Tanzania: Mkanyia speaks on his Ethiopian tour and much more

Mkanyia who has planned an East African album tour was in Ethiopia for the whole of June promoting his third album Bangili that was released in May. " The album was produced and recorded by Ketebul Music Studio based in Nairobi. I plan to tour Kenya next right after they are done with the general elections in August".

"As Ketebul, we were really interested in working with him because of his distinctive style of music. His love for blues had seen him fuse different traditional music styles from Tanzanian such as Segere, Mdundiko and even popular genres like Mziki Wa Dansi.” Ketebul producer Stefano Sita Nane said “The production process was challenging because Mkanyia is based in Tanzania so he made countless trips to Kenya. Despite that we are proud of the final product and it will be interesting to see how the Kenyan audience receive it since it is totally a new style which is yet to be explored in Kenya."

The tour was sponsored by Group Castel which is the third largest wine producer in the world and the second largest beer and soft drinks business in Africa, BGI Ethiopia PLC which is the leading brewery in Ethiopia and finally Kenya Airways.

Speaking to Music In Africa Mkanyia said “I was invited by my good friend and mentor dr. Mulatu Astatke who is a great musician and arranger. He was the one who got me my first show in Ethiopia back in 2015”. Astatke is the pioneer of Ethio- Jazz he is also credited for having established conga and bongo drums, common elements in Ethiopian popular music.

Mkanyia accredits his early exposure to music as the reason for his different musical style. “Growing up i loved listening to American blues, my father was a musician who played with Tanzania’s famous DDC Mlimani Park Orchestra.” Mkanyia says “The band was famous all through the 70s, 80s and 90s. I also loved listened to the late Remmy Ongala from who I drew inspiration from for my music.”

Mkanyia told music in Africa “It is always tricky for an artist to perform for who are from a different cultural background as your own. Most Ethiopians in Addis Ababa speak Amharic whereas i sing in Swahili however, the language barrier did not prevent them from dancing to our Swahili songs. I was also honoured to share the same stage with Ethiopian jazz guitarist Girum Mezmur".

Mid this month the Ethiopian government charged seven Oromo artists with terrorism for producing and uploading politically charged songs on YouTube. Mkanyia had this to say about the situation “As musicians we are responsible for the people, we are their voice. However that does not mean that we should take part in active politics.” He added “We have seen the careers of many musicians destroyed because of being fully involved in politics. Politics is a game and if we must play it as musicians, then we need to conduct ourselves in a careful manner.”

Here is one of Mkanyia's songs.