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Solomon Manori & Chemaner Band – Chepkunyuk
So there’s this really great online discography of Kenyan and Tanzanian 45s called KenTanza Vinyl that is doing a brilliant job of digging through the history of singles made before the advent of tapes and CDs…however I can’t find much info about this band there. But! Enjoy head-banging (or whatever you prefer to do) to these rugged and joyous Kenyan guitar band tunes that (for me) conjure mental images of dark brown wood. Feel like I am on an old tea plantation or something.
Face 1
Matibakach Chito
Narachek
Kwantap David
Tapletgoi
Torikit Agenge
Face 2
Chepkunyuk
Chepkorir
Kenderwa Maiywa
Chemabei Mbaret
Ya Raeli
Ya Terterin
13 Comments
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Thanks for posting this and being so complimentary about the KenTanza Vinyl discography which I run. In the three years it has been online, it has grown to include details of almost 5,000 45rpm records. There are plenty of gaps to fill in, though, especially about the history of many of the artists.
Solomon Manori is a case in point. All I can add to your post is that Chemaner Jazz recorded at least three singles in the mid-1970s for Mambo, one of the dozen or so labels run by A.P. Chandarana in Kericho.
Your comment about head-banging in a tea plantation is on the nail as Kericho is at the heart of Kenya’s tea-growing region, while Chemaner is a small settlement southeast of the town and the band presumably came from there.
F.Y.I., the tea plantations were not a nice scene.
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uh yeah, true the tea plantations were not cool. sorry for the bad metaphor.
Thanks for the music and the heads up on KenTanza Vinyl. Tim, do you know of Olima Anditi? I spent a few months in Kisumu recording underground music and fell in love with Anditi’s guitar work. Was wondering if you had any info from a vinyl historian perspective.
You can hear his music at the Raw Music International soundcloud:
http://soundcloud.com/rawmusicinternational
This is awesome. Run it.
so, so amazing. love this, perfectly fits the nice weather we are having where i live.
Really cool. THANKS for something I might never have heard otherwise.
thanks ofr this one – it put a happy smile on my face as i battled the rush-hour traffic!
This is my new jam. It’s definitely in the same vein as one of my all-time favorites from this site – the Charles Chepkwony tape.
Manori hits, kipchamba,oriango,n segeri talam songs are my fevorite songs that penetrate deeply into my nerve.I wish u could have more of them.I listen to them frequently in my tape recorder..
by kipchamba.Hamba
segerek
sigindet
etc.
this is really awesome
lets carry on tradition gentlemen
i need your album