Sterns Music

04/09/2024

Wednesday tune

Okoma Satana by Manuaku Waku from Le maître Manuaku Waku et le Grand Zaiko Wawa

A sudden, unexplained spike in the number of plays (from 35 to over 1,000 in a day) of a Grand Zaïko track, recently prompted us to revisit what other recordings might feature the "soul of the Zaïko school”, guitarist Manuaku Waku a.k.a. "Pépé Felly”, and the spotlight fell on this litle gem from 1982.

The opening track on side B of a 4-track album, and the first to be released after Manuaku left Zaïko Langa-Langa in 1980, it showcases much of what makes him unique: sudden, shimmering runs that burst out of the arrangements to help power the “sebene” and drive the dancers. In truth the example here is comparatively restrained, perhaps leaving the full fireworks for - as it would have been played at the time - the next and final track on the LP. But whether as a setup to that event or as a performance in itself, its creative excellence is assured.

Now added to the Wednesday music playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=EkojZfFZQdqVi6UgUUGNTg&pi=e-v8PZXQwjRt6c

28/08/2024

Wednesday tune

Paulette by Balla et ses Balladins from the Sterns' retrospective The Silyphone Years

We first chose Paulette as a Wednesday tune 9 years ago and since has become one of the most streamed songs of any of the classic West African orchestras with millions across Spotify, YouTube and recently a favourite on TikTok.

We can't take all the credit though (☺️) as the real catalyst for the surge in popularity for the song, which we reissued as part of our 2008 Balla et ses Balladins retrospective The Silyphone Years, was the 2011 hit, Can’t Get Enough, by J Cole & Trey Songz, which sampled large elements of Paulette making the metre and the melody extensively that of the original song. The brooding tune based on the E minor scale with the finest of Mande electric guitars on display has certainly helped keep Paulette on it’s remarkable new trajectory after its initial resurfacing.

Now added to the playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=qgbWyGDBQFaSMHTEUGGu1A&pi=e-9xyyU2svRqmz

21/08/2024

Wednesday tune

Cono by Salif Keita from the 1987 album Soro

With a new album due from Salif Keita later this year (and his 75th birthday later this week) we revisit the album that first put him squarely on course for his subsequent international career. In a recent interview with Songlines Magazine the new record was described as ‘an acoustic, minimalist set’ with Salif accompanied by kora, ngoni and precision, his intentions for Soro back in the late 1980s were somewhat different.

From the outset Salif demanded of Executive Producer, Ibrahima Sylla, to allow him to make a dramatic update to the Mande music canon, incorporating all the technology and sensibilities of the pop music scene of the time with traditional instrumentation being transposed onto synths and keyboards creating an exciting new sound that had hitherto not existed before. All of a sudden Salif surged forward in his new direction that he would become synonymous with, and a gulf was created between the equally powerful past exploits of Rail Band and Les Ambassadeurs.

Now added to the playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=OvFag_ttTnyHN6Zr2lXBLA&pi=e-2_qWHerXR8Cs

14/08/2024

Wednesday tune

Ballago by Thione Seck from the album Orientation

Charlie Gillett’s ★★★★★ review in the Guardian for this 2005 Stern’s release by Senegal’s golden voiced Thione Seck is testament itself of how it transcended fusion music. For this masterclass in cross-cultural collaboration Ibrahima Sylla took Thione east to Egypt and then India to record his honed West African pop with the instrumentation of North Indian classical and Umm Kulthum era orchestral Cairo with astounding results.

Today’s tune is a reworking of Ballago from Seck’s 1988 largely mbalax album, Le Pouvoir D'Un Cœur Pur, also released by Sterns back in the day. Recorded in Madras (now known as Chennai) and Dakar, and with the addition of Indian instruments, sarod, veena, santoor and tambura and Tamil backing vocals it is rendered almost unrecognisable from the original.

now added to the playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=366c9d8a70634a59

07/08/2024

Wednesday tune

Bolingo S**a Te by Le Grand Kallé and African Jazz from the Stern’s compilation Le Grand Kallé: His Life, His Music - Joseph Kabaselé And The Creation Of Modern Congolese Music

Kallé’s bolero tinged smooth as butter rumba, as heard on today’s chosen track, never sounds better than in mid-summer balminess, evoking those images of couples dancing in 1960s Kinshasa in what must have been sweltering tropical evening soirees on exclusive terraces.

