musical link: Smörgåsbord VIII - you sent it in.
May 11, 2008, 10:37 pmLet me be the first person to let you all know that I am impressed and humbled.
I am impressed at the conversation that has emerged on this blog, amazed at the insight and knowledge that people coming here are sharing with others and more than anything else, I am impressed to the point of amazement about the passion that has been expressed about this music by so many of you who come hear.
I am truly truly humbled by the deep and breadth of knowledge that you have on the music, on the artists, on the context from which this music emerged and was produced. I am humbled about the way in which people have shared what part that this music has played in their lives.
Thank you one and all. For letting me provide a place where you can have these conversations and for visiting and sharing.
I have, sitting in my inbox right now, more music than I could possibly listen to in the next week or post about for a week of Fridays. I need to get it out there to you to enjoy.
Rather than pretend that I will find the time to organize the music and write a semblance of coherent commentary on all this music, I will do another guest write in column and get them all out to you and let you decide what works for you and what does not.
So, here goes.
He said
”
I have been a lifelong shortwave listener, and have a large quantity of music recorded off of African radio stations. Most of this is of pretty bad quality due to the nature of SW radio and distance (Midwestern USA). I do have have a few tracks which, even though they are mono, have pretty good quality.In particular, I have a great 5 track set of East African music recorded off the External Service of Radio Uganda in, I believe, October 1980. This set began with 2 Les Wanyika hits (Sina Makossa & Pamela), followed by 3 tracks which I have not been able to identify.
I would be especially interested in ID’ing the 4th track, as it is a sweet and simple song with guitar licks that define the term “ear worm”. If you would be interested, I can get a copy to you. Maybe you and your readers can help me ID this. A major clue: during the rhythm drop in Part B, a vocalist is heard saying “Wooly Bully Mama Aye!”.
Thanks again,
“
Can anyone help?Here are the recordings.
A couple of tracks from Orchestra Lipua Lipua. Some of these have been up in the last couple of weeks but I have received a couple of different versions from Esororo and others and want to make sure that you have them all.
Orchestra Lipua Lipua - Mbondo
We also have some Sam Mangwana and Tabu Ley that also came in from Esororo’s page - including 2 different versions of Ibrahim
Sorozo, a 1977 recording (hmm, almost as old as me) with Orchestre Afrisa International in the 360 series is in stock at Sterns.
And then, in no particular order, music from Orchestra Veve and Orchestra Les Kamale and Orchestra Super Mazembe.
I have 2 Super Mazembe tracks: Salima is from the album Maloba D’Amor. The other is Longwa which is from the “Giants of East Africa” release that is a compilation of their hits from 1977 through 1986 titled after Mutonkole Longwa Didos who founded essentially founded a team that was the root of the in 1969. Sadly, with his passing, the group has seemed to flounder.
Since Orchestra Viva Makale is essentially a product of Super Mazembe and Baba Gaston, this is I guess as an appropriate a place as any to have their track of the day.
As an aside, the interwebs are amazing, I found a home page for Siama Matuzungidi who was a guitarist for Orchestra Viva Makale, Orchestra Shika Shika, Orchestra Moja One and even Ibeba System on these fabulous series of tubes.
Running out of time and steam: time to start sprinting.
More Sammy Kasule! This time with Vundumuna.
And Mzee Makassy’s Orchestra Makassy.
OK, a couple of quick links & tracks then I am gone.
Eswi yo Wapi from Mbilia Bel has certainly been up here before (Nadina remains my favorite track though) and is actually one of the most popular tunes on this site in terms of sheer download volumes - I think that this is a different version from the one that I had before and some of you just might appreciate it.
Finally, Jeff Msangi who runs bongocelebrity, send this my way, a Marijani Rajab & Orchestra Dar International track that is smooth like honey. If nothing else, pay him a visit so that you can listen to DDC Milimani Park in the title track from the release Sikinde as well as read the great write up that he has on Mbaraka Mwinshehe.
This track is from Marijani Rajab Vol. 5.
For some weird reason, listening to this track made me go rooting for more Taarab and I found this gem by Elizabeth Sijola. I know nothing about her apart from the fact that she has a single included in a CD that is in print - Swahili Soul - that you can buy here
A couple of points before I go:
+ Mr. Bain, more than 5 months ago, I missed a comment that you left where you mentioned that you had a clean copy of the Franco’s track “Nakoma mbanda na mama ya mobali ngai”.
