Daniel Owino Misiani

Celebrated worldwide as the father of Kenyan benga, D.O. Misiani remains a seminal figure in the history and evolution of East African music. Born Daniel Owino Misiani in Nyamagongo, Tanzania, on February 22, 1940, he was raised in a culture dominated by the Kenyan Luo tribe. A veteran of school and church choirs, as a teen he played percussion in a local acoustic group, but his first guitar was smashed into pieces by his devoutly Christian father. Misiani nevertheless pursued a full-time music career, traveling throughout Tanzania and Kenya before settling in Nairobi in 1964. There he channeled the sum of his experiences to create what would become benga. A strikingly rhythmic music forged from elements as diverse as the bodi music of Luo women and the fingerpicked guitar style of the Congo, its eclectic sound was further shaped by instruments including the nyatiti (eight-string lyre) and orutu (one-string violin). After forming a band dubbed the Victoria Boys, Misiani acquired his first electric guitar and in 1965 cut his earliest recordings. He soon renamed the group Shirati Luo Voice, and as benga gained a commercial foothold in Kenya, they became the acknowledged leaders of the growing movement. Misiani's wry, provocative lyrics not only struck a profound chord with listeners, but earned the wrath of Kenyan authorities as well. In the decades to follow, he was jailed repeatedly for his perceived offenses against the government. Renamed <a href="spotify:artist:4gRksRlVZ5cg2w0O9lHzqh">Shirati Jazz</a> sometime during the mid-'70s, Misiani and his group reeled off an extraordinary series of hits across the decade in question. Singles like "Simaya Chunye Oketo," "Madinga Never Dies," and "Dada Jane" vaulted benga to a level of popularity surpassed only by the rumba-inspired Swahili and Congolese music that dominated African radio. Benga nevertheless fell from commercial grace in the 1980s, and it seemed Misiani's opportunity for exposure to a global audience was lost when he was denied a passport for <a href="spotify:artist:4gRksRlVZ5cg2w0O9lHzqh">Shirati Jazz</a>'s first and only European tour. However, a surreptitious meeting at Nairobi's APS Studio with producer Ben Mandelson and journalist Werner Graebner resulted in a 1989 LP, Piny Ose Mer/The World Upside Down, which earned wide international release. That same year, the compilation Benga Blast! also hit retail on both sides of the Atlantic. Although Misiani never regained his previous commercial heights at home, he and <a href="spotify:artist:4gRksRlVZ5cg2w0O9lHzqh">Shirati Jazz</a> maintained a loyal following, enjoying a long-term live residency at Kisimu's Club Oasis. In 2004, he also headlined a brief U.S. tour. Misiani died May 17, 2006, one of several fatalities in an auto accident outside of Kisumu. He was 66 years old. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi