George Ramogi

Kenyan musician, George Ramogi

George Ramogi (1945–1997) was a Kenyan musician, who empowered the traditional luo benga and rumba genre of music. Ramogi was known for his spur of the good life and his notable appearances at bars and clubs in western Kenya-Nyanza region. During the beginning of his career.George is believed to have been the real force behind “benga” as a genre.

Biography

It was in 1965 that Ramogi and colleagues started the Luo Sweet Band, later changed to Continental Kilo Jazz Band (or C.K. Jazz). The nucleus of this group had been performing together, on and off, right up to Ramogi’s death at the age of 52 in 1997.

In 1994, a small group of Kenyans in the United States pooled their resources to bring Ramogi and band to the US to perform. The "Safari" CD, recorded in the US, is an outgrowth of that tour and, in fact, contains praise songs (as is common) for several of the individuals who organised the tour. Although not a very polished production, it’s certainly authentic benga and it has its moments of greatness. The cassette contains more songs from the same recording session and somewhat better audio quality.

Ramogi has also been recoginised through his recordings with other Kenyan musicians such as Were Carey, Ochieng Kabaselleh, Daniel Owino Misiani and Tom Kodiyo He created C.K Dumbe Dumbe Jazz band in response to the popular Zairean group Orchestre Lipua Lipua. Dumbe Dumbe is a Luo word for the children playing in the rain (nyithindo go dumbe dumbe).More on George Ramogi is coming up in soon to be published book by longtime friend of George Ramogi Mr Mondeng Wetaler.The book shines the light on a humble beginning of George Ramogi to star-studded funeral of the all charismatic and famous son of Kamwala Weta.This book will be a must read to all fans of George Ramogi.

References

• Local styles, past and present
• cdbaby.com/cd/kodiyo