December 18, 2008

Franco in love

In the series Tracks-Which-They-Forgot-To-Digitize (see this post and this post) here is one of the most blatant omissions. It's a track from 1977 and it's in Franco's favourite bolero style.

I have been waiting since the introduction of the CD for a digital version of "Tolinganaki Toboyanaki" (which can be translated as "we were once in love, then broke up"). The song is sung by Franco solo. That is, if you don't count Isaac Musekiwa (he isn't credited but, given the prominent role of the sax, I am assuming it must be him). His sax follows Franco through the song, anticipating, replying, coaxing... Franco's guitar responds by brilliant bouts of what can be best described as musical love-making, with a climax after 6'35.

As far as I know Michelino's "Kamusengele" also has not been digitized, but Josky's "Monzo" and Franco's driving "Na Loba Loba Pamba Te" have, although I still prefer the lp version of the latter.

African 360.104


PS: this is the first of a series of OK Jazz posts which I have planned for the next few weeks. So watch this space.....

7 comments:

  1. Hey Stefan,

    Was saying to you I had some old Franco cassettes in really poor condition that I really wished I could replace with anything better & what-do-ya-know this was one of them. It's a great record. Thank You. David

    PS Just a thought but Tr 1 Na Loba Loba has a jump at about 6m.54s. Is that permanent damage on your vinyl or would it clean up?

    ReplyDelete
  2. thanks for the franco posts...any trick to get these files to open uo? Seem to get src error with zippeg and stuff it seems to get stuck. Any thoughts?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm afraid I have no idea. I have tested the file and can find nothing wrong with it. I use Winrar, but 7Zip also can decompress the file.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @David(Anonymous): The jump is certainly not a result of vinyl damage. I assume it is a production error (not completely uncommon with the African label..)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I was cobbling together a "reconstruction" of this album (a while back) from available tracks, album art, and track lists. Got stuck when I could not find "Kamusengele".

    Voila! The album appears by magic! Thank you for this and so many other great posts.

    joe f

    ReplyDelete