Music of Tanzania
Genres
Beni Bongo flava Singeli Taarab Dansi Kwaya Ngoma
Media and performance
Music awards Tanzania Music Awards (TMA) Music festivals Sauti za Busara Asili Festival
Nationalistic and patriotic songs
National anthem Mungu ibariki Afrika
Regional music
DR Congo Kenya Uganda Rwanda Burundi Malawi Mozambique Zambia
v t e

Muziki wa Dansi
Stylistic origins	Soukous Congolese Rhumba African popular music
Cultural origins	Late 1930s
Typical instruments	Guitar (esp.fingerstyle) bass (esp.acoustic) drums brass vocals
Derivative forms	Soukous Ndombolo
Fusion genres
Benga Makossa Kwassa kwassa
Local scenes
Tanzania •Zanzibar
Other topics
Taarab Ngoma music Afro (genre) Son Cubano

Muziki wa dansi (inSwahili: "dance music"), or simplydansi, is a Tanzanian music genre, derivative ofCongolese soukous andCongolese rumba. It is sometimes calledSwahili jazz because most dansi lyrics are in Swahili, and "jazz" is an umbrella term used inCentral andEastern Africa to refer to soukous,highlife, and other dance music andbig band genres. Muziki wa dansi can also be referred to asTanzanian rumba, as "african rumba" is another name for soukous.^[1]

Muziki wa dansi began in the 1930s in theDar es Salaam area (where most dansi bands come from), and it is still popular in Tanzania, although new generations are more likely to listen tobongo flava or other forms ofpop music. Notable dansi bands includeDDC Mlimani Park,International Orchestra Safari Sound,Juwata Jazz,Maquis Original,Super Matimila, andVijana Jazz.^[2][3]

In the first decades of the 20th century,soukous bands fromBelgian Congo andFrench Congo were getting very popular acrossEastern Africa. This craze brought along dance clubs, especially in major cities likeNairobi andDar es Salaam, where bands would play live 7 days a week. While some of these bands were actually fromZaire, local bands emerged inKenya, Tanzania and elsewhere and began to develop their own blend of soukous.^[4] In Dar, some of the bands that pioneered the "tanzanian rumba" wereDar es Salaam Jazz Band (founded in 1932),Morogoro Jazz andTabora Jazz. These early bands were typicallybig bands based onbrass anddrums.^[3][4]

After Tanzania became independent (in 1961), asponsorship system was introduced byJulius Nyerere's government, whereby bands would be financially supported by government departments or other national institutions. One of the major dansi bands of this era was theNUTA Jazz Band, which was named after its sponsor, theNational Union of Tanzania. At the same time, bands gradually came to be managed like profit companies; the band owned the instruments, and musicians were employees, either on wage or salary. NUTA Jazz Band was one of the first bands to adopt this model; soon many others followed, including notable bands such asOrchestra Maquis Original,DDC Mlimani Park Orchestra,Tancut Alimasi andVijana Jazz.^[5] As a consequence of this, the most talented musicians would typically switch back and forth between bands to the best offerer, until they had gathered enough money to start their own band. Composers likeMuhiddin Maalin andHassani Bitchuka wrote hit songs for virtually all the major bands of their times. Conversely, a band was more of a "brand" than any specific ensemble of musicians; some bands kept playing for up to 50 years, while their members came and went.^[6]

Dansi music flourished through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, with bands such asOrchestra Safari Sound, Orchestra Maquis Original,International Orchestra Safari Sound and DDC Mlimani Park Orchestra battling to get the audience's favours. Competition was in fact a relevant concept in the development of dansi. Music festivals were usually in the form of contests, and each band typically had its own fan base, much in the venue of sporting teams.^[3][4] Also, a band often had its "nemesis", i.e., their foremost competitor; for example, the dansi scene in the 1970s was characterized by the rivalry between Orchestra Maquis Original and Orchestra Safari Sound, which was later replaced by that between International Orchestra Safari Sound and Mlimani Park.^[6]

Mitindo (in Swahili, "styles") were a key element in the rivalry between dansi bands. Each band would typically create its own style (mtindo), which was designed to be catchy for the audience and be clearly distinctive of the band. Mitindo were usually associated with, and often named after, some specific dancing style; for example, the name of Orchestra Maquis' mtindoogelea piga mbizi means "dive and swim", as dancers were supposed to move their arms like they were diving. Bands often changed their mtindo when it began to go out of style. Some musicians and composers were specifically renowned as "mtindo makers".^[3]

Mitindo were also important to identify a band irrespective of who was actually playing in that band. When a musician switched from one band to another, he would change his style to reflect the new band's mtindo. Again, the most appreciated dansi musicians could easily change their style as needed.^[4]

Over time, dansi music changed, partly influenced by the evolution ofEuropean andAmerican music. Bands in the 1960s and 1970s typically had electric guitars and electric bass guitars; in the 1980s keyboards became commonplace, and later bands even usedsynthesizers anddrum machines (as was the case withVijana Jazz). The sound of most recent dansi bands likeGari Kubwa,Tokyo Ngma andAtomic Advantage is actually keyboard-based.^[7]

• Music of Tanzania
• Tanzania Music Awards

• Broughton, Simon (1999).World Music-Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East.Rough Guides Limited,Penguin Books.ISBN 1-85828-636-0.
• Stone, Ruth M. (2010-04-02).The Garland Handbook of African Music.Routledge.ISBN 978-1-135-90001-4.
• Njogu, Kimani; Maupeu, Herv (2007-10-15).Songs and Politics in Eastern Africa. African Books Collective.ISBN 978-9987-08-108-0.

• African dances
• Tanzanian styles of music

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