KEY POINTS:
Oliver Mtukudzi has produced about 50 albums in a career that started in the 1970s, and is thrilled to get the opportunity to notch up another couple of live shows here.
He says a visit to Auckland a few years ago for a music collaboration with local composers
Whirimako Black and Jonathan Besser was enjoyable but too short.
"I've been dying to come back to Australia and New Zealand. It seems it has been difficult to come back but I'm glad this time it has happened," he said from Johannesburg.
Like many others in his homeland, 55-year-old Mtukudzi faces constant challenges presented by his country's dire economic state, but it doesn't appear to have derailed his prolific music career.
He says he shops where everyone else shops and finds it is a lottery to obtain everyday items, and when they are available the prices are unpredictable.
"The economy is bad, bad, bad," he said.
"We are all getting affected. I need fuel to go for rehearsals, the band needs fuel to go to rehearsals and if we can't find fuel we can't rehearse as much as we want."
Zimbabwean colleagues in New Zealand have helped to turn the trip here into a reality and the seven-strong band hope to draw capacity crowds to the Opera House in Wellington and Civic Theatre in Auckland.
"All I can say is that people will experience a new feeling, one they have never felt before," he said when asked what people could expect from the Black Spirits. "And we will definitely give it our best."
The music itself is based on traditional African rhythms and involves a raft of instruments to create a style that locals refer to as "Tuku music".
"I'm the last person to know that the music is Tuku music, because my fans really labelled it that way. But I call it African music - a fusion of different styles of music into every song," Mtukudzi said.
The music includes bass, electric and acoustic guitars, mixed with keyboards and traditional Zimbabwean percussion instruments.
He said one of his biggest challenges in planning the New Zealand shows had been coming up with a list of songs to perform that would provide a representation of his huge back catalogue.
The songs are sung in his native tongue.
While some have in the past been interpreted as containing subtle references of warning about what disasters the country is being steered towards, they mainly contain healthy doses of general social commentary.
"We talk about social issues and there is always a lot to talk about," he said.
"But an umbrella of what I talk about in my music is self-discipline. Because self-discipline is something that is very important. I think the main aim and purpose of a song is self-discipline and unity."
Mtukudzi's passion as an artist has extended beyond music to other art forms such as dance and drama, which are encompassed at the Pakare Paye art centre he set up in Zimbabwe, but the nucleus is music.
"Whatever I do has got something to do with sound."
Mtukudzi has received plenty of recognition and praise and over the years, including a Time magazine cover spread under the headline "The People's Voice".
But his personal highlights relate to the grassroots of what he does.
"The obvious highlight for every artist or musician is coming up with a song. There are also functions that go particularly well - they are all highlights," he said.
His music career is still going full steam ahead and he appears to find a touch offensive any queries about whether he is likely to drop his pace any time in the future.
"I don't really understand what it means 'slowing down'. I am an artist ... slowing down is not really there, you always have something to do," he said.
He's anxious to do all he can to encourage people to come to the New Zealand shows and promises to give them a memorable experience.
"I hope you can make a call for people to come and watch the shows so we can create a relationship. They should bring their dancing shoes because there is going to be dancing."
- NZPA
Performance
* Who: Oliver "Tuku" Mtukudzi and the Black Spirits
* Where & when: Opera House in Wellington on September 7; Civic in Auckland on September 8
