I was in Brussels last weekend for the 3-day Couleur Café music festival. It was my third Couleur Café – it’s becoming a bit of a tradition.

If you’ve never been you should definitely check it out next year. I think the venue is changing in a couple years, so next year will be your last chance to check-out the festival at Tour et Taxi, a great festival grounds on the edge of Brussels. It’s apparently moving to the Atomium or thereabouts.. we’ll see how that works out. (Is there still that hilariously frightening Charlemaine Palestine exhibit of weird puppets inside the Atomium?)

The music at Couleur Café is always good, the event is well-organized, you eat well, the weather is inevitably sunny – at least every year I’ve been – and Brussels is a very fun place to spend a weekend if you know/meet the right people. A big plus is that Couleur Café, like Solidays in Paris but minus the attitude, is in a city instead of a muddy field somewhere.

The line-up this year was pretty good. You can never see everyone at these festivals, especially if you’re going to survive the million chopes in the uncharacteristically hot, sunny Belgian weather, but I did manage to catch quite a few good shows.

Today we’ll hear some music from some of this year’s highlights including Bibi Tanga, Asian Dub Foundation, Khaled, Alpha Blondy, Patrice, Cesaria Evora and the Kasai All-Stars.

I didn’t know Bibi Tanga before the festival – great show. Asian Dub Foundation put on a good, loud and sweaty set as usual. Patrice really rocked the crowd. Unfortunately for me, the Kasai All-Stars set had some of the worst sound I’ve ever heard. I was really looking forward to seeing them but the show was almost unlistenable due to bad mixing, bad mics.. oh well. Alpha Blondy was, well, an Alpha Blondy show with plenty of smoke in the air and dazed franco-reggae youth in the sun. Cesaria Evora looked like she’d seen a ghost or suffered a stroke, but her music still goes so well with the nice weather. (And no, Hocus Pocus didn’t actually play with her. That’s just a 20syl remix I like.. a nod to the Paris hiphop scene.) And we all know that Khaled is classic.

There was much, much more – some that I saw, much that I didn’t – but that’s enough for a big weekend. I’m still tired but Couleur Café is well worth the trip every year.

Big love to the whole Belgium crew – always a pleasure to see you guys.

PS Happy Canada Day!

Bibi Tanga – It’s The Earth That Moves
Asian Dub Foundation – Flyover
Alpha Blondy – Brigadier Sabary
Cesaria Evora – Petit Pays (20syl remix)
Kasai Allstars – Quick As White
Patrice – Fear Rules
Khaled – Raba Raba

A belated dewenati / happy new year to everyone.

After a month-long break Benn loxo is back. I hope you all had a nice holiday season.

Lately I’ve been reading a great book by Gary Stewart, Rumba on the River. It covers the history of 20th century Congolese popular music on both sides of the river, mainly in what are today known as Brazzaville and Kinshasa. Even if you have only a passing interest in Congolese music I really recommend this book. It’s an entertaining read that packs in a lot of information while still managing to tell an engaging story.

Aside from now knowing a large chunk of the groups involved, I’m no expert in the cultural and social history of Congolese music. One thing I certainly didn’t know is how much of a role Congo’s Greek community played in the development of popular music. Almost all of Congo’s greatest stars such as Franco, Dr. Nico, Rochereau, Essous, Kalle and others got their start in Kinshasa and Brazzaville’s Greek-run studios, clubs and labels throughout the 40s, 50s and 60s.

Much like with the Lebanese of West Africa and Indians of East Africa, Congo had a wave of immigration from European political trouble spots during the first half of the 20th century. Many young Greeks had fled the post-WWI troubles of the Greco-Turkish and Greco-Italian wars at home in search of adventure, stability and business opportunities. Plenty arrived on the banks of the Congos.

For reasons that are still not entirely clear to me many of these young Greeks took an interest in the local popular music of the time. Skeptics might argue that they were in it for the money, but starting a successful record label in mid-century Congo wasn’t exactly a guaranteed get-rich-quick scheme. You had to like the music to take the risk. Regardless, by the early 50s nearly every record label and studio in Kinshasa and Brazzaville was run by Greeks. Names like Olympia, Ngoma, Opika and Loningisa, all Greek-run, will all be familiar to Congolese music enthusiasts.

