Mombasa Wedding Special (1990)
8 tracks, 42 minutes
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Taarab music is most closely associated with the East African island of Zanzibar, where it first originated. The commonly accepted origin story of the style is that the Sultan of Zanzibar was so impressed by the court music of Egypt and aggrieved that there was no comparable classical music tradition on the island that he sent a musician, Mohamed Ibrahim, to Cairo in 1880 to study the music of the tarab ensemble and to bring back its core instrumentation of qanun (plucked zither), oud (lute), ney (bamboo flute), darbuka (goblet drum) and riqq (tambourine). Back in Zanzibar, Ibrahim taught the local musicians the classical Egyptian style. Over generations, the music began to take on influences of East African ngoma music and became the style that we know today as taarab.
Although this story is perhaps over-simplified, it nevertheless gives a romantised explanation for the existence of an ostensibly Arabic classical music on this small but historically important island. The sound of the taarab, which evolved variously to nowadays be performed on huge string orchestras, a single violin with two drums or – more recently – a single synthesiser and drum machine, has nevertheless become the defining sound not only of Zanzibar, but of Swahilis across East Africa.
As with any musical genre that spans such a wide geographical and cultural area, taarab doesn’t have just one sound; it changes based on who is performing and where. We’ve heard how it was adapted into twarab and then mshago in the Comoros, and with Maulidi Juma and his Musical Party, we get to hear the unique sound of Mombasa taarab. The coastal Kenyan city of Mombasa has had very close political, economic and cultural connections to Zanzibar for centuries, so it is no surprise that the taarab craze reached the city almost as soon as it had become a popular form on the island, but the cultural make-up of Mombasa led to its distinct take on the style.
As you can hear on Mombasa Wedding Special, there are many more influences than Arabic classical music on display. In fact, at first listen, the Arabic roots may be harder to hear: the group itself is made up of electric organ, electric and bass guitars, accordion, bongos, tambourine, clave and tablas. No instruments from the original tarab ensemble there, save the European analogue of the riqq. The Arabic influences can be heard in how all of the instruments follow the main melody of the vocals in heterophony, and occasionally the shape of the melody. Most interesting for me, though, are where the other influences slip in.
Being on the mainland, Mombasa had a much closer relationship to more inland cultures than Zanzibar had, and these manifest in noticeable ways in Maulidi’s music. While most of the instruments follow the vocal melody, the guitar can often be found fluttering around the melody, or else interjecting with small licks in the small gaps between the lines of the song. With the rhythms aided by the clave, this is striking in its similarities to rumba and soukous music of the Congo, which itself came from the son of Cuba. ‘Vishindo Vya Mashua’ is a great example of this more Latin-inflected sound.
And then there are sounds from the other direction, from across the ocean and the cinemas of India. When both India and Kenya were part of the British Empire, there was lots of economic migration of South Asians to East Africa and, as a major port, Mombasa in particular. These ties remained even after the Empire, and so when Indian cinema started to become an all-encompassing phenomenon, its popularity made it to Mombasa with ease. Songs such as ‘Hukomi Mpelelezi’ have a distinctly Bollywood vibe to them.
Music from Kenya, imported from Zanzibar and with equally clear influences from Egypt, India, Cuba, Congo and the Kenyan people themselves? There could hardly be a more cosmopolitan style than Mombasa taarab…and on top of all that, it’s just a great example of dance band music. Mombasa Wedding Special was recorded live at an actual wedding – you just know that was one classy do.
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