Bongo Flava@30 in Mbeya, a taste of blue note vocals

MBEYA: ALL eyes will be on Mbeya City, where the fifth round of the Bongo Flava@30 music marathon will be staged after its epic tour of the Zanzibar archipelago on October 17 this year. November 7, 2026, is the official date of the concert, to be held at Eden Highlands Hotel in Mbeya city with live performances to celebrate the 30-year reign of the Bongo Flava genre.

All Bongo Flava legends will be there, most notably: Mr Blue, Afande Sele, Kalapina, Juma Nature, Gangwe Mob, Mabaga Fresh and MB Doggy.

The list of legends also includes Jafarai, Domokaya, Mchizi Mox, Mapacha, Manzese Crew, Tundaman, Chidi Benz, Mwasiti, Keisha, Hussein Machozi,Hama Q, Daz Baba, Ferouz, Kassim Mganga, King Crazy GK.

Music fans are hoping to see Bongo Flava@30 tour of Mbeya lift the lid on the real source of singing prowess the world sees in Lwaga, Ray Vanny, Martha Mwaipaja, Bahati Bukuku, or Boniface Mwaitege, the popular artists from the region.

There is more to learn from Mbeya, as Maquis du Zaire and Mwenge Jazz discovered it in the early 1980s.

Though it may not give the world a clear picture of how the Mbeya region fits in the whole Bongo Flava setup, there are a lot to learn from the region, as Bindo Bakari, Mabruki Mohamed and Farahani Mzee of Mwenge Jazz fame discovered it during their band’s tour of the region in the early 1980s.

“Mbeya region has a unique taste of blue note music in its vocal and rhythm approach,” notes Bindo, who has now retired after serving the band for over three decades.

Citing an example, Bindo said Mwenge Jazz released “Maana ya Pete” soon after returning from Mbeya in 1984. The song, as Bindo disclosed, was composed by Mabruki Mohamed for Mwana Mwaipasi (Corporal Mwaipasi in the 1980s), a lady from Mbeya who was returning to Dar es Salaam after the end of her leave there.

“I played a keyboard in that song in a manner that aligns with Amang’oma traditional dance from the Wanyakyusa tribe, while Farahan Mzee played his Gibson Epiphonie as lead guitarist and Musa Mustafa Bomboko’s Fender Precision bass maintained the percussive riffs. There was also sax virtuoso Luiza Elias John coloured the song with a tenor saxophone; all of us were trying to follow Amang’oma rhythm pattern,” explained Bindo.

But to his amazement, as he found out later, the rhythm and bass patterns they took from Wanyakyusa folk dance aligned much with the Mutuashi folk dance from Katanga Province (East and West Kasai) in DR Congo and Mwanandani dance played by the Wadigo tribe from Tanga.

“I don’t know how to explain it, but the similarity was striking,” he said and added: “Still, we liked that rhythm setup and decided later to apply it in ‘Tofali la Barafu, whose lead singer was George Mpupua,” recalls Bindo.

Almost with a similar approach, John Kitime introduced “Malaine”, another lady from Mbeya, to the Vijana Jazz Orchestra in the same period.

In the song, Kitime asks Malaine when she will celebrate her own wedding ceremony, as she most often enjoyed others’ marriages.

Though it was Rahma Shally (Esther Mtuli) who mastered the lead vocal, “Malaine” also came with similar elements of Wanyakyusa vocals, which added a new dimension to the song’s beauty.

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In artistic description, both “Maana ya Pete” and ‘Malaine” seemed to align with the tone officially introduced from Mbeya by Tabia Mwanjelwa in her eponymous hits: “Jane Mimi Nahangaika” and “Kweli Maisha ni Safari Ndefu”, both recorded by Maquiz du Zaire at Radio Tanzania studios in the early 1980s.

For the generation of Bongo Flava artistry, the replicas of Tabia Mwanjelwa’s vocal style can be heard in most gospel music songs released by the likes of Bahati Bukuku, Martha Mwaipaja or Boniface Mwaitege and even in certain songs performed by Ray Vanny if he introduces himself as Raymond Shaaban Mwakyusa.

