Feb 6/06
The Ivoirian Middle East
I was in the West Bank last week and the strangest thing happened. After a somewhat tense day in Nablus I found myself with a few friends in a “trendy” bar in Ramallah, drinking some Chianti amidst French expats from Lyon and Palestinian night-life folks. My friend, Jake, bet me 5 shekels that the DJ was playing Tiken Jah Fakoly. I called him on it and was totally shutdown – it was. Who knew that Ivoirian reggae was big in West Bank night spots.
So hey, for whatever reason I’ve yet to post a Tiken Jah song on Benn loxo.
I saw Tiken Jah last year in Bruxelles at the Couleur Café festival. He put on a great show. Wonderful memories of dancing beside my friend from Dakar, Xavier, in the hot, Belgian beer-infused summer heat that I so miss while sitting in my cold Paris apartment. I saw Tiken Jah once in Dakar a few years ago, too, but I forget where and when. He always puts on a good performance.
By the way, did anyone catch that supposedly great Kora Jazz Trio concert at the New Morning this past Saturday in Paris? I’m bummed I missed it, but I guess I’ve no right to complain.
In any case, here’s some Tiken Jah Fakoly for your ears tonight. It’s from his 1999 release, Cours d’histoire.
Tags: ivory coast, reggae
awesome! more african reggae please.
By the way, Kora Jazz Trio is not just supposedly great. I got their Part Two album a couple of months ago and it’s easily one of the best blends between African music and western jazz I’ve heard. Fusion in the best sense. It’s just downright delightful. The group certainly has a distinct, deep, beautiful sound. You should definately get the record and post a sample on Benn loxo!!
Thanks for keeping up this great site!
-Antti
Helsinki, Finland
I am absolutely enthralled by this blog! You do stunning work, and now you’ve got me hooked! Great work there…
Matt,
Just discovered your site relatively recently, but am making up for lost listening time… What a treat to hear Tiken Jah again after so many years! It takes me back to Christmas/New Years Eve 1999 in Abidjan, where soldiers exhorted Ivorians to embrace Cote d’Ivoire’s first-ever coup d’etat by playing Tiken Jah’s “Nationalite” and “Ohba Ohba” on radios and boomboxes in their commandeered SUVs (I rode a goofy little moped that week to prevent my vehicle from joining them) … Many thousands did initially celebrate the demise of what was generally agreed to be a corrupt and divisive Bedie regime and I met Tiken Jah and Alpha Blondy at one of those jubilant street parties. Maybe it was me, but Tiken Jah seemed to have almost the air of a modern-day African Bob Marley when he said, “Our music is all about combat. We fight anyone who commits injustice, regardless of who they are.”
Unfortunately the good vibes didn’t last — as they so rarely do when soldiers seize power — and Tiken Jah was soon back to fighting with, and for his happy-angry brand of West African reggae. Political and regional tensions forced him to cancel concerts in Abidjan shortly after the coup and if I remember correctly, he and other popular northern musicians who were accused of using their music to criticize successive Ivorian leaders of entrenching a systematic policy of “xenophobie” were forced to go into exile for a time for their own safety. I wonder how often Tiken Jah has been able to go back home since. The last time I visited Cote d’Ivoire a couple of years back his music had been replaced on the airwaves by some much more forbidding, some might argue even hateful form of “patriotique” music. (“Liberez” by a group of southern Ivorians calling themselves Haut Les Coeurs is an extremely catchy, yet mildly disturbing tune that won’t leave your head once you’ve heard it.) Music and power. Oh for the day when Abidjan bounces to Tiken Jah again …
[...] and well-promoted hip-hop, reggae and RnB acts like PBS, VIP, Daara J, MC Solaar, Pee Froiss, Tiken Jah and many others. On the other side of the continent things have moved a bit slower in terms of [...]