Photo: Hazze A.
Willie Mbuende is a bass player and music producer from Namibia. With a career starting around 1970, he has played with numerous groups in a wide range of musical styles, such as afro, blues, reggae, calypso.... He lived in exile before Namibia's independence and has performed on many international stages. Among other countries in Europe, he spent many years in Sweden playing with artists such as the late Johnny Dyani, Dudu Pukwana, Peps, Tony Ellis, and in the 80's forming his own band Bag Of Rhythm (with Lester Jackman) which successfully toured Scandinavia for a number of years. The last band he had in Europe was the world music band Melting Pot, formed in Denmark with musicians from all over the world. During his years in Europe, he recorded albums with all of the above mentioned bands.
With the independence of
Namibia in 1990 he moved back home and continued as a musician, forming
his own band Rakotoka and recording a solo album in South Africa. Besides
the musicianship, he started a new career as a music producer, working for
the Namibian national radio and television. While living in Namibia he did
several projects:
1. The concept of bringing traditional music into a contemporary music,
resulting in concerts and a CD (Sidadi)
2. Producing a musician's competition in all categories, ranging from
vocalists and bands to traditional music and choirs
3. Organising a band to represent Namibia on international stages in
countries such as Cuba, Germany, England and Portugal
4. Organising SADC Cultural Ensemble with musicians from 10 southern
African countries
Now he's back in Europe and has put together a few new bands and projects. Please click the buttons below to read about them.
WILLIE MBUENDE BAND (Sweden)
GROOVE POLITICS (Berlin)
SIDADI
(Namibia)
Read
interview with Willie Mbuende in Allgemeine Zeitung (Namibia) here.
German
version here.