WORLD CIRCUIT PRESENTS (Nonesuch 139132-2)
IJ dropped off this boring-looking World Circuit sampler. I have all this, I told him. Just check it out, he said. So I did, and again I am reminded you can hear new things when you listen to the same music in a different context. The cover (once you lose the slipcase) is uninspired, but the same cannot be said of the contents. Even if you have all the World Circuit releases, I think you will enjoy this 2-disc sampler that shows the depth and strength of their catalogue. There is not a slack track on the front or the back. It opens and closes with the whiny slide guitar of Ry Cooder (the foundation stone of this empire), which is fine in a small dose. Ali Farka Toure (with Ry Cooder & solo), Cheikh Lo, Radio Tarifa, Afro-Cuban All Stars, Oumou Sangare -- we owe a huge debt of gratitude to Nick Gold for bringing it all to us. This is some of the most outstanding music of the last 15 years and it's incredible that it is all on one label. There are the pillars of Cuban son here: Nico Saquito's "Al vaiven de mi carreta" and Guillermo Portabales' "El Carretero," But then there is the Sierra Maestra update, the retro Buena Vista sound, plus the notable offshoots like the great Ruben Gonzalez album with his astounding piano (So good he gets two cuts!). Not to mention Guajiro Mirabal or Omara Portuondo. And of course they flow perfectly well into Orchestre Baobab or Toumani Diabaté's Symmetric Orchestra (which although he's Malian sounds thoroughly Senegalese). Lesser-known African artists Shirati Jazz, Dimi Mint Abba and Bellemou Messouad get a chance to shine, and you will hasten to get their albums, which of course is the goal. The only artist I didn't know was Angá Diaz, whose version of John Coltrane's "A Love supreme" is a treat.
On closer listening more discoveries emerge: two of the rootsy North African pieces are previously unreleased. These are Gnawan Mustapha Baqbou, who performs "Yumala" on the gimbri, a heavy bass-guitar-like stringed instrument, and Dimi Mint Abba, from Mauretania, sounding, according to the liner notes, like T-Rex. You be the judge! As the second disc continues we discover that the second Ali Farka Toure cut, the bluesy (actually Rock & Roll verging on heavy metal) "Amendrai," is a previously unreleased live recording. Ali Farka teams up with kora player Toumani Diabaté for "Du du," and this too is previously unreleased. Ali Farka's protégé Afel Bocoum plays solo on the porch in Niafunke with the crickets, and this sweet little number, made on a DAT, appears for the first time. And finally, for all you Buena Vestals, there is a hot take of "Candela," recorded live at Carnegie Hall without the distractions of Wim Wenders' moronic camerawork. You can enjoy Barbarito Torres' stinging laoud solo (I think in the film Wenders cut to Ry Cooder during this moment). So I reiterate: this is a fantastic collection and there's lots to discover and enjoy.
NAWAL
AMAN (KWE01307)
This is traditional music from the Indian Ocean islands of Comoros. I bet you can't point to it on a map. Me neither. It's a group of four "spice" islands and was inhabited by Indonesians who intermingled with Bantu Africans and people from Zanzibar. Nawal calls her sound Sufi music, but it's not necessarily Indian. Nawal sings in Comorian, English and French and plays gambusi and guitar. The gambusi is a small stringed instrument (originally Yemeni) with a banjo quality. Her brother Idriss Mlanao plays contrabass and sings harmony. An American woman, Melissa Rigoli, plays percussion and an mbira. Nawal was surprised, on visiting the USA, to hear Americans playing the Zimbabwean mbira which reminded her of sounds from back home. Overall, the mood is restful and floats along with hints of Malagache music, anchoring it a bit closer to Africa than India. But there are Arabic influences too. The mbira reminds me of Stella Chiweshe's trance grooves, but the contrabass and finger-cymbals add layers that make it even dreamier. One definite plus is the sound quality. It was recorded without overdubs in a live setting which gives warmth and richness to the overall tone. The songs in French tell us that Comoros was a French colony until 1975 but even with (or because of) the presence of "enlightened" Europeans, the women were kept shut away. Nawal is the first Comorian woman to perform on stage playing a musical instrument. The long trance number "Ode a Maarouf," in honour of her great-grandfather, a famous Sufi marabout of Comoros, is outstanding.
