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Fred Zindi Music
Among these musicians was one, Cookie Tutani, whose thunderous bass made everyone want to play with him in their band. His skill and prowess on the bass guitar was second to none. If Alick Macheso was among these musicians at the time, he would have remained a non-entity when it came to comparisons with Cookie Tutani.

Indeed, Cookie ended up playing with several bands. His first group was known as the Weetstones which was a pioneering youthful band of the 1960’s. At a time when Harare’s (at the time known as Salisbury) city centre venues were off limits for blacks, Cookie and his Weetstones colleagues were so good that they managed to get invitations to play at such prohibited venues. Highlights of the Weetsones included invitations by a cigarette company to play at the Glamis Stadium in a contest dubbed “the Texan Rock Band Contest” where established black bands competed with white groups in rock music. This was held during the annual Salisbury Agricultural Show.

After the Weetstones Cookie joined the Four Aces Band.
The Four Aces comprised Cookie Tutani on bass, David Marumahoko – on lead guitar, Anselmo (young brother to Jonny “Papas” so called because Jonny sang only one tune entitled “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” by James Brown on drums).

Those who were in their teens in the 1970’s in the townships of Mbare (known at the time as Harare), Highfield, Kambuzuma, Mabvuku, and Mufakose will no doubt remember the musical festivals at Gwanzura stadium, the running contests between Cookie’s Four Aces and Manu Kambani’s Sound Effects with the great Jethro Shasha on the drums.

Then there were the musical shows at Stodart Hall in Mbare and Cyril Jennings Hall in Highfield and other prime locations.
While the question of which band was better has never been fully resolved up to this day, there was no doubt that Cookie was the best bass guitarist of his time!

The band which succeeded the Four Aces was called Baked Beans. It comprised Cookie on bass, the great drummer Jethro Shasha, Louis Mhlanga on lead guitar and James Indi.

This was a great ensemble of Zimbabwe’s finest talent. While these boys had their roots in rock and underground music, this group showed great depth and versatility across several genres. They were a class act which ruled as Zimbabwe journeyed towards independence. This is why Cookie was able to play bass in his next group formed just after independence, the Broadway Quartet which was an entirely jazz band.

When Zimbabwe attained independence in 1980, amongst the returnees were Cookie’s uncle, Smangaliso Tutani who had spent many years in Zambia and a stint in the US. The music industry saw realignment. Smangaliso, Jonah Marumahoko, Chris Chabuka, Jonny “Papas” (elders to Cookie). They roped in the younger Cookie into a revival of the great Broadway Quartet.

When Rennie Grinaker opened the Holiday Inn in Harare in 1984, the first group to be invited to be the resident band was none other than the Broadway Quartet which became the resident band at the then top entertainment destination of the 1980’s, the Inn Place at Holiday Inn along Samora Machel Avenue. The Broadway Quartet was a world class group, well groomed, well dressed and  well presented. In 1980, Cookie married Elizabeth Yusikwamwaka. The two were blessed with a daughter, Barbara, but six years later they split up.

However, in 1992, Cookie got married again to Barbara, an American national who was  working for the USA Information Services in Zimbabwe. The couple was to later relocate to Johannesburg in 1994 where Barbara had transferred to following the independence of that country. Talented Cookie went on to play with  many groups including Hugh Masekela’s band Harare, Sipho “Hotsticks” Mabuse and many others while they were in Johannesburg. He also worked on several projects with his colleagues from the Zimbabwe days namely Jethro Shasha and Louis Mhlanga. Cookie also went on to study music at a local technikon where, as friends and colleagues recall, younger students referred most questions to him rather than to their lecturers.

Around 2000, Cookie and Barbara moved to Washington DC, US, Cookie and Barbara in the United States began to experience marital problems. They were to separate around 2005. Barbara died in 2008. Cookie relocated from Washington DC to Dallas, Texas. Cookie and his late wife Barbara did not have any children. Cookie Tutani, the son of Reverend Samuel Tutani died on the December 30 last year in Dallas, Texas, US. At the beginning of January, 2014, I was shocked to hear of his death when I bumped into Lillian Tutani at a shopping centre in Queensdale and I assumed he had already been buried. Apparently, at the time of his death, he had lost his passport and that delayed the processing of the repatriation of his body back to Zimbabwe.

His body finally arrived in the country on Monday the March 17, 2014. Two days later, after a brief funeral service at 14 Prince William Close in Waterfalls which was attended by fellow musicians who among them included Tanga wekwa Sando, he was finally laid to rest at his great grandfather’s  Nzondelelo Farm in Marirangwe South.

I first met Cookie in Mutare in the early 1970’s when he and The Four Aces Band had been contracted to play in Mutare for six months by a Greek man we all knew as Basil. I was in a band called The Pop Settlers then.

We were the top band in that region but after the arrival of Cookie on bass, David Marumahoko on guitar Anselmo on drums and Edgar on keyboards, the Four Aces became our competition.

I remember one evening, we got locked up in the rehearsal room until mid-night by Francis Mubayiwa, who was our manager, in order to learn to play “I Can’t Get No (Satisfaction)” by the Rolling Stones because the Four Aces were playing it. The following morning, I went to school with my eyes puffed out due to lack of sleep.

Cookie and his contemporaries were heroes of their times. They faced the hardship of the colonial regime, but through sheer talent, passion and determination, they overcame and excelled in their trade.

Despite his huge talent, Cookie remained a humble musician throughout his lifetime. He was quiet, respectful and a gentleman.
At the time of his death, he had become a grandfather as his one and only child, Barbara from his first marriage with Elizabeth in Zimbabwe, had given him two grandchildren.

Cookie gave us beautiful psychedelic sounds of our time and we will always remember him. May his dear soul rest in eternal peace. As his family prefers to put it, “lala ngoxolo mtana kaM’buyiselwa mzukulu kaTutani”.

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