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As a gesture of support for Poda, nurtured and developed over the years at Pakare Paye, Tuku who was among the small audience could not resist Poda’s afro-jazz/raga mix joining the youthful outfit on stage for a few lines and a dance too. For Poda music, without a full live band of his own that could play his own brand of music, was not musical enough, the 27-year-old told tukumusic.com, hence the formation Sounds of Africa. With Pakare Paye having been opened in Norton, Poda’s own community where he was born and breed, Poda soon left the streets in pursuit of his career development in music joining the centre in 2005. He started purely with vocals, which had all along been his domain, singing for the centre’s percussion-based ensemble before he went for the guitar, strumming the strings learning harmonies under the direct tutelage of Tuku. “Joining Pakare Paye suddenly opened many opportunities for me,” the dread locked Poda said. “I did vocals for a start, gradually learning the guitar and with growing confidence as the ensemble, we would curtain raise at Tuku’s shows where we got invaluable exposure at the highest level playing to huge audiences.” While Tuku has been Poda’s mentor he concedes he was inspired by the late Marshal Munhumumwe’s poetry and the themes of his social satire. “Marshal was a great poet, singer and arranger while Tuku mentored me.” |
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