MAWU WRITES ABOUT ALLELUYA

15 October 2007

At the very beginning, there was the Mponda Catholic Parish in Balaka and Reverend Father Mario Pacificci with a bagful of creative ideas for adolescents. His first initiative was to form a youth group at the parish around 1977 for recreation purposes. Aside from this, the youth would also be involved in assisting the needy under the “Love of God and Love Others” theme.

From among the youth who answered this call were Paul Banda, Abraham Naluso, Elias Kamoto, Noel Makadali, Luka Chimkwakwa and others we rernember today, all drawn frorn the parish and its out-stations.
“By this time all these guys were actively involved in the church choir,” says Forster Chimangafisi, Alleluya’s bassman, former bandleader and one of the longtime members of the Alleluya Band family.

“By and by, they graduated from home-made gallon guitars to acoustic ones bought by father Mario. They would perform at the parish, mostly on church occasions like baptism. They also made the point of visiting other parishes” Then came the time for Alleluya to be exposed on the national level as a sound outfit demand -in due attention from rnusic lovers. This was when late Pope John Paul Il visited Malawi on 5th May 1989. A name for the musical outfit was coined in, and from then on the band would be called Alleluya Band. Welcoming songs were sourced from in and around Mponda Parish for the Pope’s visit and Alleluya showcased as a musical band from St. Bernadette Parish (now St. Louis Montfort). Their magnificient performance at this event, which was duly patronised and publicised, mesmerised many, and consequently the budding rnusical group was cast on the spotlight.
Then came the national demand for the band to tour and Malawians just could not have enough of the silky lyrical presentation by Paul Banda, the comfort and hope in the band’s songs, the laid back and humble attitude exuded. A new age Balaka beat was just teething.
“Before the Pope’s concert and the countrywide tour,” says Forster, “Alleluya had already recorded the first version of their debut Malilime at Ulongwe with Father Marangoni in 1978, though it was redone later on. Afterwards, Alleluya offered other albums namely Uthenga, Chimwemwe, Kondwerani and Chikhristu”
The all-round music maestro Paul Banda left the group in late ‘90s to pursue a recording career as producer at his Imbirani Yahweh Studios. The leadership mantle was left to Charles Sinetre with Lucius Banda as his vice. By then, Aileluya was still playing songs from the old albums at performances, until group mernbers begun to produce their own, like Sinetre’s Kulota Satumana and Lucius Banda’s Mabala.
Lucius then left the group to forrn his Zembani Band in 1997 in the wake of his successful Mabala album. He took with hirn backing vocalist and rhythm guitarist Coss Chiwalo and drummer Patrick Tung’ande.
With Sinetre at the helm, Alleluya re-fitted itself with new talent while retaining some of the old guard. Those who breezed in were Adarn Douglas on lead guitar and vocals, Rod Mvalamanja and Paul Subiri. The old ones left behind included Mathias Kalima on drurns, Forster Chimangafisi on bass guitar, late Samuel Jackson on key bords, and Sinetre him self. Another old face that left for a brief stint with Wambaii Mkandawire was late Paul Chaphuka, the piano whiz. He later came back to join Zembani band before melanoma cancer set in on him.
“As we went on,” Forster recalls, “We came to realise the need to own a studio. We felt the pinch when Alleluya had to travel to Chigurnula in Blantyre to record Alleluya 20 album with producer late Daudi Nyirenda. We discussed with father Mario about this need and he encouraged us to be patient. Around the same time, Coss Chiwalo asked the band if he could rejoin Alleluya. He too came back with the studio idea and one thing led to another until Andiamo was bom.

The present and the future...
Traditionalism and conventionality, or whatever sentiments some people may have against sounds from Balaka, we have to accept the basic truth that whatever local music has lost in original local flavours of yesteryears has somewhat stuck with Alleluya Band. This is one band along with few others across the country which is determined to preserve the indigenousness in song, maturity of lyrical content, and of course selling these attributes beyond the borders. Thanks to them we now have reggae fused with a local touch!
Alleluya Band is one outfit that has consistency of musical purpose, organisation, professionalisrn and highly thematic when delivering an alburn. This is contrary to the usual shortcornings that protrude so obviously in the local music industry. For one, AlleIuya has a steady 5-year band leadership tenure, and between 1977 and 2006, Paul Banda, Charles Sinetre, Forster Chimangafisi and Coss Chiwalo have all had a stint of the leadership mantle. It is this type of organisation that makes AIleluya stand out from the rest of the musical groups.

It was towards the end of 1997 that Alleluya Band was honoured with a visit to
Zimbabwe to attend an Amnesty International Conference. They were in Maputo in April 1999 for the Music Crossroads. The band also went to Italy forthe first time in 2000 to attend the Pope’s International Youth Meeting; which was repeated last year in August when they visited Germany and the Vatican in Italy. Alleluya has also performed in South Africa once. Next year, they are off to Germany and Sydney. It is about time Malawi’s local sound was sold abroad that way. Alleluya’s first debut after the ‘old school’ manned by Paul Banda was Alleluya 20 which was produced in commemoration of their 20 years in the music business. The follow up was Alleluya 2000 which was recorded in Italy and released in 2000.

Chimangafisi recalls: “When we were working on Alleluya 20, Charles Sinetre wrote a song concerning parents which he didn’t feel comfortable doing himself for fear of being misunderstood. So during a parish children’s festival, we identified a young girl, Mireilla Nkhoma, who did an own composition with some children friends. We picked her to do the song because we noticed her inborn talent. She is now in form 2 of her studied but we still consider her as our member.”
When working on compositions for an album, Father Mario gives the group musical themes around which the band tailors songs. When a member brings a song, it is worked on by the whole group using concerted technical ideas. The band does have a line up of members playing at a particular time but keeps a number of trainees in stock at Andiamo Campus to replace the deceased and others who leave. There is also Alleluya 2 comprising sons of some of the original members. Alleluya’s latest offering We are the Citizens is expected on the market late this year. Some of the 11 songs have already begun to enjoy airplay on local radio stations.

As an afterthought, Forster Chimangafisi says “too much mixing of hands in instrumentation kills the essence of local music touch. People leave instrumentalists without the guidance of the composer’s original ideas. As a result, it makes music plastic and without direction, flavour or maturity as we see it now,” he advises. “Musicians Association of Malawi (MAM) must scrutinise music that is going on the market and see to it that only a singie artist goes on sale at a time. We can not have 5 to 10 artists selling at once. The competition isn’t fair between artists who consider music as a career and those playing music to make a quick buck.”

Malawi Writers Union (MAWU)

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