more Fela Kuti -”Monkey Banana” on Coconut Records, Nigeria 1975

thanks for all the comments and requests for more Fela Kuti. You have asked for it so here it is; a rare 12″ released by Coconut Records in 1975 in Nigeria. The 12″ features the track “Sense Wiseness” on the B-side.

Fela Kuti & Africa 70 Organization -Monkey Banana

Fela Kuti & Africa 70 Organization -Monkey Banana/Sense Wiseness

Coconut Records PMLP 1001 -Nigeria 1975

see also my previous post  Fela Kuti -the black President -Yellow Fever -Decca Afrodisia 1976 and Fela Anikulapo Kuti & Africa 70 Organization on Kalakuta Records Nigeria

All pictures by Bernard Matussiere -November 28th 1983

FELA KUTI & AFRICA 70 MONKEY BANANA

Fela Anikulapo Kuti & Africa 70 Organization on Kalakuta Records Nigeria -1977

I can remember the night of the concert by Fela Kuti in Amsterdam on 28 November 1983 in Paradiso, the great temple of pop, like it was yesterday.  Everyone in Amsterdam and within the borders of  Holland who loved African music must have been there as it was sold out, with many people outside trying to get in.

It seemed like  some royalty was in town  for a visit. The hall was packed and it took a long time before the show began. The audience was getting restless, whipped up by the hot Afro-beat that the DJ  played beforehand, and after much cheering and applause the stage was finally lit. Or rather, a follow spot captured a naked woman painted in bright war paint who entered the stage on hands and feet, chained to the neck drawing another six or seven slaves with her in captivity. These women were the wives of Fela Kuti who held  the chain around their necks tightly.

The band started this hypnotic Afro-beat; the song “Political Statement Number 1″ and Fela took place behind the organ, sang and played soprano sax. Not at the same time but stretched out over a three hour set. The dancers and the band whipped each other into a frenzy until the man behind the microphone started “Sorrow, Tears & Blood”. Fela with his entourage glowed in the dark.

The room was boiling, the crowd delirious, the show transcended the regular program of standard performances into a very intense experience, it felt like a spiritual political meeting with Fela Kuti as high priest, as a leader.

This unique concert was recorded from the mixing desk at the night, mixed in London by Dennis Bovell and later released as the album “Music Is The Weapon” in 1984.

I will present the complete album in a following post so here today I propose an early 12” that was originally released in Nigeria by Kalakuta Records  in 1977. This disc features one of the biggest hits by Fela Kuti, then still performing under the name ‘Africa 70 Organization‘;  ‘Sorrow, Tears & Blood’ and ‘Colonial Mentality’ 

The label does not mention any titles or credits but the name of the artist and label info.

Fela Kuti & Africa 70 Organization -Colonial Mentality

Fela Anikulapo Kuti & Africa 70 Organization – Kalakuta Records Nigeria KK001 -1977

see also my previous post  Fela Kuti -the black President -Yellow Fever -Decca Afrodisia 1976

All pictures by Bernard Matussiere- November 28th 1983

Fela Kuti -the black President -Yellow Fever -Decca Afrodisia 1976

he died in 1997 at the age of 59, leaving behind an imperishable work of musical genius, more modern than ever. He developed his own style which evolved over the years into a separate genre of music, Afro-beat.

Through his music, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, unanimously recognized as king of Afro-beat, was renown to pass messages through his music that were both spiritual and anti-government.

Overcoming the countless brutality he was subjected to during his life, Fela was unquestionably the voice the most famous and most effective of the African cause around the world. The many tours that he undertook in Europe and the United States have contributed crucially to know, recognize and appreciate the music and culture of Africa and Nigeria in particular.

In a sarcastic style that belongs only to him, Fela condemned Africans unable to fight for their rights as men in that typical mix of Yoruba and Pidgin English.

Yellow Fever

some Africans use all sorts of chemicals to lighten their skin, so it is the closest possible to the skin color of  a white person and  this practice is called ‘yellow fever’.

Fela condemns this practice in the song ‘ Yellow Fever’  first and foremost to demonstrate a denial of the pride of being Black and second because it is like a disease such as jaundice or malaria.

Fela Anikulapo Kuti & The Africa 70 -Yellow Fever

lyrics ‘Yellow Fever’

Different different fever na him dey

Malaria fever nko?

Hay fever nko?

Inflation fever nko?

Jundis fever nko?

Freedom fever nko?

