African Music

[Stefan Wood]

If you need to maintain your afrobeat fix, this will do the trick:

[jostber]

I think I'd like to see more releases from the colonial period, and probably more releases of music collected by ethnographers rather than popular releases.

More and more is becoming available. For really early stuff, check out the Secret Museum of Mankind series on Shanachie. There were some really good traditional music field recordings in the original Nonesuch Explorer Series.

The Yazoo "Mankind" series are great, got them all. Some of these are even available on vinyl now:

http://www.honestjons.com/shop.php?pid=34041

[jeffcrom]

Stopped by an antique/flea market this evening and came away with a minor gem:

Afican Highlife (Fontana). A 1964 LP collection, with The Black Beats, The Comets, The Chasmen Sunset Band, The Ambassador Sprinkboks, The Happy Stars, The Stargazers of Kumasi, and the Modern King Stars. My copy is fake stereo, but sounds okay with a mono cartridge. Pretty cool!

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Stopped by an antique/flea market this evening and came away with a minor gem:

Afican Highlife (Fontana). A 1964 LP collection, with The Black Beats, The Comets, The Chasmen Sunset Band, The Ambassador Sprinkboks, The Happy Stars, The Stargazers of Kumasi, and the Modern King Stars. My copy is fake stereo, but sounds okay with a mono cartridge. Pretty cool!

That's a funny selection. I know the Black Beats recorded for Decca West Africa; don't know about the others but the AMbassador Springboks sounds like a SOuth African band (though there was an AMbassador label in Ghana). Seems odd for it to be on Fontana. Can you tell when it issued?

MG

[jeffcrom]

Stopped by an antique/flea market this evening and came away with a minor gem:

Afican Highlife (Fontana). A 1964 LP collection, with The Black Beats, The Comets, The Chasmen Sunset Band, The Ambassador Sprinkboks, The Happy Stars, The Stargazers of Kumasi, and the Modern King Stars. My copy is fake stereo, but sounds okay with a mono cartridge. Pretty cool!

That's a funny selection. I know the Black Beats recorded for Decca West Africa; don't know about the others but the AMbassador Springboks sounds like a SOuth African band (though there was an AMbassador label in Ghana). Seems odd for it to be on Fontana. Can you tell when it issued?

MG

According the this interesting site, it was issued in 1964, when U.S. Fontana was a subsidiary of Mercury, and used primarily for "international" records. The album notes suggest that all or most of the bands (including the Ambassador Springboks) might be Nigerian, but the notes are so casual, elementary and uninformative that taking them seriously would probably be a mistake.

[jeffcrom]

I'm listening to an LP I just picked up today - La Kora de Sénégal by Lamine Konté on the Arion label. The subtitle is "Les rythmes, les percussions & la voix du Lamine Konté" on my copy - but not on the picture I found on the web! Otherwise the picture is identical to my LP. The stuff I could find on the web about Konté suggests that he was one of the first Senegalese musicians to put the kora into more "modern" contexts. But so far (I just finished side one), it all seem fairly traditional - the only "modern" touch I hear is the use of an electric guitar on one cut, and even that is well-integrated into the kora part, like Ali Farka Toure's playing with Toumani Diabate.

Again, poking around the web indicates that there are at least two volumes of La Kora de Sénégal in CD form, but neither of them correspond exactly to this LP. The liner notes are in French, which I'm hopeless with, so they don't shed any light for me. There's a pretty cool stamp on the back of the sleeve, indicating that it was sold at a book/record store in Dakar: La Maison du Livre et du Disque. In any case, this is a beautiful record - I'm glad I found it.

And thanks to The Magnificent Goldberg - without his guidance I wouldn't have enough knowledge to discuss a Senegalese record even to this extent. Come back soon, Allen!

Another spin of this excellent album. I should add that a few cuts have bass - another "modern" touch. And we're all glad you're back, MG!

[Stefan Wood]

Picked this up, yet another stellar release from Sterns':

What a voice!!!

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Picked this up, yet another stellar release from Sterns':

What a voice!!!

You heard it here first

Got an e-mail from Sterns with a pre-release offer on this one.

Kouyate Sory Kandia (as he's always been known professionally) was one of THE great voices of the twentieth century. This 2 CD compilation includes a lot of very great stuff he recorded for Syliphone.

However, you can get EVERYTHING he recorded on Syliphone, as a leader, not as a member of Les Ballets Africaines, on 3 Syllart CDs, all of which are available on e-music.

I've ordered the new issue, despite having all the Syllart CDs, simply for the 40 page sleeve note, probably by Graeme Counsel.

The pre-release sale lasts until 16 Feb, if you want a set for a tenner (sterling).

MG

But the sleeve note is actualy by Justin Morel, who wrote many Syliphone sleeve notes back in the day.

MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I haven’t mentioned in this thread so far the material I got a few weeks ago in Paris. I wanted to take some time to absorb it all. Well, I haven’t really absorbed it all but I’ve listened to them all a half dozen or so times and I thought it would be interesting now to say something about them.

The first thing to say is that I bought very conservatively, in the sense that all but two of the artists whose albums I bought were ones I already had one or more albums of. One of those two was someone I’d heard on the street in West Africa in 2000 or 2002, the other was someone I’d never heard of but simply accepted the store owner’s recommendation (once he’d got the message that I knew a thing or two about the music).

The second thing is that only one of the albums I got was not available on CD. That’s a measure of how far the CD has come in Senegambia, Guinée Conakry and Mali, in that pretty nearly everything now comes out in both CD and K7 formats. Of course, the fact that something’s on CD doesn’t necessarily mean it’s easy to get outside the regular markets for these kinds of music. I’m posting a list later on with the images of these albums; those for which there’s no image on the web are likely to be at least very hard (and maybe impossible) to find outside the regular markets, at least for a good few years, until a lot more Africans start using the internet for trading purposes.

The third point arises naturally from this: these albums are typical examples of the contemporary (well, the earliest album I got was from 2004) popular music of these countries, intended for domestic consumption (plus consumption by émigrés elsewhere), not for the delectation of outsiders. They’re neither classics (except in the making, perhaps, in some cases), nor particularly ‘World music’ friendly. All but one of the albums I got are on indigenous labels, run by Africans, and whose markets don’t include the likes of us, except to take those of us who don’t know what they’re doing for a ride. (Conversely, those who DO know what they’re doing know that prices are negotiable and that it pays to offer a shopkeeper ten or so Euros less than the total amount of the bill. This is as true in Paris, Brussels, Newark and Little Senegal in Harlem as it is in Africa. But it doesn’t work on-line (quel dommage).)

Finally, listening to this material, I’ve been reminded of a conversation I had in 2004 with Nick Dean, proprietor of NATARI, http://www.natari.com/ who sold me heaps of K7s in the nineties. He had given up the K7 business and was concentrating on dealing in CDs of classic albums, mainly because he perceived that much of the new material he was getting from Africa was pretty well identical to European and American pop music. Now Nick is a man of MUCH wider experience than I am – he’s about my own age but has NEVER bought any music other than those from every part of Africa. So I have little doubt that, for other parts of Africa, what he said is true (and I’ve noticed it myself when I’ve got other stuff than the music of Senegambia, Guinée and Mali).

But these albums I got in Paris are pretty well what the different kinds of music were twenty-odd years ago. Of course, they’ve moved on a bit, but moving on in the cases of these countries doesn’t seem to have meant moving West. Why this should be so, I’m quite uncertain. But it’s quite clearly true, so these are good countries to continue to follow musically.

There are three businesses where you may be able to get some of this stuff online.

The best bet for Malian music is Camara Productions (for CD - CK7 on K7). http://www.camara-production.com/ Kalle Camara has been in business since about 1989 and specialises in Mali (with a few Guinean albums as well). He is about the only producer making recordings of the music of the Soninke (a Mande people who formed the first empire in the Sahel in the third century AD). I’ve been looking over his CD catalogue (which is a bit awkward as a lot of the sleeves don’t come out) and there’s a lot more there than what I’ve got. CDs cost 10 Euro each. I’ll certainly order stuff from them in the next few months.

Back in the early nineties, Kalle was also selling groceries, lamps, batteries and kola nuts. His Paris shop (he has branches in St Denis and Bamako) was a wonderful emporium of all sorts of stuff. Nowadays he still sells kola nuts; when I was there there in August was a continual stream of people coming in to buy them.

Lampe Fall is a good place to visit. Specialty is Senegalese music, but there is a lot from elsewhere. Like Camara’s, it’s a record company, too. The website is quite unhelpful; few CDs are on the website database, but some I never noticed in the shop look good, so I’ll order one or two. They’re 13 Euros on the web, but only 10 in the shop (negotiable).

NATARI, http://www.natari.com/ is Nick Dean’s site. He has tons of stuff. Most of it isn’t for sale, but some is. Prices of CDs trend to be a bit higher than you’d pay at Amazon UK. But a lot of what he’s got is old stuff that you can’t get anywhere on K7s.

None of these businesses is a fly-by-night.

Next 3 posts set out what I got and what I think of it.

MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Guinée Conakry

Sekouba Bambino - Innovation - Syllart

Sekouba Bambino - Diatiguyw - Syllart

Sekouba Bambino - Ma Guinée - SBD (Sekouba's own company)

Bambino needs no introduction, so I shan't give him one. All of these are wonderful. The two Syllart albums were released this year. The other is undated.

