Today we have a third highlife installment from Benn loxo listener, ubulujaja:

“Lord Bob Cole (who may also have been known as Bob Johnson) was a Ghanaian comedian, songwriter, and actor who was a veteran of the Ghanaian Concert Party scene of the 1950’s where highlife music was mixed with comic dramatizations of local events. I first heard his music on the 1970’s C.K. Mann and Bob Cole release Osode: African Hot Highlife Rhythms and started making an effort to track down anything I could by him. The song Kekerebtire is a Nzima song off a Decca 45 release probably done in the mid to late 60’s. The structure of the song is classic highlife with the opening horns blast and interwoven guitar and percussion solos, but the punchy nature of the vocals make the song stand out and are delivered with a sort of vaudevillian boisterousness that must have characterized the concert party scene. For more information on the Ghana Concert Party Theatre you should check out Catherine M. Cole’s book Ghana Concert Party Theatre.

I don’t know much about Muchacha Imuzor as there are no liner notes or list of performers on any of the LP’s I have managed to find, but he did a number of good Ukwauni styled highlife records in the 70’s for the EMI Label. The song Anazo Eze is a 16 minute track off an LP of the same name. His vocals have a distinctive urgency that bring together the rhythms of the guitar, percussion instruments and chorus to make a solid Ukwauni praise song.”

Thanks as always for the post, ubulujaja.

Bob Cole and his Music Makers - Kekerebtire
Muchacha Imuzor - Anazo Eze

Original Music certainly make the shortlist for best album name for their 1995 Orlando Owoh release, Dr. Ganja’s Polytonality Blues.

I’s a classic four track mix of mid-70s Nigerian juju-highlife stuffed with psychedelic riffs and slow burning melodies. The track I picked for today makes a sweet switch at about the five minute mark, catching your ears off guard as you two-toke it around.

Orlando Owoh has been playing music in Nigeria since the mid-1950s. In his heyday he was one of Decca’s best-selling artists, and is known for being one of the key pioneers of the juju-highlife movement during the 1970s. He suffered a stroke in 2005 but, as far as I know, is doing alright now.

Thanks to Benn loxo listener, Flecton, for sending this my way.

Orlando Owoh - Emi Wa Wa Lowo Re, Alun Gbere Wa De

Taffetas is a project put together by two Swiss-French musicians, Marc Liebeskind and Christophe Erard, and Guinean kora player, Ibrahima Galissa. Recently Galissa was replaced by his cousin, Dakarois kora player turned Swiss native, Chérif Nana Cissokho. Burkinabé singer, Fatoumata Dembélé, also recently joined the group adding a permanent vocalist to the mix. (Francesca Cassio does the vocals on today’s track from their first album.)

The mix of guitar, bass, kora and vocals on both their releases is crisp, smart and never overdone. I’ve been listening to their tunes on repeat lately as I tread water in Februrary paperwork at the office.

Incidentally, the group’s new singer, Dembélé, was discovered in 1998 at a music festival in Bobo-Dioulasso, a surprisingly pretty city in Burkina Faso. It’s the country’s second largest city and generally known as its cultural capital. I spent some time there a few years ago. After a long, hot bus ride through semi-desert, Bobo and its tree-lined avenues springs up out of nowhere. A great place to stop if you’re on your way to Ouaga for FESPACO or the SNC.

I’ll most likely be at one of the Taffetas shows on the 28th or 29th of March at the Sattelit in Paris. Find me at the bar and Benn loxo will buy you a round.

Taffetas - Taffetas

Veteran Benn loxo listener/writer, ubulujaja, is right in pointing out that we should all check-out The Green Arrows if we’re into the sounds of Mapfumo & co.

Zexie Manatsa and his band dominated the Zimbabwean charts from the mid-70s to the mid-80s. Their first big hit was 1974’s Chipo Chiroorwa, which sold over 25 000 copies. That put it in the history books as the first ever Zimbabwean release to go gold. They were also the first Zimbabwean group ever to release an LP.

Unfortunately, Manatsa was in a car accident in the late 80s that destroyed all the band’s musical equipment. They never really got back on their feet. Like many former musical greats, Manatsa also lost his edge to the church. His new group, The Gospel Arrows, never really went anywhere. That said, the man can still rock his old stuff; he played a comeback gig in Harare in 2005 that apparently brought down the house. I’ll add that to the list of “concerts I should have attended”.

Today’s track comes off Samy Ben Redjeb of Analog Africa’s release of The Green Arrows recordings between 1974-1979. You can buy it on Amazon and, amazingly, it looks like iTunes carries the album as well.

