Kanyok and Luba

This album features the music of the lesser known Kanyok people and their various direct and indirect Luba neighbors, as recorded by Hugh Tracey. Two thirds of this album were recorded in the townships of the copper mines of Katanga Province. Only seven of the twenty-three tracks were recorded in the heartlands. That makes this selection even more interesting, as it not only presents the music of these various peoples, but it also is a document of the state of music in 1957 in the urbanizing Katanga mine culture where peoples lived together who did not normally do so. That document shows that each cultural group still largely played their own traditional music, as well as the first "urban" mutations where guitars have taken over thumb-piano parts.

Perhaps the most characteristic sound of the album is the buzzing of the ditumba goblet-shaped drum. It is between 35 and 50 centimeters high, has a single pinned skin sometimes weighed by wax, and is usually played in threes and always with the hands. —Courtesy Calabash Music