LISTEN: (Look at "Listen Tracks")
The album we are presenting is not a new release. It was left inside a box, for a long time un listened, and it re-emerged almost by accident but at the right moment, in fact now. Before you carry on reading, let the music play, serve yourself something to drink and if you smoke light up whatever you want.
Shikamoo Jazz is an orchestra made up of eleven veterans of the musical scene in Tanzania at end of the Second World War, during the colonial period, until the period of independence and of the government of Julius Nyerere.
The orchestras from which they came from were the Kiko Kids, founded during the forties and situated in Tabora, the Kilwa Jazz, the Urafiki Jazz, the Western Jazz and the Dar Jazz who played in Dar Es Salaam during the fifties; the Nuta Jazz state orchestra was founded after independence, Vijana Jazz the orchestra of the young political party organization of Nyerere and then the Tida, the Sarafi Trippers, the Uda Jazz, the Bantu Grou, the Orchestra Maquis that during the seventies made inTanzania explode the swahili rumba sound of Congolese matrices and Les Wanyika that exported the sound to Nairobi before Nyerere closed the frontiers. 
In 1993 the old leaders of these historical bands founded the Shikamoo, a Swahili word that young people use to say hello to old people who - as mentioned on the CD cover - reply "maharabaa". The Shikamoo Jazz are an eclectic formation that played a mix of all musical genres which inflamed the African East Coasts clubs during the last sixty year, from swing to cavacha, from Cuban music to swahili rumba to the coast taarab.
Headed by Iddi Nhende, singer and percussionist, the Shikamoo include the spectacular guitars of Salulm Zahoro, Kassim Mponda and Ali Adinani, the bass of Mohammed Tungwa, the sax of Bakari Majengo and Ally Rashid, who both played also congas, the trumpet of Madar Mselle, the drum of Athumani Manicho, the percussions of John Simon and other voices of Juma Mrisho, Simon and Fundi Konde who appears like special guest.
The members of Shikamoo would not only play their old hits, but driven by success' enthusiasm have began composing new songs, reinterpreting the moods of the new urban realities. Soon Shikamoo became a musical happening not only in Dar es Salaam, but also Zanzibar, Morogoro and the refugee camps at the border with Uganda. In 1995 they toured in Kenya; it was a big success similar to that obtained home. Soon after they participated at the Womad in London together with the Congolese guitarist Mose Fan Fan who already in 1980 had played in Tanzania with Orchestra Makassy. The Shikamoo also accompanied old important big like Fundi Konde, author of many old classics of Kenyan music and the over 90 years old queen of Taarab of Zanzibar Bi Kidude.
What to say about their Chela Chela, other that what has been heard and not heard and given for granted thanks to the English label Retroafic who went to record them in Dar es Salaam and has then produced. Surely it is difficult to classify and describe like a unique and homogenous style. It is not music from the past, even if it may seem, because the electronic part is missing and because it sounds romantic like at the time of Africa's independence. It is not jazz, if for jazz we mean a precise style, also if it sounds jazz in it's free spirit, into the creativity of the solos and in the emotional richness of his songs. It is not rumba, but all Swahili or from Zaire rumba teachers, whether contemporary or from the past, would be enchanted by listening to those airy guitars and soft voices. It is not taarab but in some ways it's similar. Listening Shikamoo accompany Bi Kidude in his album Zanzibar one can understand why.
Its true, one can not say Chela Chela is new music, because the echoes of Tanzanian music, Zaire’s and also highlife from Ghana are part of it. But listening to it allows hope to arise, thanks to some strange alchemy, the old giants of Tanzanian music have simply allowed old trees to pollinate each other and to produce fresh fruits with recognizable tastes. And we like to imagine that this is repeatable and that it could represent a road - alternative to rap, to zouk and the fusions of the global potato music - throughout which African music can renovate itself remaining always itself.
In the meantime you are listening and appreciating the deliberately simple selection that we have here proposed, but be aware that on the album there is much more. 
Listen Tracks:
1. Nakuomba Radhi
2. Umeniasi Mpenzi
3. Kijiti (da Bi Kidude - Zanzibar)
Author: Shikamoo Jazz
Title: Chela Chela vol. 1
Year: 1995
Label: Retroafric
Tracks List:
1. Bahati (5.20)
2. Eva (6.51)
3. Nakuomba Radhi (7.33)
4. Ndule (5.30)
5. Sumu Ya Ugonjwa Ni Dawa (6.34)
6. Ilole Harwandi (6.48)
7. Umeniasi Mpenzi (7.30)
8. Donda La Mapenzi (5.32)
10 December 2009
Shikamoo Jazz - Chela Chela vol. 1
04 December 2009
Keletigui et ses Tambourinis - The Syliphone Years
LISTEN: (Look at "Listen Tracks")
Following the compilations dedicated to Bembeya Jazz and Balla et ses Balladins, Stern finalizes virtually the series entitled The Syliphone Years with the double CD from the third major national orchestra of Guinea Conakry, Keletigui et ses Tambourinis. TP could not miss this appointment.
