musical link: Kwaito, my kind of sound.
July 22, 2008, 1:03 amKwaito fire
I have always been a Kwaito man.
Ever since I had my first brush with the sound almost 10 years ago now in Harare. TKZee were just beginning to rule the airwaves and the clubs with a ton of monster hits from their album Halloween. I fell into love affair that I have never been able to wean myself from even now 10 years on.
Two links and three tracks for you:
+ Christopher Porter’s excellent blog, The surburbs are killing us carried a story almost 2 years ago titled “Kwaito, is the sound of young South Africa.” that you absolutely must read.
+ Your second link dropped into my RSS feed about 8 weeks ago from the South African Deep House site deeper.co.za whom I have linked to over and over. It took the form of this link to an interview with Charles Webster, producer and DJ ,extra-ordinary about his initial experience playing his eye-opening first session playing deep house to a Kwaito-loving crowd in South Africa.
Even better is the excellent 50 minute mix by Vinny DaVinci who runs houseafrika.com that you will find right at the end of the article. The pedal really hits the metal at about 20m01s.
And a trio of tracks from the group that started it all for me.
TKZee - Palafala (Midnight lover mix)
and of course, the club classic Dlala Mapanstula
In closing, thank you all for your comments on my last post. I feel a little better knowing that you are all willing to cut me a little slack. And a special thank you to Joe for sharing that it is OK to take a break. I guess that this means I can let you know that everything on heavy rotation right now at Casa Ntwiga is definitely old school deep, Groove Armada’s - Another late night and Gus Gus’s - This is normal (killer! bass! - for those of you who are tempted, go to epitonic.com to pick up the EP of the track Polyesterday from this CD )
One last hit:
+ You cannot, and I mean cannot, beat The Onion for great satire.
—Steve | 1 comment
(posted in the Kenya, Arts & Culture, Africa, Music, Cool, Deep House, Life, The Internet, pre-1990 East African music, pre-1990 African music, African Music category)
musical link: you sent them in.
July 17, 2008, 1:09 amI hate doing posts that have no context - it makes me feel like I am just throwing stuff on the wall and hoping that some of it sticks. On the other hand, finding the time to research a post and write something meaty is becoming increasingly difficult to do.
So, I find myself battling blogger’s block.
What next?
I certainly do not have enough traction to continue with things they way they are. Let’s face it. 3 weeks between posts is way too long. On the other hand, I could post every day but it would be a couple of tracks and there would absolutely be nothing in the way of context. This is the problem I find myself trying to face.
Lydia and Charles (who went in to work on a Sunday, no less to try and make this track upload happen, thank you so very much) send in a couple of tracks that we have had requests for over the last month or so.
Enjoy.
And drop me a comment and let me know what you think about what I am doing here.
First off, Kenya Blue Stars in the track that made them what they are. That, of course, is Moreno on vocals.
—Steve | 20 comments
(posted in the Kenya, Arts & Culture, Africa, Music, Cool, Life, The Internet, pre-1990 East African music, pre-1990 African music, African Music, Artists, Osibisa, Patrick Balisidya and Afro 70 Jazz category)
musical link: Orchestra Kiam & kentanzavinyl.com
June 30, 2008, 12:16 amI am back in business.
Thank you all for being so patient.
First off, the biggest news I have had all year - all from a comment that I fished out of my spam folder not 10 minutes ago.
Tim Clifford has set up a new website with a discography of more than 1200 Kenyan and Tanzanian 45s at kentanzavinyl.com
This is an amazing resource and you can be sure that it will become a favorite haunt of mine going forward for reference or just to find out what I should be looking for.
This is an amazing achievement Tim! Kudos.
Just one quick track super quick before before I call it a day.
This is the title track from Orchestra Kiam’s 1974 release Baya Baya that I was able to pick up this last week. Orchestra Kiam ( Orchestra Kiamuangana Matete ) did not survive the exile of their leader, Verckys Veve from Zaire by Mobutu in the early 70s. By this time though, he had already gone on to start the Editions Veve label - much to the chagrin of Franco who TP OK jazz he was still a member of - that we all love so much so maybe that was a good thing.