Yellow fever nko?

na him dey bring the matter now he dey

I say tell dem make dem hear you say

all fever na sickness -original sickness

malaria na sickness -original sickness

hay fever na sickness -original sickness

inflation na sickness -original sickness

influenza na sickness -original sickness

jundis na sickness -original sickness

freedom na sickness -original sickness

yellow fever nko? say original and artificial he dey

 

Original catch you, your eyes go yellow, your face go go yellow, your body go weak.

But later if you no die inside, the yellow fever go fade away

Artificial catch you, you be man or woman na you go catch am yourself.

Na your money go do am for you.

You go yellow pass yellow. You go get moustache for face.

You go get your double colour. Your yansh go black like coal.

You self go think say you dey fine. Who say you fine?

Na lie you no fine at all at all na lie

my sister who say you fine?

yellow fever you dey bleach you dey bleach

Sisi wey dey go you dey bleach you dey bleach

stupid thing, yeye thing, ugly thing, fucking thing

now let’s get down to the on the ground spiritual game

everybody etc…

 from the album Yellow Fever -Fela Anikulapo Kuti & The Afrika 70 -Decca Afrodisia 1976 (DWAPS 2004)

All pictures by Bernard Matussiere taken in Amsterdam November 28th 1983

Congo Jazz -Blue Flamingo -1950s Congolese Rumba

The CD “Congo Jazz”  consists of three different parts centered around American hot jazz, Congolese rumba, and gospel. The title is rather misleading, as if the whole collection of music on this CD contains Congolese jazz but this style is only one part of this compilation. The release comes with an extensive booklet describing the music but without a track-list of the artists and titles. This is a major flaw as it is frustrating to listen to music without the possibility of checking the artist or title. A true collector would definitely have added this information. It took me quite some deep diggin’ to find the track-list of the featured mix and I want to add it to this post.

Anyway, I can recommend this CD, it is  an excellent compilation despite the missing track-list. The 78 shellac discs have been mastered and mixed together in sets. The atmosphere and the build-up  is addictive, the chosen music reflects good taste and style. Certainly a valuable addition to a collection of rare African -and early Afro-American- music.

Ziya Ertekin alias Blue Flamingo -Photo: Jan van der Ven

Ziya Ertekin alias Blue Flamingo, born out of Dutch and Turkish parents,  is responsible for this remarkable compilation of rare and sometimes one-off discs. As a collector he hunts for the forgotten sounds and styles from all over the world. He is also a musician and DJ who plays 78 rpm shellac discs at parties and events.

The compilation presents 3 mixes ‘Jungle Crawl’ (1920′s-1930′s Hot Jazz Jungle Exotica), ‘Congo Jazz’ (1950′s Congolese Rumba), ‘That Old Time Religion’ (1930′s-1950′s Jubilee, Gospel & Hard Gospel). The ‘Congo Jazz’ mix is composed from original 78-rpm shellac discs from the former Belgian Congo, where, under the influence of the Cuban son and rumba, one of Africa’s first modern popular music arose.

CONGO JAZZ (1950s Congolese Rumba)

8. Intro: CONGO DANCES ARE VERY GAY AFFAIRS
9. LA FIESTA CUBANA – Tino Baroza
10. BOLINGO E GAGNE – Orchestre African Jazz
11. BANA T’ATOMIC JAZZ – Kaba Joseph & le Groupe Rythmique Ngoma
12. CANTA DEL NEGRO – Tchade. Mariola & Oliveira
13. ELIE VIOLETTE – Orchestre African Jazz
14. EL RICO CUBAN MAMBO – Orchestre Rock a Mambo

Blue Flamingo – Congo Jazz EXCEL96202

The Congolese developed a wholly unique style of guitar playing that showed great similarities to the way people played the native thumb piano. Dazzling single-note solos were melodiously plucked up and down the thumb piano. This style was perfected when the Belgian guitarist Bill Alexandre, who had performed in Europe with musicians like Django Reinhardt, tried his luck in Leopoldville, and briefly introduced the electric guitar to the region. Congolese music has produced many guitar virtuosos, including Papa Noel, Franco Luambo, Tino Baroza and the man referred to by his admirers as ‘le dieu de la guitare’; Nicolas Kasanda Wa Mikalay, better known as Docteur Nico. On the Congo Jazz -mix, a still very young Nico can be admired on the tracks ‘Boligo e Gagne‘, ‘El Rico Cuban Mambo’ and ‘Elie Violette‘.