In various rounds, we have narrated pieces of story of a magic period for Guinea Conakry and for the whole of Africa. The programme Authenticité, launched by the president Sekou Toure just after independence in 1958, considered music like the rebirth of Guineans’ culture, something normal considering the importance of the ancient griot tradition which is tightly linked to music.
The state label Syliphone, that during the years that run from 1968 to the beginning of the 80ies documented widely and precisely that extraordinary musical scene, where six national orchestras and other 35 between ensembles and regional orchestras were all financed by the Sate, were encouraged to reinterpret classics of the Malinke music and to compose new songs about national pride, on anti colonialism and anti imperialism. 
The first national orchestra was constituted on 15 January 1959; it was the Syli Orchestre National, where the best Guinean musicians took part. Soon the Syli split up in two smaller orchestras, Pailotte lead by Keletigui Traore and le Jardin de Guinee lead by Balla Onivugui, when later became Keletigui et ses Tambourins and Balla et ses Balladins. Programmed by SekouToure to make young talents bloom throughout the whole country. They were the ones who gave an imprint to the first sound, which was later reproduced by all other Guinean orchestras and that later, remained in the history.
Keletigui Traore was born in Conakry on 26 May 1934. When young, he played the banjo, the squeeze box, the guitar and the bass. Thanks to the encounter with some French musicians he finally learned to play the sax with which in 1953 he obtained his first engagement with Joviale Simphonie, a colonial orchestra that played music for white people in the Hotel de France. It was with the Joviale that Keletigui met Momo Wandel Soumah, who accompanied him for many decades, and Kanfory Sanoussi who would have led Syli Orchestre National. In 1956, when the owners of the Hotel de France left Guinea, Keletigue took the musical instruments and formed his first real group, Harlem Jazz who were soon considered the best band in Conakry.
Sekou Toure entrusted personally the management of Paillote to Keletigue. The orchestra included in the first formation Momo Wandel and Bigne Doumbia on alto sax and soprano. Kerfala Camara on vocals and trumpet, Linke Conde on solo guitar, Sekou Conde on rhythmic guitar, M'Bemba Dioubate on bass, Kaba Sylla on drums, soon substituted by David Camara, Djigui Toure on percussions, Lansana Diabate on balafon and Manfila "dabadou" Kante first leading voice. Keletigui Traore played tenor sax and flute. In the mid 70ies, adventurously Keletigui introduced the organ in the line-up of the Tambourinis and since then many other orchestras did the same - for example Super Boiro. 
The Tambourinis were the most respected band in Guinea. They were the only ones amongst the dancing orchestras to have the honour to accompany the unreachable Sory Kandia Kouyate, the voice of the Revolution. The winds instrument section counted up to seven elements, it created a sonar wall with no rivals, while Linke Conde was considered the best guitar player of time, equal to Sekou "Bembeya" Diabate from Bembeya Jazz and to Sekou "le docteur" Diabate from Balladins. When a star from another country would go to Guinea to play, the Tambourinis had the task to accompany the star during the performance, like with the single M'Bongi Eyi by the Congolese Franklin Boukaka, included in the compilation.
Not only Dabadou and Kerfala Camara were singing but also the main soloists of the orchestra, mainly the tenor sax of Keletigui, with his short and nervous ways, Linke Conde's guitar maybe less bizarre than Bembeya and less electric than the Docteur but dry and essential in his fashion, equally efficient. The sound of Tambourinis mixed traditional melodies with the guajira from Cuba and the swing and was characterized for the compactness of its rhythmic section and for the continuous overwhelming drive of the wind instruments.
Momo Wandel always remained in the backlines of the band and notwithstanding his artistic stature and the technical mastery, his solos were occasional. It was only from 1988, when Guinea opened itself to the world, that the now aged 62 Wandel saw his extraordinary talent of musician and composer finally recognized. Setting up a traditional ensemble formed by balafon, kora, flute, djembe, doundoun and bolon, Momo Wandel recorded Matchowe, his first album that was later published by Buda Musique, rough and gentle jazz, amongst the best and most sophisticated of those played by an ensemble entirely made up of Africans. Other than his version of Afro Blue dedicated to Coltrane and now a classical, Wandel reinterprets with his sax and his muddy voice, similar to Louis Armstrong, traditional songs not only Malinke and Peul but also - and mainly - of the coast people like the Soussou and the Baga, his ethnic of origin.
