musical link: Mohammed Issa Matona, San Fan Thomas and Tabu Ley Rochereau (again!)
One of the most interesting things about life is the challenge of wanting to be different, to rise above the mundane and excel at something, anything. For a long time, I have always wondered what it is like to be a driven self starting Type A personality.
Luckily, I have pretty much managed to tame those issues myself.
I leave the yearning and striving for others as I have learnt to sometimes be content with a smaller piece of pie.
All these random thoughts do have direction though, which is, the tone of the tracks that I have for today. Mohammed Issa Matona is a Tanzanian cultural icon from the island of Zanzibar whose music is celebrated the world over and today’s track, Msumeno is probably the best known piece of music thanks to it’s inclusion in the 2005 CD Rough Guide to the music of Tanzania and the 2005 CD Rough Guide: World Party.
And the tone of the music, as I am sure you have guessed by now, is … wait for it… mellow.
Since many of you have heard this track though, I will throw a twist into the mix with a track from 30 years before Msumeno, the 1975 track Mzigo from Issa Muhamad - whom almost certainly is not Issa Matona the Senior but my research was not able to come up with any conclusive evidence one way or the other.
Mohammed Issa Matona - Msumeno
And from Issa Muhammad:
Then …
Just because I can …
Here is San Fan Thomas whose music always sounded close enough to a mix of Swahili and English that I thought I could understand what he was saying when I was a kid.
Sadly, this was not and is still not the case: I can’t make head or tale of the lyrics but still think even today that I am one mental “ah ha” away from that eureka moment when the words make sense. But the music is still pretty good (an understatement for those of your who have not heard his stuff)!
Since you might still be able to grab AfricanTypic Collection over at matsuli’s, I will post a different track.
San Fan Thomas - Funnily Makaji
One last thing, last week’s Tabu Ley Rochereau post whipped up a storm! While cleaning up afterwards, one of the things that I found lying around was this track that qwerty asked for: thank you Tim!
Tabu Ley Rochereau - Sacramento
Who said we don’t do requests!
AOB
+ Nice parking guys! Are you sure that you really want us to go home?
+ The future of your computing environment? BumpTop Desktop here and here. For the scientifically inclined, you can check out the blurb about the product here
This entry was posted on Friday, March 16, 2007 at 11:09 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can also leave a response or trackback from your own site.
11 Responses to “musical link: Mohammed Issa Matona, San Fan Thomas and Tabu Ley Rochereau (again!)”
-
qwerty says:
March 17, 2007, 3:58 am -
Jeff Msangi says:
March 17, 2007, 6:42 pmSteve,
Thanks for Matona songs.He surely was an icon and too sad and strange that he died on his way to entertain his fans!I love his music,kinda coastal and soothing,depending on the wheel your life is on at the that moment. -
Jeff Msangi says:
March 17, 2007, 6:48 pmWait a minute!I think his dad Issa Matona is the one who is no longer with us,right or wrong?
Jeff,
Matona the younger is almost certainly still with us so you are probably right.
I thought I tagged you a while back, what happened?
- Steve
-
Fabian Altahona says:
March 18, 2007, 10:21 amThe music of Cameroon (Makossa/Makassi) and its pass by Colombia during 80s was very glorious, the Songs of San Fan Thomas very are appreciated for example:
African Tipyc Collection, Olga and many,
very were appreciated at that time,
Also were of very acceptance the songs of other artists like:Lapiro Mbanga
Charlotte Mbango
Pety Peys
Prince eyango -
Barsawad says:
March 19, 2007, 1:09 pmMatano and Tabu Ley! Two of the greatest misicians of East and Central Africa. Thanks for reminding us.
-
Derrick Otieno says:
March 20, 2007, 9:58 pmIs this Mugiri of AHS 1992 and JKUAT 1997? just curious.
Yes it is Derrick.
So, still in sunny DE? I think that you were there the last time that we talked a while back.
Drop me an email - steve.blogs [at] ntwiga [dot] net
- Steve
-
Whispering Inn says:
March 20, 2007, 11:33 pmHi Steve,
It’s just right that you posted mellow music today. It’s perfect after a late, brutal day at the office. Reminds me of Sunday afternoons back home when I was growing up.
Thanks!
-
msaniixl says:
March 21, 2007, 11:32 amHey steve, nice music as always…
this might interest you, nice podcast…. http://ethnomusic.podomatic.com/
-
NiQa says:
March 22, 2007, 3:59 pminteresting blog
-
Mark Forman’s Getting a Leg Up : 6.85 Dog Years… says:
March 25, 2007, 8:47 pm[...] Funnily makaji 5:36 San Fan Thomas [...]
-
Kathy says:
May 24, 2007, 11:57 pmWhere is San Fan Thomas now residing?
Leave a Reply
Theme designed by Self based on Starburst by Claire.
powered by WordPress
You are truly the man! Thanks.