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A STORY OF PASSION & RESSILIENCE

March 17, 2025 - 07:42 AM The benefits of a palm tree are numerous. These are captured in one of the poems by Bokhoeit Amana, titled "Mti Mle." It was Awillo Mike’s love for poetry that endeared him to the poet’s works, and when the time came for him and his fellow founders of Jammazi to name their band, he suggested the name. "Mnazi" is a palm tree. It yields a juicy fruit, which is very edible and nutritious. It also carries a sap that can be fermented into palm wine, popularly known as mnazi along the Kenyan Coast. Its leaves offer a classic roofing material, and its hollow trunk can be used to make furniture,...

WHAT CHANGED THE ORIGINAL CONGOLESE MUSIC STYLE.

March 12, 2025 - 09:00 PM WHAT CHANGED THE ORIGINAL CONGOLESE MUSIC STYLE. The recent trend of increasingly programmed music over live instrumentation is because it's cheaper to record and release. Half the battle of making music today is done when you can program percussions, horn sections, and synths on the keyboard. Where back in the day, you had to factor in whether live horns would sync well with the guitars, keyboards, and drums. This means that music composition was the foundation of song creation, as opposed to improvising melodies on a keyboard or guitar partition and then stretching them out into songs. In order to conserve cost, rehearsals were constant and music compositions of some of our......

JOHNY BOKELO: A SCION OF A MUSICALLY RICH FAMILY

February 03, 2025 - 05:33 PM Are musicians born or made? Any attempt to Respond to this question in the context of Congolese rumba; is likely to land you at the doorstep of the Isenge family. This is for the reason that this is easily the largest musical family in the history of the genre. The Isenge octad, comprising eight musical superstars, compares well and even surpasses "The Jackson’s five" of the USA, Mushrooms quintet, sons of Kaloleni Giriama in Kenya, and even the six musical children of Dorcas, popularly known as Bana Kadori, of Kenyan benga, whose patriarch was Ochieng’ Kabaselle. For the Jacksons, the youngest star shone the brightest, while for Mushrooms and the Kadori, it was the eldest, but......

THE MUTUASHI QUEEN'S REIGN EXTENDS BEYOND HER DEATH

January 23, 2025 - 10:15 AM It has been two years since the Queen of Mutuashi, Tshala Muana, breathed her last in a hospital in Kinshasa, where she had been admitted. Her death marked the end of an illustrious career that lasted three decades and saw her become a celebrity not just in her home country, the DRC, but across the continent. Although DRC has had a galaxy of women musicians, from the days of Pauline Lisanga at Loningisa studios in 1952 to the era of Marcel Ebibya, Lucy Eyenga, and the generation of Mbilia Bell, and even those who came after her, like Cindy Le Coeur, Tshala Muana's contribution to Congolese music stands out for several reasons. She is the face of Mutwashi. She did not invent the dance, but......

Zaiko Langa Langa

January 15, 2025 - 04:55 AM Today we take our spades and dig into the rich Biography of Zaiko Langa Langa. This is an Innovative Congolese rumba band, formed in 1970. Its most prolific members included:Michel Anto "Evoloko" (born Kinshasa, May 20, 1954; vocal), Matima Kinuani (born Sona Bata, Congo-Kinshasa, Apr. 14, 1951; died Liege, Belgium, May 29, 1996; guitar), Félix Manuwaku Waku (born Kinshasa, Aug. 19, 1954; guitar), Siméon Mavuela Somo (born Congo-Kinshasa; vocal), Meridjo Belobi (born Congo-Kinshasa; traps), D.V. Moanda (born Congo-Kinshasa, 1947; died Kinshasa, Jan. 9, 1984; founder), Muaka Mbeka "Bapius" (born Boma, Congo-Kinshasa, Feb. 27, 1951; bass), Nyoka Longo "Jossart" (born......

KALENJIN MUSIC HISTORY

December 23, 2024 - 05:18 AM In a whirlwind tour across Kenya's hinterland sampling the country's music from each community, the picturesque scenery of the lush green tea plantains of Kericho prepares one psychologically, for an enchanting musical cuisine, especially factoring the reality that Chandarana, the legendary music recording company set base in the town before the country's independence, long before other towns enjoyed such privileges. Kericho is home to the Kipsigis sub-tribe of the Kalenjin community. They are the most populous of these 11 subtribes, and some quarters also consider them elitist. The sub-tribe occupying two counties has the most vibrant music industry, which can be traced to the......

Mama Africa: Miriam Makeba Legacy Lives on.

November 23, 2024 - 07:05 PM Same date 92 years ago, in Prospect Township, near Johannesburg, South Africa, a South African-born singer who became known as Mama Afrika, Miriam Makeba was born. (died November 10, 2008, Castel Volturno, near Naples, Italy). She is one of the world’s most prominent Black African performers in the 20th century. The daughter of a Swazi mother and a Xhosa father, Makeba grew up in Sophiatown, a segregated Black township outside of Johannesburg, and began singing in a school choir at an early age. She became a professional vocalist in 1954, performing primarily in southern Africa. By the late 1950s, her singing and recording had made her well-known in South Africa, and......

CONGOLESE RUMBA

November 04, 2024 - 09:10 AM THE GENRE IS CONGOLESE RUMBA It is not every day that you encounter a footballer who can’t tell the difference between volleyball and football, but in the world of entertainment and specifically music, writers, broadcasters, commentators, and even musicians seem to get a little mixed up when it comes to identifying the genre of that Congolese popular beat, the one that was popularized by Franco. The broader genre of the music is rumba. This beat has its origin in the Caribbean Island of Cuba, the Latin American country that ended up with significant populations of blacks as a result of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade that saw Africans traded as slaves to provide labor in the......

KENYAN EXPORTED HIS GUITAR WIZARDRY TO CANADA

October 27, 2024 - 02:46 PM KENYAN EXPORTED HIS GUITAR WIZARDRY TO CANADA ADAM NDARO SOLOMON is a multi-talented musician who was a 2005 Juno Award Winner and a double winner at TAMA (Toronto African Music Awards) for Best Release and Best New Performers in 1997. Adam was born in Mombasa, Kenya, and began performing at an early age, playing kivoti (flute) and kayaamba (shaker) at village celebrations and festivals. He established his career playing lead guitar and singing on recordings and videos with Kenya's most popular bands and musicians, including Joseph Kamaru, Daudi Kabaka, Zetta success band, Kabasselleh Ochieng, Bana Citoyen, Super Kalles, Bana Batoto, Super Mazembe, Less Wanyika, Popo Lipo of Lessa Lessan,......

THE INDOMITABLE MANGWANA

October 26, 2024 - 05:36 AM THE INDOMITABLE MANGWANA. The year is 1963. Tabuley and Mangwana share the leadership of the newly created African Fiesta, an offshoot of the popular African Jazz of Grand Kalle. Tabuley had scouted for a fresh talent, a new singing sensation by the name Mangwana. The young man was only 17 years old. Tabuley invited Nico to come to see the newfound. A wonderful singer he was, as they discovered from the brief audition. The biggest challenge was that he was still a minor and a student in a secondary school. With word doing rounds that the band has a new singing bird, Club Petit Bois was jammed that Saturday, but trouble was lurking. Mangwana's father had sent cops to arrest......

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