The Syliphone Years, double CD cured by Graeme Counsel, who signs off the cover notes, is a selection of songs from the entire discography of the Tambourinis, which starts in 1965 - the year of the first recording of the Orchestre la Pailotte, published then in 1968 - until 1976, date of publication of their last LP entitled Le Retour. Many are the rare tracks taken from singles or even from unpublished, and this made the record appreciable also to the most consumed listeners. 
Momo Wandel passed away in 2003, and since 11th of November 2008 also Keletigui Traore is no longer with us. But still today in Conakry, a club called Pailotte, the old members still alive of this historical orchestra supported by young talents and lead by the guitar of Linke Conde exhibit themselves each week with their unforgettable hits, like Bebe or Mariama. Since the beginning of the sixties they never stopped.
Wallai Mariama sung by Kefala Camara "in the name of God Mariama”. Just like to Mariama, had a dedicated song, to make its extraordinary beauty live forever, Keletigui Traore, Momo Wandel and the Tambourinis deserve being narrated and listened to again, so that through their music a long lasting dream of hope may continue to live. Wallai Tambourinis!
Listening Tracks:
1. Mariama
2. M'bongi Eyi
3. Mande
4. Soundiata (from Authenticité - The Syliphone Years)
5. Matchowe (from Momo Wandel Soumah - Matchowe)
6. Mi Mu Akolon (from Momo Wandel Soumah - Matchowe)
7. Elma Mory Leo (from Momo Wandel Soumah - Momo le Doyen)
Author: Keletigui et ses Tambourinis
Title: The Syliphone Years
Year: 2009
Label: Sterns
Tracks List:
CD1
ORCHESTRE DE LA PAILOTTE
1. Sabougnouma 05:02
2. Mariama 03:25
3. La Guinee Moussolou 06:04
4. Fruitaguinee 02:49
5. Kadia Blues 05:01
KELETIGUI ET SES TRAMBOURINIS
6. Famadenke 03:58
7. Cigarettes Allumettes 03:22
8. Djoute Wassa 03:31
9. Kesso 03:05
10. I Boyein-Boyein 03:41
11. Tambourinis Sax Parade 04:46
12. Quinzan 03:06
13. Il Tomatero 04:02
14. Banankoro 04:20
15. La Loma De Belen 02:56
16. JRDA 05:02
CD2
1. Guajira Con Tumbao 03:14
2. Toubaka 05:07
3. N'nadia 04:43
4. La Bicycletta 05:14
5. Ilole Gbanina 04:00
6. Tambourinis Cocktail 04:28
7. Kiss My Nose (Aka Kiss My Noose) 02:48
8. M'bongi Eyi 03:08
9. Bebe 04:42
10. Talassa 04:52
11. Donsoke 04:05
12. I Dyoolaro 03:21
13. Mande 04:23
14. Bakary-Dian 03:53
15. I Kanan N'djanfa 04:59
16. Kabakele 05:12
Rome - Stop Racism!
NO AL RAZZISMO
MANIFESTAZIONE NAZIONALE
Sabato 17 ottobre, ore 14:30
Roma, Piazza della Repubblica
25 November 2009
Bassekou Kouyate - I Speak Fula
LISTEN: (Look at "Listen Tracks")"My name is Bassekou, I am griot from the Kouyate family, the first griots. I was born in Garana, a village situated 60 km from Segou. My father played the n'goni, he was a famous griot who played for big marabouts. He would accompany my mother who was an excellent singer. My father played the n'goni every time he had the chance to but he never travelled away from Africa. He played in Burkina Faso, in Guinea, in Ivory Coast and in Sierra Leone. I was born inside the music and found the n'goni in my family. At seven I started playing and I thank my family as today I have the chance to travel the world with my n'goni". (Segou, 2006)
The sun was dawning over the waters of the river Niger when I heard for the first time the group called N'goni Ba play live at the Segou Festival in 2006. The strings of the n’goni have an ungraceful sound and for this reason, it is a very limited instrument, but disciplined under Bassekou’s fingers and his group, they manage to produce a powerful and a carrying sound, somewhere between blues, rock and the deep Malian tradition.
Bassekou Kouyate is a bamana djeli, or bambara, the malinke; the most common group in Mali. The name bambara means "the people with no God", it was given to them by the Songhai of Askia Mohammed, that starting from the XV th century, launched the diffusion of Islam in the whole region. The bambara, whose empire had its centre in Segou, on the river Niger, almost 300 km north from Bamako, remained proudly tied to their animist spirituality and resisted to the conversion to Islam until the mid 800, when the tukolor of El Hadji Omar conquered Segou and imposed their faith in Allah.
"The n'goni is a real ancient instrument and it is very important for Malian music. Since the XIII century, at the times of Soundjata Keita, up to Da Monzon, the emperor of Segou and up to Ba Bemba, king of Sikasso, Malian griots have sung accompanied by an n'goni. Malian music, one could say, comes from the n'goni. The n'goni played for kings and big marabouts, and not everyone had the chance to listen to it because the n'goni would only play for them. Therefore the n'goni music can be defined as royal.