ACOUSTIC AFRICA TOUR (Putumayo)
The duchess & I returned from our trip to the desert in time for "We Are the World," em, make that "Acoustic Africa" show at Zellerbach Auditorium in Berkeley. I didn't have high expectations from this tour but it was interesting. Of the three acts on the bill, the only one I had heard of was Habib Koite. The other two were Dobet Gnahoré from the Ivory Coast and Vusi Mahlasela, a singer-songwriter from South Africa. These two artists would probably not find an audience if they toured solo, so it was a good idea to package them together. Showcases like this don't always work. I remember Papa Wemba refused to go onstage when he found he was to follow a pygmy troupe. The Zellerbach show opened with the performer I had come to see, Kélétigui on balafon: he played a short piece that the audience interrupted with applause. What's with these Berkeley types? The first time Habib opens his mouth and says "Good evening, I am from Mali!" he gets thunderous applause. When he says, "Right now the rainy season has ended in Mali!" there's cheers and a near-standing ovation. For what? His use of English? The weather? The artists interacted in different combos and it worked well for the first set. Vusi's ballads, with his excellent baritone voice and fine guitar playing were mellow, while Dobet was enthusiastic, but a bit strained at times. She leaped about and wiggled her bum to great applause. Though she sang and danced well she was not a first-rate performer. (I'm thinking of Tshala Muana or Mbilia Bel if you saw either in their prime.) Her band seemed to be Belgian so there was nothing particularly Ivorien in their sound. When all three headliners were on stage at once there seemed to be some sparks, but the result was inevitably pan-African pop. The Duchess commented that it was not that different from the "Lion King" show at Disneyworld. However it went over well with the Berkeley audience and, as the second set degenerated into the kind of showboating that provokes applause without having any musical merit, we left.
SALLY NYOLO & THE ORIGINAL BANDS OF YAOUNDÉ
STUDIO CAMEROON (TUGBOAT TUGPR1043)
We haven't heard anything sparklingly original from Sally Nyolo since her 1996 debut (She backed Toure Kunda and toured with Zap Mama in the 90s) and here she is doing something remarkable. She grew up in Paris but recently went home to Southern Cameroon and set up a studio in a tin-roofed building and held open court for any musicians that wanted to come along. So she got to discover what had been happening in her absence. Some of the acts just do their own thing, others collaborate with Nyolo so it's like a sampler of the rootsier side of Cameroon, far from European studios with their toys and tools. The result is carefree and quite magical. The most famous rhythm from Cameroun is Bikutsi, which is jagged African rock and roll. But in addition to guitars there are balafons and other more organic instruments on here such as the wooden drum called the nkule. It starts off sounding like Pere Ubu with a group called Guêyanka, followed by more traditional-sounding pieces.
DE DAKAR A CUBA ON DANSE LE RUMBA (Syllart 079.0001.020)
IJ pulled me up short on this one. He reminded me I have nearly every track on this latest African Salsa compilation. I bought it anyway figuring I needed to hear the couple of tracks I didn't have, but of course he was right. I didn't need it, other than to complete my collection of African Salsa compilations, the best of which I burned myself. It's the second African Salsa compilation from Syllart and contains pretty much the same artists as AFRICAN RUMBA SALSA (CDS7037). The opener is "Guantanamera" by Bembeya Jazz. It's not a particularly great version of the song and if you are a Bembeya (or "Guantanamera") collector you probably were smart enough to download it from Stern's site last year when they offered it free during the promotion of the two-CD Best of Bembeya compilation: THE SYLIPHONE YEARS. Grand Kalle is up next with the much-anthologized "Independence Cha Cha." This was a golden era when many Congolese bands were playing rumba, and it would be great to hear a whole set from simply this time and place with Dewayon, Beguin Band, Conga Succes, etc. Africando gives us "Dacefo," sung by Gnonnas Pedro from BALOBA. Sentiment aside, it's rather generic. Les Bantous de la Capitale perform "Mayeya," which has not been remastered. Possibly there is no original recording: it starts with someone un-pausing a tape during a jam, and there's definitely the sound of tape stretch as it fades up in the middle of "Manicero." This one has been anthologized before: they go from "Son de la loma" to "Guantanamera" -- in fact every Cuban lyric they can recall. It's on the Anytha-Ngapy album BANTOUS Volume 3 (FDB300024). This mini-opera ends with José Missamou singing "Recuerdando a Nora Morales," a reference to the Puerto Rican pianist, and this segues nicely into Laba Sosseh performing "Recordando a Nora Morales," which is obscure, but by no means his best track. Recorded in 1967 with the Vedette Band, it stretches out with an endless 1-4-5 chord framework, chugging at an achingly slow tempo, like "Hang on Sloopy" on cough syrup.
Franco's "OK Aswanaka Tempo Na," from 1965, is a Michel Bombanda composition found on FRANCO & VICKY ET L'OK JAZZ (Sono 36533); Keletigui's "Guaguanco a todos los barrios" is a genuine rarity: it's not on either of the two Syliphone LPs by Keletigui I have (LE RETOUR & BEBE), nor is it on the dozen Syliphone CDs that Syllart (no relation) reissued a few years ago, but there's a reason: compared to the original, by Estrellas de Areito, it sucks! That's one monument no one else can scale. However Keletigui is an interesting composer and talented multi-instrumentalist and, this pathetic outing aside, worthy of a compilation. Tabu Ley Rochereau's "Calabasso" also has been anthologized before. It's on MARIA CHANTAL by Rochereau, Mujos and Nico (Sono CD36593). Rochereau takes credit but it is attributed to Mwamba Dechaud on the original VITA 45. It's probably based on a Cuban song by Oscar Calle. The hopeless liner notes, which ignorantly have him attending the "Grand Kalle School" (down the street from the University of Hard Knox?), also say he wrote 3500 songs. I think "took credit for" is probably more accurate.
