Afrika Muye Muye!: Tanzanian Rumba and Muziki Wa Dansi (1968-1970)

Put together by music historian and archivist Rob Allingham with research and translation help from Werner Graebner, Afrika Muye Muye! is an intriguing, rhythmic and laid-back selection of 17 songs that were originally released as 45rpm singles back in the days when the rumba dance boom still held sway across East Africa. Every major town in Tanzania had its own dance band, influenced by the music of Cuba and the Congo, and the musicians made their livings by playing live, often in their own clubhouses. Morogoro was one major musical centre, boasting both the Cuban Marimba Band, one of the country’s top bands, responsible for the glorious, lilting title-track of this compilation, and the Morogoro Jazz Band, headed at the time of these recordings by a great singer and guitarist, Mbaraka Mwinshehe, in powerful form here on ‘Nimechoka’. From Tanga, on the northern coast of Tanzania, came Atomic Jazz Band, who add saxophone to the lilting guitars, vocals and percussion on ‘Njoo Mpenzi Njoo’. This was a time of political upheaval in a relatively newly independent Tanzania, with President Julius Nyerere’s mass-nationalisation policies leading even to the state-control of bands, through what was known as the ‘Ujaama’ policy. Nuta Jazz Band were one of the first to be state-run, and the process clearly didn’t harm their music. They have five tracks on the Afrika Muye Muye! compilation, and their cheerful, confident and upbeat ‘Safari Ya Nuta Jazz’ is one of the highlights of the overall set.