Ndoro is the latest CD release by Iyanifa Olayinka Mahealani Uchiyama, featuring the mbira, an instrument from Zimbabwe with a 1000 year old tradition.  

 

Conceptualized by the Shona, the mbira is used in ceremonies of healing and personal meditation, and incorporates a canon of songs which are offered as prayers.  Mbira songs feature an interlocking polyrhythm which is at once complex, hypnotic and majestic.  The music of the mbira is particularly associated with our ancestors, the Spirits of loved ones who no longer walk the earth but are still among us offering guidance and comfort.  Some of the songs in this collection are so ancient, that they were the favorites of our ancestors when they were still walking the earth.  These types of songs are commonly played in ceremonies in Southern Africa to attract the ancestors attention.