Star Band De Dakar give us "Caramelo," a true rarity. Pap Seck sang this big Senegalese hit in 1972. The sound is thin but it's all there. Another rarity is Orchestre Rock'a Mambo's "Maria Valente." This is now the only track in print from this seminal band that included Docteur Nico and Tino Barozo on guitar and other members of African Jazz moonlighting with a splinter-group from OK Jazz (including Essous on clarinet). I occasionally get e-mail from wankers trying to buy stuff like this from me. It is beyond commercial value. And while it should be widely disseminated, it should not be cast about the net for free. Once the copyrights are straightened out and the right people credited, I am sure you will see it coming out from RetroAfric or Stern's. "Maria Valente" appeared on two albums GROUPES CHOC DES ANNEES 50 and AFRICAN RETRO VOLUME 5 (Pathé Marconi). Speaking of licensing, there's no indication of copyright or authorship anywhere on this compilation. Orchestra Baobab's "Mana Den" is another mouthwatering treat, unless you are fortunate enough to have the album it comes from BAWOBAB 75 (Disques BUUR), where it is called "Saf mana dem (We're in vogue)." Docteur Nico's "Sasonando"ends up in style. It's a gem, drawn from one of the worst mish-mash Nico CDs that Sono put out, ZADIO (CD36600). Nice to retrieve it from the mire.
For the record, my own SALSA AFRICANA compilation includes a large chunk of Estrellas Africanas, a group that featured Dexter Johnson. I would include Laba Sosseh's "Viva Africa," plus "Africa Boogaloo" and "Charanga in Paris" from African Team. Rochereau's "Bina ringa" makes my cut, and "Dya Dya" from Bembeya Jazz, as one of many vague versions of the Peanut Vendor.
ROUGH GUIDE TO MADAGASCAR (RGNET 1163CD)
Sailing south down the East coast of Africa we come to Madagascar, a huge diversified island with a lot of interesting music. Back in the 70s we grooved to the OCORA Valiha album with its eerie sounds coming from plucked bicycle spokes & brake cables. Like other strife-torn African countries Madagascar has musical currents that thrive in adversity. Ian Anderson (of Froots and not Jethro Tull, I imagine) put together this album which starts with the pop sounds of Jaojoby from, it seems, years ago. Their four bars of fame are a speeded up version of "Hey Joe" proving that good pop riffs never die. But then there are musical affinities that recur coincidentally, so it's probable that D'Gary knows Bert Jansch's "Blackwater side" from the first Led Zep album, but can I really say it's the source of his "Zera Somondrana"? This is a pure pop album which may not wear as well as the deeper folkloric stuff, although the persistent valiha and percussion drive of Daniel Tombo's "Taraka" is folksy enough, and really gets under your skin. The other folk tracks are the most appealing to me: Vilon'Androy's fiddle piece has foot-stamping accompaniment that is supposed to echo the sound of cattle rustlers. Toto Mwandjani's dombolo guitar is bright and accomplished; Claude Teta of the band Teta plays blistering, skirling pop guitar that reminds me of Bikutsi music. But there's a lot of lightweight fluff on here, like the cute furry lemurs that populate the island. Maybe it's the French influence, or the sea shanty detritus that washed ashore in some accordion parts, transposed to indigenous instruments like the marovany. The speedy dances, in 6/8 time, dominate the pop stuff on here and it is exhausting but fun if you are in the mood to bop about.
AFRICAN MUSIC FOR CHILDREN
(Rough Guide RGNET 1166 CD)
My granddaughter loves Zap Mama: she liked them before she could talk, but then she's a pretty sophisticated kid. But hey, she is my descendant! I feel Zap Mama (not on here) are really for small children in the way they have catchy melodies and somewhat anatomize their music, though I gather some adults love them too. I decided to spring this album on the other kids I hang out with, the Duchess's nephew and niece, and so I was pleased when the opening cut, "Tounga" by Issa Bagayogo had them dancing. They kept dancing for Ricardo Lemvo's "Nono Femineh" (a great choice for the second cut), and their hula moves mutated into the macarena, which they stopped to "explain" to me, but by the third track (Mory Kante's jamming "Mama"), they were bored and wanted to watch TV instead. Specific boredom set in for me on the next track, Tony Allen's spacey instrumental "Leroy," but Aleyamehu Eshete from Ethiopia kicked it back into play with "Tashamanaletch," but by then I had lost the kids. So much for empiric research! However it seems to me this is a good compilation for kids, and you could try the same experiment on your own proximate rugrats. I question the inclusion of African hip hop (K Plastaz): it's apparently popular with the British kids they tried these songs on, as was the Real Sounds' soccer commentary epic "Dynamos vs Tornados" but, as much as I like that song, I can imagine it wearing thin with kids -- or anyone else (about once every four years is often enough for me to hear it). There's more pseudo rap on JJC & 419 Squad which I have to skip. Even if kids say they like hip hop we shouldn't let them have it, like Big Macs or Frosted Fruit Loops! They are just imitating older kids (as indeed are the rappers on here), so let's steer (!) them to healthier stuff like the bubbly version of "Mbube!" (aka Wimoweh, or The Lion Sleeps) from Mahotella Queens. A guaranteed singalong. Kakai Kilonzo and Mabulu are also fine additions to this well-balanced sampler.
