Lelele Africa; Last Band Standing - Classical Taarab Music

Bengatronics set up a pop up studio at African Crossroads Conference (Nov 2019) to record a music album from the hybrid of influences from the Western, Northern and Eastern parts of Africa. The album titled "Kiunga; the African crossroads" is set to be released at https://bengatronics.bandcamp.com/ in the spring of 2020. Among other surprises, it features some tracks from Lelele Africa - The last Classical Taarab Band Standing. Beyond profiling the music, remixes will reimagine distinct sounds of the past and reposition such heritage into the future.

___ behind this story ___

The music of Kenya is diverse, with multiple types of folk music based on the variety of over 40 regional languages. Taarab­ (also known astarabu or tarab) is a type of music that borrows heavily from genres across the world. It is influenced by the musical traditions of the African Great Lakes, North Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent.

Taarab music genre is popular in Tanzania and Kenya. It rose to prominence in 1928 with the advent of the genre's first star, Siti binti Saad from Zanzibar. It is a unique sound of the Kenyan coast, and a reminder of the intense interactions of the Kenyan locals with Arabs and Indians during the transatlantic slave trade (1880's).

The use of the unique instruments such as - The Middle Eastern oud and dumbek (drum), Indian tabla, the Japanese taishakoto (banjo) the Italian violin and the indian Harmonium - gives Taarab music its distinct sound and flavour of the music.

Over the past 7 or so decades, the musical culture of what we could call "the classical taarab" has been waning down. The emergence and popularity of the "mighty" keyboard has brought a natural shift from the use of organic sounds into the use of more electronic/synthetic - also observed in the evolution of genres like Ohangla from the Luo community of Western Kenya.

Many of the unique instruments including the harmonium and the ganun have become less and less utilised, and their spare parts are becoming more scarce. Unwatched, the "classical Taarab" genre could be heading towards extinction.

However, groups such as Lelele Africa are keeping this "classical Taarab" culture alive - jealously preserving some of the few remaining instruments while passing on the culture to the younger generation. The group brings together several friends and families who keep the genre alive together with their wives and children.

Sources & Links to further exploration

About bengatronics
http://www.bengatronics.com/

About African Crossroads
http://www.africancrossroads.org/

About Taarab
https://www.musicinafrica.net/....magazine/taarab-musi

The ‘Waswahili’ and Their Hold on East Africa’s Popular Musical Culture

https://www.theelephant.info/c....ulture/2019/11/22/th