Tanzania music stories and histories
The Tanzanian rumba music between the 1960s and 1990s, bands had a system of using three or four guitars. There was a lead guitar known as the solo guitar, then there was a supporting guitar called the rhythm guitar, and there was also a heavy guitar known as the bass guitar, and finally, there was…
Katika muziki wa dansi wa Tanzania kati ya mwaka 1960 na mpaka 1990, bendi zilikuwa na utaratibu wa kutumia magitaa matatu au manne. Kulikuwa na gitaa lililoongoza ambalo lilijulikana kama gitaa la solo, kisha kukaweko gitaa lililosindikiza lililoitwa gitaa la ridhim na kukaweko na gitaa zito lililojulikana kama gitaa la bezi na mwisho kulikuwa na…
Kumbukumbu zangu huwa zinanirudisha Iringa nilipokuwa na umri wa miaka minne hivi. Nadhani ndipo nilipoanza kutambua kuwa wazazi wangu walikuwa wanajitayarisha kwenda dansini, nakumbuka sauti ya mama ikisema ‘Haya laleni sisi tunaenda dansini’. Mara ya kwanza kuona watu wakicheza dansi ilikuwa nyakati hizohizo. Pale ulipo sasa Uwanja wa Samora , kulikuwa na shule ya pili…
I started playing in a band in 1975. At that time, I was a teacher in Iringa, and a few of my friends and I formed a band. We had only two guitars and an old drum set, which consisted of a snare drum wrapped in cowhide and a bass drum without a foot pedal,…
Binadamu hanunuliwi kama nguo VIP Ungekuwa dukani ningekununua nikuweke ndani Lakini nikikuchukua bila mapenzi yako utanitoroka Binadamu hanunuliwi kama nguo VIP Ungekuwa dukani ningekununua nikuweke ndani Lakini nikikuchukua bila mapenzi yako utanitoroka These are some of the lyrics from the song VIP. The song was composed by the very talented songwriter Jerry Nashon, popularly known…
There are people who believe that the last month of the year tends to be characterized by many shocking tragedies; it seems this is, in some way, true in the community of Tanzanian musicians. Here are some of the tragedies that befell some Tanzanian musicians in December. Let us go back to the night of…
One day in 1966, I don’t remember the exact date, my father announced that he would be travelling with me to Dar es Salaam. We were then living in Iringa, about 500 kilometers from Dar es Salaam. My father was a sales manager for the CALTEX oil company, the company had provided him a car,…
It was the year 1972. I was a student at Iringa Teachers’ College, now known as Klerruu Teachers’ College. I was with my roommate and fellow guitarist, Yusuph Mdee, the uncle of the famous singer Vanessa Mdee. We had received information that the STC Jazz Band had arrived in Iringa and the musicians were lodging…
Having been a musician in Tanzania for over 50 years, I have witnessed numerous significant events in Tanzania’s history that have profoundly altered the direction of rhumba music.The story begins with the arrival of the Germans. The Germans entered this country first as ‘traders’ under the name German East Africa Company. Not long after they…
The new generation of Tanzanian musicians, particularly Bongo Flava artists, are famous for what are known as ‘beefs’. In Tanzanian music history, this phenomenon is not new; only the term is new. The beef culture in its own way, has always existed in Taarab music and also in urban ‘dansi’ music. The first Tanzanian bands…