Buda Musique 
V.A. : Zanzibara 2 : 1965-1975
-Golden Years of Mombasa Taarab- (ZZ,2007)*****
Zanzibar is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, near the coast of East Africa. It is now part of Tanzania, but was independent for a long time. The name comes from the Persian ‘Zangi-bar” or "coast of the blacks". It always was an important trade root, because it was an island just before the Congo river for going inwards into Africa. As a trading route it was most reachable from Arabia, Yemen, Iran and west India, from which some settled down. Since the time of the Sultan of Oman (late 17th century until 1897) it was also used as a trading route for black slaves. The country has been under the Portuguese trade influence (16th-17th century). The area around it (stretching over Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and the Comoros) involved Germans, British and Portuguese, a short while the country had a British influence over the area.
When I noticed this publication I realized it should be a great example of the Arab/Persian/Asian/Indian influence in Africa, and it is. Some instruments used are the tashkota, a Japanese instrument, also used in Indian music sometimes, which is now electrified, and gives a strange sitar-guitar like sound. Other Indian instruments used are tablas and Indian harmonium, Arab instruments used is ud, nai, dumbak. Western instruments used (on a bit later dates) were electric guitar (as replacement for the tashkpta), bass (as replacement for the double bass) and organ (as a replacement for the harmonium). The vocal styles have influences from India, and perhaps Persia (more than once I had the impression that the music of Mehrpooya, from Iran 70s, delved from the same kind of mix of origins), the Arab world, and of South East Asia. Arrangements delve in inspirations not only from Persian and Indian music, (but perhaps also Yemen,..), but also possibly from elsewhere like some Cuban rhythms on one track, possibly an influence coming from Congo (where various Cuban records were easily available, and they did influence the local styles), a kind of accordion improvisations, and also only one track an African influence in bass and rhythm (by Zahura Swaleh). You could eventually find slight parallels to Ethiopian music from the same period, while this music is much more calmed down and exotic and also romantic in inspiration. The Taarab style is sung in Swahili and drives direct comparisons to Indian Bollywood soundtracks, but in a more Arabic and somewhat poetic way. I am not sure if it’s due to the compilers but compared to any Bollywood example this music sounds also much more sensitive and rich in its developed blend. Another introduced rhythm and song characteristics is “chakacha”, a female wedding dance popular along the Kenya coast. This album is a compilation of several popular musicians in this typical for Zanzibar style in 1965-1975.
The music is not traditional, but shows inspired songs that have an accompaniment that is in a very unique and recognisable way trans-cultural, spontaneous and inspired, as these people might come from various forefathers too, and derives from a place, like a harbour trade centre with wide view to a constant flow of many of these influences. Highly recommended !
