Donald Kachamba (1953–2001) was a Malawian musician, composer and bandleader.
Biography
Kachamba was born on 18 October 1953 in
Blantyre, Malawi
Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, Li ...
and died 12 January 2001 in
Chileka. He was born in a musical family and he contributed enormously to the development of the
Kwela
Kwela is a pennywhistle-based street music from southern Africa with jazzy underpinnings and a distinctive, skiffle-like beat. It evolved from the marabi sound and brought South African music to international prominence in the 1950s.
The music h ...
music.
Beginning in 1972 Kachamba toured extensively covering 33 countries in Africa, Europe and the Americas. In May 1988 he toured Finland on the invitation of the Institute for Workers Music, Helsinki, in May 1989 he performed at the Ethnographic Museum of the
University of Zürich
The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...
. In 1991 his band toured Belgium and Germany. In September 1994 Donald Kachamba was invited to the colloquium "Music and Anthropology" in Lisbon to present one of his films. Thereafter he gave lecture performances in Berlin, Frankfurt and Salzburg. The most recent European tour was in January 1995 to the Netherlands, Belgium and France (on the invitation by
Radio France
Radio France is the French national public radio broadcaster.
Stations
Radio France offers seven national networks:
*France Inter — Radio France's "generalist" station, featuring entertaining and informative talk mixed with a wide variety of ...
).
Kachamba was artist-in-residence at
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
's Department of Ethnomusicology from November 1999 until July 2000.
Donald Kachamba died on Friday 12 January 2001.
Works
Audio recordings
* ''Concert Kwela – Donald Kachamba et son ensemble'' LDX 274972 CM 212, Le Chant du Monde 1994.
*
* The Kachamba Brothers' Band (1974)
* Donald Kachamba's Band: Simanje-Manje and Kwela from Malawi (1979)
* Donald Kachamba et son ensemble Concert Kwela, Le Chant du Monde (1991)
* Donald Kachamba's Kwela Band: Live and in Kachamba Donald's Studio 1974–1995, popular African music (1999).
Movies
* Donald Kachamba's Kwela Music. Malawi Twist Encyclopaedia Cinematographica Göttingen, B 2328 (Institute for Scientific Film) 1978
* Donald Kachamba's Kwela Music: Simanje-manje, cha-cha-cha Encyclopaedia Cinematographica, Göttingen 2329 E 1978.
Notes and references
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kachamba, Donald
Malawian culture
1953 births
2001 deaths