Mhonodoro, meaning the lion spirit in Shona, a language of Zimbabwe, formed spontaneously, melding Zimbabwean folk and American jazz traditions.

For a month during the summer of 2019, Idit Shner quietly listened from her side of the backyard fence to her neighbor, John Mambira, jamming with Ratie Dangarembwa and Gilbert Zvamaida. Idit knew them from the music scene in Eugene, Oregon, but she hadn’t played with them before. She gathered the courage to invite herself over. And listen. She’d removed the fence from between them, but she kept herself to the role of audience member. Then, one day as the jam session broke, she asked: “Next time, is it OK if I bring my saxophone over?” They burst out laughing. “Finally! We thought you’d never ask!” Half a year later, and the pandemic brought John and Idit together in a “parent pod” as their children attended online school together, rotating houses. Torrey Newhart, who lived walking distance up the hill, joined the pod. Idit asked Garrett Baxter and Ken Mastrogiovanni to join the backyard sessions and the group whiled away the lockdown hours writing and playing music (and drinking lots of beer).