Any chance you could share?
—Steve | 7 comments
(posted in the Kenya, Images, Arts & Culture, Africa, Music, Cool, The world we live in, Blogging, Life, The Internet, pre-1990 East African music, pre-1990 African music, feed the addiction, African Music category)
musical link: …you never can tell …
May 10, 2008, 12:41 am
It was a teenage wedding, and the old folks wished them well
You could see that Pierre did truly love the madamoiselle
And now the young monsieur and madame have rung the chapel bell,
“C’est la vie”, say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell
(for those of you who may want some help like me, try this)
I am in an excellent mood, looking forward to a weekend with my boys doing stuff - and I have a ton of new music from a friend and have jut began to enjoy it after my computer sorta came back to life in a half-dead but alive-ish zombie sorta-way.
All of today’s tracks are from Les Mangelepa whom I have blogged about in the past.
[edit]
thanks for the heads up on the incorrect write up Doug. This is what happens when you let people like me run something. Like Chuck just said, “C’est la vie”, say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tellThe commentary and images should now be fine:
[/end edit]
Up today is some of their more difficult to find work including Pambana pambana, Walter and Trouble from their album 2nd Anniversary.
And in an amazing piece of news, it turns out that Mangelepa has been in the studio working on a new album.
Enjoy
—Steve | 10 comments
(posted in the Images, Arts & Culture, Music, Cool, The world we live in, Blogging, Life, The Internet, pre-1990 East African music, Film, pre-1990 African music, African Music category)
musical link: Moreno & Orchestra Moja One
May 6, 2008, 8:00 amSo, this lands in my inbox last weekend (thank you Jeff!) and I have to share.
A couple of thoughts: the name of the group is which is literally Orchestra One One since moja is one in Swahili.
Talk about stating the obvious.
Adding to the sweet irony of all of this: the track name is Dunia duara - “the world is round”.
Talk about stating the obvi …
Oh, I already said that.
Enjoy.
[edit]
Nobrun/Matiko - link is now fixed and seems to be working for me. Are you still having issues? Is anyone else still having issues?
[/edit]
—Steve | 18 comments
(posted in the Kenya, Arts & Culture, Africa, Music, Blogging, Life, The Internet, pre-1990 East African music, pre-1990 African music, feed the addiction, African Music category)
musical link: the fans write in.
April 30, 2008, 10:45 pmhey all.
so, my laptop is sort of back. I lost my hard drive (with all the music on it) but fortunately, I had backups of everything. Things should be back to normal in about 3 weeks or so but I will keep trying to post in the meantime.
Here are a ton of very nice tracks sent in by Josephine and Esororo.
Joe Farley and many others also sent me some tracks and I will be posting them shortly in no particular order. I really should organize then in some way but if I tried to do that, I would hold onto them for a while longer instead of getting them out to you.
So, here you go.
We start with (some more!) Sammy Kasule!
Then various Orchestras
That is it for today folks.
—Steve | 16 comments
(posted in the Random, Kenya, Arts & Culture, Africa, Music, Cool, The world we live in, Blogging, Life, The Internet, pre-1990 East African music, pre-1990 African music, feed the addiction, African Music category)
life
April 28, 2008, 8:12 amComputer is broken, life is moving by fast.
I am working to get back on line soon.
—Steve | 5 comments
(posted in the The Internet category)
musical link: Sammy Kasule continued …
April 22, 2008, 12:26 amAll:
Thank you all for the many kind comments and requests: all the reminiscing and information about this music.
I want to let you all know that I read every note and comment and while I may not act on them now, it is only because I am overwhelmed by the chaos that is real life for me.
You have my word (scout’s honor) that I will be trying to keep up with you.
One track and one track alone today.
Sammy Kasule in (the real) Ushirikiano: still hot from being ripped right from the vinyl not 90 minutes ago.
Enjoy.
A parting thought: reading Clockers maybe 6 or 7 years ago led me to buy the book Samaritan by Richard Price, reviews unread and in hard cover, this last weekend.
I found this on page 78.
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Efram.
“Yeah, OK”. The chubby kid brought out a comic book cutout of Superman taped to a red piece of construction paper.