Djanka Diabate - Ayan-don - Fanta Keita (No image on web)

Djanka should need no introduction. She's the wife of Sekou Bembeya DIabate, the great guitarist from Bembeya Jazz National. Her records under her own name are all quite poppy, but very attractive. I always hope she'll make a record as I know she can, using her great djali voice, but she only uses is when she's singing backup vocals.

Djessou Mama Diabate - Mansaba - Super Selection (FCA) (No image on web)

Djessou is less well known outside Guinée. I only had one of her K7s before, from the nineties. This shows her even better than that. Her voice is quite rich, rather than piercing, as most lady djali voices are.

Aminata Kamissoko - Kognoumalon - Emedia BKS

Aminata Kamissoko - Ambition - TAT Audio Visuel Drame (No image on web) The only K7 I bought.

Aminata is one of the greatest djali singers of all. If you have 'Wamato' by Les Amazones de Guinée (Syllart/Sterns) you'll have heard her. These two recordings, both quite recent, are her best so far. I don't think there is a djali singer with a richer voice than Aminata.

Fode Baro - Liberation - Lusafrica (the only album from a major company)

Fode Baro - Debrouillons-nous - Syllart

Fode is a very good arranger in the Boncana Maiga mould. Like Maiga, he understands a wide range of West African music and uses all of it in his work. The BMG album is, predictably, more like pop music, but not too much for my taste. But he should have stayed at Syllart

Aboubacar Diaby - 2Diaby - Gris Gris (Syllart)

Never heard of this guy before. I asked for a recommendation and this is what I got. The sleeve looks as if he might be verging into Hip Hop but no, it's a production much like many others done in Conakry by Gris Gris records and I'm very happy with it.

MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Mali

Ganda Fadiga - 2007 (vol 1) - CK7

Ganda Fadiga - 2008 (vol 2) - CK7

Ganda Fadiga is regarded as the greatest of the traditional Soninke musicians. I have lots of his stuff which is very, very bluesy. You may be familiar with his wife's recordings; she was Hawa Drame and Ganda often accompanied her. She appeared on one of Ganda's early K7s, too.

Diadia Fadiga - 2011 - CK7

Diadia is Ganda's brother. He has only started recording in the last few years. I first heard him on a private tape some soninke workmen were listening to on the street outside an internet cafe I was in. Thought it was Ganda, but no, it was Diadia. Very similar style.

Ami Koita - Africawe - Mali Music (FCA)

Ami Koita - Sanou lolo - Akom (No image on web)

Tata Bambo Kouyate - Djeliya - FCA (No image on web)

Ami and Tata are both so well known no intro is necessary. These albums are as good as anything they've done before.

Abdoulaye Diabate - Makan - Syllart

Abdoulaye is well known as a singer with the Orchestre Regional de Sikasso/Kene Star Sikasso, who accompanied him on many of his post Kene recordings for Syllart.

Yoro Diallo & Sali Diagbawara - Dunia kadi - CK7

Yoro is not well known. He's a sound exponent of kamelengoni music. He has one CD issued in the US ('Pekos' on the Yalla Yalla label). I think there's a bit more on CK7 and will have to look into that.

MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Senegal

Fatou Laobe - He Laobe/Rewmi - Origines (FCA twofer) (No image of CD on web)

Fatou Laobe - BARA Mamadou Lamine - Tabala (No usable image on web)

Fatou is a fairly new diva on the Senegalese scene, following very much in the wake of Kine Lam but singing much more forcefully than Kine (if you can imagine that). She divides her work between traditional Islamic Mbalax and more modern secular work.

Pascal Dieng & Super Cayor International - Khewel - Origines (Lampe Fall) (No image on web)

Pascal goes back a LONG way in the music of Senegal. He was one of the founder members of Canari de Kaolak, a pioneering Mbalax band of the seventies. Super Cayor is a fairly well known more recent band, specialising in Salsa material (the band was originally called 'Super Cayor et son Salsa Mbalax'). This is as good as anything they've done.

El Hadji Faye - Pastef - Boubarte (Lampe Fall)

El Hadji Faye also goes back decades; he was a member of Etoile de Dakar, then when the band were fired in favour of new star Youssou Ndour, of Etoile 2000. Their recording of 'Boubou ngaari' (Dakar Sound CD 001) was an overnight hit and has become a standard in Senegal.

Assane Mboup - Tresor - Jololi

Assane Mboup - Xaleyi - Lampe Fall

Assane is a singer who came along in the nineties, under the wing of Kine Lam, whose style is similar to his. If you have Orchestre Baobab's 'Made in Dakar' Assane takes a vocal on one of those tracks. He's a remarkably consistent artist.

Mapenda Seck - Adouna tey - Jololi

Mapenda is Thione Seck's brother, who replaced him in Orchestre Baobab in the seventies, because Thione was a bit unreliable. If you have the Sterns CD 'Bamba', there's quite a bit of Mapenda on that. Always good quality stuff from Mapenda.