Sadly, Tabia Mwanjelwa, who died last year in Saarbrücken, Germany, can’t attend the tour of Bongo Flava in her region.

She was laid to rest on February 18, 2025, at her home place at Kiwira in Rungwe district, Mbeya region. Still, if one longs to see the influence and impact of her vocal style on the present generation, “Jane Mimi Nahangaika” and “Kweli Maisha ni Safari Ndefu” can give you a clear picture of the blue notes singing that emerged from Mbeya, from Tabia Mwanjelwa to the present-day divas: Mwaipaja or Bukuku.

Least talked about and almost unknown to today’s Bongo Flava family, Mbeya, as once disclosed James Mpungo of Sunburst fame, led the anti-rumba campaign since the early 1960s when its residents were caught in the middle of South Africa’s jive kwela music.

Similarly, Bongo Flava is also an anti-rumba movement that has shrugged off the dominion of the dance music and its associated Congolese variants.

“I have never adored both Tanzanian and Congolese rumba because it misses the beat vibe,” Mpungo told Radio Tanzania, a presenter during an interview held in the mid-1970s.

He told the presenter that he and his bandmates formed the Sunburst band to create a type of music that suits Americanised town folks. Well-documented, Sunburst is a blueprint of the Bongo Flava genre. Formed in Dar es Salaam in 1970, Sunburst was an Afro rock, funk rock, psychedelic rock band operating under Strut Label.

The band members include Eric Allandale, Florie Hembi Congo, Bashir Idi Farhan, John Fernandes “Rocks”, James Mpungo, keyboard player Kassim Magati, Lobola Katako, and Kazadi Mbiya According to Mpungo, Sunburst was led by Zairean guitarist Hembi Kongo.

One of its members, Eric Allandale, used to be with The Foundations and previously the New Orleans Knights. The band is a part of African music history.

As Mpungo explained, their music style was a combo of Afro-rock, Zamrock, and Kitoto (Lizombe) In 1973, the band won a competition in Dar Es Salaam and grew more popular.

They also recorded singles in Kenya. In 1976, they were working on an album. Their album was released in 1977 and around that time they had split up. They were managed by Peter Bagshawe, who was originally from Yorkshire and was living in Zambia at the time.

For the band, fielding a good number of Congolese musicians, afro rock was seen as an unusual menu in the whole set-up. Led by guitarist Florie Hembi Kongo, whose style borrowed heavily from funky guitarists; Leo Nocentelli of Might Meters, Jimmy Nolen of James Brown’s The Flames or Steve Cropper, who occasionally played Wilson Pickett, Sunburst named its style Kitoto, according to Mpungo.

For Wangoni residents, traditional dance was called Kitoto in those days, but its official name is Lizombe and it has been widely used in dance music, with the most recent example being Yamoto Band.

But Lizombe’s singing style is often overlooked, with its heartfelt, melancholic voice championed by Captain John Komba of Tanzania One Theatre fame.

Adelgot Haule, the former Police Jazz band leader and founder of Lizombe Kings, had a crystal-clear explanation of why Lizombe’s singing style wins the hearts of music listeners.

He said Captain John Komba’s heartfelt singing tone was influenced by Ligwamba funeral songs most often used to express sorrow, submission, obedience or a sombre mood.

Haule said this Ligwamba feeling can be found in all countries of East, Central and Southern Africa that faced the Ngoni (Nguni South Africa).

As a funeral song, according to Haule, blue notes are applied to express sadness or a sombre mood. But technically, A blue note is a musical note that is sung or played at a slightly lower pitch, usually a quarter-tone to a semitone lower.

Typically, the 3rd, 5th, and 7th degrees of a major scale are flattened or bent. Playing these notes against a standard major or minor chord creates a deliberate clash that adds emotional depth, melancholy, or soulfulness.

Blue notes originated from the blending of African pentatonic/hexatonic scale traditions and European harmonic structures during the history of AfricanAmerican work songs and spirituals.

The term means a state of melancholy, sadness, or dark moods. In Tanzania, you will hear them most frequently in gospel music and Bongo Flava hits that align with RnB.