Who knew that the day would finally come when Charlotte Dada was revealed: http://combandrazor.blogspot.com/2009/05/charlotte-dada-revealed.html

You know it’s the only track that I never remove from this blog?

Many thanks to With Comb & Razor for this precious late night Sunday moment. I feel like we should throw a party. Wait, we will! I don’t want to steal the fire by re-posting Ms. Daddah.. so let’s celebrate another way.

While Charlotte’s Don’t Let Me Down may still be the unofficial theme song of Benn loxo du taccu, Maître Gazonga’s “Les Jaloux Saboteurs” is in many ways the theme song to my life.

First featured on Benn loxo in 2005 (thanks, Mr. Bida), this song-of-songs has rocked dance floors at parties in Bolivia, Ireland, China, Canada, France, Senegal and elsewhere. It broke a dance floor outside of Galway and brought everyone to their feet in La Paz. It’s a standard now in Paris and rung in the New Year in Toronto.

Friends, if there is any way to celebrate the Finding of Charlotte it is by dancing to Maître Gazonga.

As Franco once said to Sam Mangwana, “on danse!”

Maitre Gazonga – Les Jaloux Saboteurs

I’m determined to eventually get a post in for every single Original Music release. I know that many of you, or at least those who read often, may already have these albums, but bear with me. It’s a personal goal to collect and post a sample from every album in the OM catalog.

Today’s picks come from Original Music’s 17th release, Mbuki Mvuki. It’s a compilation of, in their words, “terrestrial hits from the catalog”. So if you’re not into running around, collecting every release, this album is a good sampler of much of what the label offered.

According to the liner notes, Mbuki Mvuki is Bantu for “to shuck off one’s clothes in order to dance.” I don’t know about you, but that’s what we’re doing here in our Paris apartment this sunny Saturday morning.. dancing, possibly with some by-request Diana Ross thrown into the mix, coffee in hand.

Three of my favourite tracks off the compilation from Ghana, Tanzania and Nigeria. Enjoy your Sunday.

Professional Uhuru – Madzi Me Sigya
Salim Abdullah – Wanawake Wa Tanzania
New Star Orchestra – Olefaya Loko

Today we have the fifth edition of the Highlife Turntable by Benn loxo listener, ubulujaja:

For this volume of the highlife turntable I have selected three Ghanaian tracks to feature.

The first song is Meyee Owuo Den by the group Nana Takyi and his sunkwa international band. The song is off the mid 70′s release Maria. The tight interplay between the vocalists and the extended guitar playing are the things to check out. The word Sunkwa means “Cry for Life” in Twi. Sterns Music used to carry an Atakora Manu CD called Sunkwa that had the same kind of up tempo pop Ghanaian musical style.

I am still grooving on Bob Cole’s music and this track, which I found on his late 70′s release Highlife Akwantua LP, is called Amanfo. The song has the same great boisterousness that I have found in other songs by Bob Cole and the piano playing really stands out. Check-out the solo piano at the opening sequence and then the jump style call-and-response the piano gets into with the horns later in the song. As always, the backup vocals are impeccable. I think the term Amanfo refers to a Ghanaian tribe or cultural group.

The last song is Ahafo KuKuom by the great T.O. Jazz off his LP, Agyapa Ye. I liked the rootsy quality of the vocals and the punchy backbeat.

I hope you like the music.

Thanks, ubulujaja. Great music, as always.

Nana Takyi and his Sunkwa International Band – Meyee owuo den
Bob Cole – Amanfo
T.O. Jazz of Ghana – Ahafo Kukuom

One of my favourite Benn loxo readers, one who is responsible for introducing me to a lot of the music on this site, recently turned me on to Ignace De Souza.

Ignace De Souza is one of the those forgotten greats of West African music who was very influencial in his day. To give you an idea, in the liner notes of an Original Music compilation of his music, John Storm Robers credits De Souza’s track, Ole, as being the first afrobeat recording.

Originally from Benin, De Souza got his first big start when he got a gig playing sax with Alfa Jazz, who John Collins credits as being the first professional dance band in Benin. In later years De Souza moved to Ghana and played with several groups before forming his own. By the mid-60s, De Souza and Black Santiagos had become quite popular and began introducing Congo music to Ghana.

While a lot of the music on this Original Music comp sound pretty much like what you’d expect from the time and place they were recorded, there are several stand-out tracks. Two come to mind: Asaw Fofor for a 1960s chase scene and Anyenko for laid-back, “protofunk” summer music.

