Gurumo the fallen jewel of dance music

Dar es Salaam. When Rumba maestro Gurumo bowed from active music towards the end of last year, it was one of those rare feats in Tanzanian dance music. 

They were over 50 years of thrilling compositions and stunning performances on stage.

He was the image of Msondo Ngoma, a band that he led for several decades after his stints with other outfits in the country.

It was an industry that many of his contemporaries admit wasn’t as rewarding as what the craft is today.

But even then they were years that remain as a nostalgic period which could easily pass as the Golden era of Tanzania’s dance music.

However, early this week when news came through that the veteran singer, composer and Band leader Muhidin Maalim Gurumo had passed away, it felt like the only candle in the room had been blown away by some cruel wind.

At 74, just like wine, instead of waning he had instead been getting better; that it took quite some time for the reality to sink in when the announcement was finally made to the public.

The scene at his burial in his ancestral village of Masaki in Kisarawe District, Coastal Region told a story of its own.

Everyone had a version of who the fallen artiste was from a father, husband, friend to one of the greatest mentors; the stories were diverse but similar in narrative. A good person indeed!

To most of his fans and lovers of dance music, Gurumo is just an irreplaceable character who has gone too soon with a wealth of experience on how to survive in the ailing industry.

 His compositions were not only sweet and rhythmic but also timely and in some circles described as patriotic and witty.

One of his compositions ‘Tangazia Mataifa Yote’, is one of the best orchestrated patriotic songs ever recorded in the post independent Tanzania.

With Muhidini Maalim Gurumo on lead vocal, the song earned DDC Mlimani Park a number one position in 1987’s Top Band show. A few days after Mlimani Park won Tanzania’s Best Band award, Mwenge Jazz horn player, Balele Sololo silenced those who doubted the band’s victory with a professional defence:

“Mlimani Park deserved to win the title and because of the magic hands of Gurumo, Abel Balthazal and King Enock. Without them Mwenge Jazz could have easily won the title,” explained Sololo.

Sololo who learned music while at Grade-7 explained that Mlimani Park were an edge above Mwenge Jazz in professionalism since the key which they used in their winning song was professionally mastered, with Gurumo on vocals, King Enock on the sax and Balthazal on the lead guitar.

Like many other rumba pyro-technicians, Gurumo didn’t have any written transcription of his songs, a situation that makes rumba masterly to remain in its masters’ hearts.   Therefore this week as the industry mourns his death, we are all aware that he has gone with an irreplaceable knowledge as no documentation on making proto-rumba music is left.

And perhaps one musician who knows how this would have panned out is singer Diamond who claimed that the old man had written a song for him, only to die before he could hand it over.

“Our music is jointly created in the hearts, no transcription is written to enable the future generation learn how to play the kind of subtle music we orchestrate,” Gurumo once told The Citizen at Ilala Amana Hall where Msondo Ngoma camped for over five decades.

In the last days of his career, Gurumo, as a pillar-head of the band’s music, was struggling to find a saxophone player whose style could retain the afro-Cuban blowing style, a component that was lost after the demise of Mnenge Ramadhan and Joseph Lusungu.

“Rumba music is almost dying, it is difficult to get musicians capable of playing it the right way. We have just recruited sax player Shaaban Lendi from Mlimani Park, though his style doesn’t sound like that of Mnenge and (Joseph) Lusungu fame,” said Gurumo, soon after Lendi replaced Ally Rashid who had retired.

With this admission it was evident that the commander wasn’t happy with the state of affairs at play.

At retirement Muhidini Maalim Gurumo remained as a seminal figure in proto-rumba music and for many years, he remained the last of the surviving music maestros.

 As a founder of Nuta Jazz which later changed to Juwata and then Msondo Ngoma Band, Gurumo  was one of the founders of  the subtle Swahili rumba that was evidenced through the success of Juwata, Mlimani Park Orchestra, the bands he led to fame.

Gurumo’s five-decade career was a history of Swahili rumba during the urbanisation process as young men left their villages to seek new life in Dar es Salaam. A lifestyle that had to change due to times and Gurumo was worried that their type of music is likely to perish due to these changes.

“The kind of rumba we played over the years was gentler and sentimental, since it was supposed to tell joy and misery as the real feeling of the early urbanisation, which unfortunately, the present generation in the Bongo Flava era doesn’t have.”

Gurumo leaves Msondo Ngoma intact with rumba well maintained in the vocal and rhythm sections, which he and the master guitarist, Said Mabera, have been the pillars.

In what seemed an attempt to find Gurumo’s perfect replacement, Msondo Ngoma poached veteran singer, Shaaban Dede from Mlimani Park Orchestra after a long scrutiny.

A few years back, under Gurumo’s order, the band recruited Juma Katundu and ‘Papa Upanga’ from Tabora to rejuvenate its vocal section.

“He is everything in Tanzanian music,  since he even instructs a thing or two in guitar playing technique, though he has never played that instrument,” explained guitarist Abdul Ridhiwani Pangamawe during the band’s recent concert at Villa Park in Mwanza.  At the twilight of his career, Gurumo was quick to encourage the current generation of musicians to be innovative and respect the proto-rumba music which helped to shape what Bongo Flava artistes play today.

Perhaps this could be the source of his friendship with Bongo Flava artiste Diamond who rewarded him with a salon car on his retirement.