GOLDEN AFRIQUE VOL 1 (Network 27.677)
No matter how good your record collection is, you know there is someone with a better one! You think you have the best of a band, but there's always the chance that there are some stellar recordings that you just don't know about. So I've been holding my breath for GOLDEN AFRIQUE. With Günter Gretz behind the programming you know it would not be ordinary. Subtitled "Highlights and Rarities from the Golden Era of African Pop Music 1971-83," this first double disc focusses on Francophone West Africa. Gretz, the man behind Popular African Music of Frankfurt, along with Christian Scholtze and Jean Trouillet of Network Medien, has selected a wide array of tracks to show the alternate history of the popular music of the Western lobe of Africa. The Golden Age of African pop came along with independence as one by one the countries shook off their colonial legacy and began to discover their true identity. In literature and the arts, but especially in music, there was an outpouring of joyous liberation. I thought -- with Youssou Ndour, Rail Band, Bembeya Jazz, etc.-- it would be mostly the obvious tracks, but it goes far deeper: there's a surprise in every track and many of the cuts have never appeared on CD before. The first disc is the obscurities; the second disc the big guns. If the rest of the series is this good -- and there's every reason to believe it will be -- this set will be the cornerstone of any serious collection of African music. Gretz points out the problems inherent in anthologizing the "best" of West African music when he mentions that "Nama" by National Badema from Bamako is over 25 minutes long! (It's on LES NUITS DE BAMAKO -- also on my African Top 50.) Still, you don't feel they were rushed in their selection. Disc one starts in a pan-African mood with Maitre Gazonga shouting out to all the countries he's visited in "Les Jaloux saboteurs," a great jumping party number, recorded in Ivory Coast by an exile from Chad who comments on all the jealous people with crocodile eyes that envy his success. Today he's still the biggest star in Chad! There's speedy merengue-meets-soukous guitar, echoey sax and a pumping beat. This is followed by a legendary hit, "Amie" by Bébé Manga. It was such a smash she left Ivory Coast and headed to New York to break into the international market, teaming up with Tabou Combo, but not much has been heard from her since. Amadou Balaké & Ernesto Djédjé are up next: two of the obscure artists that Gretz has been championing. Djédjé delivers his breakout smash in the loping Ziglibithy rhythm: "Ziboté." The song has such enduring popularity that, according to the liner notes, it was even covered in a rap version in Ghana in 2000. The obscure Di Mi Amor from Togo is another pleasant surprise. Then we get to the big regional bands of Mali. The Ousmane Kouyate track is one of the treasures here. He was guitarist with Ambassadeurs du Motel, a split-off from the Rail Band de Bamako (A friend points out it was previously on TH4E MUSIC IN MY HEAD 2 and indeed it is, though the track listings are impossible to read on there!). Another Ambassadeurs tracks, "Bolola Sanou," features Kante Manfila on guitar, followed by the Rail Band. We hear Salif Keita singing with both bands. Apart from the Ernesto Djédjé cut, only the last track on the first disc, "N'toman" from Les Ambassadeurs International, has appeared on CD before. The remarkable fact we learn is that an engineer stole two hours of studio time to record the epochal MANDJOU album from which it is drawn.
