Achille Johnny

I know absolutely nothing about this artist, but his name evokes visions of Belgian sporting legends, or comic book heroes.

Achille Johnny.....
....The first Belgian to cycle around the world. Or the threefold winner (in consecutive years!) of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Or the hero of "Achille Johnny et la collusion diabolique".

Reality tends to be more prosaic, - but maybe (or hopefully) not in this case. A quick search reveals that our Johnny has gathered some fame for his song "Mede Woui" (which can be found here), a wonderful slow ballad of the haunting dramatic kind.

One of these two singles contains a similar (but maybe not as haunting) slow ballad, titled "Kou We Mi Djo Na". The B-side "Johnny A Une Femme" features a song with references to - presumably - winning the national lottery, which suggests that Johnny's good looks weren't enough to get him hooked up...

The second single is less spectacular, but nevertheless pleasant. I like the guitar, but the drummer should have been recorded in another room.

Disques ISB SBL209002
Disque Sachey DN No.1

PS: does anyone (Oro?) have a photo of Johnny?

EDIT: and here is (a small version of) the sleeve, supplied by the ever helpful Zim.
I have to admit I am slightly disappointed....

Kweya

I have digitised this album from cassette a while ago, but hesitated posting it because I don't have - and can't find - the sleeve. The quality of the copy is not a problem, as I am sure you will agree. I am slowly even becoming more and more convinced that cassette copies have a better survival rate than the vinyl originals...
To compensate for the lack of sleeve, I have decided to add a second record to this post. Vinyl, - so with sleeve.

Both "Kweya" and "Djalenga" are compilations, the first from Polygram Kenya and the second from a presumably British "Swahili" label (of which I have only seen this record). The Kweya compilation contains some real jewels, including the extraordinary "Jua Lako" by Moja One and "Dunia Hakuna Bingwa" by Ibeba System (you can read about the complex relationship between some of the bands in this compilation on muzikifan's site). The title song by Orchestra Virunga is a curious example of the use of a drum machine.

Although I have found no confirmation for this, I strongly suspect the band named as Les Lashow is led by Lessa Lassan, who has two tracks on the "Djalenga" compilation. He seems to have looked for musical inspiration with Tabu Ley. The "Djalenga" songs are enjoyable, but I favour the one on "Kweya".

Super Lovy, with Vicky Longomba's son, is another band with ties to Moja One and Ibeba. Their "Etali Yomoko" is not one of their better songs, if you ask me.
'Odd ones out' in these two compilations are Sam Mangwana on "Kweya" with "Masai", in the unique relaxed Mangwana style (I like the ox imitations at the end), and "Nimesha-Kwambia" by Super Wanyika on "Djalenga", - a great track for long busrides.

POLP 561*
12 SWAH 001

* come to think of it, it is likely the number should be 551, as Muzikifan states.

Deep Horizon

Here is one of those rapid posts.

This cassette of Jonah Sithole and his band The Deep Horizon was given to me by the artist himself, when he visited Amsterdam in 1996, a year before his sad demise (see my earlier post).
I don't wish to sound stubborn, but despite efforts by others to push this great artist into the mist of oblivion, to me Jonah is still one of the Greats of Zimbabwean music. Not just the man himself, but Thomas Mapfumo too has pointed to him as the 'inventor' of mbira-guitar in the Chimurenga music of the Blacks Unlimited. And who am I to argue with 'the horse's mouth'?

This wonderful cassette by Jonah's own band was recorded in the mid-1990s, and has - as far as I know - never had a global distribution.

L4 RTLP 115 or L4 RTLP 115

More Jonah to follow in a later post....

Bisimilai

I have to admit I am not very good with religion. Over the years I have come to the conclusion I am just not the believing, the submissive or the worshipping kind.

But should I ever - for reasons I can not imagine at this moment - get the urge to repent, it is very likely I will turn to Islam.

For one thing, they have better music than the competition.

And with this post I am presenting some very convincing evidence of this thesis. Yes, you have guessed it: it's another album by that master of Apala music, Haruna Ishola. From a time (mid-1970s) when he had not yet, I assume from the absence of the "Alhadji" adjective, done his duty as a muslim to travel to Mecca.