Everybody wanted to get close to the king and his home to listen to the n'goni. So the young kids started building their own n'gonis, these are also called kamala n'goni. Also the hunters build their own n'gonis, the donso n'goni. But those are not the kings' n'goni. The djelis were the ones always close to the kings."
If the kora comes from Gambia and the balafon from Guinea, the n'goni comes from Mali. It is a three or four string lute, made of a small long pumpkin which is it's resonance box, over which is a goat skin, with a wooden handle to which strings are fixed. Originally those were made of skin and tendons but today they are in nylon. All Sahel ethnic groups have their own version of n'goni, that descends from the Arab lute and it is thought to be an ancestor of the north American banjo.
Bassekou Kouyate is one of the best n'goni players in Mali, without doubt the most famous. He can boast a long collaboration with Toumani Diabate, with whom he played since the album Djelika of his trio, which also included Keletigui Diabate's balafon. In 2005 he was amongst the co-stars of Ali Farka Toure's band, which he accompanied in tour and in recordings for Savane, his last beautiful album.
But more important is that he has revolutionized the n'goni's style, he has elevated it's role of solo instrument, he added some strings to expand its potentials, they builded n'goni's of different dimensions and the bass n'goni with its deep sound, and created together with his brothers and his wife, the singer Amy Sacko, the group named Ngoni Ba, the first of only n'gonis within the Malian music scene.
"My music is universal because in my life I have played with many people even outside Mali. I played with Taj Mahal, Bela Fleck, Carlo Santana, Bonnie Raitt, Dee Dee Bridgewater and thanks to those experiences I have learned the blues and jazz techniques. Especially the blues, which derive from our music, was really easy for me. In the beginning when Taj started off with a piece, I used to play simple traditional songs from Segou and I realized they merged perfectly well with his music. It was at that time that I understood that American blues came from my land, from Segou. But blues is the base of jazz and of the majority of black music, so it was easy for me to play a universal music. The n'goni is a small instrument but has millions of possibilities".
I speak Fula follows the road of universal music, as Bassekou defines it, the same of the well rewarded first album Segu Blue, pushing more ahead. There is no doubt that with time passing by Bassekou is redefining the style of the contemporary n'goni. Both in the arrangements and the solos that he introduces here and there, unusual harmonies and tunings that come from rock and jazz. While the other three n'gonis and the calabasse create a precise and strong groove, their leader scrambles his small lute - which when attached to a distorter, it reminds us of an electric guitar with a dry and space sound - elegantly and with nonchalance it plays pentatonic bamana riffs and malinke arpeggio, spaced out by obsessive sounds typical of blues.
Amy Sacko, his wife, has a beautiful voice which matures in time and in some songs she is able to move, like in the wonderful Mustapha, dedicated to Bassekou's father who recently passed away. But the voices of Kasse Mady Diabate and Zoumana Tereta - the violin player from Macina who sounds like a caveman - are the ones who leave a deep groove and continue to resonate in the air even once the music has turned into silence. Intense voices, like velvet the first and carved into wood the second one. Amongst the guests we also find Toumani Diabate's kora, his childhood friend Baba Sissoko on the dounoun, Haruna Samake on kamale n'goni and Vieux Farka Toure on the guitar, who enrich with different colours the blue music of Ngoni Ba.
At the end of the album, in the ghost track, we discover an amazing duet - lasting less than two minutes - between Bassekou and Damane Ze Konate, an old senoufo hunter by a sharp voice who comes from south of Mali at the border with Ivory Coast. He plays the mpolon, the senoufo hunters' n'goni, an ancient instrument - played in 1960 for Modibo Keita, first Malian president - with its mysterious powers at the Bogolan studio no one dared to touch it. More music, more magic.
Listen Tracks:
1. I Speak Fula (from I Speak Fula)
2. Amy (from I Speak Fula, with Zoumana Tereta)
3. Juru Nani (from Segu Blue, with Kasse Mady Diabate)
4. Lament for Ali Farka (from Segu Blue)
5. Throw Down Your Heart (from Bela Fleck - Throw Down Your Heart. con Bassekou Kouyate e Haruna Samake)
6. Bassekou Kouyate & Baba Sissoko - Live Festival sur le Niger - 2006
Author: Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba
title: I Speak Fula
Year: 2009
Label: Out|Here Records
Tracks:
1. I Speak Fula
2. Jamana Be Diya
3. Musow - For Our Women
4. Torin Torin
5. Bambugu Blues
6. Amy
7. Saro
8. Ladon
9. Tineni
10. Falani
11. Moustapha
12. Senufo Hunter
17 November 2009
Confusoes1 ... and Soul of Angola
LISTEN: (Look at "Listen Tracks")
Most Brazilians love Africa in an irrational way, as if they were living with one foot into this invisible and real place within which their ancestors' spirits live.
