Today we have a fourth guest post by dedicated Benn loxo listener and contributor, ubulujaja:

A lot has been made about the fact Chief Stephen Osadebe was mentored by Zeal Onyia, so I thought I would contribute two tracks from his Philips LP titled Zeals Message to give you an idea of where Osadebe learned his craft and what a first class highlife trumpeter sounded like.

Zeal Onyia was a Nigerian trumpeter with impeccable credentials. In 1953 he went to Ghana and played with ET Mensah in the Tempos Band before moving on to the Spike Anyankor’s Rhythm Band. He came back to Nigeria and along with Bobby Benson, Eddie Okonta and Victor Olaiya became one of the great trumpeters of the golden era of highlife in the 60’s and early 70’s.

While he was probably widely recorded or a sideman in other bands, I have only seen a few of his solo recordings including a track on the Night and Day compilation HighLife HighUp’s, a Tabanasi release titled Zeal Rides Again, a few 45’s and 2 78 recordings on a web site dedicated to Zeal Onyia.

The first song is titled Egbe Ne Lueli and is a good example of the raw energy in a classic highlife song, with vocals followed by alternating horns and percussion solos. The drumming on this tracks is particularly tight and there is a great horn blast by Zeal Onyia midway through the song. The rhythmic chorus makes the 2nd track more afro-beat in nature, but the thready horn solo at the beginning became an signature introduction for highlife musicians and was used to great effect by Charles Iwegbue in his classic song, Ejelunor.

Zeal Onyia - Egbe Ne Lueli
Zeal Onyia - Idegbani

I opened my mailbox this morning to find another solid offering from the good people at Rock Paper Scissors: Nawal’s Aman.

You might have already heard Nawal here, on Benn loxo.

Long-time Benn loxo readers will know I have a thing for tiny African islands in the Indian Ocean and the amazing vocalists to be found there. Nawal is no exception. She’s a sufi Muslim female vocalist originally from the Comoros islands with a great voice and a mean gambusi, a yemeni instrument that’s sort of like an oud.

Comorians are quite a conservative bunch, so Nawal had to break with tradition to become the first Comorian woman to perform publicly on stage with an instrument. Women often play at weddings and other private ceremonies but rocking-out on a gambusi in plain site of the masses is definitely a no-no in most circles.

Lucky for us Nawal pursued a career in music in France where she’s lived since the age of 11. Her latest album, Aman, is really good. You can grab it at your local bac starting June 12th, or on Amazon right away.

ps- yes, that’s a little mbira in the mix. Nawal first heard the mbira in the States, but we know Stella does it best.

Nawal - Salama

I just wrote a review about this album for another site so I’m all out of creative energy for a second long post. But hey, I think many of you will really dig the sound of today’s track regardless.

There’s a lot to love about World Music Network’s Introducing series. Daby Balde’s release was really nice, as was Etran Finatawa’s. They’re also the same people who are behind the great Rough Guide series, Nuru Kane’s latest and a whole lot more. I should get around to grabbing their Introducing Vakoka release some day…

Incidentally I was blasting Shiyani Ngcobo’s album, Introducing, this past weekend while driving from Nice to Cannes for a night’s work at the film festival. Something about Ngcobo’s face-paced, almost frenetic, finger picking went well with the rolling hills of the Côte d’Azur on a Sunday evening. I guess there isn’t much that doesn’t go well with Mediterranean sunsets and women in ball gowns.

You can grab this album on Calabash - highly recommended.

Shiyani Ngcobo - Izangoma

Benn loxo listener, curm, asked in the comments of the last post whether young people were still producing guitar highlife in Ghana. The general consensus seems to be: not much.

That said, highlife influence still pops up in contemporary releases every now and again. For example, CC Smith recently hooked me up with a copy of the Occidental Brothers Dance Band International’s latest release. This Chicago-based band led by guitarist Nathaniel Braddock has an old-school African sound that incorporates elements of highlife, soukous and rumba, plus some contemporary twists.

There have been a lot of bad highlife, rumba and African salsa revival bands, particularly synth-based ones in the mid-80s, but the Occidental Brothers pull it off. The guitar work is spot on and they lay on some subtle effects to get that 1960s recording feel to the music as well.

This kind of contemporary throwback to classic West African music also serves as a nice tribute to one of its pioneers, Nigerian highlife legend Chief Steven Osita Osadebe. He passed away last week at the age of 71. The influence of his music obviously lives on.

Occidential Brothers Dance Band International - Komokosaka
Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe - Onu Kwulunjo

Lately I’ve really been into the Bokoor Beats compilation by Professor John Collins.

Professor Collins has been active in the Ghanaian music scene since the late 60s. He’s not a Ghana native but has lived there for over 30 years and continues to be an important member of the musical community.

