The Ashantis
When the great American trumpeter and singer, Louis Armstrong, visited Kenya in 1960, he expressed his admiration for a nine-year-old guitarist from Kaloleni Estate, Nairobi.
The young boy who had played a few tracks for Armstrong at a private function was Paddy Gwada and the legendary jazzman was so overwhelmed by this prodigious talent that, it is said, he even offered to adopt him.
Born in Mombasa, Paddy and his brother, Rocky, who plays the saxophone, were the leaders of the Bata Shoeshine Boys, a band promoted by impresario, Peter Colmore.
The group was sponsored by the famous Bata Shoe Company and they became television stars in Kenya through their performances on the Bata Shoe Box game show in the early 1960s.
Their most popular recording is a song that many people are familiar with, but may not associate with the group. Africa Sunset, recorded by the Shoeshine Boys in 1965, is perhaps better known as the instrumental signature tune to the television courtroom comedy, Vioja Mahakamani.
After the end of their contract with Bata, the group changed its name to The Ashantis and in 1966, became the resident band at the Starlight Club in Nairobi. Two years later, Sal Davis arranged a performance stint for them in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
From Addis, the Ashantis left for Denmark in 1971, before eventually settling in Switzerland, where the band remains to this day. In the picture above, band member Hussein Shebe (right) with emperor Haile Selassie.
