By David Odongo
Music is the primary factor that unites Kenyans. It is music, just like sports, that brings us together to celebrate our rich diverse culture, faith, ethnic backgrounds and political inclinations.
During the post election violence, Eric Wainaina’s patriotic song, Daima was on everyone’s lips and played continuously on all radio stations.
As Kenyans, there is nothing that gets our hearts swelling with pride like when we hear our national anthem being played in foreign lands when our athletes beat the world.
Most of the music that we define as ‘Kenyan’ interestingly comes from the 1970s through the 1990s. This music was as serenading as, for example, Jacob William Maunda’s Nangaika Mombasa.
Our current crop of musicians copy Western style and in the process, our music has lost that beauty of originality.
Perhaps deaths of several musicians of that time is robbing the country of that necessary fusion between old and new.
In fact, in the last decade, death has plucked one artiste after another from the music arena. And in the last three years, nearly ten highly distinguished music icons have passed on.
Vastly respected
The late Habel Kifoto, who founded Maroon Commandos in 1970, was a vastly respected bandleader.
One of Kifoto’s hits, Charonyi ni Wasi, is a piece of music so stunning and imperishable that even when poorly performed by other bands, one can still feel the song’s greatness.
Several musicians have attested to have been heavily influenced by Kifoto’s work.
In a male dominated industry, Queen Jane, who died June last year, stood tall. In a career that spanned three decades, she put benga at the high table. Still, her music is often played on radio.
Queen Jane’s music — and her success — was like a bridge through which many female artistes ventured into music.
Arguably the prince of Luo benga, Musa Juma, who died in March last year, was one of a kind. The silky voiced Limpopo Band top honcho was famous for his intricate mastery of the guitar, his timeles love ballads and sharp dressing style.
To date, there is no clear contender to Juma’s throne as the leading male Luo benga artiste .
His hit, Siaya Kababa, still remains one of the most beautiful music pieces ever written.
Luminary choral director, Boniface Mganga was a man widely respected. Mganga who passed on in July last year in a road accident, founded the internationally acclaimed Muungano National Choir.
At the time of his death, Mganga was a board member of the International Federation for Choral Music. He was an exuberant choral conductor, civil servant and prolific composer.
Music scholar Dr Arthur Mudogo Kemoli was one of Kenya’s most renowned music composers. Kemoli conducted the choir during the burial of Kenya’s founding president, Jomo Kenyatta.
The maestro, who is best known for his composition, Fimbo ya Nyayo, died this month after a long battle with diabetes and renal failure.
Barely four months before Kemoli passed on, legendary music scholar Caleb Okumu also succumbed to illness. Prof Okumu was the chairman of the Kenya Music Festival and had taught music for more than 30 years.
It is said that everything under the earth shall come to pass, but only music will live on.
The pieces each of the departed musicians penned will forever remain, and their legacy shall live long after them.
