Oct 12/07

Rumba, she spreads like wildfire

Matt Yanchyshyn @ 10:35

There’s something really sexy about the word ‘rumba’. It’s also a bit of a misnomer in that over the years it came to represent a variety of Cuban-influenced musical styles popular across Africa, not all of them ‘rumba’ in its original sense.

While the heart of rumba was in the country-formerly-known-as-Zaire, there were many great groups in other countries as well. One reason is the civil war that erupted in Belgium Congo during the 1960s. It forced many Congolese musicians out of the country, a bunch of whom ended up in Tanzania.

Tanzania, located in East Africa just below Kenya, was heavy into the Afro-Congo-Cuban sound during the 1960s. Original Music’s 1983 compilation, The Tanzania Sound, captures this beautifully.

Reading the liner notes this morning I noticed a translation of the lyrics for the Dar Es Salaam Jazz Band’s up-beat track, Fitina Nyingi: “Everyone’s rotten, nothing’s any good, I’m better off alone than with these no-goods.”

Now if that isn’t an upper to get us through a grey Friday, I don’t know what is!

ps- thanks, John.

Nuta Jazz – Janja Yako
Cuban Marimba Band – Beberu
Dar Es Salaam Jazz Band – Fitina Nyingi

Tags: congo, cuba, original music, rumba, tanzania

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8 Responses to “Rumba, she spreads like wildfire”

1. Frank Delventhal @ 10:56 on 2007-10-12
   

   Hi Matt,
   I get a 404 (Error) when I try to download the first 2 Tracks:
   Nuta Jazz – Janja Yako
   Cuban Marimba Band – Beberu

   Greetings from Hamburg,
   Yours Frank

2. Matt Yanchyshyn @ 11:56 on 2007-10-12
   

   Thanks for the heads-up. The links are fixed.

3. CC Smith @ 01:46 on 2007-10-13
   

   Jambo everybody: the Original Music album is probably hard or impossible to find nowadays, but there’s a brand-new collection of classic Tanzanian rumba out on the Buda Musique label: Zanzibara 3–Ujamaa: The 1960s Sound of Tanzania. Groups on the collection include Dar Es Salaam Jazz Band, Morogoro Jazz Band, Atomic Jazz, Jamhuri Jazz, and Nuta Jazz. Right up your allée, Matt!

4. Ntwiga @ 18:07 on 2007-10-13
   

   My type of music!!! These are gems!

   Thank you.

   - Steve

5. NGOMA @ 09:46 on 2007-10-16
   

   can you, or anyone, please, please please put up the “Not Exactly Christmas Music” collection of African Hiphop from January??? on Rapidshare or Megaupload or Mediafire?

   WE ARE DYING OUT HERE.

   I’m no leech, mind you. i contribute to the music community in many ways, one of which is this little blog: differentwaters.blogspot.com/

   i will check the comments on this page in the future. or feel free to drop by my blog…

   it’s a long shot but i have to try…

6. Eline @ 22:05 on 2007-10-17
   

   Thank you for all the wonderful music I discover here, thanks to you! Love your blog.

7. Ntwiga @ 05:25 on 2007-11-02
   

   I just posted the B Side to the Nuta Jazz track on my blog: the track name is ,i>Mwongele.

8. aKa @ 14:57 on 2007-11-15
   

   It’s been tto long since you wrote something down… come back, the world (and our ears) needs you !!

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