Music of the Shi People: Songs Accompanied by Likembe

Ever since an early introduction to "world music" came through the mail order in 1990 of a sampler CD from the JVC World Sounds series, it has been great when the opportunity to pick up a disc from this hard-to-find series has presented itself.  This recording in what was then known as Zaire and now the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a fascinating example of music at its most fundamental level and came about apparently by accident.

Tsutomu Oohashi was traveling in summer 1983 to the Ituri forest of that nation to record the remarkable music of the Mbuti pygmies, but, when he got to Lwiro and went to the Institut de Recherche Scientifique, he came across a quartet of mjisicians who played the likembe, or thumb piano, percussion instruments, and sang.  In his liners, he wrote that "I was astonished at the resemblance of their music to the authentic blues style practised in the United States between the 1920s and the 1950s . . . this was truly the world of the blues" and that the only difference was the use of the likembe as opposed to the guitar.  Oohashi claimed "I felt I had discovered the original source of the blues."

Others suggest that American blues was connected to west Africa and the griots singing and playing the kora and in the work of musicians of the vast savanna regions of the continent.  Oohashi suggests that "the great racial diversity of the peoples of Africa and their complex interrelationships" created a complex cultural mix and that the Shi people of Lwiro were "in the heart of the African continent" and their music reflected elements from many parts of it.  He was particularly taken with the distinctive vocal qualities of Rhulinobo Elige, who sang "with exquisite refinement" and Joker Shamavu "whose voice rings out like a wind across the savanna."

For this listener, enjoying the music of this quartet is based on its own terms, though any connection to the blues is interesting enough to ponder, as sometimes the most powerful performances are those at an elemental level: vocals, a predominant instrument, and supplementary and complementary percussion.  The Music of the Shi People is an immersive experience in central African sounds and it does feel like the music comes from ancient origins.