The second disc kicks off with one my my favourite undeservedly obscure bands: Super Mama Djombo. Formed in Guinea Bissau in 1973, they were known as the Children of Independence -- singer Dulce Neves really sounds like a child. They quickly became national ambassadors, opening for President Cabral on his speaking tours, and everyone knew their songs even before they were recorded. They really should be in the Lusophone set and are the most Brazilian or Cape-Verdean sounding musicians here, but that Latin-ness fits in with the salsafied bands of Senegal. The guitarwork is mind-bogglingly intricate, the melody very catchy. I have volume 2 of a live recording they did in Cuba; someone (Günter?) would do us all a huge favour by finding volume 1 and putting out both parts on one CD. (And while you are at it, mein lieber Herr, how about a boxed set of the Bärenreiter-Musicaphon Malian recordings?) Next up a song made famous by Africando, "Yaye Boye" (which means "Dear mother," not "Hey boy!"), from Number 1 de Dakar. A bit obvious but a classic track from them: with great guitar, again, and fine mbalax drumming. In contrast there's an obscure version of the same song by Idy Diop, arranged by sax player Thierno Kouyate, who is currently in the Baobab line-up. Youssou Ndour, with Etoile de Dakar, returns with "Thiely" which is also on the ABSA GUEYE CD issued by Stern's. I went back to the ABSA GUEYE LP that Günter Gretz published as PAM02, and in the liner notes he discusses the influence of Super Eagles on mbalax and how Guelewar Band of Banjul developed the style, so finally he is able to demonstrate that bit of the history by putting all three groups onto one compilation. Along the way is "Autorail" by Baobab, which you have on the great BAMBA CD on Stern's. Among the buried gems is the Guelwar track, "Wartef Jiggen," which appeared on the Senegal Flash compilation CD LOUGA. Cited as his biggest influence by Youssou, Guelwar sang in Wolof and abandoned the popular rumba rhythms of the 70s for an acid rock approach. They kick out the jams on this track, with organ and guitar solos which they manage to rein in for a big finish. But the Latin tinge returns with the first Super Eagles track. Our tour continues to Guinee with the immortal Balla et ses Balladins, performing "Paulette" from that magical album "Reminiscin' in Tempo" that was also brought to us by Günter Gretz in 1993, and has remained on the all-time African Top Ten Desert Island Discs! (Rumour has it there's another Balla CD in the works.) In case you are thinking you have all this and could just put your own compilation together we have three more rarities up next. Miriam Makeba who -- after fleeing apartheid South Africa and marrying Black Panther Stokely Carmichael -- moved to Guinee in the mid-sixties and adopted the local musical style with her Quintet. She sings a praise song for President Sekou Touré -- a fair trade since he had given her a villa next door to Kwame Nkrumah and accorded her diplomatic status! This is followed by a moody blues number (I take that back: a slow blues or a smoky blues but not a moody blues@!) by Orchestre Paillote. Then the world's greatest all-policewoman band, Les Amazones de Guinee, do "Samba," from their classic AU COEUR DE PARIS album which Syliphone issued. We end with the beautiful "Tentemba" of Bembeya Jazz, certainly the crème de la crème, and one of their best numbers. It breaks up in laughter and shouting: a perfect ending to this perfect release. Two and a half hours of programmed bliss!
LOVES A REAL THING
THE FUNKY FUZZY SOUNDS OF WEST AFRICA (WORLD PSYCHEDELIC CLASSICS 3) (LUAKA BOP 6 80899 0052-2)
I'm assuming Ronnie Graham, who wrote the liner notes, compiled this gem. Graham, as you know, wrote the indispensable DA CAPO GUIDE TO CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN MUSIC so I presume he has an awesome record collection. I only knew two of the tracks on here and they are the least funky cuts. But at heart it's a killer selection of a dozen tracks from the 70s that show Africans getting into Cream, Hendrix, Love and other Western bands. It made Graham wonder what would have been the outcome if any of these bands had played at Woodstock? The title cut is from the Super Eagles (I watched their album climb past the $100 mark on EBay) and is the most Western pop track on here. Moussa Doumbia is a James Brown fan, I know him from a terribly recorded cut "Yeye Moussa" on ASSALAAM ALEIKOUM AFRICA VOLUME TWO that I played on a James Brown radio tribute years ago. He does the JB squeals and his band keeps up on "Keleya," which has a great organ solo. Manu Dibango's "Ceddo" is from the movie soundtrack and starts with moody marimba but calls to mind "Smoke on the Water" once the guitar enters. Some riffs are just unavoidable! However it's a good jam and well recorded. Sorry Bamba's track is unmistakably Malian and from the start goes into a trance. I have an album of his called LA TONNERE DOGON which includes some reggae influences that would be worth reissuing. Number One de Dakar's "Guajira ven" is an odd choice as it's Cuban-influenced and not funk though there is of course great guitar work on it. (The band is also misidentified.)
Curtis Mayfield is the benign presence in William Onyeabor's "Better change your mind," one of the best tracks on here. There's also a hint of "You've got to change your evil ways" in the lyrics when he sings "America, you ever think you own the world." It's from a 1978 Lagos album called ATOMIC BOMB which they apparently didn't actually have as there's no sleeve picture (some of the other sleeve pictures have writing on them, or price stickers). This is followed by another rarity: Ofo & the Black Company, who went to England in 1972 and blazed up this track, "Allah Wakbarr," on a 7-inch EP. They could have knocked over Ten Years After or Spooky Tooth with one finger! A Gaspar Lawal afro-beat cut grounds us again before we head back into the bush in search of new sounds. There's a Bo Diddley/Hand-Jive guitar opening to "Zinabu," another wonder, this one from Ghana-based Bunzu Sounds. The album ends with the other odd-man-out, Orchestre Regional de Kayes doing "Sanjina," the lead cut from their Best of the Biennial Youth Festival 1970 session on Barenreiter-Musicaphon. (I am fortunate to own five of the albums recorded then, and it would be a worthwhile enterprise for some label to do a box set of this crucial and well-recorded music.) But it is Malian traditional music and not really funk-influenced. It's a good way to wind things down but its appearance here is quite odd.
I don't normally look at the extra stuff on CDs that are "enhanced" but the offer of a video of the wondrous Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo de Cotonou was too much to resist and I clicked on it. As a result I was ill from laughing for ten minutes. Don't miss it!
