A modern voice for Taarab

Will Ross reports from Zanzibar and Mombasa on how traditional Taarab music is responding to the challenge of new influences.

In the 1930's the great Taarab singer, Siti Bint Saad, was a prized performer at great ceremonies.

Whether at a wedding feast, or entertaining the Sultan of Zanzibar, Siti was accompanied by a violin, Arabian oud or lute, a drum and tambourine.

Culture Musical Club violinist Khamis Shehe

She teamed up with musicians and poets from Mombasa and the island of Lamu off the Kenyan coast, which was then considered to be the home of Swahili culture.

But since the days of Siti Bint Saad how has the sound of Taarab changed, and what role does it now play?

On my arrival in Zanzibar I was in for an immediate treat. The Culture Musical club were performing an open-air concert under the stars.

The twenty-strong Taarab orchestra was led by a row of serious looking violinists, dressed in immaculate dinner suits.

I am slightly bemused to learn that tonight's performance is to raise money for black giraffes - not an endangered species, but a village football team.

Biting lyrics

The formality of the violinists was quite a contrast with the colourful enjoyment of the audience on the dancefloor.

A shop shows the latest Taarab best sellers

At times women performing a slow spinning dance would make their way towards the singer and give her money in appreciation for the music and lyrics.

Taarab poetry is taken very seriously.

More often than not the lyrics are about love and relationships between people. But these days as people feel more free to express themselves, some of the lyrics have become extremely direct and often back-biting.

One poem compares a woman to a theatre chair - which anyone can sit on if they pay - a lyric which is too blunt for some tastes.

"I believe you cannot make a song a photocopy of social reality", says Mohammed Ahmed, the chairman of the Culture group.

"It must have some sort of creativity. Most of the songs are about jealousy or someone's taken your lover. It can even end up in a fight with people being injured because they think the song's directed at them" Mohammed Ahmed of the Culture Musical Club

Mohammed, who has written more than 200 songs, prefers an element of subtlety.

"Many songs today are too naked," he complains.

"For example I wrote a song about a pineapple, talking about how sweet it is, but how it must be matured and ripe.

"You cannot take a young pineapple and eat it. You won't enjoy it. The audience needs to do its homework on what the pineapple represents and then someone might compose another poem and say no, you are wrong."

African beat

The following evening I dropped in on Culture Musical Club's headquarters in Zanzibar's famous old stone town where a rehearsal was in full swing.

I was keen to find out about the instruments that make up the Taarab sound.

One of the key elements is the Egyptian qanun - a 72-string zither which lies flat and is plucked like a harp.

The beat is driven by African drums and tambourines while a European influence was brought in by the accordion.

The string section includes the Arabian oud and has been joined by the double bass, cello and of course the violin which is believed to have reached Zanzibar in the late nineteenth century when the Sultan invited an Egyptian violinist to train his band.

A Kidumbak player with a tea chest bass

Most weddings in Zanzibar are celebrated by the playing of Taarab music, but paying for a musicians is now so expensive that guests often have to make do with recorded music off compact discs.

But those who still want a live performance can choose a slightly cheaper option - a Kidumbak band.

Kidumbak is related to Taarab but features less of the Arab-style instruments and more home-made varieties such as a small clay drum called the dumbak and a bass made from a tea-chest.

Many musicians double up by working in both Kidumbak and Taarab bands, and while listening to a group called Hakina Ubaguzi I found myself sitting next to one of Zanzibar's most revered voices, Makame Faki.

The Politics of Taarab
In the past some Taarab bands were set up and funded by the government or political parties.

Culture Musical Club, for example, began life as part of the youth organisation of the Afro Shirazi Party during Zanzibar's struggle for independence and after the 1964 revolution became part of the Ministry of Culture.

Althought the Club is now independent, other bands still find themselves entwined with politics.

Sanaa Taarab is a newly formed group under the control of the Zanzibari government.

"We have to send our poems to the government censor board and if the songs are against the government then they will not be allowed," says group member Salim Khamis.

"As the group is government owned, everything we do has to be within the four walls of government wishes."

Such political involvement does not surprise the BBC correspondent in Zanzibar, Ally Saleh.

"We are a former socialist state", he says

"And these are the remnants of socialism. I am sure this band will be used for political campaigning."

"You can find people of different political opinions, different religions and different races in a Taarab club. Taarab is beyond all these things so I think it has contributed to the harmony of life in Zanzibar" The late Seif Salim

The links between Taarab bands and political movements worried the late Seif Salim - one of the most respected Taarab artists who started performing on the arabic flute in 1957.

When I met him at his home two months before his death he told me that for him Taarab was about unifying the diverse groups that make up the population of the Swahili Coast, not representing opposing opinions.

"Taarab and politics are two different things and they don't go together," he said.

"The music should be appreciated by everybody."

Eyes of an angel

However, when I heard Zein L'Abdin playing the oud I knew that Mombasa had music that would satisfy even the most hardened Taarab traditionalist.

Zein L'Abdin plays traditional Taarab to satisfy purists

Originally from the Island of Lamu, Zein, has been playing the oud since 1951 and since then he's preserved over 300 songs in a well thumbed songbook.

One song was called Macho - meaning 'eyes'.

"It's a love song," explained Zein.

"When I saw you with my eyes I thought you were an angel. I loved you very much, but I didn't win you."

The oud was introduced by Kuwaiti traders when they sailed to the north Kenyan coast during the 1920's and 30's.

During monsoon season they would have stayed for several months so they brought their musicians with them to provide entertainment on the boats.

So as we've heard Taarab in Mombasa as well as Zanzibar, is always absorbing new influences like the people of the Swahili Coast themselves.

But there are a number of dedicated musicians who are determined to see that what they consider to be pure Taarab lives on.

One of these was Seif Salim and it's sad for all admirers of Taarab that his long musical life has now come to an end.