This is another great lp, and again a monument of African music. My favourite part of this record is the part on side B when after about 9 minutes the chorus seems to get disengaged from the lead vocal. It may seem like an imperfection, but it's just the kind of imperfection that makes this music perfect......

SRPS 27

Twenty years ago

You may wonder why I have not been posting in the last couple of weeks. Well, I have been putting my feet up, - but strictly for medical reasons. I have had some surgery done on my foot, and was therefore distracted from sitting behind the computer. And after that, I had a lot of catching up to do both family- as well as workwise.

I will try and make this up with a few 'rapid' posts, i.e. with a minimum of textual interference.

And the first of these is a referral to a YouTube posting by friend Aboubacar Siddikh of a recording I can - even after (exactly) twenty years - barely listen to. It is the last live performance of that immortal legend of African music, Franco. The fact that he decided to play in this song ("Chacun pour soi" by Josky Kiambukuta) which he had used on previous occasions as a kind of 'pièce de résistance', made the whole scene even more tragic.
Listening to the frantic attempts of this once all-powerful giant was one of the most painful moments in my personal musical memory.

Please note the superb photos made by Ton Verhees. And read Aboubacar's notes.


In the next few weeks I will dedicating more posts to Franco and his legacy (probably with some of the 15 Years Ago and In Memoriam series, plus some singles).

Talakaka

An artist who should have been doing well in these times of recession and impending poverty, is Remmy Ongala.
As he himself told me in an interview just over twenty years ago:
(loosely translated) "....Me, I sing for the poor, I don't sing for the rich. To the rich I say they shouldn't frustrate the poor, because they are poor. For before you were rich, your father was poor. Or your grandfather too was poor. Maybe there wasn't a school, - because now school has become essential in present-day life. To get a job you must be able to read. To work the land you must be able to read. But before it wasn't like this. It was by strength: if you were strong you could work the land and have food to eat. And nowadays, people see it as a matter of prestige, because (they say) he went to university and he knows how to read and all that. I always try to tell people that the poor are always numerous, and they are the ones that give courage to the rich, they are the ones that always work the land, they are the ones that build all the houses. The rich never do any building. My songs are like that. So when I compose a song I don't always write down the words. I always recount the truth, of what I encounter, of what I see; and in the evening during a concert I sing this..."

The lp I would like to share with you in this post, is one of his earlier releases (see discography). According to Remmy there is no real difference between Super Talakaka and Super Matimila. Furthermore, when I talked to him in 1989 he was not even aware of the existence of this album....

More biographic details can be found here, and more music and bits of interviews in a later post.

POLP 538

PS: the great photo was taken during the interview by the great Ton Verhees.

EDIT November 10, 2012: Renewed the links.

EDIT August 4, 2019: Once more the link to the album has been renewed!

Sudando

With the promise of improved weather conditions here in the Netherlands, I am mentally preparing myself for a healthy dose of sweltering. And what better way to prepare than with the steamy music of Laba Sosseh, recorded live or under similar circumstances in Dakar, Senegal. With the loose sax of Dexter Johnson.

As I have expressed before (here and here) I just love the ambiance of his recordings. Qualitywise the series on the M.A.G. label, of which this is the first, is certainly not as good as the wonderful CD's on the Dakar Sound label (at least one of those is still available here). But this volume has some classic Laba Sosseh, with personal favourites "Me Voy Pa'l Monte" (a tune which a nasty tendency to stick in my head for days...), "Aminata", "El Manisero (version Sangomar)" (that trumpet..!), "Seyni" (see one of the next posts!), "La Sitiera", and the killer: "Recordando A Noro Morales", - one of those songs that can only be heard with a ventilator at full blast.

Garçon! Get me a cold beer to go with this sweaty music!

MAG 102

Regard sur le passé

To any connoisseur of West-African music the title of this post must at least sound familiar. And I am sure most will recognise it as the title of a classic album by Bembeya Jazz National, in which the legendary singer Aboubacar Demba Camara recounted the epic story of Sekou Touré's grandfather, Samory Touré, and his heroic struggle against the French colonial oppressors. The album was released twice on the Syliphone label, or three times if you count the live version recorded in Abidjan.
The success of the Bembeya tale provoke a lot of orchestras to follow the Regard formula, and evoke tales of other glorious and heroic pasts. The Horoya Band had its own versions with "Tunyalee" and "Boloba", and the Dirou Band follow suit with "L'Arbre Eternel".