PUTUMAYO PRESENTS
AFRO-LATIN PARTY (P235A)
Subtitle this one "Africando and beyond" and you get an idea of what's afoot. Putumayo storms the dancefloor with an upbeat set of salsa using Africando as the pivot with three tracks from that stellar conglomeration. Actually the seven Africando CDs are a bit much (three are enough), but Jacob Edgar finds the gems on "Mandali" and a cut from "Baloba!" that I have overlooked. He could have gone deeper: Salsa is a deep well with bucketsful of great flavours. I.J. suggested adding Monguito, Afro-Salseros or Super Cayor instead of three Africando cuts. Of course there are other neglected greats who could be stirred up for such a compilation. But the other selections are solid: José Mangual Jr from Puerto Rico is hotly pursued by Pepe & the Bottle Blondes doing "Cuéntame que te pasó." I don't know how I know this one. The Duchess says it's a Manhattan Transfer song (and they do it better) but it must be on a TV commercial, it's very familiar. There's a weird version of "Babalu" by Ska Cubano (which I am guessing is a London ska band with a Cuban singer) and a Croatian group called Cubismo (not Cubanismo) doing "Morenita," which could pass for Cubanismo except the singer's Spanish is better-enunciated. Although Ricardo Lemvo parted ways with Putumayo he's here with the jamming "Samba luku samba" from his last album "¡Ay Valeria!" Like the very successful "Salsa round the World" of two years ago, this is a fluid set that shows not only Cubans are masters of the swinging Latin dancefloor. Like most Putumayo CDs it clocks in at a brief 45 minutes, though that's better than the endless tedium of the "Rough Guide to Dub" or other CDs that last an hour that seems to go on forever.
MUSIQUE POPULAIRE AFRICAIN
ARCHIVES 1926-63 (BUDA 82284-2)
If you are keeping up with the Hugh Tracey archives being reissued on Sharp Wood Productions you'll gravitate at once to this collection of gems. Remastered from 78s, this is a clear sonic window into the middle of the twentieth century as represented in African popular music. (The greatest attribute of the 78 player is that it is a stand-alone mechanical device not requiring electricity, so it survived until the arrival of the battery-operated cassette tape.) The first African recordings were made a century ago by Germans Carl Meinhof in Tanzania and Pater Witte in Togo, but the passionate and discerning work of Tracey put folkloric African music firmly on the world map. Tracey's recordings were based on where he could get to in his Landrover, but he did manage to get all the way from Rhodesia to Uganda. And he was not looking for "pure" untainted sounds, the quest of so many ethnomusicologists. From the thirties on he was supplying popular as well as traditional recordings to Eric Gallo in Johannesburg. Of course he never recorded in West Africa and the recordings here from Cameroun, Upper Volta, Nigeria and Ghana are a wonderful complement to his work, as well as the early Ngoma and Opika recordings made by Greek businessmen in Congo. The album starts with some superb selections from the Gallo archives of Shangaan music from Mozambique. These, like the cuts from Uganda following, were possibly recorded by Tracey. The tracks from Wendo and Manuel D'Oliveira of Congo were the only ones known to me. Though recorded in the fifties they are quaint and don't show a distinct Congolese identity as yet. However the 1930's recordings from Ghana are superb. There is a heavy conga track and a clear indication of the direction of vocal music that would blossom into Highlife as we know it now, decades later. But here you can already hear the polyrhythms of Ashanti, Yoruba and Ewe people behind the banjo playing calypso or polka riffs. Zonophone, based in London, was the main producer of West African music and Gallo's only rival on the continent. The roots of Sunny Ade are here in a Tunde King recording from 1937 that sounds a bit too speedy! King Alvin and the Yoruba Chipmunks?!! This is a great compilation: and has nicely packaged liner notes by Nadar El Dugar, with reproductions of masks, hand-coloured photos and tantalizing old record labels!
MUSIC OF THE KALAHARI BUSHMEN
SONGS FOR HEALING (One World Music; www.oneworld.co.za)
Southwest of Mozambique, beyond Zimbabwe, beyond the Okovango swamp is the Kalahari desert, traditional home to the Bushmen who, 10,000 years ago, were the only people in Southern Africa. Their traditional way of life is disappearing as they are giving up their nomadic hunter-gatherer existence for farm work and government settlements. MUSIC OF THE KALAHARI BUSHMEN: SONGS FOR HEALING is a compilation of vocal and instrumental music showing all the types of casual music made with mouthbows, fiddles, guitars and other indigenous or imported instruments of the Botswana desert. Healing music is a social activity, involving everyone, young and old. The twenty-three tracks included here are short and diverse and occasionally quite magical. The dongo solo called "small birds" is a delicate lamellaphone piece quite different from other thumb piano music I have heard. Although adopted from northern neighbors, the Bushmen have made this instrument their own. The slow, deliberate perfomance has a music box quality to it. Late nights around the fire and the sussuration of insects are conjured up by the crackling, buzzing and rattling of the metal resonators on these instruments. The longest track is a ten-minute healing dance with handclaps and polyphonic singing that reminded me of Mbuti pygmy music.
