Mombasa's finest to showcase 'Hybrid Styles, Musical Delights'

Nyota Ndogo, Maulidi Juma and Mzee Ngala will take to the stage at the Little Theatre Club.

The Hybrid Styles, Musical Delights project is implemented through facilitating knowledge sharing between scholars and members of the public from the Kenyan coast, as well as through this public music event, which will feature performances of both traditional and modern Swahili music.  

The concert is hosted by the Goethe-Institut Kenya in collaboration with Twaweza Communications, an organization that works to provide practical information to everyone, to foster quality independent media and citizen monitoring services in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

Maulidi Juma is one of the most prominent representatives of taarab music that fuses elements of Arabic, Indian and African music.

Seasoned composer and saxophonist Joseph Ngala, better known as Mzee Ngala, is an accomplished, veteran artist credited for creating bango music, a fusion of traditional Portuguese genres, Arabic-influenced taarab music, rhumba and jazz, with lyrics sung in Swahili or the coastal language of Giriama. Ngala formed his first outfit, the Blue Boys Orchestra (BBO), with old schoolmates in the early 1960s. It proved to be launching pad for several budding musicians from the coastal region. In later years, Ngala had stints with Hodi Boys, Bahari Boys (formerly Soul Brothers) as well as the Teusi Five. Teusi's split in the 1980s gave rise to the Bango Sounds band. For more than four decades, Ngala's concerts have showcased his signature brand of bango music, leading to a steady rise in stature through years of persistence and hard work.

Representing the younger generation will be Nyota Ndogo, an artist who has given taarab a fresh spin by mixing it with pop music. She was discovered by Andrew Burchell, a Mombasa-based producer who mentored her sultry voice and ability to draw inspiration from her surroundings. After a brief hiatus from the music scene, Nyota Ndogo returned this year to releas a new single ‘Subira Yangu’ in early July. She has also been working in Copenhagen, Denmark, mentoring young children on the importance of education as well as performing on World Music Day and Bob Marley Day. She has also been part of the Celebrate Africa concert in Denmark and the Amsha Mama initiative in Kenya, which aims to promote appreciation for women in social development.

The concert is free and starts at 5:00pm. For updates and more information about the concert visit the Goethe-Institut Facebook page.