The version of Bolingo S**a Te (Love Without End) here comes from a 1962 Brussels session, where advances in recording technology and reproduction to vinyl gave the opportunity to breath new life into tracks from Kallé distant back catalogue.

Here too, months prior to the first major break up of the classic African Jazz franchise, are Nico, Izeidi, Dibango and Kallé himself.

Now added to the playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=XYti506WRV69NOqD4r6NqQ&pi=e-dCzHAdv7Q1OZ

31/07/2024

Wednesday tune

Bamba by Kaira Ben from the album Singa

Continuing with the West African groove, the entry track from a too often overlooked album, “Singa” by Kaira Ben. Released in 1996 featuring Idrissa Magassa on lead vocals, with here the spotlight also falling on saxophonist Tidiani Koné, whose experience included time with the Rail Band of Bamako and Biton De Segou.

In fact, while perhaps not revolutionary, the whole album is a delight. Mixed in London, UK, the raw tracks were recorded in Bamako, Mali, and includes not only Tidiani as above, but also luminaries such as Keletigui Diabate on balafon, plus guitarists Moussa Diakite and Zou Diarra who relocated to and worked extensively in, respectively, Australia and the Netherlands. Hidden gold.

Now added to the playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=qR4l5gaDSRKSOCkLOvyqeQ&pi=e-UZ6ZKcJcQuGQ

26/07/2024

Reminiscing on this footage of Dawda Jobarteh recording the track Tabara with family relative, the late Toumani Diabaté, in Bamako in 2004. The recording would go on to appear on Dawda’s album Northern Light Gambian Night.

Full video available on Youtube

24/07/2024

Wednesday tune

Fakoly from River Strings - Mininka Guitar by Djessou Mory Kanté

Djessou Mory Kanté is one of West Africa's most in-demand guitarists working with, among others, Salif Keïta, Sekouba Bambino and Kandia Kouyate. The raw tracks for his album “River Strings” were recorded in Bamako, Mali in 2012 while on a break from touring, but it wasn’t until 2014 after they were mixed in, of all places, Dorset, UK, that they were able to be released. The title remains a key example of that comparatively rare item in any African discography: a wholly instrumental album that focuses entirely on guitars.

The photo shows Charlie Coulibaly, the recording engineer and keyboard player along with Djessou Mory, and was taken during the 2012 sessions.

Now added to the playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=K0UgghT9TMaNEZtRRH51cw&pi=e-IQ1FkndDTeqz

17/07/2024

Wednesday tune

Ngizothi Mamakubani from King Of The Groaners by Mahlathini

“When I talk to people, I talk to them normally, but when it comes to singing the voice changes by itself … not me”.

So said Mahlathini, King Of The Groaners himself, in conversation in 1989 with Trevor Herman, compiler of the album, and the recording 'Ngizothi Mamakubani’ from the mid 1970s is perhaps one of the best examples of that unique voice, while at the same time featuring some lovely guitar interplay between Gab Gchamphalala on lead and Nunu Luphoko on rhythm.

“Who will I call my mother now?
Who will I call my father now?
This world upsets me
Separating me from my late parents”

Now added to the playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=sbm98v6nSbKLxTdF22ZjPw&pi=e-ypDcNLs0TjKz

10/07/2024

Wednesday tune

Ilanga from the album Syran by Syran Mbenza

Paris in the early 1980s was the scene of many musical collaborations, but few were more satisfying than those made between musicians and producers of the French Antilles with their comrades and colleagues from Central and West Africa.

