East African musicians honoured with new releases

The first compilation is titled Zanzibara Volume 1 and was released on 26 April. It features East African genres such as Tanzania’s muziki wa dansi (dance music), Congolese-inspired rumba, and taarab, an eclectic genre popular in Kenya and Tanzania that borrows inspiration from the Great Lakes region, North Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.

The compilation was curated by German ethnomusicologist Werner Graebner and released through French label Ouch! Records.

“This is a mix of archival recordings, either from record companies producing in East Africa from the 1950s to the 1980s, and, for Tanzania mainly, recordings done by the national radio,” Graebner said.

“These are supplemented by contemporary recordings of artists of special merit, either well-established, emerging or new artists.”

Graebner said Zanzibara Volume 1 contains songs that were originally pressed in small quantities as well as contemporary taarab recordings that had never been released.

The second release is Muslims and Christians, which was recorded by Sudanese jazz musician Kamal Keila. The album will be released by German-based Habibi Funk Records on 6 July.

Muslims and Christians is the first release in a new series showcasing the little-known Sudanese jazz scene.

For decades in Sudan, TV and radio stations have been prohibited from airing music considered un-Islamic. This has seen stations erase tapes of popular music or simply tape over recordings with sermons and Islamic propaganda.

But Keila managed to attain the reels of two, five-track sessions recorded on 12 August 1992. Some of the tracks had been written in the 1970s and have been part of Keila’s live sets ever since.

“Both sessions stand as a testament to how he stuck to a sound aesthetic from decades ago, while incorporating current events into his lyrics,” Habibi Funk said.

Muslims and Christians features 10 songs including ‘Al Asafir’, which first appeared on the Habibi Funk 007: An Eclectic Selection of Music From the Arabic World compilation in 2017.

The label discovered Keila last year while on a trip to curate a collection of Arabic zouk tracks, and signed him.

This new series will also feature albums by Sudanese Afro-funk group the Scorpions and jazz artist Sharhabeel Ahmed.

Order and listen to Zanzibara Volume 1 here.

Pre-order and listen to Muslims and Christians here.