Inedit - Tanzania. Songs of the Wagogo and Kuria

Tanzania. Songs of the Wagogo and Kuria
[Tanzanie - Chants des Wagogo et des Kuria]
Inedit W 260041, recorded in Paris 1992, CD released 1992

1. Wagogo song - Sote Tulifurahia Kama Siku Ya Arusi
2. Wagogo song - Mhilime Magongo
3. Wagogo song - Ngayagawa Mlungu Yamanyile
4. Wagogo song - Wababa Mwalolawa, Kama Nyinyi Baba Nasi Tumekuwa
5. Wagogo song - Lusungu Ya Mwana
6. Wagogo song - Dunia
7. Kuria songs - Parepa murapa wetu; Tarime na musoma...

☆☆☆ Issa Juma & Super Wanyika Stars ☆☆☆ World Defeats the Grandfathers ☆ Swinging Swahili Rumba 1982-86

01. Barua (The Letter)
02. Ma Eliza (Mama Elizabeth)
03. Mpita Njia (A Passer-by)
04. Maria
05. Mwanaidi
06. Si Mimi (It's Not Me)
07. Wacha Waseme (Let Them Talk)
08. Utalia na nani (Who Will You Cry With)
09. Mony (Monica)

For nearly thirty years, the "Wanyika" bands were a sensation in Kenya. Institutions of renown they were a dominate presence in Nairobi's nightclubs and recording industry, and in their heyday there were three or four bands each simultaneously bearing a Wanyika name, together with several spinoff groups operating under different names. The rumba music these bands played had its stylistic origins in Tanzania but rather quickly took on a unique Kenyan identity. It was propelled by light percussion, the rhythm often on the high hat cymbals and conga drums and made sweet with a delicate interplay between rhythm and solo guitars. The sound was instrumentally sparse with a rich bass filling in the gaps in syncopated bursts. Trumpets and saxes were sometimes used in recordings but rarely in live performance. On top of this were simple two-part harmony melodies in Swahili that could be widely understood across East Africa. This was the defining sound of Kenyan Swahili rumba in the late 70s and early 80s. Issa Juma was a pivotal voice in creating that sound and taking it in new directions as the 80s progressed.

His soulful voice having graced Les Wanyika's breakout hit "Sina Makosa" in 1979, Tanzanian singer Issa Juma soon went his own way, establishing with the remnants of Orchestra Jobiso yet another 'Wanyika' splinter group, variously entitled Waanyika, Wanyika Stars, Super Wanyika, Wanyika Super Les Les etc., hereafter all collectively referred to as "Super Wanyika Stars." For a time Super Wanyika gave the other Wanyika bands a run for their money with notable hits like 'Ateka' and 'Sigalame.

Issa Juma underwent a series of personal misfortunes in the late 1980s, including six months in prison for working without a valid permit. Following this he withdrew to Kericho in western Kenya and stopped performing. It was around this time that he suffered a stroke that left one side of his body paralyzed. Juma died in the early 1990s ~ source

initially heard Issa Juma & the 'Waanyika' incarnation of this group courtesy of the superb World Service blog who dropped their masterful Pole Pole LP from 1984, from which only one song, 'Utalia ta Nanani' is featured on this compilation. respekt. this one comes highly recommended for summerthyme blues. thanks & praise to the ubiquitous Ibiza for uploading these superb stabs at a robust 320k. who will you cry with?

VA - Tanzania: The Art of Hukwe Ubi Zawose [JVC]

Tanzania: The Art of Hukwe Ubi Zawose
Jvc/Sire
1994
B000003MOX

1. Sote Tulifurahia
2. Sisi Vijana - Lubeleje Chiute, Dickson Mkwama, Hukwe Zawose
3. Chilimba
4. Mateso - Lubeleje Chiute, Dickson Mkwama, Hukwe Zawose
5. Motyani
6. Lukunzi
7. Nelson Mandela
8. Tuna Haki Ya Kujivunia Utamaduni Wetu

Hukwe Ubi Zawose was born 1938 in Doduma, Tanzania,and died 30 December 2003.As a child Zawose tended the cattle on his family's farm, but also found the time to teach himself to play the izeze (Tanzanian violin), marimba (thumb piano),chirimba (a metal-tongued instrument plucked with the thumbs), and filimbi (traditional flute). Travelling to the villages near his home, he would play and sing and became a legend in his own land, a clan leader and community mentor who had single-handedly breathed new life into the ancient traditional music of the Wagogo people. His extraordinary 5-octave vocal range - switching between a high, feminine sound and a form of throat-singing and his exquisite playing of the buzzing ilimba thumb piano or the sensuous one-stringed izeze fiddle mesmerized audiences. As an adult he became a favourite artist of Julius Nyerere, the first President of Tanzania and Zawose became sort of a living legend. Fantastic stories of mythical power rose, making Zawose an immortal and divine being; his voice possessed magical healing powers.Of his own talent, he said, "When I was a young man my voice was so sweet that people would often cry when I sang."

As much as the content, it's the ambience of Zawose's music that gets you. It moves unhurriedly, lulling in the sound of the ilimba (thumb piano) and izeze (fiddle). But once his voice (and those of Dickson L. Mkwama and Lubeleje M. Chiute, who accompany him here) enters, you're completely transported. You don't know what he's singing about, but you are there with him, as the birds' wings sound in the trees, and the leaves rustle in the forest. Good music should take you to another time and place, and by the time this is over, you feel as if you know Tanzania in your blood, its heartbeats, its traditions, and lore. And you can't ask for more from music than that.

it might not look like much but i guarantee it's one of the best things you never heard