With Bopol Mansiamina bubbling on bass, Syran Mbenza weaves his guitar through the tightest of horn and Antillean percussion arrangements, while Passi Jo (here just credited as “Assy”) ably assisted by Lea Lignanzi, secures the vocals. The result is tight and confident: musicians at the top of their game. Yet it’s also incredibly relaxed, as is perhaps evidenced by the cartoon of the players - drawn by the studio engineer - which featured on the back of the LP cover.

Now added to the playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=gd5Z_9_QQ4qwVusrLMUmrw&pi=e-OS3AljbARoGA

03/07/2024

Wednesday tune

Toujours ok by Franco & TPOK Jazz and Sam Mangwana from the album For Ever

This Saturday would be Franco Luambo Makaidi's 86th birthday and it would be neglectful and downright irresponsible of us to not take a moment to bow at the alter of the Grand Maître, master of rumba Congolaise, Sorcerer of the Guitar or simply, Franco.

This high-spirited late career gem in collaboration with Sam Mangwana, with it's confident affirmational title 'Always ok', shows Franco in excellent guitar slinging form. But recorded while touring in Europe in early 1989 we know this bravado belies the sad truth that Franco's already obvious ill health would disqualify him from seeing the end of that otherwise superb year. The breaking of the word forever of the album title to render it 'For Ever' gives a perfect touch of the emphatic as it is unlikely Franco will be forgotten.

Now added to the playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=shUgizw_Q-m8ixS6zbJwAg&pi=e-Xh6qAEIZQrWB

19/06/2024

Wednesday tune

O Carimbó from Radio S.AMB.A. by Nação Zumbi

As we approach another summer solstice we are reminded of one in 2000 when we excitedly unleashed on the world a truly ground-breaking record from the North Eastern Brazilian city of Recife.

Radio S.AMB.A. was the record nobody conceived Nação Zumbi dropping after nearly a decade of agitation in partnership with Chico Science. The movement they propagated, manguebeat, had spawned many different creative strands from cinema to fashion but now with the untimely death of it's high priest, Chico Science, the road looked at an end for the group.

But not only was there strong continuity in Radio S.AMB.A., but freshness, maturity and coherency in the musical direction. Our chosen track today has it all, the African Brazilian beats and sensibilities of Recife, vocal delivery ranging between samba chorus lines and a homage to the classic hip hop vocal metre of Grand Master Flash, with an energy and urgency that makes the track as exciting now as it was to hear it 24 years ago.

Now added to the playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=4vI0FwByROyq3spfvEp6BQ&pi=e-EAxXg1auTz2m

16/06/2024

Happy Father’s Day!

Tabu Ley Rochereau avec certains de ses enfants. Il a eu plus de 104 enfants connus

15/06/2024

RIP Mansour Seck

Senegalese musician in the ‘griot’ tradition, best known for his long-term collaboration with Baaba Maal

15/06/2024

Thanks to Ian Anderson for this photo taken at our 10th anniversary back home in 1993!

(L-R) Timothy Marquand (US), Christina Roden (US), Ian Thomas, Lois Darlington, Christian Sebek (US), Robert Urbanus, Don Bay, Scott Lund, Daniel Bobroff, Dominic Raymond-Barker.

12/06/2024

Wednesday tune

Yango by Mansour Seck from the 1997 Sterns' album Yelayo

This week’s tune is in honour of Mansour Seck who sadly passed away at home in Senegal the end of May at the age of 69.

A hereditary griot and long-term collaborator with Baaba Maal, Seck first came to prominence with his and Maal’s break-through album, Djam Leelii, released internationally in 1989. Their musical relationship though began years previously when, in the late 1970s, the two friends set out to explore West Africa together, venturing from their home in Senegal to Mauritania and Mali, broadening both of their knowledge in the musical traditions they came across.

Seck would remain prominent in Baaba Maal’s recording and touring career, often cited as Maal’s mentor in the deep art of the griots, but Seck also graced the following decades with no less than 3 solo albums of his own, all released through Sterns.

