Crossroads Kenya: East African Benga and Rumba, 1980-1985

It's indicative of how the music of East Africa has been overshadowed by its West African cousin that none of the tracks on this splendid compilation has ever been released outside Kenya before and that the names of the seven artists featured will be unfamiliar to most readers. Yet in the golden age of Swahili rumba and the quotidian pop style known as benga during the 1970s and 1980s, Nairobi was a magnet for musicians from all over East Africa.

The tracks here were all seven-inch singles produced in the Kenyan capital by Audio Productions. The New Gatanga Boys, Ruwengo Bros Band, Banana Hill Band and Les Victoria ‘C’ Kings were all top Kenyan acts but Les Moto Moto and Orch Les Volcano came from Tanzania while the Orch Zaituken Band, whose gorgeous ten-minute lilting workout ‘Ima’ closes the disc, drew its members from Zaire, Tanzania and Uganda as well as Kenya. From first note to last its lovely, melodic stuff, all spiralling guitars and gentle harmonies and credit to Doug Patterson, who oversaw the digital transfers and whose classic compilation The Nairobi Beat (Rounder, 1989) is also worth checking out as a companion volume, if you can find it.