Sterns Music

05/02/2025

Wednesday tune

Jerusalem by Alpha Blondy from Jerusalem

Released by Sterns on vinyl in 1987 under licence from Pathé Marconi, Alpha Blondy’s vision of a Jerusalem where "You can see Christians, Jews and Muslims living together and praying, Amen” was perhaps always naive, and later that same year the First Intifada began. Nevertheless, without hope today there is no tomorrow and naive or otherwise, his three words found at the bottom right of the album’s back cover remain emphatically relevant.

Now added to the playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY

29/01/2025

Wednesday tune

Demgalam by Baaba Maal and group Daande Lenõl from the album Wango

We've said this before in relation to Baaba Maal's great reinvention, Wango, that prior to Ibrahima Sylla's slick studio production and large band sound on this 1988 album, that Baaba Maal, accompanied by his best friend the late Mansour Seck, had until this point very much secured himself a career as a damn good West African acoustic balladeer.

It was 3 years spent studying in Paris where the massive pop and reggae scenes began to saturate into the young Maal's musical sensibilities convincing him, on returning to Senegal, he would concentrate on incorporating these styles with traditional Senegalese music, creating some great crossover moments like today's reggae tinged joyous tune, Demgalam.

Now added
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY

22/01/2025

Wednesday Tune

Issin by Amadou Sodia from the album Ça va se savoir

On release fRoots Magazine quickly pronounced Sodia's 2008 debut international release for Sterns 'a genuine classic', it was apt then that we wrote in the liner notes that we considered Sodia to be 'a singer rooted in the past, singing for the present while looking to the future.'

Already well established in Guinea by the time Sterns released his second solo album, the joyous and alluring, Ça va se savoir, Sodia (then using his birth name Amadou Doumbouya) cut his teeth with one of Guinea's most popular groups in the 1970s and '80s, Horoya Band. Not short of talent, he was (and remains) famous for his mastery of the bolon (the four-string instrument pictured on the cover of Ça Va Se Savoir) as well as for his compositions and his voice. He would also go on to sing two songs in guitarist Ousmane Kouyate's landmark album of 1990, Domba.

Still very relevant today in Guinea, Sodia has in the last week dropped a perfect slice of griot crooner pop on Youtube.

Now added to the playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY

15/01/2025

Wednesday tune

Atewo-Lara Ka Tepa Mo'se from Ojo Je by Segun Adewale

From the beautiful and eccentric mind of Nigeria's Segun Adewale comes the dream 'yo' pop of this stand-out track from his second album with us back in the mid 1980s.

By this time Adewale was already a seasoned and well established musician in Nigeria after having a successful 3 year stint in the late 1970s co-fronting Sir Shina Adewale and the Superstars International with Sir Shina Peters, both having met previously playing for juju pioneer Prince Adekunle.

Whatever happened to the enigmatic frontman, you might ask? He still pops up on social media every now and then. In an interview in the late noughties he claimed he was still working full time as a musician but more of late is found reminiscing on the exciting days when juju was king.

Now added to the playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY

08/01/2025

Wednesday tune

kizolele by Somo Somo (Mose Fan Fan) from the album Paris

Today's tune comes from one of the most formidable, uncompromising Congolese band leaders, and probably most importantly, one of Congo's most formidable, uncompromising guitarists, Mose 'Fan Fan' Se Sengo. He was one of the longest standing Sterns' label artists, but also of course a friend.

Somo Somo was like a pet project for Mose that he held dear. With as many differing iterations down the years as Franco's own TPOK Jazz. After exiting the aforementioned rumba goliath in 1974 Mose first concerned himself with an attempted coup of TPOK Jazz' popularity, cohorted with Youlou Mabiala, he eventually had to concede to the power and influence Franco commanded in that period. Deciding to take his project across Central and Eastern Africa he would eventually arrive in London and found himself quickly introduced to the nascent Sterns.

Throughout Paris, Mose's second album for Sterns, there's an overwhelming assuredness that he was aware he was making great music, dizzying multi guitar placements hypnotise from start to finish and these recordings pave the way for several excellent records to come in the coming decades.

Now added to the playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=a9a09mdOQfayqlVFNJQLqg

11/12/2024

Wednesday tune

Li Ngaye Diaye from Kara by Alioune Kassé et le Kassé-Stars

The “Kasse-Stars” were originally "Ibra Kassé and the Star Band”, Ibrahim Kassé being Alioune's father, and it was Ibra, as owner of the Miami Club in Dakar, who founded the group in 1959. Under Ibra’s leadership the Star Band, though not perhaps without some arguments along the way, have an incredibly important position in the story of Senegal’s popular as it was from the Star Band that, among others, Orchestra Baobab arose, and with the Star Band that a young Youssou N’Dour first exploded onto the Dakar scene in 1976.

Alioune took over the group after his father’s death, promptly renaming them the Kassé-Stars, and "Li Ngaye Diay” is from his first recording as leader, the album ‘Kara’ in 1993. With some of Dakar’s best musicians, not least the magnificent percussion section of El Hadj Faye on sabar, Djiby Ndiaye on toumbas and Pape Kassé on kit drums, their designation as ‘stars' is assured, and the photo below shows Alioune in full flight.