MAMAR KASSEY
ALATOUMI (World Village)
Mamar Kassey's ALATOUMI is one of the great discoveries of Modern African pop. From the line-up of instruments I expected it to be a folky affair, but never second-guess those West African bands. According to information in the liner notes for their first album, DENKÉ DENKÉ (released in 1998), the founder, Yacouba Mounmouni, was orphaned as a child of ten. He didn't get along with his brother and so he set off to walk the 200 km to Niamey, the capital of Niger. There he became houseboy to the sister of the former director of the National Ballet of Niger. With their encouragement, he studied dance and flute and was eventually (after seven years) admitted into the orchestra of the ballet. He met guitarist Abdoulaye Alhassane and they traveled the length of the river Niger collecting folk songs from villages en route. Eventually they poached some of the best musicians from the ballet troupe to form Mamar Kassey, named for a legendary Songhai warrior of the fifteenth century.
The music is drawn from the folklore of West Africa and encompasses Songhai and Fulani poetry, sung in Hausa, Arabic, and French, for the most part. There is a melding of styles, so the raw rootsiness is counterbalanced with sophistication. They use traditional instruments with electric bass and guitar, but still the weight of the music is carried on the three-stringed molo (a lute ancestor), and the godje, a one-string fiddle with gourd resonator played with a bow. Mounmouni, as you might expect, is a master on the seyse flute, made from reeds of the river Niger. The two percussionists play douma (talking drum) and calabash (which is played with silver-ringed fingers!).
From their founding in 1995 the band made a hit at the Atypical Nights of Koudougou Festival in Burkina Faso and went on to tour Mali and France, all the while building their repertoire.
There's a churning groove reminiscent of some rock band jams (without the irritating predictability of C, F and G chord progressions); most of the tracks build to a trance that just locks in and grooves. Then the flute floats over the romping bassline. Now before you say, Wait, this sounds like Jethro Tull's THIS WAS, let me add that Mamar Kassey are more than a mere kick-out-the-jams band (though they smoke in concert). For starters, all the musicians are virtuosi. There's even a bass solo! (Harouna Abdou is an exceptional bassist.) But their particular genius is in a slow smoky build-up of passion till it's pure funk filling the air, while staying true to an in-the-bush sound. There's an arab flavor to the fiddle and a suggestion of the Wassoulou sound in the komsa (two-stringed lute), and molo (three-stringed lute, like the Bambara ngoni), played by Housseini Namata Chibkabou. The percussionists don't let anyone rest. It also sounds like it was recorded live, without overdubs.
The handsomely packaged album tells us what each song is about (in French), from the arrival of the Peuls, through shepherd songs (Mounmouni's heritage as a lad), to songs about famine, orphans, falling in love with a girl who is already married, thieves that threaten the family, to a couple of rave-ups to end.
VARIOUS ARTISTS
MUSIC IN MY HEAD 2 (Stern's Africa STCD 1094 www.sternsmusic.com)
To fill the space left by the entropic collapse of soukous, I keep coming back to the essential righteousess of Senegalese, Malian and Guinean music. The latest volume of MUSIC IN MY HEAD (and let's assume for now it's an ongoing series), is a classic compilation of the golden age of Francophone West African pop that still strikes such a resonant note today. I looked at the playlist and thought, "Hmmm, I have all these," but I do like to turn the programming over to another deejay sometimes because I'll find a different cut on an album I had overlooked or hear something in a different way, maybe even a better remastering of an old gem. I wasn't disappointed. And of course here are tracks I didn't have: Super Diamono (which I thought was Etoile de Dakar) doing a track called, I think, "Bass." (I'm not sure because the CD designer made the color of the type the same value as the color of the background so the titles are illegible!) This spacey Islamic wailing wall of sound is followed by a super-hot Rail Band cut from "Kaira" 1975 (I can't read this title either: Get a clue people!!). There's Baobab, Etoile de Dakar, Super Mama Djombo, Balla et ses Balladins -- all the greats! But suffice it to say, there's enough familiar or unusual stuff in here that compels you to listen and maybe dig out the book, MUSIC IN MY HEAD by Mark Hudson, again. The CD is subtitled "Guitars are from Mars, Balafons are from Venus" -- go figure. Hudson's liner notes are superb, and as a bonus "Litch" writes a snotty intro that is perfect, ranting on about "balafons-on-acid" then commenting there is only one track with balafon but its sound is implicit in all the music and if you don't know what a balafon is, then this album ain't for you! Now if only I can remember who I loaned my copy to...