Docteur Nico

“The foundation for modern Congolese music was laid in the 1930s, when the first 78 r.p.m. records, containing music from Latin America, reached the capitals of both Congos. These records were hugely popular with the young urban population, who were completely captivated by this music. Records had reached Central Africa before, but nowhere, not even in early jazz, was their ancestors’ legacy as clearly present as it was in the rhythms of Central and South America. It felt as if a part of Africa was returning home again. It was a homecoming that rooted deeply and fused rapidly with other Congolese traditions into something entirely authentic” 

Ngoma remains the most important Congolese record label, as well as one of the most important labels in all of Africa. It was started by two Greek brothers, Nico and Alexandros Jéronimidis, around 1948. Not only did they record well over a thousand discs, the first to capture all manner of Congolese musical styles (the rumba, cha-cha, and solo acoustic guitar picking of course), but they encouraged experimentation by their musicians. Ngoma records were pressed in France and distributed primarily in Central Africa – Congo and Cameroon especially – and as such are, well, impossible to find. Not only that, but all the Ngoma masters were long ago lost in a warehouse fire. As if that wasn’t enough, the company then donated all of its file copies to the Congolese government, only to have those destroyed during political strife.

Georges Edouard and Manuel D’Oliveira, released sometime in the late 40s-early 50s.

Edouard & Oliveira – Ngai Abuyi

source excavatedshellac

excerpts and pics from the original liner notes  of Blue Flamingo – Congo Jazz EXCEL96202

see also Origins of Guitar Music
Southern Congo and Northern Zambia, 1950-’58, recordings by Hugh Tracey

Gentlemen of Bacongo by Daniele Tamagni

as an addition to my previous post Les Sapeurs, battle of the dandies here is an interesting -and beautiful- book that deserves your attention, ‘ Gentlemen of Bacongo‘ by Daniele Tamagni (hardcover – Jun 1, 2009).

It was brought to my attention by fellow blogger A.G.Nauta Couture who wrote an interesting post on Les Sapeurs du Congo

See also this video-report from the night club Saint-Hilaire in Kinshasa in August 1967

At the same time a new fashion was emerging in the Saint-Hilaire and other clubs in Kinshasa. To dress perfectly like Europeans. It had begun 500 yards across the Congo River in Brazzaville but had spread to become a cult of elegance among young Kinshasans.

They were members of what they called La Societe des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Elegantes – Sapeurs for short. At the heart of the vision was a dream of Paris. It had started in the 1950s with trying to dress like post-war Parisian existentialists – or “existos”, but now it was all about wearing labels like Dior.

See also In pictures: Congo migrant fashion show

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excerpts from the blog by Adam Curtis 

Dances of the Salampasu, Zaire

Goodbye 2011, welcome 2012. Best wishes!

so have you enjoyed the holidays? Just like last year my visit to the colonial museum in Tervuren, Belgium was a special experience. The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) in Tervuren  is one of the most fascinating and beautiful African institutions in the world. The exhibition “UNCENSORED. Colorful stories behind the scenes”, is the last exhibition before the major renovation  begins at the end of 2012 and is your last chance to visit a traditional ’colonial museum .

elephant in the snow The Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren B

This time my interest was stirred since I received these rare recordings  as a Christmas present, made by Jos Gansemans in 1973 in Zaire, sponsored by the Royal Museum for Central Africa. The recordings come from a people called the Salampasu, which are distinguished by the use of the  xylophone, similar to the music of the  Mchopi tribe or Chopi, a Bantu-speaking people of northern Mozambique on the borders of Tanganyika. See also my previous post more African tribal dances from the Witwatersrand Gold Mines …

Mask Sakashya Makondi

Dances of the Salampasu, Zaire

The territory of the Salampasu in the south of the Kasayi province/Zaire is bordered by the Lulua and the Kasayi-rivers. Their neighbouring people are the Lunda in the South, the Kete in the north and east and the Lwalwa in the west.

Because of their bloodthirsty behaviour and because of the headhunting, in the past frequently attended by cannibalism, they became very feared. Consequently they remained a homogeneous people that succeeded in keeping its traditions, language and customs free from foreign influences.

To dance, the Salampasu dress up themselves with all kinds of skins, head-dresses and body paintings. The ritual characteristics find their best expression in the head-hunting dance matambu, the mask dances and the dances held during the healing rituals as there the Luanda, the mfuku, the utshumbu and the kabulukuta, the latter exclusively being performed by women. On the organological level they differ from the Lunda, Kete and Luba by the apparent preference they give to the xylophone madimba, the most important instrument of their orchestras.