Now added to the Wednesday Music playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=yXUeXa2aR1qWpZUn5yRpUg&pi=e-tW8YZt-iSMmx

04/12/2024

Wednesday tune

Dieu Voit Tout from The Top by Koffi Olomidé

Originally released in 1987, ostensibly as a duet between Koffi Olomidé and Fafa de Molokaï, the grace and delicacy of this recording seems at odds with the bombastic nature of their respective titles: Koffi “Rambo, l’homme de Beretta” Olomidé and Fafa “Le Grand Maestro” de Molokaï.

Olomidé’s career is well-known and while not without controversy, his popularity and relevance is assured. “Maestro" Molokaï’s trajectory was less exaggerated and in the new millennium he gave up music to retrain as a chef in Paris, where he successfully worked for the last two decades prior to his death in 2020. But while his contribution to this particular recording is notable almost by its absence, in the annals of popular Congolese music his name must be recorded.

So here they both are back in '87 in the famed Studio Davout, with the beautifully restrained backing of Rigo Star on bass and guitar, Ringo Moya on drums, Armando Ama on percussion and Apho-Monga on keyboards, and the moment around 6’30” when Rigo’s lyrical guitar gives way to the singer's cry must be peak 80’s Congo.

Now added to the playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?

02/12/2024

Obituary for the late legend of Congolese rumba, Papa Noël.

Congolese guitarist and songwriter who toured Europe with TPOK Jazz and gave a celebrated ‘unplugged’ performance at Womad in 2000

27/11/2024

Wednesday tune

Temeles from the album Soba by Aster Aweke

Do we really appreciate just how difficult it is for any musician in any system anywhere in the world, to sustain a front-line career in popular music? My answer is “no”, and I guess that’s how it should be. The mechanism of how an artist remains relevant over decades and reaches out across generations is mysterious and fascinating, but ultimately all that matters is what they do, not how they do it.

This track is from Aster Aweke’s 2023 album ’Soba’. It was funded not by a conventional record company, but by a comparatively new media organisation that itself arose out of an Ethiopian ride-sharing app, and with input from a women orientated bank whose name roughly translates as “mother’. There’s a music video on YouTube which for those of us who don’t speak Amharic, helps tell the story behind the song.

The photo is from when Aster performed to a soldout audience at Ronnie Scott’s on Frith Street, London. It’s identified as 1990, but is possibly from 1991.

Now added to the playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=xZvCr-GBTca6eaXwmjhenQ&pi=e-t6J5RA4FTSGZ

20/11/2024

Wednesday tune

Baba Munini Francis by the Bhundu Boys from The Shed Sessions

Just how important the Bhundu Boys are in the story of African music and the UK in the 1980s cannot, in any way, be denied. There are many reasons: consistent support on national radio by John Peel and Andy Kershaw; a tight dynamic performing unit easily understood and adapted to by sound engineers schooled in British pub rock, and one that courtesy of manager Gordon Muir, toured relentessly up and down the nation in venues of all shapes, sizes and types.

But what must be added to the above is the easy availablity of two albums on Discafrique - in particular the first, ’Shabini’ - in record shops throughout the UK. If a store was going to carry any African music at all, it was an absolute certainty that ’Shabini’ would be among them. Which makes it incredibly ironic that it’s only now in 2024, thirty eight years after their first UK release and almost twenty five since the advent Napster, Limewire and their brethren, that these original recordings are finally, legally available on all download and streaming services.

The recordings that Owen Elias and Doug Veitch of Discafrique licensed had originally been released by their producer Steve Roskilly of Shed Studios in Zimbabwe in the early 1980s, but the sequence of Discafrique’s selection bore little relation to the Zimbabwean, and as the needle dropped on Side A Track 1 of the vinyl, the opening dialogue of Biggie Tembo’s "Baba Munini Francis” would have been the first that many UK listeners heard. Briefly described as “An unfaithful woman and a mystery uncle”, it does not disappoint.

Now added to the Wednesday Music playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=z96Z0wiUSeah8DvFe3Adwg

11/11/2024

Sad to learn that after we had celebrated the great Congolese rumba guitarist last week in our Wednesday Music playlist that we learn Papa Noël Nedule passed away this morning at the age of 83.

Born Antoine Nedule Monswet, according to fellow TPOK Jazz guitar veteran Dizzy Mandjeku that it was the legendary singer Léon Bukasa who gave Nedule his stage name, Papa Noël. Though celebrated for his stint in TPOK Jazz, Nedule had served as key guitarist and composer in many of the best known rumba outfits prior, including the afore mentioned Léon Bukasa, Orchetre Rock-A-Mambo, Les Bantous De La Capitale and African Jazz. After TPOK Jazz Nedule released several solo albums and worked on the first Kékélé album in 2001.

