Donald Kachamba

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Donald J. Kachamba (born October 18, 1953 in Blantyre (Malawi) ; † January 12, 2001 in Chileka , Malawi) was a Malawian musician (first guitarist and flutist ( Pennywhistle ), then also clarinet, harmonica, percussion), composer and Band leader.

Life

The Kachamba, who came from a musical family, was influenced by the South African Kwela music. His father James Kachamba (1922–1988) shaped the newly developed guitar and banjo style in southern Malawi in the 1940s, the mother Etinala B. Gwede and the older sister Nasibeko were regarded as excellent players of the oral bow nkangala . At the age of six, Donald began to learn to play the flute in Harare , where he lived with his families from 1954 to 1962. His role models were the famous South African kwela flute players.

With his brother Daniel Kachamba (1947–1987) he founded his own kwela band, which developed a more independent style from a mixture of composed and improvised pieces. With this band he first worked as a street musician in various states of East Africa. Since 1972, the band, which continued after the end of the actual heyday of this music genre, appeared several times in the United States of America and Europe. For his compositions of Pennywhistle Jive pieces, Kachamba was the first in Africa to experiment with the playback technology of tape recorders. After the Scientific African he was one of the musicians-composers who made a significant contribution to the development of the Kwela tradition.

He was also active in musicology and contributed to Gerhard Kubik's documentation Malawian music - A framework for analysis (Zomba 1987), some of which were made in Vienna. Both have made concert tours together.

Discographic notes

  • The Kachamba Brothers' Band (1974)
  • Donald Kachamba's Band: Simanje-Manje and Kwela from Malawi (1979)
  • Donald Kachamba et son ensemble: Concert Kwela , Le Chant du Monde (1991)
  • Donald Kachamba's Kwela Band: Live and in Donald Kachamba's Studio. 1974–1995, popular african music (1999)

Movies

  • Donald Kachamba's Kwela Music: Malawi Twist. Encyclopaedia Cinematographica Göttingen, B 2328 ( Institute for Scientific Film ) 1978
  • Donald Kachamba's Kwela Music: Simanje-manje, Cha-cha-cha. Encyclopaedia Cinematographica, Göttingen E 2329, 1978

literature

  • Gerhard Kubik : Donald Kachamba's Reconstructions of Past Music - A Contribution to Capturing Non-Verbal Traditions. In: From Theory and Practice of Ethnohistory. Commemoration dedicated to Walter Hirschberg's 70th birthday by his students. Vienna 1974, pp. 159–190 (Wiener Ethnohistorische Blätter, supplement 3)
  • Gerhard Kubik: The Kachamba Brothers' Band. A study of neo-traditional music in Malawi. The Institute for African Studies, University of Zambia, Lusaka 1974. (Zambian papers No. 9) 1979-1980, pp. 89-122
  • Gerhard Kubik: A Theory of African Music. Volume 2. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2010. Chapter: Genealogy of a Malawian Musician Family: Daniel J. Kachamba (1947-1987) and his Associates. Pp. 211-274
  • Gerhard Kubik: Donald Kachamba's Montage Recordings. Aspects of Urban Music History in Malawi. African Urban Studies 6. Michigan State University, African Studies Center, Chicago
  • Gerhard Kubik: A Presentation of Kwela Music by the Malawian Musician / Composer Donald Kachamba . Scientific African
  • Moya Aliya Malamusi: Rise and Development of Chileka Guitar Style in the 1950s. In: A. Schmidhofer and D. Schüller (eds.): Festschrift for Gerhard Kubik. Peter Lang, Frankfurt / Main 1994, pp. 7-72
personal data
SURNAME Kachamba, Donald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kachamba, Donald J.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Malawian musician
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Blantyre (Malawi)
DATE OF DEATH January 12, 2001
Place of death Chileka