Okok Rachar Band (Benga music, 1977)

(JICCO JCLP 017).

I have few information about this band and record, but it's just great music from Kenya (benga music) released on the nigerian label Jicco.

Mori River Jazz Band - Harison Oyier (Kenyan benga, 1973)

(RCA Africana FWBO 9305).

Just a fresh and enjoyable benga track (check part2 when the bells enter!)

If you like that kind of tunes, stay around ...

Pico Culture #02 - MIX /// Terapia Africana Mix (A selection of pico african hits)

From the 70s, while the soundsystem culture was developing, more and more african records arrived on the colombian coast due to increasing commercial exchanges between international harbors.

Some african songs became hits, african styles being surnamed: nova for highlife tracks, rastrillo for kenyan tracks... It was such a big success for the youth of Cartagena and Baranquilla that even each popular song received his own surname. Also several tracks have been bootlegged in terapia/champeta  compilations (which leads to find improbable records including a pure benga followed by an awful 80s techno), and not always credited the original artist/title, but just the local surname known by everybody.

Daniel Owino and the DO-7 Shirati Jazz Band - Sheroline (Benga from Kenya, 1976)

(DO7 LP3100).

Nyatiti is the name of the eight-string lyre used in Luo region of Kenya (Lake Victoria area). The syncopated play of this traditional instrument inspired guitar players exploring electric instruments possibilities in the 60s, leading to a new major style in Kenya and Tanzania: Benga music.

Daniel Owino Misiani (1940-2006) was born in the Shirati region, on the Victoria Lake shore on the tanzanian side. Based in Nairobi from 1964, he was one of the principal musicians developing Benga, recording hits with Shirati Jazz Band during the 70s and 80s.