Jit
music genre
Jit (also known as jiti, jit-jive and the Harare beat) is a style of popular Zimbabwean dance music. It features a swift rhythm played on drums and accompanied by a guitar. Jit evolved out many diverse influences, including domestic chimurenga, Congolese rumba and Tanzanian guitar styles.
The genre was popularized in the 1980s by bands like Chazezesa Challengers, The Four Brothers, and Bhundu Boys. Jit is one of Zimbabwean fast beat, but there is a confusion between the more popular "sungura" which is said to be Jit which was popularised by Chazezesa Challengers and many others including Alick Macheso and Orchestra Mberikwazvo.
Gibbs calls his type of Jit "Urban Jit" due to its mellowness and soft tempo which comprises fused elements of calypso, country, and any other genre depending on the composition as a way to improve its appeal to the new generation as culture is always evolving.
Jit music is originally played by people singing in a circle and playing to or singing with one or two drums called "Mutumba" and these drums are played in rhythm with each other and in sync with the song "vocals". One will be leading with the vocals and the rest will answer to the call and sometimes sing altogether in harmony, the lead vocalist may chant and the people answering will give the vocalist room to do all the adlibing before they answer.
In the early 1970s there was a very popular group called "Dzumbunu Choir". This group used to play raw Jit with the basic instruments of drum or drums and "hosho" jingles.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jit” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.