They stand as testament of Seck's ability to manoeuvre between the world of Maal's international success and himself producing excellent modern recordings that at the same time embody his deep understanding of the past. Yango is a spirited and joyful track that encompasses many West African musical sensibility and a fitting tribute.

Now added to the playlist

05/06/2024

Wednesday tune

Nakan by Ami Koïta from the Sterns' album Songs of Praise

Released 31 years ago to the day, Nakan is the joyous opening track to Koïta's 1993 international release, Songs of Praise, that comprised of songs taken from two different recording sessions making the album unique in it's shifting approaches and sensibilities to the arrangements and production.

Nakan comes from the a session produced and arranged in Côte d'Ivoir by Boncana Mai͏̈ga, best known for his work with Africando and founder of Les Merveilles du Mali, this session manifesting the strongest ambition to appeal to a more international audience. Though it goes without saying that to the ear of a Malian music lover the whole album stands as a cherishable gem of early 1990s Mandé pop history.

Now added to the playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=R7NHPwGfQbO1jYXB4eqSWw&pi=e-BFM-Gn4TRFe6

29/05/2024

Wednesday tune

Baay Fal from Fiirndé by Gorgui Ndiaye & Le Super Atlantic de Rufisque

The KSF catalogue in Senegal holds many small treasures with this, the opening track of Gorgui Ndiaye's 2002 album “Fiirndé” recorded with his band Super Atlantic de Rufisque, being just one. The majority, if not all, of KSF’s productions were released on cassette, and while few can claim to be revolutionary in their style, none fall below a certain standard. Here this is exemplified by the virtuosic tama playing of El Hadji Lô, constant throughout but particularly evident around the 2 minute mark.

Now added to the playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=qI1cDnDSSYqWzUD36OjR2g&pi=e-d7bFz-jkRXaB

22/05/2024

Wednesday tune

Morning Glory from Morning Glory by Lacksley Castell

Lacksley Castell, along with Junior Reid, Don Carlos, other members or associates of Black Uhuru, and indeed Robert "Flacko” Palmer, producer of this recording, were all born in the Waterhouse district of Kingston, Jamaica. In the 1970s and on into the 80s, Waterhouse had a reputation as a tough place, not an easy place in which to grow up. Forty years later that reputation seems to have softened. Was it all perhaps, a touch overblown?

Listening to the lyrics of Lacksley’s 1982 hit 'Morning Glory' there is an ominous undercurrent: "I hear the thunder roll and see the lightning strike … I see the dark clouds move and drift across the sky as the morning sun comes up to shine”. But there’s also a solution: “Some mornings bright and clear, some mornings dull and grey, but I’ve got to take it slow and easy, yes I’ve got to take it slow and easy”.

Lacksley sadly died a year later though not, it must be noted, through any gang or related violence, but after an illness, and his recordings, few in number, remain popular today. As so they should.

Now added to the playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=WddqC0kBTQW-9RWmDCdKCQ&pi=e-D1Hsm2irQqGE

15/05/2024

Wednesday tune

Acabou, mas tem … by Emicida

Emicida’s latest release is complex and multi-layered, not least in its lyrics. None of us here are professional translators, so below we offer the original Portuguese along with the sum of our efforts, and beg forgiveness if we’re wide of the mark.

In the meantime, Emicida and Damien Seth’s luxurious production stands by itself, and if forced to pick just one highlight it might be Dirceu Leite’s contribution on flute starting at around 2’50”. Exquisite.

---------------------------

Acabou, mas tem ...

