Jowi, Ayany

***We are proud to present this collection of rare recordings from one of Kenya's most famous players from Kenya’s long traditional of fiddle music. Ayany Jowi creates a raw, hypnotic and frenetic set of sounds backed by a percussive and thumping chorus and was a master of Orutu music. Orutu emerged from the shores of Lake Victoria and was the precursor to Kenyan's famous guitar musical style benga that became popular throughout the 70s and 80s and continues to be popular today. "Ayany Jowi" was born in 1944 as Silvanus Ayany in a small village called Nyamango village in what is now known as Homa Bay county, along the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya. Jowi started playing ohangla music in school using empty jugs and steel tins for drums. He quickly moved on to make an "orutu", the one stringed fiddle of the Luo people of Western Kenya, and his career was born. Because of his wild and uncontrollable nature he was named “Jowi” which means “wild buffalo.” Jowi is likely the best-known fiddle player of the classic era of Kenyan recorded music and remains well known and respected as once of the greats in Kenya’s rich musical history. Jowi put out numerous singles on classic Kenyan labels throughout the 1970s, many of which made it to cassettes and CDs that people still listen to even to this day. We are intensely excited to present this restored and remastered (by Third Man Mastering in Detroit, MI) set of rare recordings of some of Kenya's, and by extension Africa's, most important music.