70's Tanzanian Rumba "Musiki wa Dansi"! For nearly twenty years, Western Jazz Band and Dancing Club delighted East Africans from their home base, the Indian Ocean port city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The band actually formed in 1959, two years before the end of British administration in Tanganyika. Many of the original band members came from what, at that time, was Western Province and other locations in the west. Formed as a regional association, Western Jazz was both a band and a dancing club. The idea was to give migrants to the city from western Tanzania a place to meet friends, socialize and hear good music, though members were welcomed no matter where they came from. This band and music club organisation was quite common in the 1950s but can be traced back to the 1930s with the Tanganyikan African Association Jazz Band, Dar es Salaam Jazz and Morogoro Jazz Band after 1944. However it wasn't until the 1950s that dance bands multiplied in Dar es Salaam and started appearing in towns throughout pre-independence Tanganyika. Some of the more well-known groups of this kind include Atomic Jazz and Nyamwezi Jazz (later renamed Jamhuri Jazz) whose origins date back to 1954 in the north coastal town of Tanga. In Tanganyika's largest city, Dar es Salaam, Ulanga Jazz and Rufiji Jazz Band formed in the mid-50s and Kilwa Jazz came together circa 1958. Western Jazz Band and Dancing Club was one of the last to take this organisational structure. At the time, only a few musicians in the voluntary clubs were getting paid but both musicians and music supporters paid dues, which supported the organizational expenses and rental of performance halls. In this spirit, Western Jazz was: "a club band and every member would like to know clearly how the business is been run" (from a letter by George Kitali, Secretary). Western's saboso style is famous for lovely crisp clear guitar work, with the second guitar often played in complex rhythmic patterns while the solo guitar is off with an enchanting melody or sparring in an equally complex counter rhythm. Although there are pictures of the group with at least a partial drum kit, that is not what is heard in these recordings. There is no thumping kick drum. Rather, you hear a percussive stream from the conga drums, the occasional strumming on the electric guitar pickups, the staccato bass and the flow of saxophones; overall a thrilling mix of rhythm and melody. Picture courtesy of fellow musicologist/guitarist John Kitime.

• published: 05 Sep 2013
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