{"id":848,"date":"2026-08-28T10:41:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T10:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sokasoga.website\/nbcsoka\/it-s-fender-precision-bass-all-over-as-bongo-flava-sees-a-stairway-to-heaven-922.html"},"modified":"2026-08-28T10:41:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T10:41:05","slug":"its-fender-precision-bass-all-over-as-bongo-flava-sees-a-stairway-to-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sokasoga.website\/ltv\/its-fender-precision-bass-all-over-as-bongo-flava-sees-a-stairway-to-heaven\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Fender Precision bass all over as Bongo Flava sees a stairway to heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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DAR ES SALAAM:<\/strong> <\/span>THE Motown bass guitar virtuoso James Jameson is virtually unknown in Tanzania\u2019s Bongo Flava music despite drawing the blueprint for its bass groove and is so in Nigeria and South Africa, whose Afrobeat and Amapiano also borrow heavily from Motown bass riffs.<\/p>\n

Jamerson was the legendary bassist for Motown Records whose bouncing bassline helped to push the rhythm forward.<\/p>\n

He preferred a Fender Precision bass that signatured the walking bass approach chromatically.<\/p>\n

Though unknown today, Jamerson\u2019s influence has remained immortal and is now heard in the new generation of music.<\/p>\n

But in America, the present-day musicians and bassists deeply honour the legendary bassist by regularly voting him the greatest electric bassist of all time and studying his melodic grooves as foundational modern music theory.<\/p>\n

Major publications like Rolling Stone and Bass Player magazine consistently rank Jamerson at the very top of all-time bass lists.<\/p>\n

Unlike in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s when every American release was known globally, today, almost five decades later, there are very few American musicians who are known globally.<\/p>\n

Every piece of music played by Black Americans before the Bongo Flava reign in the mid-1990s was labelled as Motown sound by the DJing legends of that era: Seydou Mkandara, Choggy Slay, Neagre Jay, Deo Mazula, John Peter Pantalakis or Chriss Phaby the Lover.<\/p>\n

It is now common to see Michael Jackson\u2019s 90-degree dance in many of the Afropop or Afrobeat videos. In Tanzania, Michael Jackson\u2019s Swahili words\u2026 Nakutaka Pia \u2026 he used in \u201cLiberian Girl\u201d or his Moonwalker dance are most often found in some of the Bongo Flava hits.<\/p>\n

There is unmistakably Motown sound in now trending hits like \u201cEnjoy\u201d by Jux ft Diamond Platnumz, \u201cPom Pom\u201d Bruce Melodie and Diamond or Salama by Barnaba Classic featuring Diamond Platnumz and the whole word heard it and commented.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m addicted to this song from Japan,\u201d \u201cMano era antes de escutar esta m\u00fasica carregada de uma mensagem muito forte, retrata factos reais,\u201d says Gilda Udencio Macheco, an undisclosed Portuguese-speaking fan.<\/p>\n

A fan who signed as @dvoice532 commented on \u201cSalama\u201d: \u201cI so loved Diamond is a leader; he blends with the Tanzanian musicians, collaborating with them. He\u2019s not selfish to say someone has made it; he has in the industry.<\/p>\n

I do respect you with much love.\u201d A Kenyan lady, Nancy Kwamboka, commented: \u201cThis song plays daily in the gym, in the morning and gives me more energy to work. Jay Mapepe Fatma joins with the comment: \u201cI know I took so long to leave my comment and like, but I just came to say this was a great song.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a strong love that comes out in Mozambique and was supported by Chamilo Chicongola who said,\u201d V\u00f3 te mandar 1,00000000000 para este m\u00fasica s\u00f3 and later added: \u00c9 boa sana esse m\u00fasica obrigado Diamond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bongo Flava, as a music of the new generation formed by fusing American RnB and Coastal Swahili favours, marks its 30th anniversary with a huge global audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cTanzania no longer imports music from America; we have it all in Bongo Flava,\u201d notes JKT Ruvu Band\u2019s guitarist, Ramadhan Cholobi.<\/p>\n

Though its influence is everywhere, American music of today is less of a unified global monoculture than it was in the 1970s and 1980s because the internet and streaming have fragmented audiences and thriving local music industries have risen worldwide.<\/p>\n

While the US still exports massive amounts of music, listeners now have instant access to regional powerhouses like K-pop, Afrobeats and Latin trap.<\/p>\n

In the 70s and 80s, a few TV networks, global radio stations and MTV dictated a single shared pop culture.<\/p>\n

With megastars like Diamond, Burna Boy, Davido dictating music terms globally, it is crystal clear that regions outside the West have now built massive, selfsustaining star systems and global hits in local languages.<\/p>\n

Technological perfection also speaks volumes as modern production relies heavily on software, click tracks and pitch correction, which some listeners feel strips away the raw, organic human feel of classic 70s and 80s analogue recordings.<\/p>\n

As guitar mania has now lost its past grip, bass guitar still remains immortal in all types of music being played in Tanzania and Africa today.<\/p>\n

It is understood that today\u2019s popular music has neglected guitar mania because digital production tools make beatmaking and synth-based sounds cheaper, faster and more central to mainstream genres like hip-hop, electronic dance music and modern pop.<\/p>\n

As we have seen in Tanzania, where the Bongo Flava megastars like Harmonize, Diamond Platnumz own their own digitalised studios, there is a shift in youth culture toward software-based creation and instant gratification have moved the cultural spotlight away from traditional band instruments.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: <\/strong>See how live band music stands an edge above Bongo Flava<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Through digital production, you can create music using a laptop and software plugins, as digital audio workstations replace physical amplifiers and six-string gear.<\/p>\n

While celebrating its Pearl Jubilee, Ali Kiba remains the brightest Bongo Flava genius today. He has maintained a guitar mania while the Bongo Flava mainstream has shrugged it off.<\/p>\n

Most of the dance music bands prefer to play Alikiba hits on stage as Ruvu JKT band lead guitarist, Rashid Sumuni noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlikiba music still cherishes sebene guitar that facilitates danceability.\u201d He said.<\/p>\n

In most of his hits, Alikiba has been using Congolese guitarist Pasiant Loso and Tanzanian instrumentalist Kenny Guitar (Kennedy Matibya Masanja).<\/p>\n

They are notable guitarists associated with Ali Kiba\u2019s classic and live acoustic performances.<\/p>\n

Pasiant Loso\u2019s fine guitar works can be heard in classic hits like \u201cMwana\u201d and \u201cDushelele\u201d, while Kenny Guitar, a prominent Tanzanian guitarist and recording artist who frequently collaborates with Ali Kiba on live acoustic renditions, stage performances and tracks like \u201cTumejipata\u201d and acoustic versions of \u201cDodo\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

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DAR ES SALAAM: THE Motown bass guitar virtuoso James Jameson is virtually unknown in Tanzania\u2019s Bongo Flava music despite drawing the blueprint for its bass groove and is so in Nigeria and South Africa, whose Afrobeat and Amapiano also… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sportsenglish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sokasoga.website\/ltv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sokasoga.website\/ltv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sokasoga.website\/ltv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sokasoga.website\/ltv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sokasoga.website\/ltv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sokasoga.website\/ltv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sokasoga.website\/ltv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sokasoga.website\/ltv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sokasoga.website\/ltv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sokasoga.website\/ltv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}