The peaceful, lulling, polyrhythmic cycles of Shona Mbira music have become a world music staple. The international rise of Mbira began to gather steam after the 1976 publication of Paul Berliner's landmark book The Soul of Mbira (University of Chicago Press), although it's worth pointing out that ten years earlier, a stage show called Wait a Minim played at the John Golden Theatre in London, featuring Mbira music arranged and directed by Andrew Tracey, son of the legendary South African field recordist Hugh Tracey. These were early events in a steady process of discovery of Shona music around the world. Indeed the instrument is now studied and played by so many musicians, in the United States and Europe particularly,
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