African minerals.
When the owner of the coppermine of Mangura in Zimbabwe in the seventies bought a set of new instruments and was looking for musicians to entertain the workers, Zambian trumpet player Daram Karangawas just returning from a tour with the The O.K Success in Mali to visit his father in Mangura, who worked as a safety worker for the mines. After he had drummed up the Malawian guitarist Elisha Josam and Zimbabwean singer Thomas Mapfumoand they had found a day job at a local chicken coop, the Hallelujah Chicken Run Band was born (see photo above). In 2001 Ethiopian Jewish refugees Yayehe Smon and his father Mehari left Israel and returned to the ethnic state Amhara in Ethiopia, where they recorded music made in the city and at the coast in the same year. Also recorded in a coastal town, but in Baraawe in Somalia, is the music from the album ‘Jamiila: Songs from a Somali City’. Yankuba Saho is a famous traditional Mandinka griot, but prefers the term ‘jáli’, who plays the kora – a string instrument made from a large gourd, and sings songs to praise his patrons and entertain them at weddings and christening parties. Mali’s biggest diva Oumou Sangare calls herself ‘Sangare kono’ or ‘Sangare the songbird’. Calling yourself a songbird is the privilege of musicians that are from the southern region known as Wassoulou. Also Sali Sidibé is one of the most popular Wassoulou singers from Mali and will shine together with the grandmother of the raï, the popular Algerian singer Cheikha Rimitti in this African episode of World Minerals. The stationmaster of Bamako realized that his patrons needed amusement after businessmen streamed into the city after the overturn of Modibo Keita, the first socialistic president of Mali and in 1969 urged trumpet player and saxophone player Tidiani Koné to set up a band that would perform in the garden of the hotel and of course got the name Rail Band. The flourishing years for Guinean music were undoubtedly the late sixties and seventies, when the cultural policy of Sekou Toure and his totalitarian regime sponsored modern and traditional musical groups, like the Horoya band. ‘Tsapika’ has grown from dance music that was only played on the ‘kabosy’ – a guitar formed like a box – at every celebration in the poor rural south of Madagascar, to rough pop, made on electric guitars in coastal towns and mining camps. For more background information you can go to the website Zwerfstenen.
Playlist:
CD Jamiila: Songs from a Somali City 1987, Original Music OMCD 007
1. Yaabint – Amin Xaaji Cusmaan & Nuur Maxamed “Curuba”
CD Sleeping in the Market: Ethiopian Music &Sounds from Amhara 2005, Latitude o 04 o
2. Bale Ageru – Habetamo
CD Le World… Raï 2001, Suave 6942 008
3. Jablia – Rimitti
CD Yankuba Saho & The National Ensemble of TheGambia 1995, InRespect IR 29522
4. Jola Practicing – Yankuba Saho & The National Ensemble of The Gambia
CS Wale Gnouma Don, Kabako Soundi KBK910
5. Wale Gnovma Don – Sali Sidibe
CD Oumou 2003, World Circuit WCD067
6. Ah Ndiya – Oumou Sangare
CD Mansa 2008, Stern’s Music STCD 3039-40
7. Mansa (Mory Kanté) – Rail Band
CD Paya-Paya, Coast to Coast CTC-2990431
8. Paya-paya – Horoya Band
CS Madagascar – Various Tsapika Crazy! Lo-Fi High Energy, onbekend
9. Samonina – Tsodrano
CD Yankuba Saho & The National Ensemble of The Gambia 1995, InRespect IR 29522,
10. Jola Practicing – Yankuba Saho & The National Ensemble of The Gambia