On the Brazilian scene Mauricio Pacheco was a musician and producer from the 90ies onwards. His group, Stereo Maracaná, played a sort of capoeira-hip hop, while amongst his productions we find artists like Fernanda Abreu and Jussare Sliveira. In 2000 he was strongly attracted to Angola, where he collaborated with modern sembe of the kuduro stars. Ten years ago Angola had not exited yet from the last civil war which literally devastated the country from independence onwards.
But this story begins earlier.
During the sixties, while the rest of Africa was freeing itself from colonialism, the fascist Portuguese dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar did not want to give up to the fight for independence of the Angolans and of other colonies. It was in fact since 1500 that Portugal had subjugated Angola, whose population was mainly destined as slave in the Brazilian plantations.
At the end of the fifties Angolan independence movements starting appearing, one of which the Movimento Popolare per la Liberazione dell’Angola (MPLA) of Agostino Neto, sustained by the Soviet Union and Cuba and the antagonist Unione Nazionale per l’Indipendenza Totale dell’Angola di Jonas Savimbi, sustained by the US and by South Africa. Five years starting from 1957 and from the liberation of Ghana, almost all the African colonies obtained their independence.
Only Salazar resisted, strongly intentioned to show the whole world his colonies as example of development, based on a strong promiscuity of people and cultures, as opposed to France and England, this always characterized the portgues colonialism. From 1961 Salazar favoured the transfer of people and means to the colonies; he started up initiatives with the aim of recognizing the indigenous cultures and a politic of economic integration. It was at that time that the state record company CDA and la Voz de Angola, a national radio which transmitted in local languages.
Pushed by a lot of energy, the new Angolan music had in that period an incredible development. In the musseques, the sand subburbs of Luanda, in Sambizanga, Marçal, Bairro Operaio e Sao Paulo, local genres like semba and rebita, already contaminated by the Portuguese melancholy of the fado, would mix up with the sounds of the Brazilian samba, with the Congolese rumba and rock. They were young urban bands like Kiezos, the Gingas, the Jovens do Prendo, the Ngoleiros do Ritmo and Bongos. Although most of this music incarnated the fever of the Angolans for independence, for some strange reason its rise was favoured by the paternal politics of the despot.
was on this scene that artists like Teta Lando, Artur Nunes, Bonga, Urbano De Castro, Oscar Neves, Avozinho, Minguito and many other heroes of Angolan music exploded. They compose the wonderful mosaic of the double CD Soul of Angola – anthologies de la musique angolaise 1965-1975, released by French Lusafrica in 2001. There are no words to describe the vitality, the flow, the joy and the melancholy of the voices and electric guitars of this music which vividly talks about a dream never came true and of ideals destined to disillusion for a long time.
Independence finally arrived on 11 November 1975, and Agostino Neto was elected first president. But Angola's petrol revealed itself, like in many other cases, its disgrace, and the civil war kept on burning, fed by the will of foreign powers. The opposers led by Jonas Svaimbi, helped by the South African apartheid troupes and armed by the US, had battled with the regular army empowered by the Cubans and armed by the Soviet Union, giving life to a civil war which lasted 25 years, only interrupted by short armistice, it left on the Angolan land more than a million victims. Neto died in 1979 and was followed by Josè Edoardo dos Santos, who also came from the MPLA. This war finally ended only in 2002, with the death of Savimbi, and it has left the country on its knees and today is still facing the rebuild on the basis of its enormous richness.
This is how we find the Brazilian musician Mauricio Pachecho in an Angola that is going through a phase of new development and hope, where the musical scene sees the new global music explode besides the old heroes of semba and rebita. For more than ten years the young Angolans have danced to the kizoba and mostly to kuduro fiery sound that accelerated the rhythms of semba and mixes them with house music, rap, ragga and zouk.
During the 60ies and 70ies Mauricio Pacheco tried to select some of historical successes’ of the time and has put together songs of contemporary Angolan musician like Paolo Flores, Elias Dia Kimuezo – king of semba - and the star of kuduro Dog Murras. He has then worked them with filters and electronic sonorities, adding some instruments for the most famous Brazilian DJs to remix, amongst which Mario Caldato JR - producer of Bestie Boys, Jack Johnson and Beck – DJ Dolores, Moreno Veloso, Kassin & Berna Ceppas and Pacheco himself.
