Matona's Cultural Band is comprised of musicians from Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania. Mohamed Issa Haji 'Matona' is one of Zanzibar's most legendary musicians. He is a teacher at the Dhow Countries Music Academy and has been performing music for over 40 years. 

 For the past two years Matona has been expanding his musical career by establishing a music genre which takes the traditional taarab music of Zanzibar into new and exciting directions.  Matona's new arrangements incorporate both traditional and modern instruments, eg. using real drums as opposed to the ‘conventional’ electronic beats machine.

The Cultural Band is Matona's most recent music project and popular in both Zanzibar and Tanzania mainland.