“Musandine” (c. 1978) – Donald Kachamba’s Kwela Band * LP: Simanje-Manje and Kwela from Malawi * Label: Popular African Music
The Kachamba Brothers—Donald (pennywhistle) and Daniel (guitar)—are a useful starting point for exploring the music of Malawi, which tends to maintain an irrepressibly cheerful sound. The Kachamba family benefited from the attentions of Austrian ethnomusicologist Gerhard Kubik, whose writings and films eventually made it possible for them to tour worldwide. The genre the Kachambas helped concoct is known as kwela, or “pennywhistle jive.” “Musadine” is a track that appeared on a 1999 German CD reissue of their 1978 Simanje-Manje and Kwela from Malawi album, first released on the Kenyan A.I.T. label.