WANT TO GET FREE LIVE MUSIC SHOWS?

A new place in Dar City where you can get live band music on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, its called the Garden Breeze bar. Its along Morroco Road opposite the Roman Catholic Church in Magomeni, this Wednesday Mashauzi Classic Modern Taarab group was on stage. The group under its female band leader Isha Mashauzi, who has nicknamed herself the Lioness. The place was packed up with happy people enjoying music and to add the fun , music is free no entrance what more would one want?

LADY IN RED 2013 fashion show, preparations in full swing

Models

Organisers

The CEO with models and designers

Organisers

The Lady Red 2013 Upgraded Fashion Show preparations are now in full swing. This being the 9th Lady in Red Fashion, the organizers are working overtime to make it the best Lady In Red ever. More than 32 designers will exhibit their  works. Big names like Khadija mwanamboka, Moustapha Hassanali, Ailinda sawe, Gymkhana, Natasha and many more will be there. Last Sunday the organizers met with designers, and models at the Nyumbani Lounge to lay down some ground rules for this show.

GFC MUSICA aka WALUGULU ORIGINAL

Walugulu Original, that is how GFC Musica Band identifies itself. I saw the band for the first time after being told about it through my facebook friends. The band was performing at the Chilakale hall in Morogoro, though the band is new, it was obvious to me if they stuck to proper band management, the band has all the potential to be one of the top bands in Tanzania. This will bring back  Morogoro into the limelight it once enjoyed when two of the country's top bands Super Volcano Orchestra and Cuban Marimba Band existed there. The band has new music equipment, young good musicians, an enthusiastic sponsor, what remains is how high their vision will take them

MSONDO NGOMA'S BASSIST DIES AFTER A SHORT ILLNESS

Ismail Mapanga a long time bassist of Msondo Ngoma died this evening after a short illness that began while the Band was on tour in Tabora last week. Funeral arrangements will be posted as soon as we get them
May he Rest In Peace Amen

A GREAT FUND RAISING SHOW FOR TANZANIA FILM FEDERATION

All top Tanzanian film stars will be there, accompanied by The African Stars Band

ORCHESTRA MILIMANI PARK IN A SHOW FULL OF EMOTIONS

Mlimani Park Orchestra with their famous music style ‘Sikinde’ last night were at the Golden Three Pub in Mwenge performing mostly their oldies, and still driving people wild as they have been doing for more than 30 years of the bands existence.  Maabadi who is also a long time musician was one of the audience and he was saying again and again ‘ I feel like crying’. What compliment could be greater than that? Max Bushoke an old member of this band who now works in Broadcasting organization in South African was an added value of the sweet evening, he sang  his old hits ‘ Ugomvi wa baba na mama’, ‘Kiu ya jibu’ What more could a Sikinde fan want? Bitchuka one of my everlasting vafourite singer was leading the band with his still unique voice, singing many of the songs that Tanzanians have grown up loving. All I can say is that Sikinde alive and well.

VANESSA MDEE THE SKY IS THE LIMIT

Vanessa Mdee

Me, John Kitime

The sweet voice of Vanessa Mdee  is another refreshing sound in the music airwaves of Tanzania. What first drove me to want to hear this young lady was actually her second name Mdee, the name meant many things to me. In 1972 I joined the Kleruu College of national Eduction in Iringa, a teachers training college. One of the first things that I got information about was that there was a college band, maybe because I reported at the college with a guitar in my hand, and sure enough I met a couple of guys rehearsing in a small room that was a store for the guitars and also the rehearsal room, there I met Kassim El Siagy, who is now a prominent film maker based in Tanga, playing the lead guitar, ( a heavy Hofner guitar that had ana excellent tone, I have yet to see anothe like it), there was another guy who was from Musoma and new all the Musoma Jazz band songs, and also met this short guy Yusuph Mdee. Yusuph and I became firm friends immediately ( a friendship that got us through many adventures and was cut of with his death), as we found we shared a common bond musically, we all loved soul music, and sang by heart many songs by the then greats Wilson Pickett, James Brown, Otis Redding, Clarence Carter, Percy Slegde and many others, and we also loved the same bands from Tanzania, Afro70, Safari Trippers, The Sparks, The Comets, soon we were sharing the same cubicle, which soon became the music center of the whole college.  Yusuph had joined the college coming from Dar es Salaam where he was a member of a famous Upanga group which called itself The Groove Makers, a teenage band that had good musicians  some of whom are now holding top positions in the government. So we put our heads together and composed a number of songs which have never been recorded, but were performed at the college dances every time the college band performed.Yusuph was a great singer and guitarist, he later went on to become a graphic artists after joining a college in Italy to pursue education on art. After completing his education he came back to Tanzania and continued his love for music by becoming a very famous DJ in Arusha, a task he carried on until his death in October 1999. Funny though I see a lot of Yusuph in Vanessa, and I believe with the right management she will go far, she has the voic and the right charm.

NEW MUSIC EQUIPMENT FOR MSONDO NGOMA GROUP

Msondo Ngoma group, which can be called  the oldest band in the country recently received brand new music equipment from Tanzania Distilleries Limited, distillers who produced a number of brands of drinks including Konyagi. The band has started using the equipment, and has been given a new life. The band was put up in 1964 by the then workers union then known as NUTA, and the band was known as NUTA Jazz Band, the union changed its name to JUWATA, and the band too changed its name to JUWATA Jazz Band, the union changed its name for the third time to OTTU, and the band had to follow suit, it became known as OTTU Jazz Band. And finally the union collapsed, and the musicians were given the  music instruments as their terminal benefits. They formed a band and called it by the name of the style that they had been consistent with since the band was formed 'MSONDO'. The band is now known as Msondo Group.

Said Mabela-Lead Guitar

The new speakers

Shaaban Dede