The result is Comfusoes 1, a record with Angolan label Maianga Discos and distributed in the world by Out | Here Records, this title is a play on words. From confusion to musical fusion coming from afar countries where the cultures are tightly tied, both in some way being the first synthesis of new music. From three songs from Comfusoes many other success come from which are included in Soul of Angola and it is interesting to see how music of artists such as Artur Nunes, Avozinho and Alvarito is remixed and integrated today with the sounds and rhythms of the Brazilian vanguard.
It is unavoidable that also from Africa the music is danceable for those new global tastes. I would in fact say that this is positive if there is a resource return and some recognition. But the sensation is that the raw Angolan music, also that of 40 years ago, sounds lively and original still today and that acts well done like Comusoes are much more than a good packaging. It has nothing to do with being nostalgic, but simply we ask ourselves if the Angolan music evolution and Africans’ music in general has no other choice but to pass through the electronic meat grinders of the world, or if there could be space for an alternative way that draws from the hearts of the rich musical African cultures to project it forward. This for us would really be new music. 
Listen Tracks:
1. Chofer de Praça - Luiz Visconde (Soul of Angola)
2. Chofer de Praca - Luis Visconde e Alvarito, remix M. Pacheco (Comfusoes1)
3. Kisua Ki Ngui Fuá - Artur Nunes (Soul of angola)
2. Tia - Artur Nunes remix Mario Caldato JR (Confusoes1)
5. Máma Divua Diame - Avozinho (Soul of Angola)
6. Kappopola Makongo - Ciros Cordeiro da Mata remix Moreno Veloso (Confusoes1)
7. 8. Semba da Ilha - Jovens do Prendo (Soul of Angola)
____________________________________
Author: AAVV
Title: Comfusoes1 - from Angola to Brasil
Year: 2009
Label: Out Here Records
Tracks:
1. Teta Lando - Angole
2. Artur Nunes - Tia
3. Avonzinho - Mama Divua Diame
4. Bonga - Kapakiao
5. Carlos Lamartine - Nzambi nzambi
6. Wyza - Mae
7. Carlos Lamartine - Kuale N'go Valodo
8. Luis Visconde e Alvarito - Chofer de Praca
9. Paulinho Pinheiro - Merengue rebita
10. Ciros Cordeiro da Mata - Kappopola Makongo
11. Kissanguela - Cada Cidad o Deve Sentir-se um Soldado
12. Elias di Kimuezo - Zom zom
_____________________________________
Author: AAVV
Title: Soul of Angola - anthologie de la musique angolaise 1965/1975
Year: 2001
Label: Lusafrica
Tracks:
1. Chofer de Praça - Luiz Visconde
2. Mana - Artur Nunes
3. Zinha - Artur Nunes
4. Tia - Artur Nunes Listen
5. Dito Zé - Artur Nunes
6. Kisua Ki Ngui Fuá - Artur Nunes
7. Princeza Rita - Os Kiezos
8. Saudades de Luanda - Os Kiezos
9. Kughinguengambá - Os Kiezos
10. Muxima - Os Kiezos
11. Memorias de Lamartine - Os Kiezos
12. Kiá Lumingo - Urbano De Castro
13. Maria da Horta - Urbano De Castro
14. N'Vula - Urbano De Castro
15. Eme N'Ggongo Iami - Tanga
16. N'Hoca - Tony Tvon
17. N'Ginda - Tony De Fumo
18. Tia Sessa - Oscar Neves
19. Mundanda - Oscar Neves
20. Mabelé - Oscar Neves
21. Nzzambi - Oscar Neves
1. Pachanga de Juventade - Paulino Pinheiro
2. Genro Ciumento - Paulo 9
3. Fazer Bem - Paulo 9
4. Máma Divua Diame - Avozinho
5. Sakeça Mukongo - Avozinho
6. Lena - Os Bongos
7. Solista Praguejado - Jovens do Prendo
8. Semba da Ilha - Jovens do Prendo
9. Coio - Jovens do Prendo
10. África Merengue - Jovens do Prendo
11. Palace - Jovens do Prendo
12. N'Gandala Ku Uganhala O Fuma - Minguito
13. Mona Ku Jimbre Manheno - David Zé
14. Pangui Yami Uafua - Tony Gaetano
15. Kamba Ba Laumba - Antonio Paulino
16. Ambula N'Gui Zeka - Quim dos Santos
17. Socana N'Gam - Adolfo Coelho
18. Tino Mungo Yo Dimba Diobe - Tino Dia Kimuezo
19. Kibela Kiame - Tino Dia Kimuezo
03 November 2009
Conjunto Africa Negra - Aninha
by ROBERTO LYCKE
LISTEN: (look at Listen Tracks)
This album was originally released in 1981 for the portoguese label C.A.S with the simple wording Conjunto Africa Negra, which today is reedited by the Sons da Africa and is entitled Aninha where the sequence of the songs is slightly different from the original one.
