The members of Zanzibar's Culture Musical Club meet almost every night at their clubhouse in Stone Town, the historic part of the city. They have been doing this, in constantly changing compositions, for almost fifty years. The Culture Musical Club is one of the treasurers of Zanzibar's unique music culture. The island off the coast of East Africa has maintained trade contacts with the Arab world
… since the first century. Zanzibar's music styles, the taarab and kidumbak, also sound like a perfect amalgam of African and Arabic music. The one time swinging by the driving ngoma drums, in the next song the Club sounds hypnotic again due to the swinging violins and the fast playing on the qanun. The accordion, played by the band leader Said Mwinyi, sometimes even gives the music a slight Southern European accent. This album is, partly due to the excellent liner notes, an excellent introduction to the intriguing music culture of Zanzibar. (PdK)more
