067: Luo Roots, by Various Artists

Various Artists (Kenya)
Luo Roots (1990)
11 tracks, 50 minutes
Spotify • iTunes

The Luo are an ethnic group from inland Kenya and Uganda and their roots music is just great. Lucky, then, that that’s what we’re listening to today! It’s the word ‘roots’ that’s important here – it’s probably why they called the album Luo Roots, come to think of it – because this isn’t in the strictest sense traditional music. The music featured here has many elements from the old traditions, especially in the songwriting techniques and instruments used, but the music itself is much faster and takes inspiration from benga music. Benga is a guitar-based style that evolved from Congolese soukous (and before it, Cuban son) when it was played by Luo musicians living in Nairobi. They brought their traditions into the music and, in turn, the traditional Luo musicians adapted their own playing to reflect the popular style that everyone wanted to hear. And that’s what Luo Roots is about.

It’s cool to hear this blend of the traditional-but-modern, or the modern-but-traditional, in this way. The band that is featured on most of the tracks on this album are called the Kapere Jazz Band. Their members play instruments such as the orutu one-stringed fiddle and the nyangile (an amazing contraption that pairs a wooden box, a metal ring and a stick to provide both percussion and bass), and are joined by musicians playing the nyatiti lyre. Their harmonies are wholesome and their rhythms are breakneck. It is interesting that they still refer to themselves as a jazz band. It shows how much they distance themselves from the ‘traditional’ label despite their sound, moving instead towards the lexicography of the upper-class dance bands such as those in the Congo. Only the last track on the album strays from the ‘roots’ sound, instead going full-on benga with Orchestra Nyanza Success with their lovely twinkly electric guitars. This track provides an interesting contrast to the rest of the album, and really helps show how much Luo music has had on benga.

As well as being an album full of great, dancy music, Luo Roots is also handy for reminding us that there isn’t always a stark difference to be made between traditional music and internationally-inspired pop music. Often the influences of each run deep across the spectrum, and even music that sounds deeply traditional can be just as tapped into those international circulations as anything else – and maybe even be just an electric guitar and a drum kit away from being downright pop.