It is simple music. The information contained in the booklet of the CD, where in addition to some touristic photos, we also find some names of the authors of the songs and a sentence “Saudades de Sao Tomè e Principe” which strangely occupies one third of the space normally used for some possible and mostly welcomed information.
The album opens with Aninha, a song with a dry and almost rude sound which immediately explains the energy of this band.
It is a fiery sound which is made rough by some technological resources of the Sao Tomé's studios, and by the rough voice of Joao Seria who is able to transmit the urgency that turns immediately the Africa Negra's music into dance.
Aninha explodes immediately inside a mixture of Congolese guitars full of echoes and flanger, while the sustained rhythms of the maracas, accompanied by un dikanza (reco-reco) weave rhythmic bloody carpets that exhaust you.
It is obsessive and joyful at the same time, those are the songs that would during weekends fill up the Fundoes - a sort of co respective of the Brazilian fundos de quintal where they would meet to dance to music - fishermen, sailors and those who worked and that would arrive Saturday night from the coffee plantations, coming to spend all their money to have some fun in those place that would replace the inexistent clubs in the islands.
This is the music one would here on the national Congolese and Angolan radios which during the night would transmit rumba and morna from Capeverd, musical styles that had been absorbed and reread through the sonar aesthetics common to all portogues talking African countries where we also find always some touch of melancholy typical of the fado. 
Sao Tomé and Principe is an archipelago whose story and whose destiny seems to merge together to that of Cape Verde which is situated 270 km from the coast of Gabon.
In 1471/72 the islands were occupied by the portogues who declared them totally uninhabited.
They became a fantastic base to reach the coast of Central Africa to trade slaves who were used to cultivate the sugar canes. Sao Tome and Principe became an important business centre in an area where in addition to the sugar production, soon became notorious for the slave trade.
Thanks to the plantations working system shortly the population coming from Africa was definitely higher compared to the Europeans. This moreover did not help avoid the various disorders that exploded with the arrival of competition coming with the products of the American colonies.
Quickly both Cape Vert and Sao Tomé and Principe similar for their destinies drowned into an economic depression that until today only rarely has given hope for improvement to a population that with the joy of playing music has been able to resist to hunger and isolation and to the poverty that seems to be an undeletable sign for the majority of the African countries.
Once "Aninha" is over the record continues with other two songs full of rhythm that make you shake "Vence Vitoria" where the soukous guitar dances on a locally rhythmic pattern accompanied by chorus of Joao Seria who plays the role of master of ceremonies.
With "Instrumental" the discussion occurred in the previous songs are interrupted by the subsequent song "Camarada Neto" where the rhythms become more calm while the melody reminds us that Angola is not far and that the two populations are brothers in their tragic years when the Portuguese colonies were in Africa.
An homage to the president MPLA Aogtinho Neto, the Angolan poet president who together with Amilcar Cabral was one of the best theorist of the independence of the lusofone Africa.
Swinging to the relaxing sound of the Congolese rumba like "So So So" “Gaspar” e “Caixeiro sem cosciencia” we reach the last songs that close the CD “12 de Julho” which is the date of the "Zimbabwe's" independence, it's lyrics are a call for Africa's freedom.
With these two tracks the album explodes with a rough and dry sound which brings us closer to best moments of Kwassa-Kwassa del Pepe Kallè and the emotions of those nights during which Black Africa gave fire with all it's concerts of Mindelo Lisbona and Luanda where lots of young people would come to listen to songs like “Quà na bua ne ga fa”, “Bô Lêgo Caço Modebô” o “Vence Vitoria”.
Today luckily Africa Negra continues to record albums that are very distant from that sound of the first years. The first LPs were much better; sometimes there are also drums and organs which would give joy to lots of mods grown up with the Northern Soul and Beat.
Listen Tracks:
1. Aninha
2. Camarada Neto
Author: Conjunto Africa Negra
Title: Aninha
Year: ?
Label: Sons da Africa
Selected Discography:
Conjunto Africa Negra - Cas LP –101 – 1981 – LP
Carambola – Discos IEFE 043 – 1983 – LP
Angelica – Discos IEFE 046 – 1983 – LP
26 October 2009
Victor Uwaifo - Guitar Boy Superstar
PUBLISHED ON TP AFRICA IN AUGUST 2008
LISTEN: (Look at "Listen Tracks")(From Sir Victor Uwaifo) web site
Born in 1941 in Benin City, capital of the Edo State in Nigeria, Sir Victor Uwaifo belongs to the Benin or Bini ethnic - nothing to do with the Republic of Benin, ex Dahomey - one of the most ancient Empires and one the most sophisticated cultures of West Africa. The Oba - the king - of the Bini is still today the most powerful and respected traditional individual in Nigeria, even more powerful than the Yoruba Oba.
