Zanzibara
Back in May, we enjoyed a two-hour Globalwize 'African Presence' special introduction to the music of Tanzania with Prof. Dr. Imani Sanga, which you can relisten to here. In it, we encountered the 'taarab' genre, a musical style popular in Tanzania and Kenya, "influenced by the musical traditions of the African Great Lakes, North Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent." Then late last month, WeltBeat host and selector Jean Trouillet played a track by Zuhura & Morning Star Orchestra in his "Globalwize Radioshow #453", which prompted us to dig deeper and give the corresponding, 2021-released various artists compilation on Buda Musique a spin. Long story short, not only did we give it a spin, but we decided to include it here on Greedy, hoping that a wider public will appreciate is as much as we did.
The "Zanzibara: First Modern Taarab Vibes from Mombasa & Tanga, 1970-1990" compilation presents a 15-track collection of songs that are a sonic precursor to later taarab productions and thus dubbed the 'first modern'. As the release notes detail, this "new taarab emerged in the East African coastal cities of Mombasa and Tanga [in the early 1970s]" seeing groups like Matano Juma's Morning Star Orchestra "[replace] strings with distorted organ sounds, amplified violin or clarinet" while other artists such as "Zuhura Swaleh promoted an electrified tashkota as a major new sound in her band, digging deep in coastal ngoma rhythms and dances" and thus contributing to the steadily evolving taarab sound.
"Crossing the border from Kenya to Tanzania, in Tanga, Black Star Musical Club’s electric guitars and dance music rhythms paved the way for a broader audience reception of taarab away from the coastal Swahili towns." Home to the Mzuri record label, "Mombasa was at the forefront of taarab productions from the 1960s to the 1990s," the release notes add, and became a hub of the 'first modern' taarab movement. The imprint "would not just record and promote Mombasa based artists, but also invite groups from Tanzania like Black Star or Dar es Salaam’s Egyptian Music Club."
The 1970s saw a change of the guard in terms of recording media as the record was widely replaced by the cassette and "the Mbwana Radio Service in Mombasa's Old Town soon [became] the center of taarab production and distribution." The genre attained "new heights in the 1980s with the voices of and hits of Malika and Golden Star's Mwanahela." By the early 1990s, economical and political crisis had hit Kenya and Dar es Saalam took over "as the new center of music production in East Africa." That era "saw the rise of so-called modern taarab, a new style based on drum machine rhythm, powerful sound systems, and a novel fashion of inciting and insulting lyrics," built on the musical foundation the 'first modern' had established.
There is something festive about these early taarab sounds that is absolutely winning, as in genuinely endearing. Festive in their delivery, with confident vocals leading the way, backed by a rhythms section and marked by recurrent 'organ' stabs and other instrumentation, these productions, for the most part, have a celebratory feel to them. Fit to soundtrack a convivial occasion, be it a get together among family or friends, a collective feast, official jubilee or inofficial afterparty, the forward-leaning yet equally laid-back vibes on "Zanzibara" are a pure delight to listen to from start to finish and a no doubt worthy tribute to this era of the taarab genre.
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