Strangely enough, it has proven very difficult to find good material on Orchestra Kiam in spite of the fact that they had more than 14 studio albums. This is probably due to the fact that the some of the members of Orchestra Kiam were simultaneously in other groups at the time.
—Steve | 21 comments
(posted in the Arts & Culture, Africa, Music, Life, The Internet, pre-1990 East African music, pre-1990 African music, African Music, Artists, Orchestra Kiam category)
… an update …
June 24, 2008, 1:15 pmSorry for the go-slow folks, my computer died.
It was all very sudden and painless.
She will be missed.
No flowers, in lieu of donations, you may send tracks for me to post when I save up enough to buy a new one. Current estimate on the time line for that is 2.5 weeks per “she who runs the finances”. And this is only if I am very very good.
- Steve
—Steve | 10 comments
(posted in the Technology, Life, The Internet, Broken category)
feed the addiction: TP OK Jazz, Expat Wives and other things.
June 16, 2008, 11:15 amPlease take a minute to read and listen to an amazing post on and set of tracks track Franco and the history of his TP OK Jazz in the “Age of Authenticité” over at Likembe.
On an unrelated note, for an inside glimpse at an alternate view of life in Kenya, make sure you take a second to check out the blog Africa Expat Wives Club as well that has an very interesting post on Kenya Cowboy’s kid stereotypes up right now.
One last item: we finally made Time Magazine.
AfriGadget, one of the other places where I blog finally got a mention on Time in a list of the 50 best sites of 2008.
While we have been featured multiple online fora like BoingBoing and have a regular segment on the BBC, this is still quite a treat.
—Steve | 23 comments
(posted in the Kenya, Africa, Music, Cool, The world we live in, Life, The Internet, pre-1990 African music, African Music category)
… if you are wondering whats happening …
June 13, 2008, 2:39 pmJust trying to get the EURO 2008 out of the way.
For those of you in North America who cannot catch the games on any channel, try Justin TV. Right now, its half time with 13500 people watching France vs. The Netherlands on the channel that I am on.
Regular transmission will resume shortly.
[edit]
Just found out that there is a very high-quality feed at this link
[/edit]
—Steve | 4 comments
(posted in the Arts & Culture, Cool, Life, Sport, The Internet, Euro2008 category)
musical link: who is this
June 7, 2008, 12:28 amA request: can anyone help me identify the group, singer and track in this clip please? It is about 45 seconds from Ukoo Fulani/Mau Mau’s Dandora Burning.
Since the singing is pure Swahili rather than Lingala, it makes me think that this is one of the Wanyika off-shoots or a group with some Tanzanian’ heritage.
Can anyone help?
—Steve | 22 comments
(posted in the Kenya, Arts & Culture, Africa, Music, Cool, The world we live in, Life, The Internet, pre-1990 East African music, pre-1990 African music, African Music, Artists category)
musical link: African Jazz & Mirwais
June 2, 2008, 9:58 pmTutaimba: we will sing.
For those of you who might be fortunate enough to come from Tanzania back in the day (yes I know its a big country and that not everyone knows everyone else), you might know or know of Alnoor Premji better known as Furahisha Moyo who was formerly of the store of the same name.. It turns out that not only has been a regular reader and lurker at the blog for a while now, he actually dropped me an email and asked me to share a tune with you.
This tune is a classic in more ways than one. It is one of those tracks that you hear about and think that you will never have a chance to enjoy. Mathieu Kuka was the composer of BB69, today’s tune that was huge for African Jazz in the 60s. ( buy here or here). According to the Googles ( you can find the translation here), the track is all about
“a man on his knees, bowed to the whims of a courtesan who enjoys the power that his body and its charms grant him without worrying that it creates havoc in this game of love when she triumphs.”
OK, a bit much me thinks.Especially since listening to it makes me realize that the lyrical storyline is just another “girl, don’t keep me waiting” story. Don’t get me wrong, the singing is fantastic - hence the line at the start of the post - and the guitar licks in there are stupendous. But the story is fomulaic.
Still, a great little number. And the hopeful cheerfulness of it all drove it to number 1.
