Daniel Owino Misiani

Celebrated worldwide because the father of Kenyan benga, D.O. Misiani continues to be a seminal shape in the annals and advancement of East African music. Delivered Daniel Owino Misiani in Nyamagongo, Tanzania, on Feb 22, 1940, he grew up in a lifestyle dominated with the Kenyan Luo tribe. A experienced of college and cathedral choirs, as a teenager he performed percussion in an area acoustic group, but his initial electric guitar was smashed into parts by his devoutly Religious father. Misiani even so pursued a full-time music profession, journeying throughout Tanzania and Kenya before settling in Nairobi in 1964. There he channeled the amount of his encounters to generate what would become benga. A strikingly rhythmic music forged from components as diverse because the bodi music of Luo females and the fingerpicked electric guitar design of the Congo, its eclectic audio was further designed by instruments like the nyatiti (eight-string lyre) and orutu (one-string violin). After developing a music group dubbed the Victoria Young boys, Misiani obtained his first guitar and in 1965 lower his first recordings. He quickly renamed the group Shirati Luo Tone of voice, so when benga obtained a industrial foothold in Kenya, they truly became the acknowledged market leaders of the developing motion. Misiani’s wry, provocative lyrics not merely struck a serious chord with listeners, but gained the wrath of Kenyan government bodies as well. Within the decades to check out, he was jailed frequently for his recognized offenses against the federal government. Renamed Shirati Jazz sometime through the middle-’70s, Misiani and his group reeled off a fantastic series of strikes across the 10 years involved. Singles like “Simaya Chunye Oketo,” “Madinga By no means Dies,” and “Dada Jane” vaulted benga to an even of recognition surpassed only from the rumba-inspired Swahili and Congolese music that dominated African radio. Benga however fell from industrial grace within the 1980s, and it appeared Misiani’s chance for exposure to a worldwide audience was dropped when he was refused a passport for Shirati Jazz’s 1st and only Western tour. Nevertheless, a surreptitious conference at Nairobi’s APS Studio room with maker Ben Mandelson and journalist Werner Graebner led to a 1989 LP, Piny Ose Mer/The Globe UGLY, which gained wide international launch. That same 12 months, the compilation Benga Blast! also strike retail on both edges from the Atlantic. Although Misiani by no means regained his earlier commercial heights in the home, he and Shirati Jazz managed a loyal pursuing, taking pleasure in a long-term live residency at Kisimu’s Golf club Oasis. In 2004, he also headlined a short U.S. tour. Misiani passed away Might 17, 2006, one of the fatalities within an auto accident beyond Kisumu. He was 66 yrs . old.