From the liner notes of the album ‘Zaire, Musique de Salampasu’ Radio France BRT 1981 by Jos Gansemans

Zaire -Salampasu -Nazuji

Zaire -Salampasu -Sanza Ensemble

Salampasu -Misengu dance

Zaire -Salampasu -Misengu

Misengu dance

The misengu dance, Mukasa Nsaka, is one of the most impressive dances of the Salampasu.

The quantity of dancers easily amounts up to around a hundred, separated in two groups.

Now and then the groups are facing each other, they run around while dancing and threaten each other with their fightful swords, meanwhile they stamp loudly on the floor and made resound their ankle-rattles isuka. The xylophone and drum orchestra accompanying this dance is composed of four madimba xylophones, two ngoma drums beaten with the hands and two cylindrical drums ikandi on which they play with two sticks.

 Zaire -Salampasu -Kalesa

All recordings from the album ‘Zaire, Musique de Salampasu’ Radio France BRT 1981

post 150-Chimurenga & Ntone Edjabe -how an individual can make a difference

Ntone Edjabe with the Prince Claus Fund price - capital photos

South African resident writer, poet and DJ Ntone Edjabe was awarded with the prestigious Prince Claus Award during a presentation at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam on Wednesday, Dec. 14 2011.

He is now the proud winner of 100,000 Euros. It’s the icing on the cake, because the fund was supporting the South African already for some time.

Edjabe:
“For the first time we had a donor, not one who immediately demanded that we would help the malnourished children first . We could just keep making art. And we do. “

Ntone Edjabe with the Royal Family - capital photos

Her Majesty the Queen and Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Orange, Princess Máxima, Prince Friso, Princess Mabel, Prince Constantijn and Princess Laurentien attended the presentation of the Prince Claus Awards at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam on Wednesday, Dec. 14 . His Royal Highness Prince Constantijn awarded the prize of the first Pan-African magazine Chimurenga, which plays an important role in breaking taboos on the African continent. Ten other artists, thinkers, journalists and organizations including Tibet / China, Zimbabwe and Kazakhstan, were also honored for their commitment to culture and development. The Prince Claus Fund stimulates and protects all of 15 years culture and freedom of expression in the developing countries.

 

Chimurenga is an innovative, Pan African, cultural platform based in South Africa founded by Ntone Edjabe (1970, Douala, Cameroon), a writer and DJ, who attended the University of Lagos but was ‘educated’ by Nigerian musician and radical thinker Fela Kuti.

Edjabe relocated to Cape Town in 1993 and set up the Pan African Market as a space for a free flow of ideas and projects in a context marred by xenophobia. In 2002 he launched the Chimurenga magazine to stimulate original perspectives on the contemporary African experience. It offers fresh interpretations, analyses, poetry, experimental texts and visual materials by leading creative thinkers and radical practitioners in a multiplicity of disciplines from Africa and elsewhere.

Its titles include ‘Music is The Weapon’, ‘Futbol, Politricks and Ostentatious Cripples’, ‘Black Gays and Mugabes’ and ‘The Curriculum is Everything’. Chimurenga magazine’s 2,500 print-run is distributed to enthusiastic followers in African countries and internationally. Selected articles are posted on Chimurenga’s website and available as ‘pocket literature’. Making strategic use of media and collaborations, Chimurenga’s activities include two editions of the Pan African Space Station, a 30-day series of performances and radio broadcasts expanding notions of African music.

The Chimurenga Library, a unique collection of independent African cultural periodicals, is accessible online and tours as an exhibition. Chimurenga Sessions are interventions in public spaces, one notable example being a demonstration of the politics of archiving in Cape Town’s Public Library indicating connections between conventionally quarantined classes of knowledge. Chimurenga co-produces: the biennial African Cities Reader, re-interpreting urban forms, with the University of Cape Town’s African Centre for Cities; the Chimurenga Chronicle, re-examining the xenophobic violence of 2008 in a global context, with Kenya’s Kwani Trust and Nigeria’s Cassava Republic Press; and Pilgrimages, an attempt to counter media distortions through literary authors, with the Chinua Achebe Centre for African Writers and Artists.