Unfortunately, great things never last. Does anyone know why the Black Santiagos split? Either way, in 1970 De Souza left Ghana before eventually settling in Lagos where he played with the house band at the Ritz Hotel. (I can’t help but associated this last bit with an image of Murph and the Murphtones at a Holiday Inn in the film The Blues Brothers.)

ps- you can still buy this album at Stern’s.

Ignace De Souza – Asaw Fofor
Ignace De Souza – Anyenko
Ignace De Souza – Ole

A while ago the people at ThrillJockey got in touch about the band Extra Golden, collaboration between the Nairobi-based benga band, Orchestra Extra Solar Africa, and the a Washington D.C. rock group named Golden.

I was happy to find that I quite like their music, especially since there really aren’t that many American bands that work African music into their sound with any great success. It usually sounds forced and incongruent, with few exceptions. In contrast, Extra Golden’s sound works well to my ears.

Extra Golden got its start when Ian Eagleson was doing doctoral research in Kenya on the history of benga music between 2002-2004. Orchestra Extra Solar’s guitarist, Otieno Jagwasi, was helping Ian with his research.

Ian returned to Nairobi in 2004 and the two finally starting putting some music together. They recruited local drummer, Onyango Wuod Omari, and Ian brought along a Golden band member, Alex Minoff.

Most of the album was apparently recorded during a single whirlwind session in a Nairobi nightclub. The result is a spontaneous-sounding record with a fresh Western rock-Kenyan benga fusion that actually works.

Extra Golden’s second album, Hera Ma Nono, is coming out on October 9th. It’s as good as their first – check-out the track Obama posted below. My favourite off their first release is the title track, Ok-Oyot System. The song title comes from the Luo expression, ok-oyot, which means “it’s not easy”.

It certainly wasn’t easy for the members of Extra Golden. During the recording process Otieno Jagwasi fell sick and eventually died of complications related to HIV. At around the same time Ian Eagleson had a run-in with the cops in Nairobi and apparently had to pay large sums of cash to stay out of jail.

Despite all this the band persevered and continues to play and record. I’m hoping to catch them live at some stage following their upcoming release.. sounds like they’d be fun live.

Extra Golden – Ok-Oyot System
Extra Golden – Obama

More today from the seemingly endless of supply of great music on the Original Music series.

Today’s tracks come from the compilation, I’ve Found My Love: 1960′s Guitar Band Highlife of Ghana.

“King” Kwabena Onyina is one of the unsung heroes of Ghanaian guitar band highlife. He was well-known in his native Ghana during the 1950s, 60s and 70s for his guitar playing, great voice and catchy songwriting.

The “King” bit is a title he earned from winning a guitar competition in 1961. (You can thank the unsung hero of African music reviews, Banning Eyre, for that factoid.)

I know nothing about the Royal Brothers. Anyone care to fill us in?

Have a nice weekend.

King Onyina – Manya Me Dofo
Royal Brothers – Ohia Woa Enwu

A couple weeks ago Benn loxo reader, Andrew, hooked me up with a couple more precious Original Music compilations. Man, they’re always such a step above pretty much anything else out there covering the same eras.

Telephone Lobi is a compilation of 1960s Ghanaian danceband highlife released in 1995 by Original Music. The Lobi, by the way, are an ethnic group who speak a language of the same name in Ghana. They’re known for fiercely resisting French colonialism back in the day… with poisoned arrows. Ouch.

Anyway, for today’s post I picked a track by the Red Spots that I love, a track by the Professional Beach Melodians because they have an amazing name, and a third by Police Band #1 because they also have an amazing name plus I think we should all dance on this rainy day.

We’ve been posting danceband highlife and Original Music tracks on Benn loxo since ’04 so I won’t bore you with the details. But remember: they’re out of print so grab ‘em whenever you can.

As it happens, the music on Telephone Lobi goes really well with another, totally different, group I’ve been into lately: Quantic. I’m really bummed I can’t make their show at the Maroquinerie on June 30th. If you’re in Paris it’s a must-see. But hey, I’ll be somewhere between Argentina and Bolivia, so who’s complaining!

Red Spots – Oya Ke Me
Professional Beach Melodians “Uhuru No. 2″ – Akwantu
Police Band #1 – Me Ye Fun
Quantic – When You’re Through

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

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