5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
East Africa at it's Best!, March 5, 2002
This review is from: Rough Guide to Music of Kenya & Tanzania (Audio CD)
This CD, part of the Rough Guides series, is an excellent look into the music of Eastern Africa, namely the countries of Kenya and Tanzania. Its also one of the most accessable CDs of east African music available. It starts off with some engaging pop music from the grea Simba Wanyika, and contiues to get dancier and jazzier as the CD progesses. Listening to the first few songs, its easy to draw some parralels between this music, and say, Jazz or Carribean music, as well as certain west African music traditions (juju and afro-beat spring to mind).
Following this, we are treated to "Jacob Omolo", by Ogweng Lelo Okoth and Padddy J. Onono, which, while entirely African, definately has some eastern influences on it. Following this, is another folksy eastern influenced song from the Master Musicians of Tanzania. The next track, somewhat surprisingly, is a traditional Wagogo intiation ritual. I was a little surprised by this track, but it is an excellent example of traditonal Wagogo music,and really does help to highlight to sheer diversity of eastern Africa.
The next two tracks, are some more excellent selections of African pop music, with a somewhat more dancey beat to them than the previous selections. The next track is Zein Musical Party's "Mtindo Wa Mombasa", a dancy Middle-Eastern number, with firey lyrics. Finally, we close out with aother selection of Taraab music, this time Culture Music Club's "Sibadli". Over all, this is an excellent CD, though there is a definate leaning towards pop music over other styles. I myself would have enjoyed more Taraab music, but still, that doesn't change the fact that this is a great CD
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