抄録
Performances by dance bands (jazz bands as they are known in East Africa) have been an integral part of urban popular culture in Tanzania over the past five decades, though in an ever-changing socioeconomic environment. Amateur jazz clubs, which emerged in various urban centers from the 1940s under British colonial rule, developed in close-knit urban communities in the context of pre-existent traditions of competitive dance societies. This jazz-club movement culminated in the 1960s when Dares Salaam, the capital, and some provincial towns produced a number of famous jazz bands which became popular throughout East Africa.
Post-independence changes in the economic and political system had a considerable impact upon the social character of urban musical activities. From the mid-1960s, chiefly in Dar es Salaam, a number of jazz bands were launched by various governmental organizations and public corporations, employing an increasing number of musicians on a regular salaried basis. Meanwhile, through the 1970s and 1980s, the commercialization of musical activities advanced in both the public and private sectors, undermining the existing jazz clubs. Along the way, jazz bands lost their communal character and were transformed into commercial enterprises, divorced from the urban communities from which they first emerged.