VARIOUS ARTISTS
NO MAKE PALAVER (Piranha CD pir 39-2)
Recorded "102% live in August 1993" at the Heimatklänge (Homelandracket, or Folkfest) in Berlin, this outstanding compilation presents a survey of West African popular music. Le Zagazougou, the accordeon group from Ivory Coast, get things off to a raucous start, and, after a beautiful praise song from Mali's Oumou Sangare, we are treated to the best from Nigeria and Ghana in songs from Barrister and Eric Agyeman. The highlights are the next two cuts, an eleven-minute version of "Foliba" by the Super Rail Band of Bamako with sax lines snaking in and out of the kora-derived guitar, and a powerful "Thiédo" from Baaba Maal and Dande Lenol. This crisp recording is the closest thing to being there; it's immediate and hot.
NONESUCH EXPLORER SERIES (Elektra 14 CDs)
When the Elektra record label began to have successes on folk singers in the late 60s, they branched out, licensing music from Europe. A former child prodigy on classical piano, Teresa Sterne, came aboard as coordinator of a new label to explore folk music of the world. A big breakthrough at the time was the reduction in size of recording equipment so musicologists could go out into the field with portable tape recorders that only weighed 70 pounds as compared to the 200 pound record-cutting machines that were previously required. When David Lewiston returned from Bali with the incredible "Music from the Morning of the World" tapes, the new label was born. Many of us who grew up in the late sixties and were curious about different kinds of music fell in love with the Nonesuch Explorer records and their hokey covers. I went on to seriously collect OCORA and Musique du Monde, two French labels that also explored world music, and the Barenreiter-Musicaphon series issued in Germany, that gave you the cream of the crop. But Nonesuch was my inauguration into world music.
Now Nonesuch is beginning the reissue of all 92 recordings on budget-priced CD, starting with the thirteen volumes of African music. In January 2003 the ten classic Indonesian albums from Bali and Java will be reissued. There is also a sampler of the African albums to whet your appetite, and slick new packaging with sharp black and white photography.
Originally released between 1969 and 1983 some of the 13 African albums have become classics. ESCALAY THE WATER WHEEL, oud recordings of Nubian Hamza El Din, has been previously reissued on CD. Dumi Maraire's THE AFRICAN MBIRA is another of the eternally great recordings from the series. DRUM, CHANT & INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC was recorded in Niger, Mali and Upper Volta in 1976 and was my introduction to this wonderful, trance-inducing music. David Fanshawe's WITCHCRAFT & RITUAL MUSIC, recorded in Kenya and Tanzania, caught the echoes of a culture now all-but extinct. Neighbouring Burundi too was decimated, to the sound of those royal drums that were sampled in some less-than-memorable eighties pop. Still, it's one of my favourites. The original liner notes have been retained and include remarks like this, for a classic cut, "Take me back to Mabayi," on the "Burundi" album: "An amiable old man from Gahabura sings, accompanying himself on the inanga. He dreams of returning to the places of his happy youth. 'Take me back to Mabayi, where there are plenty of women.' Pieces like this are usually sung in the moonlight, and many musicians have been annoyed when asked to perform by day in order to allow their songs to be taped." The 8-stringed zither on which the old geezer accompanies himself has a really funky tone to it and he adds mouth percussion between stanzas. I've played this in a set with James Brown and it works!
One oddity in the series is the ANIMALS OF AFRICA, recordings of animal sounds which will mean a lot more to you if you've been to Africa. I used to use it as ambient background noise between sets when I was back-announcing on the radio. The new liner notes tell us that since this recording it has been established that Vervets have a vocabulary and actual words for "eagle" and "leopard," so man is not alone in communicating linguistically!
If you are not ready to dive in, there is a sampler of the entire African series: Nonesuch PRCD 300883.
URBAN AFRICA NOW (Trace)
URBAN AFRICA NOW is a beautifully packaged anthology of current hits from all parts of Africa. The designer uses stock photos in a letterbox format in the booklet and each song has its own spread. The album kicks off with a very urbane accordion piece from Madagascar and follows it with a hit from Youssou Ndour's JOKO CD, but presented in the mix released on cassette for the fans in Dakar. Maciré Sylla's "Wombéré" from Guinée is one of the highlights. It has great energy, a mixture of funk and mbalax, strong harmony singing and wonderful flute. But too many of the tracks, for my taste, are aspiring gangsta with English or French vocals, drum machines and angrily declaimed lyrics. Sorry, that ain't music. I know Elvin Jones says he likes Rap because it pisses off people like me, but I just kill it before it spreads. Baaba Maal's "Guelel" is here from his album NOMAD SOUL: the vocals are fine but the kora is buried beneath the synths, samples and drum tracks. A stronger Senegalese entry is Cheikh Lo's "Jeunesse Senegal" from his classic BAMBAY GUEEJ, one of my favorite albums of last year.
I never paid any attention to Brenda Fassie the disco diva from South Africa, but "Vuli Ndlela," her 1999 comeback hit, is very catchy. Mabulu from Mozambique is included with a great cut. Also from Mozambique, Eyuphoro have a strong musical and melodic entry amid the usual rappers and pseudo-reggae (why is it all African reggae sounds like Peter Tosh?). I don't recommend this album wholeheartedly. It's a snapshot of a segment of what is happening in urban Africa, if you're interested.