Upendo Jazz

Group Information

The group is from the Murangi Village in the Mara Region and their community is Wajita and their style is Vidogori. They were founded in 1999.   Their instruments included: Ngoma za Budogori (drums, with a kick) and Njiga (shakers from gourds).   It is worth taking a minute on the drums.   They were typical African drums, but set up Western Style on a steel rack and they leaned one large bass drum against the rack. The drummer then built a separate wooden kick pedal, so he could play all the drums with his hands and kick with his feet. We had not seen this before and it meant the group has a very traditional sound but a very modern feel, with contemporary beats.