Various Artists - Bulayo: Guitar Songs from Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, and DR Congo

African acoustic guitar masterpieces, expanding on Mississippi’s beloved “African Guitar Box.”

In 1979 and 1980, a young British-Kenyan musician named John Low hit the road to learn finger-style guitar from his heroes. He traveled across Kenya, Tanzania, Congo, and Zambia, visiting, and sometimes staying in the homes of, stars like Jean-Bosco Mwenda, Losta Abelo, and Emmanuel Mulemena. He also documented brilliant but previously under-recorded artists like Tanzania’s Francis Kitime and Kenya’s Mtonga Wanganangu.
Regardless of status, John approached each artist humbly, as a student. He recorded in homes, village squares, and watering holes. The sessions are intimate and casual, the artists at ease. John’s tape deck picked up some of the continent’s greatest artists along with the sounds of laughter, children playing, and glasses clinking. Five decades on, these tapes offer a rare glimpse into how fingerstyle guitar was actually heard, outside the tense confines of commercial studios.

Some of these songs appeared on John Storm Roberts’ out-of print Original Music compilations, (huge inspirations to Mississippi). Others have never been made publicly available. All have been expertly restored and remastered from the original tapes by Andrew Walter (Honest Jon’s, Abbey Road). John Low provides notes and lyrics, and Tanzanian music scholar John Kitime gives the musicians’ perspective. Licensed from John Low and the artists, pressed on high quality vinyl at Chicago’s Smashed Plastic.

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