Artists

John Simon, aka Joh Makini hails from Arusha, a city with a highly credible "hard core" emergent Swahili hiphop scene. He has been involved in music since 1997 but it wasn't until 2004 that his name started to be spoken in almost reverential terms. This coincided with the release of read more

Katapila Ngoma started in 1980, with 15 musicians playing traditional drum and dance music of the Pogoro tribe, from Morogoro region of mainland Tanzania.

Around 1986 they added more cultural traditions to their regular repertoire, including sindimba, lizombe and others. From 1990 their fanbase started to explode, when they developed a read more

The Kiumbizi group has been performing together since 1996. Featuring up to 20 men and women, they perform styles of traditional music and dance, which are unique and special to Pemba island.

Kiumbizi is a kind of stick dance-meets-martial arts and Boso, a rhythmic circle dance. These ngoma styles read more

Sphiwe Ngwenya, aka Mamillion, hails from Soweto. He is inspired by township life, changes challenges. He aims to take kwaito back to the TKZee era with his beats, whilst fused with a modern sensibility.

Mamillion's main objective is to entertain while dominating the kwaito scene.

Mamillion's recent debut CD, Phakama is filled read more

Mohamed Ilyas embodies the culture and history of the Zanzibar islands like no other. He comes from a great tradition of taarab singers who took the Arabic origin of the art form and transformed it to a uniquely Zanzibar experience. He is firmly grounded in this tradition, with a read more

This is Tanzania's equivalent of Congo's TPOK Jazz or Zaiko Langa Langa. As OTTU Jazz, and in various other guises, Msondo Ngoma Music Band has been around since 1964, with the current leader Maalim Gurumo, being the only original member left.

Being the oldest surviving band in East and Central Africa, read more