{"id":42489,"date":"2018-01-30T11:35:01","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T10:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/please-welcome-flee-and-their-first-release-that-focuses-on-kenyas-benga-music\/"},"modified":"2020-05-04T23:27:33","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T22:27:33","slug":"please-welcome-flee-and-their-first-release-that-focuses-on-kenyas-benga-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/please-welcome-flee-and-their-first-release-that-focuses-on-kenyas-benga-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Please welcome FLEE and their first release that focuses on Kenya&#8217;s benga music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"pam-featured-content\"  style=\"color: #333333;\"><img decoding=\"async\"  class=\"pam-featured-content\" src=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/benga_site_gallerie.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1535\" height=\"1063\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #eb5757;\"><b>Welcome! And we mean it! Those who launched FLEE are truly passionate for <\/b><b><i>benga<\/i><\/b><b> music. Their label \/ magazine \/ &#8220;cultural platform&#8221; is a great work that make us hear and listen to what used to be Kenya&#8217;s most popular music genre<\/b>.<\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><span style=\"color: #999999;\"><em>French version published for the the first time the\u00a0October\u00a010th 2017.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This sound arose during the 1960s in the Nyanza province, on the shores of Lake Victoria. It served as the soundtrack of the independence, a time for hope. Kisumu was the first main city for benga, quickly followed by River Road in Nairobi, a place that would turn that music highly popular until the beginning of the &#8217;80s.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><em>Listen to our\u00a0playlist Afro Groove Party!\u00a0on\u00a0<a style=\"color: #333333;\" href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/user\/panafricanmusic\/playlist\/3br8AcCZxoMFb2xRu6IWuW\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Spotify<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a style=\"color: #333333;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.deezer.com\/en\/playlist\/1886980042\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Deezer<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FLEE tells the story of a genre and its heroes &#8211; like D.O. Misiani, main man of the Victoria Boys and Shirati Jazz. It also narrates their lightning rise in the &#8217;60s until their decline in the &#8217;80s, when president Daniel arap Moi started to rule the country. The masters of benga were left high and dry by unscrupulous producers, robbed by the pirates, and eventually ended up in misery, despite their immense talent. They also suffered with the contempt from the Kenyan elites, who considered the genre a music of countrymen\u00a0newly moved in town, who transposed to the guitar the way they used to play the traditional Nyatiti harp. Was it a colonial complex? Or maybe the fear that this music would broaden its audience until it helps suppress regional and tribal frontiers &#8211; which would eventually happen<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/345013119&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9452\" style=\"width: 669px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9452\" class=\"wp-image-9452 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/image3-1-e1507630474541.jpg\" alt=\"D.O. Misiani dit le mwalimu (le professeur)\" width=\"659\" height=\"537\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/image3-1-e1507630474541.jpg 659w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/image3-1-e1507630474541-465x379.jpg 465w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/image3-1-e1507630474541-375x306.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(min-width:1010px) 759px,100vw\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-9452\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\">D.O. Misiani aka the\u00a0mwalimu (the teacher)<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Benga would then be sung in all the main languages of Kenya and, according to FLEE, would become the conveyor of a shared and popular musical identity. This result was the exact opposite of what the politicians had tried to do in the country: stir up the ethnic rivalries. The bloody elections of 2007 are still haunting people&#8217;s memories today, and the unprecedented cancelation of last August&#8217;s vote by the Supreme Court has maintained the country under pressure until the new elections of October 2017<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #eb5757;\">The idea behind FLEE is to introduce and document cultural movements, by contextualizing their origins and the circumstances that gave birth to them and, eventually, the social meaning and role they&#8217;ve had in the society that fed them.<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>What about benga music today? Is it still alive?<\/p>\n<p>One thing for sure, benga&#8217;s heritage is not dead yet. FLEE decided to reissue three gemstones of the genre (A side) and their versions by\u00a0contemporanean\u00a0African and European musicians. The music comes with a fully detailed and illustrated 16-page booklet and illustrations, that offers the perspective of Kenyan journalists, experts (Ammanuel Mwenda) and writers (Ondiso Madete), as well as North-American musicologist Douglas Peterson, a long-time passionate for benga.<\/p>\n<p>The idea behind FLEE is to introduce and document cultural movements &#8211; especially musical &#8211; by contextualizing their origins and the circumstances that gave birth to them and, eventually, the social meaning and role they&#8217;ve had in the society that fed them.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/345012606&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9447\" src=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/issue1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1818\" height=\"1228\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/issue1.jpg 1818w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/issue1-759x513.jpg 759w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/issue1-1010x682.jpg 1010w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/issue1-1440x973.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/issue1-661x446.jpg 661w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/issue1-465x314.jpg 465w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/issue1-375x253.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(min-width:1010px) 759px,100vw\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>All this great work has been done far from the ephemeral trends fueled by Western producers and labels, far from the diggers&#8217; frenetic excitation, and far from the way-too-strict categories of musicologists. To put it in a nutshell: FLEE aims to make these musics known and appreciated.<\/p>\n<p>One can be moved by a masterpiece, but when you know the details of the artist&#8217;s life and career, you can reach another level of comprehension of the artwork&#8217;s context and era.<\/p>\n<p>This is exactly what FLEE has been starting to do. So be sure to follow them from now.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #eb5757;\"><strong><em>Benga Music (A Signature Genre From Kenya),<\/em>\u00a0October, 9th, 2017 via <a style=\"color: #eb5757;\" href=\"http:\/\/fleeproject.com\/issues\/001\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">FLEE<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BaIN7FojxRA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9456\" src=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/20x25_300dpi_FLEE_BENGA_07.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2362\" height=\"2953\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/20x25_300dpi_FLEE_BENGA_07.jpg 2362w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/20x25_300dpi_FLEE_BENGA_07-759x949.jpg 759w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/20x25_300dpi_FLEE_BENGA_07-1010x1263.jpg 1010w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/20x25_300dpi_FLEE_BENGA_07-2048x2560.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/20x25_300dpi_FLEE_BENGA_07-1440x1800.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/20x25_300dpi_FLEE_BENGA_07-661x826.jpg 661w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/20x25_300dpi_FLEE_BENGA_07-465x581.jpg 465w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/20x25_300dpi_FLEE_BENGA_07-375x469.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(min-width:1010px) 759px,100vw\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><em>A-side : Daniel Owino Misiani ; George Ramogi\u00a0and the Migori Superstars<\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #333333;\"><em>B-side : modern re-interpretations of the A-side themes\u00a0by\u00a0Jaakko Eino Kalevi, Africaine 808, Nik Weston and Rudy&#8217;s Midnight Machine.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome! And we mean it! Those who launched FLEE are truly passionate for benga music. Their label \/ magazine \/ &#8220;cultural platform&#8221; is a great work that make us hear and listen to what used [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":9446,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7833,9373],"tags":[5744],"location":[8092],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42489"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42489"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=42489"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=42489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}