The Zawose Queens: Maisha review – vocal power and family stories

Musical dynasties loom large in African music, in Tanzania no less than Mali, but it’s taken a while for the offspring of Hukwe Zawose to claim his legacy. The late patriarch championed national traditions while winning favour in the west in the 80s and 90s, cutting albums for Real World and becoming a fixture at Womad. The mesmeric chime of the thumb piano (illimba) was at the heart of his music, along with the exuberant vocals of the Wagogo (or Gogo) people of the central hills.

Here, Hukwe’s daughter, Pendo, and granddaughter, Leah, pick up his mantle on an album made with British producers Oli Barton-Wood and Tom Excell, who add guitar and studio effects to the mix. The sheer vocal power of the duo is arresting, a shifting polyphony primarily addressing family and domestic affairs; this is the first time women in Gogo music have been allowed to write their own stories. There’s a powerful rhythmic drive to tracks like Maisha and Kuseka – aunt and niece prove fiercesome drummers – while on Sauti Ya Mama and Fahari Yetu, recorded on the roof of a Zanzibar hotel, the production turns dreamy and hypnotic under the cascades of thumb piano. Stirring stuff.