Dec 4/04
Pan-African Griot
A renowned musician, poet, radio host, performer and novelist in Africa, Europe and North America, Francis Bebey pretty much did it all. He’s also the guy I wanted to listen to while making my Saturday eggs and bacon this morning. Perfectly acoustic to soothe the mild hangover headache.
Bebey was born and raised in Cameroon in a pro-colonial protestant family. It’s a small miracle that he managed to become a musician given his conservative French upbringing, especially one so passionate about promoting traditional African music and instruments. Lucky for all of us Bebey met a traditional doctor named Eya Mouéssé while he was still living in Cameroon. Mouéssé’s teachings introduced Bebey to the traditional instruments and musical heritage of his country and sparked an interest in African music that would change the course of his life.
Bebey lived in Cameroon, France and the US and worked on a wide variety of projects such as traditional music research for UNESCO and musical collaborations with the Kronos Quartet. He was a true international griot, promoting West African music and culture the world-over through a mix of writing, composing and education.
In May, 2001, Bebey died of a sudden heart attack. His death marked a real loss for African music and jazz lovers the world over. His legacy is intact, however, and he won’t be forgotten.
Francis Bebey – Idiba (Morning)
Tags: acoustic, cameroon
Now, since we’ve been talking about Original Music and then you bring up Francis Bebey, I have to say that my all-time favorite OM issue is Bebey’s incredible “Akwaaba: Music for Sanza”. It’s nothing at all like his classical-style guitar work; instead it’s groovy and funky and dirty – it often sounds like no one was watching the levels in the recording studio, but I think that buzz and burr of analog overload is both appropriate to a lot of African asthetics, and also the kind of thing that will make this album a crossover hit with the a certain rock audience as soon as someone discovers it and reissues it.
Sorry to hijack your post, but I almost mentioned it the other day — so when you brought up Bebey, it seemed appropriate to share.
First time on the site, nothing as refreshing as the welcome i got from Bebey’s Idiba..(and apporporately so..its like 3.24 am!)
Now that im officially hooked, can u direct me to a source of his music..I would love to sample it all…
Wicked site! Keep up the good work…
Bebey is pretty well-known so you can find his music almost anywhere. You’re from Montreal, it looks like, so just head to the nearest HMV and hit-up the World/Africa section for a sample.
I’ll be posting some lesser-known stuff later this week thanks to a generous reader.. stay tuned.
your right..THis is westacfrican capital of canada..so I’ll be sure to report back if my pursuits fail!!
Oooh, that’s nice. Can you tell us what he’s singing about here?
Thanks for the great music — please keep it up!
So we are open for business over at the Akwaaba Sound System, with the first post a couple of tracks from the Francis Bebey album I mentioned above. Thanks again, Matt, for pushing us out of talk and into action. (PS Pieter, who guest posted a few days ago, is part of the crew — but he’s about to become a father, so it may be a while before we get more music out of him…)
http://akwaabasound.blogspot.com
[...] We’ve heard him before on Benn loxo, and the now-defunct audioblog, Akwaaba Sound System, named their blog after one of his earlier, trippy albums. [...]
‘Idiba’ is Francis Bebey composition from the sixties or seventies. The guy who wants to know what he’s singing about could listen to Manu Dibango’s bluesy bilingual (douala/french) version which should be somewhere on the web. Check out Francis Bebey’s son Toups Bebey: http://www.musicprom.com/e_tbebey.html