The key members of Kifimbo’s band (Kikombe, Balam, Shabo, Ally) seemed to be the core rhythm group for every other Dar Es Salam afro-fusion group. While most of the musicians in the band were most understandably working in a way one could call ”freelancer spirit” (get the job done as efficient and good as possible, get paid, go home), Kikombe seemed to have a special personal interest in Kifimbo’s music and the development of the project. This probably had many reasons: Kifimbo and Kikombe have known each other for a very long time, they share Zaramo tribal roots and it seems to be that Kikombe shared the opinion with me that Kifimbo’s music has a huge potential, his songs are good and important, and it would be great to see them get a broader audience. I’m under the impression that Kikombe is busy enough with gigs, but he would prefer to be busy with MAN Kifimbo gigs.

Kikombe told me he had learned to play ”on the street” with some tuition from local drummers. In a video interview he mentions his teacher advising him on making the music ”tight” or ”heavy” with being together with the bass player, locking the bass drum to the bassline. In the interview, done before we had played together at all, he also says that he is looking forward to the collaboration with me and my ideas to mix in the music. He even said he likes to listen to rock music sometimes (Membe, Yahaya & Pelkonen, 2019). If these were his genuine thoughts or more like an expression of friendliness to the strange newcomer will remain unknown, but it is plain to see that Kikombe has experience about international collaboration in music and a wide interest and skill in various styles around the world. In addition to Kifimbo’s music, we did jam also other styles including rock, funk, and jazz. Kikombe has been performing in Europe a few times, also in Finland at Fest Afrika in Tampere and quite surprisingly the Stockholm cruise ships with some kind of Afro Dance Show. Kikombe saw a potential in our collaboration also because of my status as a European and he stated that out loud also in a conversation about Zanzibar’s Sauti za Busara Festival. He said that they tend to book acts that included some collaboration with white people or western music more eagerly than fully local. This statement is an important one, even if it’s not the nicest one to think about. More about this theme in 1.4. On Being Mzungu.

The drumming style in the rumba-influenced African music is quite centered around the hi-hat, with the snare (oftentimes times played as a rimshot) taking the role of the ”clave” or improvised ornament. Add a steady bass drum and you can manage a zilipendwa gig in the local bar in Dar. Interestingly the same kind of description can be given on playing reggae drums, which I guess is partly the reason why MAN Kifimbos music can operate so smoothly hopping to roots reggae here, soukous rhythm there and suddenly end up in a mix of slow reggae mixed with intensely fast tribal djembe part hovering over it. It also makes sense thinking about the Caribbean geography of these music styles: rumba is from Cuba and reggae from Jamaica, both with African genealogy and aftermath.

Kikombe’s drumming style was fascinating. He’s approach to the drum kit was unlike anything I’ve experienced first hand before, even though the soukous, rumba, and reggae elements were quite familiar to me from records. In the above-mentioned styles the drumming parts are usually relatively simple (which of course does not mean easy) but Kikombe was building something more virtuosic on this foundation. He has the most impressive technique and musicality; he can play very fast and he always adjusts to the environment and music around him, dynamically and groove-wise. In my opinion, technically superb drummers often have the problem of playing too much or too virtuosic even if it doesn’t fit the esthetic but Kikombe’s playing manages to be a stylistic, groovy, beautiful backbone to the music while being also breathtakingly impressive in the handicraft aspect. It struck me also how dynamically he could adjust to all the different situations we were in musically and, not unimportantly, quality of the equipment at hand. Kikombe doesn’t have a full drum kit of his own and we played together in many different rehearsal spaces and venues with greatly varying quality of acoustics, PA:s and drums, but still somehow he’s playing always sounded very good. I do not want to glamorize hard conditions that have a lot to do with poverty, but it can be said that sometimes not having the best equipment available all the time can indeed give you the skill to ”kill it” regardless of the equipment. This idea, quite familiar to all fans of rags-to-riches sports and music stars is not unproblematic but it’s nevertheless real, even if not ideal, in certain situations - also in the world of drum kit playing.

When it came to band arrangement, Kikombe was the most prominent source of ideas in the band, even more than Kifimbo himself, mostly focused on his singing and maybe percussion rhythms. For example, the intro of "Simba", with the fast rhythmical unison part is Kikombe's creation, already composed ages before our album project. In "Tusikate Miti" the role of bass and drums with the point of entry and drop-out was put together in the rehearsal by Kikombe, with assistance from bass player Balam. There were situations where it was Kikombe’s persistence to understand what I’m trying to say that helped some arrangement ideas of mine to end up on the record. I remember a time when I was quite tired in a boiling hot rehearsal space trying to convince Kifimbo to end "Nipe Tano" in a fadeout instead of similar hits we had in many songs for an outro. Kifimbo was determined that a sharp ending with strong unison hits would be more ”like a lion” and I went all ”forget about it” about the idea, but Kikombe had seen I had something in mind and persisted on us to try it out. The idea worked nicely and ended up on the record with a mutual understanding that it’s a fitting ending for the song, even if a notch-less lion-like.