I found myself wondering: what kind of music were these young Greeks listening to back home before they arrived in Congo?

Some help from my friends at Calabash Music (which has been down for a few days, what’s up?) plus a little armchair research later, I offer you Rembetika: Songs of the Greek Underground. Rembetika was a style from the early to mid-20th century that would eventually evolve into Greek popular music.

You’ll hear two Greek Rembetika tracks today, the first by the famous 1930s singer, Rosa Eskenazi, the second a 1936 recording by Jorgos Batis.

It’s interesting to hear the contrast of the music that Congo’s Greek community left behind in their native country with the new sounds that they were producing in Congo. With that in mind, we’ll also hear some music from a few of era’s big stars, Kalle, Rochereau, Nico and Franco.

ps- there’s been much buzz lately about Matthew Lavoie’s African music blog on Voice of America. Great tunes from a humbling musical archive and wealth of knowledge.

Rosa Eskenazy – Eimai Prezakias
Jorgos Batis – Zoula se mia varka bika
O.K. Jazz – On entre OK on sort KO
Orchestre African Jazz – Merengue Fafa
Kalle and Rochereau – Afrika Mokili Mobimbi

Another disc that arrived in the Stern’s package the other day was one I’ve been meaning to buy for a few months: Ken Braun’s compilation of Tabu Ley Rochereau’s music, The Voice of Lightness. It’s even better than I anticipated.

Tabu Ley Rochereau was born Pascal Emmanuel Sinamoyi Tabou in Belgian Congo in 1940. The liner notes taught me that Rochereau earned his name as a boy in Catholic school when he successfully named Colonol Pierre Denfert-Rochereau as a French hero in the Franco-Prussian war. His classmates found that hilarious, so the name stuck.

The compilation covers Tabu Ley’s career throughout the 1960s and 70s, including his work with African Jazz, African Fiesta, Afrisa International and Onaza.

I’d never heard Aon Aon, the first track I’ll post today. Amazing.

The second track, Savon OMO, isn’t necessarily my favourite on the compilation but anyone who has lived in Africa will know why I picked it. Ah, the heady scent of OMO on my badly washed clothes. N’daye of the purple brasier, where are you now?

My favourite track on the compilation is probably Karibou ya Bintou, but I’ll leave that for you to discover on your own…

Tabu Ley Rochereau – Aon Aon
Tabu Ley Rochereau – Savon Omo

Ooh.. a big package from Stern’s arrived yesterday.

A Benn loxo listener suggested that I have a listen to a new collection of Dar Es Salaam star Maestro King Kiki’s rumba from the 70s and 80s, Maestro of Tanzania.

It’s a great collection. My only gripe is the production quality; so much of what is going on in the background is hard to make-out because the levels and acoustics are all over the place. Still, a fun listen.

King Kiki is actually Congolese but he’s one of Tanzania’s most popular musicians from the older generation. We’ve been sort of working a Congolese music in other countries vibe recently, so King Kiki fits nicely into the mix.

I would tell you more but the lack of liner notes and my general lack of east coast African music knowledge leaves me hanging. Once again, I ask the more-knowledgeable-than-I Benn loxo listeners to fill us in.

And thanks for the tips- they keep my collection growing.

Maestro King Kiki – Salza

Here’s another Orchestra Mode Succès track, this time from the fourth volume of the Innovation series.

Does any have any of the other volumes? From reading the AfricanAmbiance forum it looks like there are nine in total.

I wanted to take a moment this morning to direct you to Likembe if you haven’t found it yet. John B’s African music blog is easily the best out there. His collection and depth of knowledge are impressive, plus the blog makes for a nice read. John has taught me lots and his music is consistently great. He’s helped fill me in numerous times for Benn loxo posts as well, so we can all thank him for that.

ps- thanks, Africaruge

Orchestre Mode Succès – Je peux attraper hypertension