Saturday, July 24, 2010

Album restores Misiani legacy

One of the major overseas releases in world music this month is an album titled The King of History by the late D.O. Misiani and his Shirati Jazz Band.

The album features a recording by the maestro from the 1973-79 era, which many regard as his most prolific moments, during which time he created some of the best songs of his career.

Misiani died on May 26, 2006 in a road accident in Nyanza as he commuted to yet another of his many performances.

A news item by Tradewinds Magazine published in London to announce this milestone release cites it as the first overseas release that features Misiani and serves credible testimony to his mastery of the guitar and his unique style that made him an icon.

“He set the standards that others aspired to attain in benga music, which helped to raise the quality and growth of the music,” says the magazine.

The releases correct the anomaly caused by an immigration hitch that caused “Mwalimu”, as he was affectionately called, to miss his flight to London that would have had him perform at several world music festival events.

This was in 1988, when the term “World Music” gained vogue as an international tag to music from the smaller cultures.

That year, the focus was on Kenya’s benga music, which was seen as a genre that could cross into the mainstream, the way South Africa’s “kwela” and West Africa’s “highlife” had done.

Misiani and his Shirati Jazz Band were invited to several events in London.

But all that tumbled when he was barred by Kenya immigration due to lack of travel documents, and only then did it emerge that although he had made his career in Kenya, he was actually Luo from Shirati in Tanzania.

His group did go, and, besides the live shows, also recorded material released overseas, but anybody who knew their music could feel the missing ingredient of the mentor.

Nonetheless, the releases were an introduction of benga abroad. Intriguingly, the album follows on the heels of Issa Juma’s massive hit album World Defeats the Grandfathers, which was at number one spot on the UK African music best sellers chart.

While Juma’s album is the latter blend of benga that had a swing out of rumba, Misiani’s goes to the roots of the benga tradition, and is an essential document for those seeking to understand the origins and evolution of that music.

Born in a different country, Misiani would probably have been as big as DRC’s Luambo Lwambo Makiadi or Zimbabwe’s Oliver Mtukudzi, who grew mainly out of their numerous travel opportunities and wider exposure to the global market.

Indeed, Misiani was undoubtedly more authentic as his style could not be immediately traced to any other, which offers an enduring interest to his music as an original sound of Africa.

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