‘Little Thing’ began her singing career in the 1920s. This spans the last twenty years, with illustrious ensembles like the Culture Music Club and the Zanzibar Taarab All Stars.

Swahili music from the eastern coast of Africa — Lamu, Mombasa, Tanga, Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar and the Comoros. Archival in amongst contemporary recordings.

Spicy, deep, sensual Arab, Black and Asian styles, lipsmackingly mixed together in classic Taarab — when electric guitars, bass guitars, organs and kit drums kicked orchestral instruments out of bed.

Cream-of-the-crop, fabulous, firing dance music from Dar es-Salaam, rocking between shimmering, swinging guitars and delirious, riffing horns. Check the rest of the series, especially Volume 2.

A form of Sufi music with its roots in the ancient Arab world, surviving only in Zanzibar: slowly building in intensity, with songs and poetry, and passages for dancing, featuring a wide range of percussion.

A fabulous selection of Swahili popular music from the East African coast — Lamu, Mombasa, Tanga, Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar and the Comoros — taking in Tanzanian dance-band music, Congolese-style rumba and the hypnotic, Islamic sounds of Taarab, from the 1960s to date.