Pray for return to the era when jazzy music glorified the May Day

DAR ES SALAAM: SHIME Shime yoyoou shime tufanye kazi jama masika na kiangazi jembe ndiyo bunduki yako … were some of the words Mwenge Jazz used specially for the Workers Day in 1976, exactly 50 years now.

It was a cool May Day morning of 1976 when Mwenge Jazz and other government-supported bands thrilled the crowd at the then National Stadium in Dar es Salaam (now Uhuru Stadium) and Shime Shime looked like an ideal song for the occasion.

In typical orchestra format, Mabruki Mohamed led the vocal section, assisted by mellow-voiced George Mpupua upfront while sax pyrotechnician, Luiza Elia John, led the horn section in an accompany of trumpeters Alfat Kimaro, Balele Sololo and Bengwe Simbi.

In simple words Shime Shime urges Tanzanians to work whether it is sunny or rainy season. For the country’s lone radio station, Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam (RTD), it was Juwata Jazz Band’s Nidhamu ya Kazi (Work Discipline) dominated the radio’s airtime most of the day on May 1. It’s rare to see an artist composing a special song for national or global-level occasion today, it is only possible if you pay him for the job.

“No one works for free today, music is an employment today,” said Ally Yahya, the former Mlimani Park trumpeter. Almost similar to Mwenge Jazz Band’s Shime Shime, Professor Jay featuring Sholo Mwamba – Kazi Kazi brought on stage a modernday style of mobilization.

Not in a gentle rhumba style like Shime Shime, Kazi Kazi is a pure youth-centred artistry with male dancers wadding matchetes, clubs and sticks while girls seemed engaged in a wild waist work. Though they still perform today, Mwenge Jazz and many other bands supported by government institutions are rarely heard in most of the radio and television stations as they are cast out of the recording system to remain only in the live performance industry.

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“Most of old jazz bands have been sidelined by the recording industry, but they are still active as live music performers,” echoed Ruvu JKT guitarist, Rashid Sumuni who is serving the band after parting ways with Mchinga Sound of Muumini Mwinjuma fame Like many other bands performing live music, JKT Ruvu Jazz most often play the radio-era music and varieties of new generation music, most notably punchy Bongo Flava hits while also adding popular music from the contemporary stars of Congo rhumba.

“It is a jazz band but we don’t really play jazz,” noted Sumuni. “We don’t really play jazz, we play Tanzanian dance music recorded earlier by the so-called jazz bands,” adds the JKT Ruvu band’s leader, Captain Kigula. Though they no longer record, many ‘jazz bands’ still exit and perform and there are more than dozens of them in the armed forces units still on the game for over 60 years, according to Captain Kigula who named JKT Kimbunga Stereo, formed in 1964 and Mwenge Jazz created in 1968, as among the oldest groups in Africa today.

“The ‘Jazz Band’ music is still adored and its future is very bright,” added Mwenge Jazz retired singer Hussein Mtamile during one of his band’s performances at Dagaa Dagaa Bar in Ubungo suburb, Dar es Salaam. Adding he said: “People just called it jazz to mean music though we never played the real jazz in terms of Bop, Bebop or jazz-rock fusion,” he said, insisting the term jazz only sounds sweet in a music fan’s ear.”

“The live-band music has been a heaven for gentle dance lovers.” People like to hear the dance music of the 1970s and 80s while the surprise packages have been the music of the contemporary stars like Ali Kiba, Diamond Platnumz, Ferre Gola, Fally Ipupa and Koffi Olomide,” JKT Ruvu’s bassist Sam Noah added after his band played Achii by Diamond featuring Koffi Olomide.

“The jazz band music era has completely gone so what we play now is the contemporary hits of the 1970s and 80s and what trends on television stations and social media outlets, adds Cholobi.

Despite playing the music that dominated the dance floors five to six decades back, the majority of musicians who play for JKT Ruvu, Air Jazz, Polisi Jazz and many other unregistered bands are of a Bongo Flava generation, according JKT Ruvu singer, Athumani Kibavu who added Matata by Fally Ipupa and Yope Remix by Innosy B featuring Diamond are regular on the menu as per the request of youthful music lovers.

“People of the Bongo Flava generation seem to enjoy listening, watching and dancing to these hits,” said the singer. But for the band to qualify as an ideal outfit for dance music, Rangi ya Chungwa, a popular classic hit composed by Juma Kitambi of Nyanyembe Jazz in 1976 must be in the repertoire.

Also among the favourites in bands’ repertoires are Georgina by Safari Trippers, Dada Remmy by Tabora Jazz, Amigo and Afro by Less Wanyika and Nawashukuru Wazazi by Mlimani Park Orchestra.

As revealed by Abby Sykes, who once played jazz in Dar es Salaam hotels six decades back, the world first heard of jazz through the Original Dixie Jazz band which was formed in 1905. It is known as Muziki wa Dansi though often called “Tanzanian jazz,” this band-based music was the dominant sound from independence until the 1990s, characterised by intricate guitar work and horn sections.