Strangely, although John Mwale is mentioned quite often, it seems hard to find any music by this Kenyan musical pioneer. All in all I know of only two (2) other songs credited to John Mwale, which are available on the Original Music CD "Before Benga Vol. 2: The Nairobi Sound"(OMCD 022).
So the fourteen on this lp can be considered to be a 'Mwale flood'...
Of Reuben Shimbiro, who features with John Mwale in this collection, I have found no mention whatsoever. I can only assume that he is responsible for the second vocal and the very creative percussion in these songs.
The songs themselves are, I am told, delightful little portraits of life in Nairobi in the late 1950s/early 1960s. They are about love, hope and the daily frustrations of River Road, Nairobi.
Here are two examples:
If there are any more songs of this wonderful duo, please let me know!
AGS LP 2008
PS: Sorry, no sleeve. In fact, I can't find a photo of these artists anywhere!
8 comments:
Art for the "The Nairobi Sound" can be found at
www.engine-studios.com/vpp/Africa/Pages/NairobiSound_FBebeyAkwaaba.html
Nothing more to share about Mwale. Will keep looking into the archives.
Listened to this 3 or 4 times this weekend, and it keeps getting better and better. MW Rebecca and Nilifika Nairobi are just a joy. A great complement to the OMCD tracks, and thanks so much.
joe
wow, astonishing stuff. thank you x1000!
another wonderful guitarist (of mwenda's generation i think) is losta abelo, whose work, like mwale's, is almost impossible to find. would you happen to have anything by him, aside from the few tracks on original-music compilations?
Not downloading on ADrive.com even after adding "Skipscreen for firefox". A "Mediafire link?"
Adoyo PA
great stuff, thanks! your site is tops!
I think Kenya is a great place to go on vacations, specially if you are looking for to have a relaxing trip. In my opinion, The Nairobi Sound is one of the best things ever
This is a great album. You mention Mwale's recordings on the Before Benga 1 & 2 albums, but there is at least one more recordings of Mwale out there - Kenyatta Aliteswa Sana which I have on the compilation album "African Dances" (Authentic 601). My suspicion is that he must have recorded much more material, but that the records have not been re-released yet...
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