I had recorded numerous demos, and Axeman and I used these demos as a reference point to build the rhythm tracks for the songs on the album. Danny returned to Michigan in the summer of 2000 for more recordings, and I traveled to Kingston in 2001 to finish and mix the album. During this visit, I met master percussionist Bongo Herman (through engineer Albert Chemist). Herman plays on most of the tracks on the album. I also met dj General Pecos with whom I did a combination on “Early In The Morning.”
When I returned to Michigan that year, I met South Africa’s Mahotella Queens, a group I had grown up listening to in Zimbabwe. The Queens were performing at the National Folk Festival that was hosted by the Michigan State University Museum. I let the Mahotella Queens know about the project I was working on and they, along with guitarist Ntokozo Zungu, agreed to record a song with me. We went to the studio and recorded the song “Kuchema Kwedu” between sets at the festival, with Ntokozo adding an African guitar and melodic style to the tracks built in Jamaica.
The album was released in Zimbabwe in 2002. Radio favorites included “Kuchema Kwedu,” “Peace Love And Harmony,” “Moto Pasipo,” and “Famba Zvakanaka.” While in Zimbabwe in June and July of 2002 I also recorded videos for “Moto Pasipo,” and “Famba Zvakanaka.”
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