Will Ross reports from Zanzibar and Mombasa on how traditional Taarab music is responding to the challenge of new influences. In the 1930's the great Taarab singer, Siti Bint Saad, was a prized ...

(CNN)-- Mohammed Issa Matona is a man on a mission. A master of taarab music, Matona is also the co-founder of Zanzibar's Dhow Countries Music Academy, a school dedicated to preserving the island's ...

When a genre of music that has changed very little of its original format over a period of almost a century begins to embrace contemporary influences, then its traditional fanbase is often stunned by ...

Not so long ago, Christopher John's days were spent herding his family's goats and cows in a rural part of Zanzibar, the tropical island off the coast of Tanzania. But he always loved music and used ...

When Zanzibar-born Taarab icon Fatuma binti Baraka alias Bi Kidude passed on at a golden age of 102 in April 2013, all eyes were on the genre’s rising stars, emblems of the music’s future. Among them ...

Mariam Hamdani tunes her ganoun gently, the sunlight catching her turquoise ring as she takes time to calibrate each string with the help of an iPhone app. Her henna-highlighted hair peeks out from ...

Zanzibar music lovers everywhere are mourning the loss of legendary musician Makame Faki Makame, who died on January 18, 2020, at the age of 77, at Global hospital in Stone Town, Zanzibar, following a ...

"First published 2014 by Ashgate Publishing"--Title page verso. AFA copy Purchased from the Warren M. Robbins Library Endowment. "The musical genre of taarab is played for entertainment at weddings ...

Teenager Neema Florence Surrie started to play the violin at the age of nine. Since then, she has found a love for traditional taarab music and plays in an all-female taarab music group in Zanzibar.