The Cuban Marimba Band (previously known as La Paloma) was an influential

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...

from the city of

Morogoro Morogoro is a city in the eastern part of Tanzania west of Dar es Salaam. Morogoro is the capital of the Morogoro Region. It is also known informally as "Mji kasoro bahari" which translates to “city short of an ocean/port." The Belgian based ...

. It was founded in 1948 by Salum Abdullah, who had previously formed the

Morogoro Jazz Band Morogoro Jazz Band, also known as K.Z. Morogoro Jazz Band (K.Z. standing for ''Kuliko Zote'', Swahili for "better than the others"), was a seminal muziki wa dansi band from Morogoro, Tanzania. The band originally played live at the clubs and bars ...

. For about twenty years, Cuban Marimba was one of the most popular

muziki wa dansi Muziki wa dansi (in Swahili: "dance music"), or simply dansi, is a Tanzanian music genre, derivative of Congolese soukous. It is sometimes called Swahili jazz because most dansi lyrics are in Swahili, and "jazz" is an umbrella term used in Cent ...

(dance music) bands in Tanzania.

History

Salum Abdallah was a prolific songwriter and musician who played guitar and mandolin. He was a "chotara," a person of mixed races. The main themes of Abdallah's music were love, life wisdom, the good and evil of mankind, and even politics. One of his popular songs was "Mkono wa Idd", which is usually played on the radio during Idd festivities. Preceding Abdallah's death, the group released a twist tune, a departure from his suave rumba style, called "Hapo zamani sana" about the horrible colonial days in South Africa, and "Wanawake wa Tanzania wazuri sana," a tribute to Tanzanian women. In 1965, Abdullah died in a car accident. While he was replaced by Juma Kilaza, but the band declined in popularity over the following years.

Partial discography

* Various, ''Dada Kidawa, Sister Kidawa: Classic Tanzanian Hits from the 1960's0'' (''dansi'' collection including songs by Cuban Marimba Band, Kiko Kids, NUTA Jazz,

Dar es Salaam Jazz Band The Dar es Salaam Jazz Band (also nicknamed Dar Jazz) was a Tanzanian big band from Dar es Salaam that was one of the prominent muziki wa dansi bands between the 1960s and 1970s. It was led bMichael Enoch who would later play in many other major d ...

) * AVVV, ''The Tanzania Sound'' (dansi collection including songs by Cuban Marimba Band, Kiko Kids, NUTA Jazz, Dar es Salaam Jazz Band). Original Music 1986 * Salum Abdallah & Cuban Marimba, ''Ngoma Iko Huku'', Dizim Asili Series vol. 1

References

* M. La Voie,
Unreleased recording of the Cuban Marimba Band
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Voice of America
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