Sharing their passion for singing and their love for instrumentals, five brothers – Teddy, Billy, George, John and Dennis Harrison, along with two friends, formed the group Avenida Success in 1969. The group was fortunate to be based in Mombasa, which was, at the time the hub of tourism. Led by Teddy Kalanda, the group managed to secure gigs at local hotels with one of their residencies being the Mombasa Beach Hotel.
Tourists would flock the coast all year round and Avenida Success would entertain them with Chakacha, Reggae and Benga music. But they wanted their audiences to feel at home so they switched things up. And first on their agenda was a new name. In 1972 Avenida Success became Them Mushrooms.
The industry was all about learning. One evening, as Teddy was seated by the pool bar, he overheard a tourist group trying to grasp basic Swahili; from greetings to the simple questions that one would ask a long-time friend or a guest. Teddy was inspired by their intent to master the local language and decided to simplify their efforts by writing a song. He consulted his brothers, and together, they agreed that the lyrics would incorporate basic Swahili, encourage tourists to sing along but depict the fact that Kenya was the place to be. That was 1979. And in 1982 the song, Jambo Bwana, was released.
It was an instant hit. Them Mushrooms played the song several times on their gig nights, and one night, a Dutch producer from PolyGram reached out to them saying he was interested in having the band record the song. This would mean that the group would be represented by the record label that represented the likes of ABBA and Hugh Masekela.
After the studio release of ‘Jambo Bwana,’ it became a worldwide favorite, inviting more tourists from Europe and America to visit Kenya.
Want to sing along to this Kenyan classic? Jambo Bwana