offlinemode

kikwetu

Luhya songs

bukusu

Kikwetu

luhya

madara

Ongidi Vincent

Inanibidi niseme

Salim Junior

Hamba Mutalia - Jua Kali

Wasike wa Musungu - ENOMBELA

Wasike wa Musungu - DR.MASINDE

Jua Kali

Cham Kuom - ONYANGO ALEMO

Dj jado Killer - Best Of Rumba Fally Ipupa

Kenya Nchi Yangu - Kakai Kilonzo

The climate in Nairobi is cool and perfect all year round, despite being on the equator, due to its high altitude.  The East African Rumba sound is also often cooler compared to Soukous from the Congo (NGOMA Classic vol. 1).  

I play this music in the seamless style of techno: this is the original minimalist dance music, with a driving, constant 4 on the floor kick, hypnotic motifs, and modular progression. There is a lot more going on here than the predominantly Luo popular style known as Benga, but also golden classics from the Kikuyu, Kamba, Luhya, and other tribes of Kenya. Grooves so sweet they ache the heart as they move the feet... Sounds difficult if not impossible to find outside of East Africa.

"I started playing music in school, and I had a cousin, Aoka Meja, who had a guitar. We copied the style of Adero Onani, who played traditional music on the guitar. In 1958, I got my first acoustic guitar and played Rumba. In 1965, I started to play Benga.

Benga was influenced by the beat of the nyatiti, and we interpreted that on the guitar. We also borrowed from the orutu, which followed the voice of the singer … I formed Sega Sega, and we … did a huge amount of studio work. And as Benga became popular, the three of us played on a lot of other people’s songs. This meant that our Luo sound was getting on a lot of records. The early ‘60’s was mostly about studio work, but by ’70 to ’71, when Benga was really at its peak, the Sega Sega band was very big. We were always performing at events and functions. We did okay, and I made enough to buy my farm and build the house in which I still live . . ."

---- Osumba Rateng, from Benga: The best of cultural integration, by James Allen

"Guitars had started gaining popularity in Kenya in the 1950s and it wasn’t long before Benga started taking form in the Luo speaking areas surrounding Lake Victoria in the early 60s. Misiani (commonly known as the "King of HIstory" and father of Benga, whose band is also on the cover of this mix - Zhao) was actually born across Kenya’s southern border in Tanganyika in 1940 in the Luo community of Shirati. His earliest years as a musician brought him numerous clashes with uthority and several escapes to safer ground to avoid punishment. It seems he and his music were very popular with schoolgirls and young women, but the parents weren’t too keen on his seductive love songs and the authorities didn’t appreciate the fights among the young men over the girls. Misiani recounted several times that his guitars were seized and smashed, and that he had to leave the village quickly. He would disappear for a while, wait for things to settle down and then return.

The songs of the early 70s have a lighter percussion with the beat kept by tapping on the rim of a snare drum. They also mastered a rhythmic clicking sound using the electric guitar pick-up that is heard in a number of pieces. From about 1976 this sound changes with the use of a full drum kit and the deeper sound of the kick drum, with now the high hat receiving most of the attention from the drummer’s sticks. The saxophone heard in some of the earlier songs is gone. By the late 70s, we’re into the mature benga sound exemplified by ‘Wang Ni To Iringo’ that propelled benga through the 80s and into the 90s.

Misiani was a composer without fear in an environment that threatened free speech and critical thought. In his early years, it was his love songs in his home village that had got him in trouble, and in the Shirati Jazz years (essentially the rest of his life after leaving the village), he was known for biting commentary on Kenya’s political, social, and economic institutions. However such criticism was never direct. His songs convey meaning at a deeper level. He would use a theme such as a verse or parable in the Bible, a piece of African history, a prophecy, or an animal fable that would allow listeners to draw a meaning relevant to the current events of the day. Periodically, when one of his songs could be interpreted as presenting the government or a politician in an unflattering way, the authorities would pick up Misiani and take him off to jail. At one point he was deported to Tanzania. Another time he was arrested – though not convicted – of being an illegal Tanzanian immigrant. Nairobi’s Nation newspaper quotes him in 2006 as saying: “Tell me, is there anything wrong with singing about what’s going wrong in our society? I just sing about what is happening and if some people are not happy, I can do little about it.” It is in this arena, I think, where Misiani really merits his King of History title. With its multiple layers of meaning, it accurately portrays both the status and the mechanism by which he achieved that status: keep it sweet, keep it entertaining but, at all times, keep it relevant.

---- from liner notes of "D.O. MISIANI and SHIRATI JAZZ, THE KING OF HISTORY, CLASSIC 1970S BENGA BEATS FROM KENYA" (Sterns Music)

Tracklisting:  http://ngomasound.com/2014/11/28/ngoma-classic-3-mega-benga/

NGOMA Classic 3 - Mega Benga

Omondi Steve - Onyango Alemo

Luhya mix

Mwalimu Kendagor - Lakwani Bunu Koin 

KENYAMUSICA™


Mwalimu Kendagor - Lakwani Bunu Koin

The best that my mother used to sing in different ceremonies, as a soloist before she lost her hearing. Dedicated to Electina Naswa

Vincent Ongidi

Matatamix2 Rumba

It is a New Dawn
The Blind can See
The Captives are set Free
The Evil Shrines have been Burnt

VUSHERE by Timothy Kitui

Fally Ipupa Best Of Rumba Vol 2 Audio Mix By Dj Manu Killer

Najivunia  trapee n avril

Luhya mix 2 by dj wycked n dj mike

Musa Jakadala  Nyar Ahero

This song is a true life experience of me and it happened not so long ago. 
Otongolo is a luo name for cash,money.The song talks about the cash thirstiness and unholy behaviour of this gal in quest for this and how she ended our relationship.
Enjoy.
All vocals by me,accoustic guitars by me. 
A Cjay Production by sound engineer Kondo,frere town mombasa.

Otongolo gal

********** TRACK LIST ************
1 - Canne à Sucre
2 - Roi Manitou
3 - Maria PM
4 - Jeudi Soir
5 - Vouloir Sans Pouvoir
6 - Nidja Feat R.Kelly
7 - Jus D'Orange
8 - Aime Moi
9 - One love
10 - Sans Amour
11 - Punition
12 - Bafana Love

Contact : djmanukiller@gmail.com

Best Of Rumba Fally Ipupa Vol 4 By Dj Manu Killer Merge(1)

Kikuyu And Mugithi By Tano Studios

MULONGO by Webuye jua kali

Musa Juma (Aggrey)

Vincent Ongidi

Djfullstop