The Ethnomusicologist, the Kenyan Traditional Song, and the American Country Singer

Considering the music of country singer Jimmie Rodgers and its impact in eastern Africa.

A lot of songs that grab me don't always do so right away. They take a while to sink in. 'Chemirocha' was not one of those songs. It sunk its hooks in almost immediately. Listen to it and see what you think.

I sought out some background on the song and hit the jackpot. It turns out that the version of 'Chemirocha' I heard is one of three versions recorded by ethnomusicologist, Hugh Tracey. If you listen to enough traditional African music, you'll probably run across his name. He "collected" a massive amount of African music.

Tracey roamed through Africa for much of his life, collecting and collecting and collecting and eventually founded the International Library of African Music (ILAM), which is located in South Africa.

In 1950, Tracey made his way to the Kenyan village of Kapkatet, where he recorded members of the Kipsigis tribe performing a few dozen songs. There were actually three versions of 'Chemirocha,' two of them sung by men and the third sung by the sisters of one of the men, who were apparently too shy to go first.

The second version of the song - by the male singers - was released in Africa in 1952 and was something of a hit in Kenya. Its was released in 1953 in the United Kingdom and in the United States in 1958.

Which is somewhat ironic, since, as it turns out, 'Chemirocha' was said to be influenced by the American singer Jimmie Rodgers. Who sang (like the Carter Family and other pioneers) music we now call country music, before that term was really in use.

Apparently Rodgers' records were brought to East Africa earlier in the century and made an impact. As Tracey told it, 'Chemirocha' was a modified take on Rodgers's name (Chemi - rocha, Jimmie - Rodgers). According to one Kenyan source, the term would eventually become a sort of shorthand for "nice, slow music," that was not necessarily by Rodgers.

In an earlier era, before it was common for almost everyone on Earth to have a smartphone in their pocket, it might not have been clear to people providing songs to collectors just exactly what the latter were up to.

Nearly half a century later, ILAM director Diane Thram decided to redress this situation in some small way. With a fair degree of difficulty, she and her team tracked down some of the surviving Kapkatet residents who took part in Tracey's session and played their music back to them.

I've summarized this story a bit, since others have already told it better than I probably could. But if you have the time, it’s worth reading the articles here, here and here that tell the story of ‘Chemirocha’ in more detail.