Favorites of the Taxi Driver: Kampala Deluxe

Several years ago I visited Kampala, Uganda for business. On the last day I grabbed a taxi and asked the driver to take me to a place where I could buy some good music. “Stuff that you like,” I said.

A few minutes later he pulled up to an open-fronted shop on a crowded thoroughfare from which dust clouds puffed up with each passing vehicle. Inside the shop was a bank of soiled PCs that looked  as if they had been donated by a bankrupt internet café.

The taxi driver introduced me to the proprietor and explained that he was to put together a CD of ‘good music’.  Twenty minutes later, after the shop owner consulted several databases and copied, at lightening speed, a bunch of tracks and inserted then pulled out an old flash drive from one computer to the  other, he handed me a CD with these tracks on it.

I hope you enjoy this slice of (not exactly current) soukous as enjoyed by Ugandan taxi drivers.

            Track Listing:

             

            01 Kasongo (Super Mazembe)

02 Zing Zong (Kanda Bongo Man)

03 Boye Ye (Mbilia Bel)

04 R.D.C. (Wenge Titanic)

05 Inch' Allah (Koffie Olomide)

06 Abuse de Confiance (Lingala Ssali)

07 Wenze Wenze (Sam Mangwana)

08 Ekibis (Luciano Mobulu)

09 Vunia Mifupa (Samba Mapangala)

10 Monice Bussiness (Madilu)

11 Bonheur Plus (Madilu)

12 I Love You (JB M'Piana)

13 Compteura a Zero (Reddy Amisi)

14 Beau Souvenir (Madilu System)

15 Pon Moun Paka Bouge (Pepe Kalle)

Listen here.