A tarde deita mansa
Tipo um beijo de criança
É uma benção, moça
Lembrança em posse, a quem possa interessar
Tô zen na medida do impossível
Contando nos medos, que nível
Tão ágil um mal presságio vem, sinceramente…

Eu só quero ficar bem, igual quem é pluma
Mas também puma no seu jeito de viver
Lá fora o mundo não ajuda
Por isso é que eu só quero ficar bem com você

Eu só quero ficar bem, igual quem é pluma
Mas também puma no seu jeito de viver
Lá fora o mundo não ajuda
Por isso é que eu só quero ficar bem com você

Não sinto que meus amigos tiveram fim
Sinto que eles se mudou pra dentro de mim
Me frustra a vida breve, ausência de um motivo
Como um país inteiro consegue assim, se fingir de vivo?
Então, sou Crusoé do Defoe, não melhor, José do Drumond ou Bandeira nas cinzas das horas, só mágoa, luta e paixão
Lá fora é infinita miséria humana, no último dia, paupéria chama
Vira Sibéria é o plano, mano
Parece que Deus tirou férias

E eu só quero ficar bem, igual quem é pluma
Mas também puma no seu jeito de viver
Lá fora o mundo não ajuda
Por isso é que eu só quero ficar bem com você

Eu só quero ficar bem, igual quem é pluma
Mas também puma no seu jeito de viver
Lá fora o mundo não ajuda
Por isso é que eu só quero ficar bem com você

Remete a um roteiro medonho
O leste desse continente
A peste é só mero detalhe, o que aqui não é doente?
De carta branca, Vão demônios, dão ombro a vidas inocentes
E dor nenhuma para o baile
Quem mata rio vai salvar gente?
O rico mira Marte, acerta morte, estanca a arte, seca o pote todo
Passa a boiada, passa o rodo, deixa só o nojo, esgoto, lodo
Choveu água suja no coração do Brasil, todo mundo viu
Ficou noite 3 da tarde, tio, e a vida seguiu normal…

Belisque o seu próprio braço e pergunte-se
Se, você ainda é capaz de sentir algo
Ainda é capaz de sentir algo…

Belisque o seu próprio braço e pergunte-se
Se, você ainda é capaz de sentir algo
Ainda é capaz de sentir algo…

-----------------------------------------

There’s Some, But It’s Finished...

The afternoon lays quiet
Like the kiss of a child
It's a blessing, girl
Holding a memory, to whom it may concern
I'm zen to the extent of the impossible
Counting fears, which level
As quickly as a bad feeling comes, sincerely…

I just want to be good, like someone who’s a feather
But also a Puma in its way of living
Out there the world doesn’t help
That’s why I just want to be good with you

I don’t feel like my friends have ended
I feel like they moved inside of me
It’s frustrating the short life, without a motive
How can a whole country manage to pretend to be alive?
Anyway, I’m Defoe’s Crusoe, no better, Drumond’s or Bandeira’s José in the ashes of hours, only pain, struggle and passion
Outside the human misery is never-ending, on the last day, poverty calls
Turn into Siberia is the plan, man
Seems as though God is on holiday

I just want to be good, like someone who’s a feather
But also a Puma in its way of living
Out there the world doesn’t help
That’s why I just want to be good with you

It sends for a scary script
The East of the continent
The plague is just a detail, what here isn’t sick?
With a blank letter, demons go, giving a shoulder to innocent lives
And no pain for the party
Those who kill the river are going to save us?
The rich aim for Mars, hit death, stop art, dry up the whole pot
The herd goes through, taking everything, leaving just disgust, sewage and muck
Dirty water rained in the heart of Brazil, everyone saw it
It was night at 3 in the afternoon, man, and life went on as normal…

Pinch your own arm and ask yourself
If, you’re still capable of feeling something
Still capable of feeling something…

Now added to the playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=vv7k7t4ZQEC3voNoAb10mA&pi=e-b0M4KzehSByx

13/05/2024

Nyboma - Rare London appearance at the Jazz Cafe London and Africa Oye

Don't miss an exciting chance to catch Congolese rumba royalty at the Jazz Café in London. Absolutely no stranger to Sterns, we not only reissued Nyboma's early 1980s recordings with his group Kamale Dynamique, which included the dancefloor filler Doublé Doublé, but Nyboma's signature voice has graced many more Sterns' releases, including contributing to recordings by Kékélé, Afrocando and Madilu System.

https://thejazzcafelondon.com/event/nyboma/

09/05/2024

Yesterday we heard the sad news that Don Bay, one of the three original founders of Sterns, had passed away in the morning of May 8th at Chumphon, Thailand, where he built his home and lived for almost two decades.

