MUSIC

STORY BEHIND THE SONG. ISANDA

  • By Kepher Odhiambo Mak'Anyengo

This song may go down in history as one of the last songs the legendary Tedd Josiah recorded for public consumption. However, for reasons, beyond human control, but which I wouldn't like to go into here, he was unable to complete the project, so the final bits were tied up elsewhere. A few years ago, I was introduced to Tedd by Titi Solomon, who had in turn Ben introduced to me buy my friend Makadem, who both felt that Tedd would bring out an angle from my music which had not come out in my earlier recordings. We had initially only planned for 1 song, but within 5 days, we'd agreed to do 2 songs, one of which (Jawar Nitie), has already been shared in both YouTube and Facebook "Odhi the Villager" pages. In the course of our studio engagements, I informed Tedd that at home in Homa Bay I had regular gigs with the living legend, him of Benga history, Samuel Akech Jabuya, aka Akech Oyosi - the man who at around age 20 years actually imagined and founded the then revolutionary Benga sound (now world-renowned) in early 1960s, while a member of Ogara Boys Band. Tedd was very excited, and asked me to bring along Oyosi at the earliest opportunity. When Akech came, he was adamant that he would not record (or even play) Benga, stating that, as a creative artist, he no longer found any excitement in the genre. He had carried along a self-made xylophone, on which he had creating new sounds. So as a compromise with Tedd, he only agreed to do a remix of one of his older songs before recording his xylophone song. . Meanwhile, I had also come along with my long time Duol companion, master orutu player Kenneth Oguda JaMariri, with the intention of spicing one of my songs. Oguda and I come a long way, and have a load of songs composed - only a few released so far. At one point during the recording, Akech excused himself to have a short puff (as a doctor I've had a futile prolonged struggle to have him even just reduce on his tobacco consumption!). Tedd also went to warm for us some drinking water (we like sipping that a lot when recording), as Oguda and I rehearsed an old mournful orutu tune we loved to do during interludes. When Tedd came back, he asked me to call Akech back in. I playfully called out his name loudly. He didn't respond! I called out louder. Still silent. The third time I was much louder, but mockingly made it sound like the way mothers call out a child in the village. He then mumbled some incoherent response, which made all of us burst out laughing. Tedd excitedly noted: "That sounds very interesting", and suggested that instead of adding the orutu skit to the previous songs I'd done, we use it to create a new song, with that playful call (and response) as a nidus. So as Oguda continued playing the mournful orutu skit, I immediately created a simple 2-chord backing rhythm. Tedd quietly muttered: "Perfect!", hooked the orutu to a mike, and the basic first 3 tracks of a new song were made. He released us, till the next day, to work further on the song, especially the lyrics! The following day, I only had a few lines of lyrics, but I suggested the theme name "Ichanda" ("You are disturbing me"), from the skeleton I was creating. Meanwhile, Tedd completed Oyosi's songs and gave us a break a 3-week break. I felt that "persecution" (sand) and "ill-will" would create a more powerful theme than "disturbance" (chand) or thak (frustration). I was especially focused on the evil meted by people who are paradoxically considered "good" by society - people with power and authority, and the ability to hide their "badness", as they publicise their goodness, yet, under this cover, are terribly evil. I thought of the worldwide ubiquitous story of the generous woman and the "thankless" hunchback/beggar (etc) whose only response to any assistance the woman gave was (in the Dholuo version): "Itimo marach itimo ne in! Itimo maber itimo ne in" ("The evil you do, you do to yourself! The good you do, you do to yourself"). The Hindu version, adopted by English speakers go: "β€œThe evil you do, remains with you: The good you do, comes back to you!” You probably know others with slight variations. . When we came back 3 weeks later, I had officially changed the title to "Isanda" (You are persecuting me"). We all agreed to make the song short and very simple! A keyboard solo track was recorded (but we all agreed it was weak). (Much later, I discarded it, preferring a lower-octave orutu instead). The songs were thereafter in limbo for a number of years, as I tried to look for a production engineer who would complete them, with the same original spirit intact. I head intended to release it late last year, but for some reasons, my spirit refused! It has now agreed!πŸ˜€


1 Comment

N
Nimrod Mulinya
Aug 08, 2025
nice article

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