Urgent Jumping! East African Musiki Wa Dansi Classics

We live in a glorious age, in which record companies are eager to open up their vaults in order to release recordings that previously have been considered as archival or redundant. In the East African countries of Tanzania and Kenya there was a music industry in the 1970s and 80s that spawned rich pickings for intrepid reissue compilers. This double-CD collects music from the Nairobi-based AI Records label. It features bands that included musicians from the Congo as well as eastern and southern Africa and the musical style is a mixture of the highly popular Congolese guitar-band styles and Kenyan benga. Known in East Africa as zilipendwa, this is the music preferred by the older generation – tracks that could be called Golden Oldies.

There is a good mixture here with predominantly Swahili, but also Lingala and Dholuo vocals. All the bands represented certainly knew what it took to capture the attention of a dancing audience. The fizz of the hi-hat and solid rumble from the bass guitar drives the music forward while the guitars dazzle. Some groups have raspy seductive horn sections (such as Dar International); some rely on frantic Benga style guitar picking (Victoria Jazz and Kauma Boys). There's Afro-funk from Sunburst Band, an individual take on Afrobeat from Johnny Bokelo, and even unusual variations such as a coastal taarab flavour from Slim Ali. A splendid compilation packed with revelations.