Over the years his Bokoor Studios in Accra has recorded hundreds of afrobeat, electric highlife and palmwine musicians. He’s worked with people you’ve heard here before, like TO Jazz. His own Bokoor Band also had some great releases in the 1970s, including one of the tracks I’ll post today.

Bokoor Beats is a collection of some of these remastered releases. You can grab it on Calabash - a definite must have for afrobeat, highlife and palmwine fans.

Bokoor Band - Onukpa Scwarpo
TO Jazz - Onam Bebe Basa

Last night I went to a great Cowboys Fringants show at the Elysée Montmartre. A little blast from home.. though there weren’t exactly many Canadian flags in sight.

Most of you are probably familiar with many Québecois’ ill-fated struggle for independence from Canada. As a friend put it last night, “I totally understand why they want to leave, but at the same time I really hope they stay.” That pretty much sums up my feelings on the matter, especially as (one of the few) English Canadians who can speak French well. Either way, after two referendum losses it doesn’t look like Canada is going to lose Québec any time soon. Tant mieux…

The Igbo people of the Biafran region in south-eastern Nigeria also had a hard go at separation, but they didn’t exactly get the benefit of referendums and peaceful dialog. Instead, the Biafran war for independence was one of the more gruesome conflicts in recent African history.

Biafra actually existed as a self-proclaimed independent republic for about three years, from 1967 until 1970. It never got officially recognized by enough countries, however, and Nigeria had the big-guy backing of the UK and the Soviet Union.

Nigeria eventually reclaimed the territory by blocking all access to supplies, notably food. Thousands (maybe millions - no one really knows) died as a result of the blockade and the Biafrans were forced into surrender.

It may seem a bit extreme to do a musical pairing of Igbo and Quebecois music, but the two cultures share a lot in common: a history of feeling repressed by a very culturally different majority and an ongoing, low-level fight for independence.

I don’t know the name of the Oriental Brothers track. Can anyone identify it?

Oriental Brothers - Unknown
Les Cowboys Fringants - Les Etoiles Filantes

This weekend a good friend from university stopped by Paris for a night. Big flashbacks from life in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as we talked about old college people and places.

Some musical memories: that bluegrass band, The Hurtin’ Unit, practicing in my basement. (They now live on, at least in part, in Zurich, Switzerland.) Watching Buck 65 rap in ice cream parlours (that doubled as an NFB film screening room) before he got big. Sneaking onto a parked train to beatbox with Choclair’s entourage (while dressed as a ninja). Letting Becky gently rock my soul (before splitting a bottle of Jack or, even better, some Carlo Rossi). Seeing Adam discreetly hold it down on his double bass (at the now defunct Hell, right beside my favourite local brewery). Feeling (and witnessing) the hurt of Tyler’s lady love through his music (as we crack jokes about his high profile in the Buddhist Mafia).

Hence today’s musical pairing:

Tyler Messick is an old friend from college who should soon be releasing a new album with the Museum Pieces. Today’s track comes off his first album, Grain Sales of 1840, featuring the aforementioned Becky and Adam.

Muntu Valdo is a French-Cameroonian singer/songwriter who’d fit right in on stage with a bunch of these Halifax throwbacks.

Muntu Valdo - Leta
Tyler Messick - Little Love Too

I’ve been scanning hundreds of albums for the last 30 minutes desperately trying to remember the name of a 1960s American rock band. It’s on the tip of my tongue.. I can hear the song.. I can even see the song- an awkward, mid-1960s southern American singer with a high-pitched voice. It’s just not coming to me.

Luckily, Ibrahim Hamma Dicko’s voice also reminds me a lot of Neil Young. (And, by extension, My Morning Jacket, but I’ll leave that for the indie blogs.)

I’m always on the look-out for good mixtape pairings. You know what I mean- when that song slips into the next “like a bee to the motherhive.” Back when I used to take the time to properly mix it was all about levels, style and BPM.. less so now. But the order of the tracks is still very important. I remember a particularly successful mix many years back where The Zombies slid effortlessly into the Thievery Corporation which then fed some French female rnb. Suddenly someone from my father’s generation is grooving to downtempo that they’d otherwise never think to touch.

Similarly, I love the mental transition that happens when, say, I’m listening to Ibrahim Hamma Dicko and feeling like I’m on a bus in the middle of Mali. Suddenly, Heart of Gold comes on and I’m back in my parents car on a 24hr road-trip to the Atlantic for a camping trip. Both great road trips, both now part of my travel memory soundtrack.

What are your favourite African roadtrip tunes? Aside, of course, from “Youssou N’Dour: Live at Bercy”: the unofficial Only Tape Allowed in Senegalese taxis and buses.

