A Few months ago I posted a novelty piece by Remy Ongala, I admit it was a nostalgic week that month when I made that post (Remy Ongala – Asili ya Mziki). The track was appropriately titled and I felt like I just wanted to pay homage to one of the greatest Tanzanian singers of all time.
It’s unfortunate that today as I logged on to my facebook account I got a crazy amount of messages from friends talking about Remy. The news hit me like whoa! the man I once learned to listen to, love and develop accustomed ears to love his music, had just died. Remy Ongala passed away on Sunday night (Dec 11 2011) from Kidney failure. I also learned that he had been struggling with the disease for such a long time which in its regenerate state saw him turn into singing Gospel music as well as becoming a preacher in Dar es Salaam.
I’d like to say a lot about Remy, his music, his legacy but I realize this website is probably not the platform to vent out on such a great legend. A lot of the guys who can relate to this music myself excluded are probably in their 40’s or 50’s/60’s. All I can say is I grew up listening to Remy by default because of my dads massive music collection – that obsessiveness I guess found its way to me and I am not completely entrenched in music and always trying to figure out how to play a part in building this music industry.
Remy will trully be missed – amazingly I digitized a lot of his music a while back so … enjoy
listen to Kifo here:
[audio:http://getmziki.s3.amazonaws.com/Remy_Ongala–Kifo_(Death).mp3]Download – [Right Click and hit save target as]
listen to Kilio here:
[audio:http://getmziki.s3.amazonaws.com/Remy_Ongala-Kilio_(The_Fish_Song).mp3]Download – [Right Click and hit save target as]
UPDATE: we realized the links weren’t working, this has been updated. Thanks!
