We drove to Gikondo in the morning to record Abutazi. Abutazi are a group of two artists, Akayezu Jean Patient on the inanga and Fox Makare the energetic rapper. They are supported by their drummer Samy Iradukunda kut. Abutazi have been together since 2019 after meeting in music school. Jean Patient’s mother Sophie Nyasisenga (the inanga player we met and recorded a few days ago) taught him the basics of the instrument, but since then he has innovated himself by changing the tuning of his inanga. Normally the inanga is only tuned to the minor pentatonic scale with 5 notes, but he opened it up to the major pentatonic scale, mixolydian, dorian and phrygian scales. So now he has 7 notes to his inanga and can play anything from jazz to blues to hiphop. Makare meanwhile is the only rapper in Rwanda who can work to any time signature – and they are the only band to combine inanga with rap.
Their flow was such that they often went straight from one number into another, so the set list reflects this. Set list
- Agahinda (“Sad”) and Inanga. Agahinda is a song about depression that Makare wrote 8 months ago, using a metaphor of a burning house where the smoke can’t be kept in. This went straight into Inanga, an ode to the inanga and its sound and all it does for them. We loved this double number so much we recorded it twice.
- Makare (“Call Me Makare”) – This is named for Fox Makare, the rapper of the group, who raps the song about himself. And it goes straight into Amananga (this song is inspired by a South African music style called Amapiano, but they’ve done their own Rwandan version on the inanga, hence “Amananga”). The song Amananga is another ode to the sound of the Inanga and how overwhelming it is.
- X and Y – this was the last song from the group together and “X and Y” translates to the same in English, talking about two unknown quantities. This is a playful counting song about sticks and matches, asking if you times X by Y, how many do you have over ten?
- Abanongera – this they did without Fox Makare so it was Jean Patient (who goes by Nkubana – “Son of Thunder” – as his solo artist name) on vocals and inanga, with Samy on percussion. The style of singing is a Burundian style of singing from the back of the throat, sounding almost like a whisper at times. very mesmeric. The song is about visitors who come and stay the whole night.
- Inanga solo – this is exactly what it says on the tin, we lost the drums and hiphop and Nkubana let the inanga do the talking. It was beautiful.
Recording order
- Agahinda and Inanga
- Agahinda and Inanga take 2 (we love both takes and will mix from both)
- Makare and Amamanga
- X and Y
- Abanongera
- Inanga solo
- Inanga solo take 2