When Siama Matuzungidi chopped down a tree to build his first guitar, he began recording the sounds of the world under his fingers. His story begins in 1954: he was born to the Bakongo tribe in Congo, a country on the western central coast of Africa. At age fifteen he left home to join his first band. For the next twenty-six years his broken-down Volkswagen carried his bands to performances in East Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Japan, and Saudi Arabia. During his travels, Siama became a multilingual musician, able to translate fluently between many musical styles.

Siama moved to Minnesota in 1995, and performs regularly at the Blue Nile
restaurant with Marimba Africa. He also performs with Shangoya around Minnesota and with his group called Zebola Waves. Siama is writing songs for his next CD, which will be influenced by traditional music from his home village Mbetani, located in eastern Congo.
 

Siama Matuzungidi

Siama: "When I compose I have to think first about my clean sound coming under the river surrounded by big trees with green leaves. That means the big forest located in my village called Mbetani, the place I used to go for meditation to bring fresh mind and good focus, listening to the bird singing at that time. If I compose now I have to bring back my memories so I can have good sounds and good guitar melodies. Or I can focus until I can see a big rain in my mind and feel like I am in the middle of jango, because in the jango or village you smell the rain and the earth—that gives me good inspiration for playing sentimental melodies or compositions. If the song has no sentimental feeling, I have to focus on being in a burned desert, with the sun burning me; then I can smell the burning smell so the melody will be hot. It will make people dance and jump."

Check out Siama's Music! Mp3 Download of Koyimbi (1.72 MB) Contact Siama Matuzungidi: siama@qwest.net