Mathieu went on to join Les Noirs who were big in Nairobi for a while especially with Sikiya Sauce, a track that has turned out to be Zim’s “Moby Dick” - the need to figure out whom the Sikiya Sauce catch-phrase belonged to and what it was all about. If anyone knows about the “Sikiya Sauce” shout out or anything about the original of the line, please drop us a comment and share.
But , as usual. I digress.
For a great piece on the role of Congolese music in the culture of the nation, please read this piece by Bob White of UC Santa Cruz
So, if you know Alnoor (or not), drop him a thank you comment.
Here is the track: no art for this one I am afraid. While I have a picture of African Jazz, it is from the musical giants era almost 20 years later in the early 80s when Manu Dibango, Docteur Nico, Roer Izeidi and Tabu Ley ruled.
And then, there is the movie Snatch.
I must have watched this movie maybe 10, 11 times in theatre when it came out back at the turn of the millenium. And then another maybe 30 times on DVD. ( yes, 11 times. In the theatres. Thank you Linda, you must have set a record going with me the 4 or 5 times that you did especially considering that you were not into this deal as much as I was).
Best part of this awesome movie?
Mirwais - pumping out Disco science as things went ripe for various characters in the movie.
For Tyrone, it was all about being reeled in by Brick Top and his clique of nice guys lead by “what have I told you about thinking” Erroll for a chat with Brick Top’s little puppies.
For Turkish, it was all about losing a nice new caravan on top of the one he had already paid for and been cheated out of by Mickey and boys at the gypsy campsite.
The blend of hunter and hunted, life and death, flight or fight in this sequence in the movie coupled with the music is just an amazing combination. That is one tight tune. That high-pitched distortion lead on that track is just so so super bad. And the movie is full of astounding dialogue and characters who grip you and don’t let go.
Well, watch the scene for yourself.
—Steve | 31 comments
(posted in the Kenya, Arts & Culture, Africa, Music, Deep House, Minorities, The world we live in, The Internet, pre-1990 East African music, TV, Film, pre-1990 African music, Auto, My Links, back in the day ..., Artists, African Jazz, Mirwais category)
musical link: Orchestra Les Mangelepa
May 28, 2008, 1:42 pmThanks to Mutunga, a translation of Nyako Konya, the all-time most popular track that has ever gone up here, is now available.
Here are the lyrics to the Orchestra Les Mangelepa track. ( you can find the rest of the track at this link )
For those of you who may want to dance along as you listen to this, you may want to go to the post that made this blog what is it.
And you can even find the post in its original form here.
A little background. Nyako Konya has a long history with me. More than 2 years ago, I posted for the very first time on Zilizopendwa at this link. I was shocked to check out my server logs 10 days later and find that this one post had received more traffic than all other posts on the site combined. Thus, this zilizopendwa blog was born.
It has been a great 2 years and I think that this is a very suitable way to celebrate.
Thank you Mutunga.
On the way out: one last update. You all know I love deep house. Well, check out some of Nairobi’s finest - Just a Band in Iwinyo Piny (via AfroMusing)
Double-tight!!
—Steve | 23 comments
(posted in the Images, Music, The Internet, pre-1990 East African music, pre-1990 African music, African Music category)
musical link: Franco et. TP OK Jazz & Soukous Stars.
May 23, 2008, 8:25 amOne or my esteemed readers, Esororo, came through in a big way.
Here is musical gold - the much sought-after Nakoma Mbanda Na Mama Ya Mobali Ngai.
Franco Luambo Makiadi & TP OK Jazz - Nakoma Mbanda Na Mama Ya Mobali Ngai
And then 2 versions of Mado that I posted a while back that I have been listening to recently. One by the Maestro himself and another by Soukous Stars.
Franco Luambo Makiadi & TP OK Jazz - Infidelite Mado
Watch out for the amazing guitar work on this live performance that Soukous Stars gave in New Jersey a couple of years back after the bridge.
Soukous Stars et. Malage - Infidelite Mado
Parting shot:
For those of you who like Sesame Street who are also disco fans (yes, people like this exist! I know, I am one of them), check this out.
—Steve | 24 comments
(posted in the Images, Africa, Music, The world we live in, Life, The Internet, pre-1990 East African music, Links, Film, African Music category)
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