Music From Mozambique, Vol. 3

Chopi men may be garbage collectors and street sweepers by day, but virtuosic timbila players by night. Timbila, a type of xylophone in this case using tin-can resonators instead of the traditional massala fruit shell one might still find in the country, are gathered into a percussion orchestra to play partially improvised, complex contrapuntal music. Beyond the sounds of the timbila, a pair of brothers who sell charcoal for their living expertly play the shitendé and shivelan, stringed instruments played with sticks or bows. This is music of Chopi workers—from the cities and the countryside.