Don was born Azad Bayramian in Baghdad, Iraq, on November 19th, 1951. He was youngest of a large and relatively prosperous family where his father reputedly had the contract to light the Shah Of Iran’s palace, and Don was always conscious of this independent business background.

As political instability, coup d’état and other life-threatening events overtook the whole region, Don moved away. First to the USA where he attended college while pumping gas for one of his uncles, and where his name mutated from Azad to Don, and then, eventually, to London.

Here in the very early 1970s he found himself in the renowned Troubadour coffee house come folk club in Earls Court, sometimes as a client, sometimes serving, and here his story with Sterns began. He met and befriended expatriate Dutchman and African music enthusiast, Robert Urbanus, who later introduced him to Ghanaian, Charles Easmon, and the idea of reinvigorating the old Sterns of Tottenham Court Road into a dedicated African record shop on Whitfield Street, began to take hold.

Through a previous venture which involved importing brass cutlery from Thailand and a lucky break with an unsolicited review in a Sunday colour supplement, Don had some small savings available, legend has it in a pot under his bed, and while he didn’t know much about African music, he was the only one of the three who knew one side of a financial ledger from the other. He also had a vital ingredient: chutzpah.

With joint investment the shop opened in 1983 and soon expanded into a distributor, label, production house and de facto meeting place for African musicians, whether resident or visiting London. It was an energetic time and Don’s unique brand of energy was called upon many times as the rapidly expanding but still fledgling business met situations for which the directors had no previous experience.

At one point they were confident enough to include the legend “London – New York – São Paulo” on their headed notepaper, and New York in particular absorbed much of Don’s time and attention. But while all parties were interested in expansion, perhaps it was Don who was the most restless and so in 2006 he resigned his position to concentrate on other ventures.

Charming, volatile, mischievous, generous, irascible, passionate, loveable, at times hilariously funny but above all and at all times, human; there are perhaps too many words to describe such a person as Don. So it really is with great sadness that we say goodbye to a friend, and wish our heartfelt condolences to his family, his wife, and to other friends and all whose life he touched. We miss you.

RIP Don Bay 19/11/1951 - 08/05/2024

Images 1 to 3 @ Jak kilby.

01/05/2024

Wednesday tune

Oyo Zuwa? from 1967 Kinshasa by Sam Mangwana with Orchestre Vox Africa

Working with Sam Mangwana on the release of selections from his back catalogue, to date we've managed to feature examples from most of the bands in which he sang including Festival De Maquisards, Afrizam, African All Stars and more. However until now one was missing: his very short-lived stint, just 6 months in 1967, with Jean Bombenga's 'Orchestra Vox Africa’.

In this band he joined, among others, Ntesa Dalienst on vocals and Papa Noël on guitar, and while his stay might have been short, the fruits were very sweet indeed. “Oyo Zuwa?” is Sam’s own composition, and his delivery and the arrangement evoke the confident vibrancy of a 1967 Kinshasa with its post-colonial name less than one year old.

Now added to the playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=jmR-PYrBS124_UEwF2bRDQ&pi=e-b-CRiTOIT7SL

24/04/2024

Wednesday tune

Mukaji Wanyi by Papa Wemba from his self title 1988 Sterns Music release

Though Wemba burst onto the booming Congolese music scene in the late 1960s, enjoying years of success with groups Zaiko Langa Langa and Viva la Musica, it is probably the late 1980s and early 90s where most people would agree that Wemba truly came into his own. It was with the Sterns' 1988 self titled album where he would have his first opportunity to perform on British and US tv.

