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Artist: Various Artists
Title: Jamiila - Songs From A Somali City
Limited Edition: Only 300 Total Units
Format: LP
Label: TAKE IT ACID IS
Catalog Number:69004
Barcode:634438518242 itemnumber=1000124147
Price: $23.98  (All prices include domestic shipping.)
Genre: INTERNATIONAL
Release Date: 11/15/2019
Availability: Not Currently In Stock
Return Eligibility: NON-RETURNABLE
Additional Musical Category Notes:
 


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The music on this album was all recorded in one town, Baraawe (usually called Brava on the maps). Baraawe, which is on the Somali coast about 120 miles south of the capital, Mogadishu, has a population of around 10,000. Like all African towns of any size it is something of a melting pot. The original inhabitants, like the Swahili to their south, are of mixed Arab and Bantu African heritage, and speak a Bantu language called Chimina. Somalis from various other areas, speaking standard Somali and several dialects of it, also live in Baraawe. The musicians heard here play regularly together in various combinations. Like almost all African musicians, they are part-timers. Some are shoemakers. Two are soldiers (Africa has long had an amazing number of fine dance bands made up of police or army personnel). All the pieces they perform on this recording are love songs. Includes insert.

Track Listing
Side A

 1. 
Jamiila (Kuusow "Kurtunwaarey" - vocals, Amin Xaaji Cusmaan: guitar, Cabdulaahi Iman "Zamir": organ). #-Praise for the woman whose name forms the title, sung in 'af May May', a southern Somali dialect. The bass-guitar-like rhythm is the rumba beloved of so many African musicians. Here it is supplied by the organ itself, but of course selected by its player.

 2. 

 3. 
Laac (Amin Xaaji Cusmaan - vocals and kaban, Xasan Xaaji Maxamed: taruumbo). #-Despite its traditional sound, this song in standard Somali is fairly typical of much contemporary popular town music in style.


 4. 
Dakhtar (Amin Xaaji Cusmaan - vocals and guitar). #-"Dakhtar" -Doctor- even though, as the singer complains, there is no cure for love. Another song in standard Somali.


 5. 
Yaabint (Kuusow "Kurtunwaarey" - vocals, Amin Xaaji Cusmaan: guitar, Nuur Maxamed "Curuba": organ). #'Ya biint' could be the title of a million Arabic-language songs, since 'bint' is Arabic for young woman, but this one is in the 'af May May' dialect.


 6. 


Side 2:

 1. 
Muumina (Kuusow "Kurtunwaarey" - vocals, Amin Xaaji Cusmaan: guitar, Cabdulaahi Iman "Zamir": organ). #-Another song named after the woman to whom the singer is pouring his heart out, once more in 'af May May'.


 2. 
Ma Korto (Amin Xaaji Cusmaan - vocals and kaban, Xasan Xaaji Maxamed: taruumbo). #-A most unusual love song, this: the singer is not only amorous but betrothed; his problem is that his future wife has stopped growing! The lyrics are in standard Somali - though the title is significantly close to the Italian for 'but short'...


 3. 
Laiilaaf (Amin Xaaji Cusmaan - vocals and guitar). #-One more young woman, one more love song. The language is standard Somali.


 4. 
Siina Miiri (Cabdulaahi Iman "Zamir" - vocals, Amin Xaaji Cusmaan: guitar, Nuur Maxamed "Curuba": organ). #-More love trouble, this time summed up in the title - loosely translated, I've lost my mind (over her, of course). This is the only cut on the album in Baraawe's own language, Chimini. Typically of the truly local style, it is also rather reminiscent of the Swahili music from further south (any Swahili speaker would understand the title at least). Indeed, these musicians have in their repertoire several songs from south of the border in Kenya.



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Release Format: LP         
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