Ouza - 20 ans ? - Lampe Fall

OK, Ouza is my all time favourite. This CD has new versions of some of his past successes plus a few new numbers and I love it, of course.

Abou Djouba Deh - Yewende - Lampe Fall (No image on web)

Abou hasn't made many albums; I only have two of his K7s, so this is the third I know about. He comes out of the same Peul tradition as Baba Maal, but he doesn't make records specially for white people.

Kine Lam - Mame Bamba - Origines

I thought Kine had retired in the late nineties, but here she is again. One of the great Mbalax singers, as good as ever.

Coumba Gawlo - Ma Djinn - Sabar (No image on web - pity, she's wearing absolutely stunning clothes!)

Coumba Gawlo is beautiful and can sing. She is, I think, Thione Seck's daughter. She's made lots of records and Sabar Records is her own company. She made one album for RCA in the late nineties and it was, as one might have guessed, pretty crappy. Otherwise, she's wonderful and lovely.

MG

[Stefan Wood]

Ordered this new one from da bastids:

Their notes say:

A motherlode of music from the legendary Tunji Oyelana – a key figure in Nigerian music from the late 60s onward – with an influence that's almost as important as Fela's! Tunji's style is pretty darn funky, but different too – almost a pan-African sort of range that encompasses older styles from folklore, grooves from highlife, and the growing turn towards soul, funk, and rock that really sparked on the Nigerian scene once the 70s came around. This double-length package is a great illustration of this range – a wealth of wonderful songs, all graced by the rich vocals of Oyelana, and backed with hip grooves from The Benders – a very cool combo who really know how to change things up! Titles include "Ojo", "Which Way Africa", "To Whom It May Concern", "Jewele Jewele", "Ifa", "Fiya Jemi", "Osekere", "Aiye Nla", "Omonike", "Agba Lode (45 version)", "Aduke", and "Lenle".

For those seeking more African funkiness, this recent reissue from Soundway is recommended:

[Stefan Wood]

Ordered these from da bastids:

Edited November 8, 2012 by Stefan Wood

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Ordered these from da bastids:

Oh, I must get this. I've quite a few RBT albums, but none of these tracks (as far as I can read 'em) are on them.

A great album. Watch out for the drum machines!

MG

[ejp626]

Maybe this should go elsehwere, but I figured I would start here. In May 2010, I was making a short visit to NYC. I was running a bit late and was moving quickly through the subway (transferring at 14th-Union Square). I ran across 2 buskers doing a kora duet. They sounded quite good and even had a CD for sale. I really wish I had stopped the 5 minutes it would have taken to pick one up, but I didn't. They may be on the web for all I know, but without even a name there isn't much to go on. I haven't found anything so far at least.

While a long shot, if this sounds familiar to any of the NYC board members, do let me know. Thanks!

[Stefan Wood]

More purchases from DG:

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Lost my effin' post somehow!

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Your posting this sent me off to Amazon UK to see if I could get one there. Yes! Many thanks - I din't know this had been reissued.

That sent me off to the Kindreed Spirits site, to see if the firm had issued any more material from the Mali Kunkan label. They have.

This is a compilation of 'Super Biton National de Segou' Mali Kunkan KO77.04.13 plus 3 of the 5 tracks from 'Super Biton National de Segou' Mali Kunkan KO77.04.14. BRILLIANT music. If anyone hasn't got this stuff, get on yer bike!

Also, and even MORE BRILLIANT!

Orchestre Kanaga de Mopti - Mali Kunkan KO77.04.15.

This is effin' INCREDIBLE music!!!!! Buy immediately!!!!

MG

[Stefan Wood]

Yes, the Orchestre Kanaga de Mopti is fantastic! Once I receive the discs I will comment.

Forgot to mention this one was part of the shopping spree:

Edited December 3, 2012 by Stefan Wood

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Yes, the Orchestre Kanaga de Mopti is fantastic! Once I receive the discs I will comment.

Forgot to mention this one was part of the shopping spree:

Struth! Another I didn't know was available. Well, one for next year, I think.

MG

[Stefan Wood]

Two excellent albums that merge african and punk music:

[kh1958]

Music under attack in Mali.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/23/mali-militants-declare-war-music

[ejp626]

Two excellent albums that merge african and punk music:

I saw this line-up in Chicago. They were pretty great. I particularly liked there was some respectful back-and-forth, not just the Ex comping behind Getatchew.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Music under attack in Mali.

http://www.guardian....clare-war-music

Bad news - but not the first time music has been under attack out there. In the eighties, Gadafi banned all western instruments. Idrissa Sissoko, who recorded for Oubien in Mali, had his guitar bust by the Libyan army. Music is a soft touch for dictatorial nutters, but survives.

MG