Zexie Manatsa & The Green Arrows - Towering Inferno

Today we’ll hear a great tune from the 2006 re-issue of music by the 1970s Zimbabwean group, the Hallelujah Chicken Run Band. Thomas Mapfumo, who you must’ve heard before, was a notable member along with guitarist Joshua Hlomayi Dube.

The Hallelujah Chicken Run Band helped permanently change the sound of popular music in Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia. Their style, a mix of Western pop-rock with Zimbabwean traditional music, would develop into Mapfumo’s Chimurenga, the sound of the Zimbabwean struggle against apartheid. Though the mbira didn’t make it into the music until later, the staccato guitar and vocals emulated its sound. And they sung in Shona - a language generally opposed by the ruling white government at the time.

Several amusing legends surround the band. First, that they were founded in 1974 to amuse illiterate Malawi copper miners. (Not so true.) Second, that their saxophonist, Robson Boora, was struck by lightning. (Most likely true.)

The song I picked for today’s post, Kare Nanhasi, is about the rising price of commodities on the Zimbabwean market. This theme is as appropriate now as it was then - a corrupt and inefficient Zimbabwean government that let inflation rise to incredible levels. It’s worth noting that Mapfumo opposes the current Mugabe administration as much as he once opposed Smith’s apartheid government. He currently lives in Oregon, USA, in self-imposed exile.

You can grab it over at emusic. The Afrofrunk Music Forum and Candied Pop also have good posts about the album.

Hallelujah Chicken Run Band - Kare Nanhasi

Been doing a lot of home living and home cooking lately. Today’s track is especially great for when you’re chopping onions.. knife in my left, glass of red in my right, highlife-ing around the kitchen.

You can hear this tune on the Art Hurts release, The Old Highlife. It’s the baby of Art Hurts Records’ Nashville native, Beston Barnett. He went to Ghana on his Honeymoon and ended up studying guitar with Nana Opoku Agyemang. Three weeks into the lessons he managed to convince his new teacher to record an album with long-time friend, Amankwah “Roadmaster” Ntori.

You might recognize Agyemang’s guitar from, among others, F Kenya’s Band that we heard here before on one of Ulubujaja’s guest posts. And in case you’re wondering, Roadmaster gets his name from his mom since he used to walk for miles on foot.

Roadmaster & Agyemang - Akwasi Broni

From the good people over at Creative Commons, Modiba Productions, Global Beat Fusion and Rock Paper Scissors:

“Vieux Farka Touré–son of the late great African blues guitarist Ali Farka Touré–is doing a remix contest with Creative Commons.

Would you consider announcing this remix contest using Vieux’s song “Ana” (online, in an enewsletter, in print, or on the air)?

Audio elements for remixing are available for download starting today at http://ccmixter.org/vieux. Uploads of finished masterpieces can start on February 7th; contest ends March 7th.”

Ana Remix Contest Sources

Julien Jacob’s music isn’t African.
Yeah, but he was born in Benin.
He moved to France when he was four. I was born in the US and moved to Canada when I was three but I’m not American.. nor am I French any time soon.
Fair enough, but his songs sound West African.
Some of the percussion and guitar, sure, but I don’t know if you noticed that he’s singing in an invented language.
Doesn’t he live in Brittany? They speak a crazy language up there. Maybe you’re confusing it with that.
No, I’m serious: he sings in a language that he invented for his music, à la Ekova. It’s meant to sound good but not mean anything in any language.
So wait, if it’s not African why are you putting it on Benn loxo?

Because I can do whatever I want, and it’s a great album. Sounds like Francis Bebey tossed in a salad with Tom Waits and a dash of Ekova. His tune Yacob also features a great Algerian musician, Rachid Taha. Jenny, if you’re reading, thanks for the heads-up.

If you like it, pick it up over at Stern’s or Calabash.

ps- Benn loxo listener, Brian, is looking for a copy of Awadi’s song, Zamouna. If you have it then leave a comment or send me an e-mail.

Julien Jacob - Yacob feat. Rachid Taha
Julien Jacob - Meh

Let’s ease into February with some instrumental music…

Diely Moussa Kouyaté is a Guinean guitarist most famous for his work with Salif Keita. He’s also recorded with Mama Sissoko, Kante Manfila, Souad Massi and other big name African artists.

He’s one of those musicians who quietly holds it down in the background, strumming beautiful melodies in the shadows on stage. You can hear some nice examples of his playing on Keita’s latest album, M’Bemba.

It was a great pleasure to discover that he has a 2002 solo release entitled Sebe Alaye. I came across it quite by accident at a Paris médiathèque. If you want to hear more you can grab a copy at the Fnac.

Diely Moussa Kouyate - Bamananke