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Kambazithe Makolekole and his valimba group: a glimpse of the technique of the Sena xylophone
Get PDFThe valimba xylophone of the Sena people of Malawi has been described by several writers, notably Kubik in his recently published two-record collection "Opeka Nyimbo". This article aims to amplify these descriptions, by discovering what it is that the young virtuoso players are actually doing on their huge xylophone, with its shimmering patterns of sound at breakneck tempo, its sudden repeated notes, and its rich harmonic sequences that are clearly related to those of the Shona in Zimbabwe and then- neighbours in Mozambique and Northern Transvaal, and by providing descriptions of the actual playing technique of the instrument to demonstrate something of its unique style
Sengenya dance music: its intrumental resources and performance
Get PDFSengenya is a ceremonial dance of the Digo who live in Kwale District at the Coast province of Kenya. The Digo are one of the nine Bantu groups of coastal people - the Giriama, Duruma, Wachonyi, and others - who form the Mji Kenda cluster (of people). Like many traditional dances in the Digo area, Sengenya is performed by men, women and girlsjoined together in formally institutionalised social groups, with officers, by-laws, etc. Sengenya is performed mostly during the celebration of harusi ya kuoa (wedding ceremonies), national days, end of Ramadhani and on other occasions, like harambee (fund raising) meetings and barazas, which call for the performance of traditional music and dance for entertainment
Brass bands and the beni phenomenon in urban east Africa
Get PDFWith the advent of the German and British colonial administrations to the coast of East Africa in the late 1800s came also the complements of military machinery and military music. This paper will investigate the impact of the music of the European military brass band on the coastal and inland areas of Tanganyika as manifested in the development, florescence and demise of beni ngoma
Notes on new and old world African drumming: just playing it like you mean it is not playing
Get PDFCertainly the most lasting impression I brought home from my "hippie summer" of 1968 in Berkeley, California was of those fierce conga drum ensembles that gathered almost daily in lower Sproul Plaza. Then, as now, there was great variation in the quality of the playing. On one set of benches sat a motley crew of drum thumpers, banging away without Time; sound and fury signifying egotism and indiscipline. At a deliberate distance sat another ensemble, three or four dignified black men well past adolescence in every sense, the conga (golpe) melody drum and the lead or quinto placed properly on either side of the bass (tumbao). Their rhythms were complex yet clearly articulated, restrained yet thoroughly compelling, relentlessly goading the body and spirit into dance
Staging Ghana: Artistry and Nationalism in State Dance Ensembles. Paul Schauert. 2015. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 29 online media examples at Ethnomusicology Multimedia Series, 15 figures, bibliography, index, 343 pp.
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Samba Ng\u27oma eight - The drum chime of Mário Sabuneti
No full textThe group Samba Ng\u27oma, whose leader is Mário Sabuneti, about 20 years old, comes from Nnesa village, T.A. Mabuka, Mulanje District, Malawi. He and his two co-performers, Julias Sabuneti, 18, and Samuel Magwela, 17, have created a new type of music which they call samba ng\u27oma featuring a set of eight tuned drums to be performed by one person (Mario Sabuneti). Although the group originated in Mulanje District, at the time of my research they were living in the area of the city of Blantyre in southern Malawi, where they had rented a house; the exact place they preferred to stay was in a small township east of Limbe, called Bangwe
