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Bitchuka Black Mambo

by Bitchuka na Kafumbe

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1.
Mola Wetu 03:12
2.
Fitina 05:29
3.
Dole Gumba 07:27
4.
5.
Selemani 07:34
6.
Dingi Dingi 05:51
7.

about

This recording project is the culmination of a creative collaboration between two East African artists: Hassan Rehani Bitchuka, one of Tanzania’s most beloved rhumba singers (JUWATA Jazz Band, Mlimani Park Orchestra), and Damascus Kafumbe, a well known Ugandan musician and composer who works in several traditional string and percussion idioms. This project is unique because it documents the (re)union of two of rhumba’s African subgenres (Tanzanian + Ugandan), which have developed separately over the past fifty years. These two musicians are backed by the U.S.-based band Orchestra Rhumba Kali, who add to this transformative mix a dose of electronica and global music expertise.

Tanzanian rhumba, also known as muziki wa dansi, is Bitchuka’s idiom. As a genre, it is a variation of the African rhumba theme that shows up throughout the continent. The Cuban son, which made its way back to its origins in Central Africa in the 1940s via migrant workers and phonograph records, was renamed by practitioners the "African rhumba", and has subsequently made an explosive impact throughout Central, Eastern, Southern, and Western Africa. It has had a tangible influence on recent iterations of Ugandan traditional music performance as well, especially those traditions that developed on the Uganda-Congo border, before making their way into the Ugandan public school system, where Damascus Kafumbe first learned this music. It is for this reason the musical meeting between these two artists is of great significance.

credits

released June 3, 2015

Hassan Rehani Bitchuka – vocals
Damascus Kafumbe - adungu, vocals, conga
Jaime Hammack - backing vocals
Bret (“Dr. Break”) Woods - accordion, rhumba box, backing vocals, drum programming
Frank Gunderson - Stratocaster, Akogo, Gourd Rattle
Ryan Best - electric Bass
Ally Jamwaka - conga
Matt DelCiampo - drum set
Michael Bakan – dumbek
Kayleen Justus Kerg - steel pan
Matt DelCiampo clave, drum set
Carlos Odria - acoustic lead guitar

All songs copyrighted © by Hassan Rehani Bitchuka, Damascus Kafumbe, Bret Woods, and Orchestra Rhumba Kali.

Producer: Frank Gunderson,
Associate producer: Derek Jones.

All songs produced and engineered by Oscar Quesada, in Opperman Music Hall recording studio, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.

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