“In Tchopo, both artists honour their traditions while creatively weaving their sounds together, resulting in a rich blend of world rhythms, contemporary songwriting and playful joy”
Songlines
Kate Griffin (UK banjo player) and Matchume Zango (Mozambique multi-instrumentalist) are forging a new cross-cultural collaboration celebrating the universal power of traditional music. They both bring echoes of their respective traditions to a vibrant new sound full of world rhythms, contemporary song-writing and joy.
Kate and Matchume are both experienced collaborators in their own right and the binding force of their collaboration is freedom to explore genres on their traditional instruments: for Kate the clawhammer banjo and Matchume the timbila. Matchume is a renowned international artist working in performance, theatre, dance and film, and has recorded several albums with Timbila Muzimba, MoSomeBigNoise, Kubilai Khan and Forest Jam. With lineage from Zavala, Inhambane Province, the centre of Mozambique’s timbila tradition, he is regarded as one of the new masters of timbila. Kate has toured internationally with her Indo-folk collective Mishra, currently collaborating with Sufi vocalist Deepa Shakthi, and has been described as ‘one of the top banjo players in the country’ by virtuoso Dan Walsh.
Kate and Matchume met during Making Tracks online residency amidst the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, where despite the barriers of virtual collaboration they resonated deeply with each other's creative practice and music. Two years later they met in Maputo (Mozambique) to feel the magic in person and record an EP and perform live for the first time. Determined to share this new global sound, Matchume joined Kate for his first tour of the UK, where they debuted their uplifting live show in July 2024. Their touring show features Matchume’s arsenal of percussion including timbila, xitende, mbira, and congas, Kate’s banjo, and a supporting trio of Evan Carson (Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys, The Drystones) on drums, Ben Evans on bass, and Ford Collier (Mishra, The Drystones) on low whistle and guitar.