The formula soon caught on in other countries, and more particular in the country with which Guinea shares culture and a large part of its history: Mali. Soon Malian audiences too were glowing with pride on hearing the musical accounts of the intrepid endeavours of Great Ancestors like Soundiata Keita, Da Monzon Diarra and Bakari Dian. I have been assured that most of these epics have never made it to vinyl (and certainly not the many regional versions).

But the great version of the epic of Bakari Dian, gloriously performed by Biton National de Ségou and masterfully recorded at the Radio Mali, did, - and was released on the first lp of Mali's own Mali Music label*.

Besides Biton the lp contains tracks by the Rail Band, the Orchestre de Gao and two tracks by the Tjiwara Band de Kati. Of these the track by the Orchestre from Gao offers another link to the Guinea of Sekou Touré with a song in the Regard style about the attack led by Portuguese officers on Novembre 22, 1970.
The Rail Band song is an ode to the band's founder and sax player, Tidiani Koné (see this and further videos).
The two tracks by the Tjiwara Band can perhaps not compete with the superior standard set by Biton and the Rail Band, but have become -over time- historic proof of the overall high level of Malian orchestras.

Mali Music Mali 1001

*"Da Monzon", albeit a comparatively short version, was also released on the Orchestre Régional de Ségou lp released on the Bärenreiter-Musicaphon label. I will post a version of this without the irritating applause later.

O.D.

I am not on holiday. I've been busy with other matters and have had little time for pleasurable activities, - like sharing great music with you. Hopefully the quality of the next few posts will compensate for the -perhaps disappointing- quantity.

This record is a bit of mystery to me. I copied it from someone who bought the record in Ghana in the 1970s. Like Akwaboa at Highlife Haven I love the "I've found my love" CD on Original Music label. On this CD S.K. Oppong, who is the subject of this post, has three tracks. The tracks are similar to those, and also different.

As I have mentioned before, I have only a very limited knowledge of highlife music. And I can find surprisingly little information about S.K. Oppong on the internet. Surprisingly, because he was a popular actor on Ghana Television (GTV). The Oppong Drama Group of which he was the leader changed its name to "Osofo Dadzie Group". The Osofo Dadzie series apparently achieved cult status. When it comes to his musical achievements I have little or nothing to go on. It is clear he had a background in the concert parties (like E.K. Nyame) and that his music is in the palm-wine guitar band style.

And that's where the tracks on this lp are similar to those of "I've found my love". The difference is in the sound. This "Akwankwaa Hiani" album, released on the Ambassador label, has a more fresh, acoustical sound. I am guessing guitar highlife went through an acoustical stage in the seventies.
It's a great sound, and together with the seemingly casual but complex vocals it's what makes this record into an evergreen.

Ambassador LPAM 015

PS: S.K. Oppong died on December 3, 2001 (according to this).

Boom boom boom

Two more singles in this post, and again from Benin. Although I don't know all that much about the music of Benin, I don't think the artists performing on these two records are typically Beninois.

In the case of the first, King N'Gom (whose first name is Meissa), this is not so strange. He is in fact from Senegal, and at one point worked with Dexter Johnson. The experience appears to have given him confidence. Shamelessly he uses quotes from Cuban son music, clearly without any idea of the meaning of these lyrics - or the Spanish language.... I love it. I have no objections to gibberish in any language, and certainly not when done with such fervour and passion. And King N'Gom has a great voice for it.

Editions Becoci EB002

At the start of the second record (which is rather scratchy I regret to say) you may fooled into thinking the track is going to be one of those broody ballads. But then the track takes another direction altogether, in a rhythm that reminds me a bit of that wonderful kaseko music from Surinam (if you don't know this music, it may be worthwhile looking out for it). The singer, Pablo Medetadji, obviously is an experienced singer. I like the casualness of his phrasing. And in the version of that ultimate worldmusic song "El Manicero" (which I suspect was covered more times in Africa than in the whole of Latin America*) he too demonstrates his fluency in hispano-gibberish. More please!

Medetassembo PM001

*hmm - this may be another good idea for a post....