WITCH
Theresa Ng’ambi and Hanna Tembo are featured with two songs on the album "Zango" of lengendary Zamrock band WITCH. It was released on 2 June 2023 on Desert Daze Sound in partnership with Partisan Records, nearly 40 years after Witch's previous studio album. "Zango" won the 2024 "Libera Award" in the category "Best Global Album". Theresa toured with the band in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Scandinavia in 2023/24.
The collaboration with Witch is for Theresa very special. She has a long history with band leader Emmanuel "Jagari" Chanda. Theresa describes him as her father in music, he was already her mentor at Evelyn Hone College in Lusaka during her study time. WITCH is the synonym and short form for "We Intend To Cause Havoc", widely seen as the most popular Zambian band of the 1970s. Please check out the Witch website for tour dates, news and watch the video about "Making of Zango": https://weintendtocausehavoc.com/videos
"Malango" is a story about the wisdom of the bee. The story behind is never judge the book by its cover.
WITCH performing "Unimvwesha Shuga" live in the KEXP studio in Seattle. Recorded August 4, 2023
Theresa Ng'ambi explained about the recordings of "Unimvwesha Shuga" in the studio in Lusaka:
"In that studio, we felt the freedom to express ourselves in ways that are often restricted in our own culture because of us being women. "Unimvwesha Shuga" is an expression of love and passion, we (Hanna and I) were gossiping about our fantasies as girls and the things we dreamt to express but wouldn’t normally be able to. To us, singing these words was a liberation to express our crazy fantasies."
Stefan Lilov, Hanna Tembo, Jagari Chanda, Theresa Ng'ambi, Patrick Mwondela, Joe Lyle, JJ Whitefield and Jacco Gardner (Witch KEXP crew)
Hanna Tembo and Theresa Ng'ambi on US Witch tour 2023.
“‘Waile’ was one of the songs that I brought to the WITCH when I joined in 1978. While it was played live often back in the day, it was never recorded until the new formation of the band picked it up 43 years later during a rehearsal on an island in Kenya, where the band embraced it and made it their own. A few months after that, they gave it a new lease of life by recording it in Lusaka’s legendary DB Studios. Sang in my native language Luvale, the subject matter is a nostalgic wailing for home of ancient African tribes that would eventually settle in Zambia.” – Patrick Mwondela
WITCH live in session at Karma Studios, London, December 2023.
KCRW presents WITCH performing “Stop the Rot” Live from KCRW HQ, Santa Monica, California, 2023.
Our cover of Chaka Khan‘s banger “Ain’t Nobody”… We recorded it at the legendary Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco, California in June 2023 to honour Chaka Khan’s introduction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.