Today, on the 8th anniversary of his passing onstage in Abidjan, Wemba is undoubtedly the holder of the trophy for greatest innovator of Congolese popular music, but in today's chosen track, lavished with 80s sound recording sensibilities, it's more a nod to his own past and heritage. In the words of Ken Braun 'it's not the sound of either Kinshasa or his second home, Paris, but of his birthplace in Kasai, and instead of Lingala, the language of nearly all Congolese pop songs, he sings this one in Tetela, his mother tongue.'

Also on this track a shout out to the great sounding guitars of Rigo Star.

Now added to the Wednesday music playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=1gzjqNvTSumIM0aPa_ca4A&pi=e-CE_96A6JSOys

17/04/2024

Wednesday tune

Doninké by Kandia Kouyaté from the album Kita Kan

Doninké for many in the late 1990s was the first time they would hear the magic of Kandia's all encompassing vocal power. It remains the opening track of Kandia's first solo international release, Kita Kan, which maybe if it wasn't for the persistence of people like the record's producer, Ibrahima Sylla, may never have materialised.

In the extensive original liner notes, Lucy Duran explains that as Kandia was such a well respected and sought-after Jelimuso in Mali that she was by the close of the 20th Century independently wealthy and the lure of an international record deal was simply not a priority.

Luckily, with admirers of hers, Sekouba Bambino and Ousmane Kouyaté onboard to help record the album, Kandia was finally persuaded into the studio with Ibrahima Sylla and a host of excellent musicians. This would be the start of Sterns' relationship with Kandia which would see two more spectacular albums released over the following two decades.

Now added to the playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=YSV2C3WYRCm8UWIjCBjQxw&pi=e-I8HyM6bTT52P

11/04/2024

“There was not really an itinerary. The newspaper would print where the tour was. So I’d tear a page out of the paper to find out where we were supposed to be. But I still had no idea where the cities were.”

In 1979, my father Roy Ayers went on an extraordinary three-week tour with the Afrobeat pioneer amid extreme violence in Nigeria. Three band members recount the unforgettable trip

10/04/2024

Wednesday tune

Absa Gueye from Once Upon A Time In Senegal: The Birth of Mbalax (1979 -1981) by Étoile De Dakar featuring Youssou N’Dour.

This week marks 14 years since the glorious above anthology arrived at the then warehouse of Sterns Music featuring the collected works one of the most important groups to emerge from Dakar or Senegal even (or Africa!). The story of how Etoile de Dakar came about and why they were so important is much relayed and many times told by us here. From a dispute inside of Senegal’s leading Star Band de Dakar emerged Étoile de Dakar, but they would soon cease to be just rivals. It wouldn't be long before the woven vocals of Youssou N’Dour and El Hadji Faye with the future proofed guitar of Badou N'Diaye, driven forward by Assane Thiam's tama drum, would steal the limelight and birth the new modern style the Senegalese would identify with for decades to come, mbalax.

Now added to the Wednesday music playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jssqzzDIFnyPsiFqC0MfY?si=3a4SKPB2Q8W-JE_oU71Z4Q&pi=e-AJNNDlo1TTar

03/04/2024

Wednesday tune

N'sel Fik by Chaba Fadela and Cheb Sahraoui from the Earthworks compilation Rai Rebels

The husband and wife duo, Chaba Fadela and Cheb Sahraoui, would emerge stars from the Algerian musical melting pot of Oran with this impassioned belter of early raï pop. The opening track to Earthworks co-founder Jumbo Vanrenen's compilation released in 1988, N'sel Fik (You Are Mine), was already a local and diasporic hit before it made it's proper international debut on Rai Rebels.

All the tracks across the compilation were arranged and recorded by legendary raï producer Rachid Baba Ahmed, credited with the development of the genre during the 1970s and 1980s and with the success of many of the Chabas and Chebs that would emerge from the Oran scene to achieve international recognition. Unfortunately it was that accolade that would make him a target for religious fundamentalists apposed to the modern pop sound of raï and the culture that adorned it, this would lead to his untimely death.

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