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Arts Correspondent
It will be a night of “Dendera vs Sungura” old skool music tonight at Club 263 when new wheel spinner on the block DJ Next explores yesteryear hits from the genres. Although dendera is often bracketed in the sungura genre, it has its special attributes that make it unique and has had singers that play an identical beat.

The genre was pioneered by the late Chimbetu brothers Simon and Naison as Marxist Brothers and it has stood the test of time. The Chimbetu family later had other musicians like Briam, Allan, Suluman, Tryson and Douglas that also pursued the genre after its founders.

Save for Briam who is now late, the other Chimbetus are still in the genre. Then there are many other musicians from other families that were also lured by the genre. These include Chamu Boroma, Paddy Kamusakara, Richard Sakala and Joe “Local” Nyamungoma.

Interestingly, Nyamungoma is the brains behind tonight’s event and he will be going by the name DJ Next as he ventures into the art of wheel-spinning.

His love for the genre has inspired him to take people down memory lane to the golden dendera hits. But he thought dendera alone would not be enough, so he decided to pair it with sungura. Many yesteryear sungura hits will be on rotation against dendera oldies.

A number of musicians that include Alick Macheso, Jah Prayzah, Peter Moyo, Suluman Chimbetu and Allan Chimbetu have been invited to the event. It will be double celebration for Nyamungoma who will be introducing himself as DJ Next and also celebrating his birthday.

It will be a time for him to also share his music journey that saw him rubbing shoulders with Simon Chimbetu and later worked with Prince Tendai before releasing his own album titled “Mhoroi Mhoroi”.

He has had other exploits in the music industry and is well known in sungura and dendera circles. He said it is his desire to remind people of yesteryear hits of dendera and sungura.

“Back in the day, there was serious competition in music. Dendera music had its own followers and the main man was Simon Chimbetu. Naison also did his part when he left Marxist Brothers, but Simon remained the face of the genre there were also sungura stars that time and they are were so many in this genre. We had the likes of Leonard Dembo, John Chibadura, System Tazvida, Marshall Munhumumwe and Khiama Boys among others.

“Hits from some of these musicians will make up the playlist. However, we will also spice the golden oldies with new hits to carter for the younger generation.”