Chimurenga’s network of cutting-edge contributors has gained an audience that includes public intellectuals, social leaders and activists who are instrumental in shaping Africa’s trajectory. Ntone Edjabe and Chimurenga are honoured for the outstanding quality, originality and impact of their productions, for challenging established definitions and segregations of knowledge and expression, for stimulating Pan African culture and development in a global context of rising xenophobia, and for their unwavering commitment to intellectual autonomy, diversity and freedom.

source Prince Clause Fund website / NRC Handelsblad 14 December 2011

see also this related post on ‘Staffrider’, an early alternative South African independent magazine

Franco & Le TPOK Jazz Live in Holland 1987

Zairean music owes its popularity to people like Franco, Rochereau and Docteur Nico. From Docteur Nico, Franco learned the modern style of guitar playing. Franco’s well-known way of playing is holding his guitar against his voluminous stomach and because high tones are beyond the reach of his deep bass he adjusts the sound of his guitar with the ‘capo dastro’.

When Franco plays one tone lower, the female dancers, La Zumarette come on stage in a floating manner, dressed in colourful clothes. They move around, swaying their hips, clapping their hands and dancing the fast dancing steps, characteristic for Zaire. By their dancing the musicians get inspired.

 Franco & Le TPOK Jazz En Hollande side A

Franco & Le TPOK Jazz En Hollande side B

In 1953, Franco got his first real guitar from his record producer at that time. In 1956, he set up his first band O.K. Jazz. After the independence of Zaire, Franco scored a hit with ‘Musumbuku’. His band grew from 9 to 37 persons and became famous as T.P.O.K. (Tout Puissant Orchestre Kinois’) Jazz. With this group he played in most African countries and also in the USA and Europe. The sales of his records were enormous. Now he has his own record company in Zaire, he owns immovable property in that country and he also owns a house in Brussels, Belgium. Besides, he is the owner of the club Un, Deux, Trois in Kinshasha, a dance-hall and a meeting place for musicians who are members of the Zairean Union of Musicians.

Franco is a dynamic and friendly person with a good sense of humour, which he assimilates in his texts. He jokes about the contact between men and women; he not only sings about love bu also about historical events in the world.

The atmosphere of his music is cheerful; a dazzling, inexhaustible show radiant with energy. In short: what you and hear is the grand “maitre” himself.

This album was recorded in Holland during the Africa Mama Festival in 1987 and features members of T.P.O.K. Jazz

Lutumba Simaro, Madilu System, Kiesse Kiambu Wanted, Malage de Lugendo, Lokombe N’bal on vocals and the well known Nigerian saxophone player Pedro.

The poet Lutumba Simaro, who has been workin together with Franco for 30 years, is also Franco’s right-hand man and his ‘chef d’orchestre’.

The album ‘Franco & Le TPOK Jazz Live in Holland’  is like a Holy Grail to most lovers of Zairean music since it is one of the rare live-recordings of Franco just a short time of his decease. Soul Safari is happy to share it with you.

There is such a great energy on this album and a memorable line-up of 24 musicians and a group of 3 dancers La Zumarette

 Franco & Le TPOK Jazz En Hollande -Africa Mama Records 87.01-1 Holland 1987

See also Francorestored

Guelewar -Halleli N’Dakarou -new Teranga Beat release

An exciting new Teranga Beat release featuring Gambian experimental/psych band, Guelewar -Halleli N’Dakarou

A supremely and spiritual experience, highly recommended!

Released 3rd October 2011

CD and LP vinyl formats available here

Readers Post -William Onyeabor- “Anything You Sow”

Today I want to share some interesting news out of Soul Safari’s mailbox; your comments, requests and music….keep sending!

here’s a hot tip from my collector friend MP Flapp from Very Good Plus

Did you spot the reissue of William Onyeabor- “Anything You Sow”? (ONYEABOR) I believe it is a bootleg. I got my copy today from Honest Jons – what a fantastic LP -stuck an odd branch in African music – the lyrics as well as the music are really a treat.

William Onyeabor was Nigerian. The other LP I’d love is called
“Atomic Bomb”. I first discovered him via the “World Psychedelic Classics 3: Love’s a Real Thing” compilation. It has the track “Better Change Your Mind” on it which is just out of this world – both lyrically and musically.

It was the friend Mark Crumbie (Baxter on VG+) who pointed me towards a download of the “Anything you Sow” LP – out of the blue the LP gets a re-issue last week. I hadn’t really looked through his discography as the first things I saw listed were those super rare LPs from Nigeria that had never been re-issued in any format. The “Anything you Sow” LP has elements of TGs “Hot on the heels of love” in the mix with low fi synch feel, but a proper funk under current.