ASSANAND & SONS MOMBASA LIMITED was a hugely important recording company for Tanzanian musicians in the 50s and 60s. Hundreds of songs were recorded and distributed by this company. The Assanand label would even travel miles to get to musicians and record them. In one incident, sometimes in the early 60s, one of the Assanands travelled to Morogoro to record the great Salum Abdallah of the Cuban Marimba Band. On arriving in Morogoro he was told the band was in Korogwe, so he began driving to Korogwe, the roads were bad then and his car got stuck in the mud. Confused and in desperate need for help, a group of women passed by decided to help him, they pushed the car out of the mud and he was able to continue with his journey. In Korogwe he met the band and told Salum Abdallah about the women who helped him, Salum came up with a song, 'Wanawake wa Tanzania' (Women of Tanzania). The song is still popular with women today. It is not possible to measure the full impact of Assanand's contribution to Tanzanian music .
Above is a letter from Assanand to Mr Francis Kitime, my father. He is being given instructions on the length of a song. The 78s records could only fit songs shorter than 2 minutes 45 seconds.
No comments:
Post a Comment