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Arts Reporter

The much awaited album “The Great Physician” by the popular choral group The Vine is out and according to the choir director the visuals for tracks will be released every Friday, one by one.

The first song “Imbirai Jehovah”, featuring South African gospel songstress Mabongi Mabaso was released on social media last Friday and has received overwhelming response from fans.

Earlier this year, The Vine hosted a live DvD recording dubbed “The Great Physician”, at the Harare International Conference Centre featuring gospel greats such as South African-based Soweto Gospel Choir, Mabongi Mabaso, Mahalia Buchanan and Everton Mlalazi among others. 

The event which ran under the theme “Feel Africa”, where guests turned up clad in African attire, was talk of the town after setting the bar high in the showbiz from stage set up to music prowess.

The songs were written, produced and arranged by Nigel Nyangombe while music director Everton Mlalazi happens to be the executive producer.

In an interview, Mlalazi, he said they are happy so far with the feedback from the fans and have taken their time to prepare a product for the international market.

“The music videos will be released as singles every Friday on ‘The Vine’ YouTube channel until they are all done. The audio album is already available on all digital platforms,” he said. “We did the live recording at the HICC in May and now we launch the visuals as promised. We didn’t want to rush the project hence we took our time because we want to meet the international standard.”

Asked how was the experience working with the  Soweto Gospel Choir, Mlalazi said it was a learning curve.

“It was a great experience working with the Soweto Gospel Choir, Mabongi and Mahalia among others. They are very humble yet extremely talented.”

“We have learnt a lot and I should say that they were very easy to work with.”

The music director said preparations were at advanced stage for their upcoming tour to promote the album.

“We have started promoting the album via all platforms. We are happy that it will also be played on international media platforms such as television and radio stations. Very soon you will be seeing it on Trace and One Gospel channels. We will also be hosting a big show in South Africa at the end of September,” he explained.

“We have also received inquiries and invitations from as far afield as Namibia and Kenya,” said Mlalazi.

Explaining the album, the director and musician said, “We believe that there is no problem too big for God to solve. It could be heartache, physical sickness, economic and social ills, that is why we named it The Great Physician.

“The Vine is grounded on God’s word and the great commission to spread the good news of hope and salvation in Jesus Christ to all people. The Vine isn’t static but dynamic and also supports members who might want to go solo and this may release spots for new people.”