THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Zamrock was a bona fide rock scene: On the African continent, only Nigeria can claim one so comprehensive, and Nigeria’s was largely catalyzed and funded by subsidiaries of the European major labels. Zamrock was as independent as its newly named country of Zambia (formerly Northern Rhodesia).
Zamrock is startling in its completeness, especially for a scene that emerged, unfurled and disappeared so quickly. From Musi-O-Tunya’s fusion of Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat, Jimi Hendrix’s blues-rock, South African jazz and traditional Zambian melodies and rhythms to Salty Dog’s acid-trip folk-rock, Zambia’s rock scene contained all of rock’s subgenres.
Zamrock was much more than an imitation of American and European rock music: it quickly became a uniquely Zambian movement, befitting of its name. Witch, Paul Ngozi and Amanaz sound nothing like other rock music from the African continent — or elsewhere, for that matter.
Zamrock came from a nation’s youth carrying forth the momentum of a political and social revolution with a musical revolution that maintained the fiery power of early rock weill into the mid-to late-’70s. Zamrock’s energy is matched only by the respective punk and hip-hop scenes of England and America.”
