Aug 11/07
Hookers and benga
Nice to meet yet another Benn loxo listener and a few of his friends a couple nights ago. Never hesitate to get in touch if you’re through Paris or live nearby..
Anyway, thanks to several of you I now have 23 out of the 39 Original Music releases. I hope to complete the collection at some stage so please get in touch if you’re up for a trade.
In the meantime I’ll try to keep sharing the wealth here on Benn loxo with some music from a 1996 Original Music release, Sam Chege’s Kickin’ Kikuyu Style.
As you read this I’m probably sipping Guinness, eating oysters and riding hookers.. not to mention birthing a calf somewhere. Imagine me doing this all simultaneously while singing Sam Chege. Seriously, even a dip in the cold Irish Atlantic couldn’t get this guy’s catchy, up-tempo music out of my head.
Chege is a Kenyan musician who plays benga in a fast Kikuyu style, as opposed to, say, the Luo way. His sound also has a strong soukous feel. I read a review that said it also drew upon Nigerian influences… but really? Name three.
As usual, I’m a little weak on my East Coast African music knowledge, but a little digging revealed that Chege is actually a relatively young guy, having finished his graduate studies in the US just a few years ago. He grew-up in a rural Kikuyu part of central Kenya before moving to Nairobi where he worked (or works?) as a music journalist.
Tags: kenya, kikuyu, original music
Did you hear that the famous musicien Madilu System died this morning in Kinshasa?
Yes, thanks, Gertrud. I’m not in Paris at the moment so if you or anyone else is interested in a tribute guest post that’d be great.
Not sure if you’re aware, but Chege is selling this release on CDBaby.com. so at least one catalog item is actually available new.
“New” is stretching it. A Benn loxo listener told me recently that when Original Music went bankrupt a while back, John Storm Roberts trashed stock CDs. He only later realized that he could probably sell them, and found a box of Sam Chege CDs that now pop-up once and a while online.
Matt, he definitely *didn’t* trash stock CDs. i was working for the company at the time. He sold them.
BTW, Chege is selling his own CD – that’s what CD Baby.com is about. So it’s not as if someone found a box in the trash somewhere and is pretending to be him.
So maybe your “informant” has a bit of misinformation….
Interesting. So you worked for Original Music?
Anyway, my comment should have read “his stock of CDs”, not the company’s. The “misinformation” apparently comes from a friend of his who later bought many of these JSR’s personal stock, so who knows… and really, it doesn’t matter. Good to hear that Chege is selling his CDs and I hope some Benn loxo readers like his music enough to grab a few!
yes, i did, toward the end. And I also bought copies of odds and ends that couldn’t be returned to the distributors. John even sent out catalogs of the leftovers…