Someone recently introduced me to another genre of music I had never really had time for – Rumba. What is Rumba? Well, it is essential beat is something close to another musical genre –Zouk. Speaking of Zouk, my knowledge of it is limited to only about two immortal Zouk icons; the Ivorian, Monique Seka, “The Queen of African Zouk”, and Oliver Ngoma, from Gabon, and who has since passed on. The good thing with Oliver Ngoma is he also used to dabble into Reggae, besides the Afro-Zouk genre that would come to be his distinctive trademark, just like Seka. Back to Rumba. Not only is it Zouk-ish, even Salsa-ish, it’s also slow, lazy and balmy, like tomato sauce, aka Salsa, for those that love their cooking. So in a way, Rumba music feels like both Salsa music and tomato Salsa. And talking of cooking, I do not know about you, but I’m definitely in for a cooking session whenever it avails itself. The best part about cooking is when the time now comes for popping that can of sardines and emptying the contents into the frying pan to give the day’s soup that extra punch. Beyond popping open a can of sardines, the only other thing I like about cooking is chopping up the pavlo and serere before it goes into the sardines to give spice. Wait …did we just say Serere? I just discovered the correct spelling for serere after nearly two years of slaying the otherwise innocent word. It’s Celery, actually, and it’s so tasty, it’s loved by both man and his closest relatives, the gorillas alike. The gorillas in the Volcanoes National Park actually feed on Celery –wild celery, to supplement their favorite meal of tender bamboo shoots. The word Celery sounds rather cool and dewy, just like the actual vegetable, while serere sounds out rightly crude and jagged-edged, like the Imbabura made by roadside metal fabricators in Kimisagara and around Kimironko market. Back to the music and admittedly, I do not have ample time on my hands for all genres of music since like we all know, they are quite many. So I like only a few –like Reggae. In fact, I like skanking to the beat of the reggae man vibe. But not all the time, because Reggae music has a tendency to get me a bit dizzy, especially if it’s of the deep-rooted variety, or if it gets me when I’m hungry. Actually, my close acquaintance with the Reggae genre has got little to do with the message carried in the reggae man vibe, or even the bouncy, repetitive one-drop reggae beat that is the mark of a good reggae vibe. On the contrary, what works best for me in the realm of reggae music are the names of the musicians in the first place: Some of the most colorful stage names ever coined: Eric Donaldson. Everton Blender. Richie Spice. Barrington Levy. Jah Mason. Coco Tea. Beres Hammond. Sizzla Kalonji, and finally, Damian Junior Gong Marley.