Victor Uwaifo is one of the biggest names in the Nigerian seventies musical scene, a legend, one of the few whose fame has also gone beyond the borders of his country and of Africa to reach the international show business circuits. Joromi, his single published by Philips Nigeria in 1965, was the biggest success of Nigerian music of all times, even more - although I can't believe it - than Sweet Mother by Prince Nico Mbarga and it became the first golden record of the musical African history. Guitar Boy, another single of 1967 had a similar success. After having studied in Lagos and after having served for some years in the Cool Cats of Victor Olaiya, Uwaifo set up his Melody Maestros, from whom later emerged Sonny Okosuns, he also was a Bini, who then became one of the first African reggae performers.. During the seventies, Uwaifo founded the ekassa sound, a musical style based on a mix of rhythms and traditional highlife, rock and soul.
"I can not say that I have created the ekassa, as it already existed in the indigenous dances of the Benin Empire since the beginning of the XVI century. It was a dance which took place during the coronation of a new king. The dancers would wear stripes of dried nuts filled in with small stones around the legs, so that the crackling would accompany the dance. Some say it is a sacrilege to listen to ekassa when the king is still alive, but I say to them that it is unbecoming that the ekassa should be heard few times per generation, or even less. I also say that the first song of ekassa that I have played had a brilliant success and that many have followed it. Ekassa is the fusion of the tom-tom rhythm and the agba drum together with western wind instruments, two guitars plus naturally, me on guitar and singing in Edo." "My music is based on our culture, this is evident in our rhythms and lyrics. The fact that I use modern instruments doesn't change the base character, just like a historian writes and ancient story with mondern instruments, as a Parker pen and paper. The ancient African culture evolves thought experimentation and my music is not an exception."
Today Guitar Boy lives in Victor Uwaif Avenue, a road in Benin City that carries his name, he is considered one of the fathers of the Edo art and culture and other than the music he dedicates himself to painting, to sculpture (his monuments also embellish the roads of his cities), to poetry, to writing, to philosophy and to the teaching of History and of traditional Culture. His popularity is so vast that as his web site says “he doesn't need a postal address as this for him would only be a formality. Whoever wants to write to him should write on the envelope "Sir Victor Uwaifo, Nigeria" and with more than 150 million Nigerians the envelope will surely reach his door” The way his character is proclaimed - visit his web site - represents a true triumph of the African megalomania. 
Guitar Boy Superstar is the rabbit coming out of Miles Cleret's hat. We have hoped for a monographer like this to come out and now we are pleased. After the three excellent volumes of the Nigeria Special series, any other label would have waited at least some months and created an expectancy before having released the new album, but instead Miles didn't manage to wait, with his childish, enthusiastic and impatient spirit that we well know, a spirit who doesn't give a damn about any commercial logic and for this reason we feel very close to him. The booklet is about his encounter with Mr. Uwaifo, about his visit to the grotesque Hall of Fame implanted in his residence in Benin City, and about the veneration he enjoys from his people. It is about his story, his discography and various phases of his musical productions, from the first highlife - which he called akwete - to ekassa of the seventies which coincide with his return to Benin City after 13 years of permanence in Lagos and about his change towards reggae and disco music in the eighties, when his group became His Titibitis.
But Guitar Boy Superstar is concentrated on the ekassa sound period "his most productive" so says Miles. Each of the 19 songs is explained by the words of Sir Uwaifo. The lyrics are eradicated into the bini tradition, they are about every day life, marriages, chiefs and kings, magic rituals, children education, social costumes and respect for elders. The rhythms are articulated and relaxed, the melodies are simple and solar. Victor's guitar sometimes makes crazy improvisations, changing from highlife to rock up to colour itself with light psycadelic colours.Sir Victor Uwaito's music takes us in the heart of Africa, into his joyful and melancholic soul and his ancient values. He takes from Europe some formal ideas, but is not raped by it because the majority of the ancient African cultures have miraculously and proudly resisted to the pressure to which they are forced to for centuries if not in appearance for sure in the substance. Today, our society is on the border heading towards a steep drop, they could teach us something about the balance and the power that comes from being together. The courage to listen and the will to understand would be enough.
Listen Tracks
1. Idogo
2. Iye Iye Oh
3. Do Lelezi
Author: Sir Victor Uwaifo
Title: Guitar Boy Superstar - 1970-76
Year: 2008
Label: Soundway Records
Tracks:
1. Kirikisi
2. Igboroho
3. Idogo
4. Egbe Natete
5. Edenederio
6. Obodo Eyo
7. Talking Instruments
8. Agho
9. Iye Iye Oh
10. Mother Witch-Shu Husu Hu
11. Atete
12. Ebibi
13. Osalobua
14. Do Lelezi
15. Akuyan
16. Dododo
17. Madaka
18. Happy Day From Me To You
19. West African Safari
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