Jonah moyo biography
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Jonah Moyo relives Devera Ngwena glory days
Jonah Moyo, the founding member of Devera Ngwena Jazz Band, is one of Zimbabwe’s revered sons of sungura music with more than 38 albums under his belt. He rose to stardom in the early 1980s with hits such as Solo naMutsai, Wangu P, Gremmer Wepamoyo and Barbra, which topped the charts. The Standard Style’s Moses […]
Jonah Moyo, the founding member of Devera Ngwena Jazz Band, is one of Zimbabwe’s revered sons of sungura music with more than 38 albums under his belt. He rose to stardom in the early 1980s with hits such as Solo naMutsai, Wangu P, Gremmer Wepamoyo and Barbra, which topped the charts. The Standard Style’s Moses Mugugunyeki (MM) caught up with Moyo (JM), who has found a new home in South Africa’s Limpopo Province. He said he was not a spent force and hinted at a comeback on the local music scene. Below are excerpts of the interview.
MM: Where and when did you start your music career?
JM: I started at M’sopero Hot
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What happened to Vhembe’s tshingondo (rhumba) megastar, Jonah Moyo? This is the question that music lovers have been asking themselves for the past two years. The answer is that Moyo has been travelling around the world, making music with his band, the Devera Ngwena Jazz Band.
The musician relocated to South Africa from his home country of Zimbabwe in 2004 and settled in Thohoyandou. Since then, he has been as part of the Vhembe region as the locals themselves, where he sells his music to the public. For many years Moyo was an integral part of the local entertainment fraternity, performing at various mega-gigs around Vhembe and beyond.
Limpopo Mirror has been tracing Moyo’s whereabouts for the past three weeks, only to find that he had returned to Zimbabwe two years ago. In a telephonic interview with him, the artist said that, although he loved Thohoyandou with all his heart, he had taken on the role of music lecturer at the Great Zimbabwe University in Masvi