Ibrahim Hamma Dicko - Badi Tiba
Neil Young - Heart Of Gold

A few years ago some friends and I had the bright idea to organize a roadtrip from Dakar to The Gambia at 3am. Anyone who’s worked the 7-places circuit around West Africa can tell you that negotiating the price of a bush taxi in the dark corners of a large gare routière is never a good idea in the middle of the night.

We ended up getting partially mugged by a large and rather talentless gang of pickpockets after our first taxi drove us deeper into the dark corners of the station instead of out onto the road. These kinds of situations are rarely dangerous in West Africa but they can certainly delay your departure.

Once we got out of that situation we found another ride outside the station. Unfortunately about 500m into our new trip we had to punch the driver and pull up his parking brake in the middle of the highway so we could escape. You see, he was driving us in a circle, back into the same group of thieves who this time seemed a little more prepared, while trying to physically restrain us from opening the door. We managed to get out and hop over the guard rail where, miraculously, another taxi was coming the other way. Unfortunately this chauffeur was very drunk and demanded a bribe to take us away from the angry, approaching gare routière crew.

A couple quick and loud negotiations later and we eventually made it to a hotel who sheltered us for about an hour while we tried to get the cops to chase away the taxi dudes (patiently waiting for us outside at this stage). However, as so often happens in these situations, the cops were less than helpful. The whole affair lasted until near morning. At the end of it we were out a couple bucks but still had (most) belongings and no injuries. Everyone was in high spirits so, of course, we flagged another taxi, piled in, and drove down to The Gambia as the sun rose.

One exploding tire at 120km/h and one large box of red wine consumed by our third and non-evil chauffeur later and we were at the border crossing, safe and sound.

The bottom line: ça dépend du chauffeur. (It depends on the driver.) So much of life in West Africa comes down to small truths like this.

Papson - Ça depend
Lenny Kravitz - Mr. Cab Driver

Lately I’ve been in a bit of a Benn loxo lull. I haven’t heard much new music from Africa that’s inspired me to write. Could be I’ve reached a temporary saturation point.

Or maybe it’s the incredible 26-degree Paris spring, busy schedule at work with elections and imminent French sporting events and plain laziness on my part. Who knows. For a moment there I even considered the idea of throwing in the towel and starting a new project. Obscure and deliciously wonderful French pop from the 50-70s comes to mind.

But, as always, I woke up the other day, pounded through a playlist of several dozen unlistened albums by African artists and suddenly found myself with another 20-odd reasons to post. That and this site continues to bring me loads of new music and, more importantly, contact with a whole load of interesting people I’d never have met. So hey. I’m back.

A certain Marie Louise Congo suggested I try some new angles. Western and African musical pairings have also got lots of attention on this site, so why not go with that for a bit:

The Malagasy have always known how to rock, and D’Gary is no exception. As one of his producers it, “D’Gary is a monster guitarist.”

That riff at the beginning of one of the track’s I’ll post today, Politikinao Nahoda, is awesome.

D’Gary sounds distinctly Malagasy. I don’t know what it is most contemporary Malagasy groups share in terms of a common sound, but it’s always easy to pick one out. The scales, the rhythms and, when they sing, that amazing singing style. You might have heard what I mean here before: Tao Ravao, Senge, Rajery, Tarika and more. (I’m a self-confessed fan of music from this part of the world.)

Today’s pick comes from D’Gary’s 2001 release, Akata Meso.

Pairing this tune with a Western guitar rock song was easy. No question: Jealous Again off The Black Crowes’ classic 1990 release, Shake Your Money Maker.

ps- respect to Hatim if you’re reading this down in Madagascar. Hope all is well.

D’Gary - Politikinao Nahoda
The Black Crowes - Jealous Again

Been busy with the French elections and enjoying the out of control amazing French weather of late. I’m back, though, with about 600 new tracks to dig through, select and post for the Benn loxo crowd.

In 2003, Ben Herson and Daniel Cantor of Nomadic Wax headed to Dakar with a mobile studio. They spread the word that anyone who wanted to lay down a rap track could come record with them.

Three years of post-production later we finally have the second African Underground release from Nomadic Wax, Depths of Dakar.

You might have heard the first African Underground volume on Benn loxo back in May, 2005. This first release was the product of Ben’s 2000 thesis on the influence of hiphop on Senegalese culture. Until recently, it was the easily one the best produced compilations of Senegalese hiphop available.

Since then the production quality of West African hiphop has stepped-up a notch, particularly in places like Senegal and Nigeria. That said, Depths of Dakar continues Nomadic Wax’s tradition of showing us how amazing West African hiphop can sound with the right attention. Many of the rappers featuring on both volumes are previously unknown, young talents on the Dakar scene who shine when mixed with Ben and Daniel’s beats and productions.

Check-out africanunderground.com for more information.

Sen Kumpa - Niawal