RIP Papa Noël

06/11/2024

Wednesday tune

Kizungu Zungu by Papa Noel from the compilation Bel Ami

This 2000 compilation, with tracks chosen by Papa Noel himself, gathered together two sessions 10 years apart. One from the Nono or Bon Samaritain album of 1984 and the Haute Tension album of 1994 which charts Noel's later move to gentler, more acoustic rumba recordings.

The interesting thing about the today's chosen track, Kizungu Zungu, coming from the 1984 album session, is that the Stern's compilation is the only place where you'll find the track correctly labelled in the streaming world. The original Nono album on Spotify has it listed as Selia Zozo, with Selia Zozo listed as Madiabuana, which in turn has led to the song Selia Zozo receiving 170K views on YouTube, but of course, the listener believes the song to be the afore mentioned Madiabuana. A not so delightful mess.

Now added to the playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=8RtS5fl8SzW-c3pjC0-jmg&pi=e-jk1IZnsEQBWt

23/10/2024

Wednesday tune

Alinho by Yondo Sister and Soukous Stars from the album Yondo Syster & Soukous Stars

Come for the beautifully penned song by one time Tabu Ley dancer, and thankfully after hearing her true calling, queen of up tempo soukous, Yondo Sister, and stay for the Dally Kimoko, Nene Tchakou and Lokassa Ya M'Bongo guitar seben wig out.

This 1991 release sports various photographs of a very fashion forward Yondo on the cover, posing with Lokassa, Shimita and others. In a denim boiler suit she carries off quite a daring short back and sides as striking as Grace Jones did a few years previous. All in all the coolest of cucumbers in her early 90s dominance.

Now added to the playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=1lmL3zbQS0CmpzGiI7fZcg

19/10/2024

Meet Le Pigeon Voyageur - the wonderful life and times of Sam Mangwana

https://afropop.org/audio-programs/sam-mangwana-le-pigeon-voyageur?

Sam Mangwana "Le Pigeon Voyageur" - a roaming pigeon, this episode looks at the living legend of Rumba.

16/10/2024

Wednesday tune

Batuta Mori by Orchestre Régional De Sikasso

From the series, Les Meilleurs Souvenirs De La 1ere Biennale Artistique Et Culturelle De La Jeunesse, comes this beautiful recording produced by the then Malian Ministry of Information and at the time licenced to the German distributer Bärenreiter-Musicaphon but now made available digitally by Syllart Records.

This group of young optimistic musicians from the southern Malian city of Sikasso understood the brief when it came to extolling the triumphs of the past empire, concerning at least two of the 4 tracks on this record with Bembeya / Rail Band style epics of the city famed for it's fortification and resistance to the French in the late 19th Century.

Now added to the Wednesday music playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=G9X2gBq3TI2cGDjPl--q1A&pi=e-mcOQWDaHQ6a5

09/10/2024

Wednesday tune

Usizi by The Soul Brothers from the Sterns Earthworks album Jump and Jive

Formed in 1974 and co-led by Moses Ngwenya and David Masondo until Masondo's death in 2015, mbaqanga group The Soul Brothers continue to this day with there 6 decade existence seeing them reach huge record sales.

Trevor Herman's sleeve notes to this 1994 Sterns Earthworks co-release sum up the mid career magic that The Soul Brothers had reached and our chosen track today has it all:

'David Masonda (co-leader, lead vocals, principal songwriter) leads the team of all-action vocalists with his sweet honeyed tones. Moses Ngwenya (co-leader, keyboards) unleashes the swoops and stirring washes from his Hammond organ; lead guitarist, Maxwell Mngadi weaves magical spells; the deep rippling bass of Sicelo Ndlela underpins the whole extravaganza along with Bogani Nxele's drumming. Thomas Phale leads South Africa's best horn section alongside Javas Magubane, blowing dynamite red-hot stabbing sax riffs with that distinctive South African sound.'

Trevor Herman, London, November 1994

Now added to the playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=mv5F44pAQhqx9h83EWeYeQ&pi=e-DJsNFWODSsed

25/09/2024

Wednesday tune

Upanga from Lost In Dar by Didier Bosco Mwenda

As the son of a famous father, ’Junior’ can be a heavy title and Didier is the son of Jean Bosco Mwenda, who rose to fame in the early 1960s with his timeless classic “Masanga”.

Born in the Katanga Region of D.R. Congo, Didier was immersed in the ‘dry guitar’ style of his father. But as a young man of skill and ambition, the widespread disruption in the region drew him towards Tanzania, then a haven of peace. In 1996 he turned up in Dar es Salaam where he was promptly recorded by the fledgling RetroTan label for a limited cassette release which sold well, before the company crashed lock, stock and 15 smoking releases later.

Didier’s style directly echoed his father’s, but this recorded material reflects a more troubled time as he struggled to find his feet in Dar es Salaam. Nevertheless today, with no second guitar or harmonising, his songs and the one-take acoustic performances are mesmerising. A brief moment caught in time as a young man tried to make his way in the world.

Now added to the playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=cgIUKeCiTPOq-ComwLwOlg&pi=e-PAJtrA43QH6c