The class hung back until his opening salvo: “This is a self-portrait of me,” then started barking with glee, Efram shrugging and plowing on.
“This is a self-potrait of me which I drew and posed for at the same time. Of course I can do that because I can get in a pose then zoom out to easel so fast that I can see my own pose.
My favorite sport is basketball. I once beat Allen Iverson in a game of one-on-one so bad he started to cry and begged me never to play again so that he could be the best player in the world. I felt sorry for him so I did it. I now put all my superpower energy into women”
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————
—Steve | 12 comments
(posted in the Random, Images, Arts & Culture, Africa, Music, Humor, Cool, The world we live in, Blogging, Life, The Internet, pre-1990 East African music, Film, pre-1990 African music, feed the addiction, Not Broken! category)
musical link: Rippin’ it
April 11, 2008, 10:12 pmOK, its Friday.
I decided that I had to do this so I got a glass of something cool, sat down and decided to rip something.
First thing that my eyes fall on as I start looking through the little pile of vinyl I have is my man Sammy Kasule.
Sweet, lets get er done.
[edit] how come no one told me about this: I posted Kukupenda rather than Ushirikiano. I have updated the link to show the correct track name
and while I was jammin away to that, next disk in the pile was this gem from … … who knows when. This is from the African 360 series from SonoDisc.
Sweet, lets get er done too.
Enjoy your weekend one and all.
—Steve | 27 comments
(posted in the Kenya, Arts & Culture, Africa, Cool, Life, The Internet, pre-1990 East African music, pre-1990 African music, African Music category)
musical link: Les Orchestras.
April 10, 2008, 10:33 pmSome tracks for the week end for all the requests and comments that you have all made. I know that I way behind and that there are lots of corrections, updates and requests and new music that needs to go up here.
I will keep trying to find a way to make it all work. While we collectively wait to see if I can get my act together (I more than anyone else), here is some music from the various orchestras that some of you have asked for.
Comments would be nice. What does this music make you think about and remind you of?
First, lets start with lots of Orchestra Lipua Lipua, everyone seems to keep asking for them.
This track unfortunately is in mono, right channel only.
The some Orchestra Veve.
And a different recording of the same track.
Anyone know anything about these guys?
Althought I cannot find the comment any more, Josephine asked for Orchestra Shika Shika and Table Ronde at some point.
A word of caution for those of you who visit other music blogs and have seen picked up some of this music. Most of this stuff, I have shamelessly plundered from other blogs and sites out there.
So …
—Steve | 18 comments
(posted in the Kenya, Arts & Culture, Africa, The Internet, pre-1990 East African music, pre-1990 African music, African Music category)
musical link: gold …
March 31, 2008, 11:30 pmI just had to post about this.
DJ Kalil has a post up today in the Kinshasa-Nairobi Express (No. 7) series that is pure gold.
Also currently on heavy rotation on my playlist - a complete sick Ukoo Fulani / Mau Mau mix tape by Amateur.
I have blogged about Ukoo Fulani / Mau Mau before: they have a style that can only be described as special. Their particular claim to fame is that the music has a social message and these two tracks go a long way towards proving that.
Anyway, MMLT, Bonus points if you can identify where the sample in this track came from.
—Steve | 2 comments
(posted in the Kenya, Arts & Culture, Africa, Music, Cool, Life, The Internet, pre-1990 East African music, pre-1990 African music, African Music, back in the day ... category)
musical link: All request post
March 23, 2008, 10:59 pmI was going to do a Taarab post this week but Matsuli beat me to it (again!) with a nice set of tracks about 2 weeks ago so hop over and take a listen. And while you are there, get a load of this amazing story.
On to business. Like the wise say, More Music Less Talk(TM).
Lets’ start with the easy to do stuff.
+ Akiiki asked for Mpongo Love. I think that Ndaya went up a while back and is still up so enjoy.
+ Then, back in November of the year of our Lord two thousand and seven, Joji asked if I could put up links to the Franco tracks on the site: well, they should all working now.
+ NK asked for anything from the Les Wanyika album Amigo. Here is the title track off that CD.
+ Steve asked for Oyoo Daktari by Musa Juma. While I do have the track, I have never gotten around to ripping it and believe it or not good people, I am completely out of hard drive space and I mean completely. It has gotten so bad that when I want to save something, I have to delete something else. So, it the meantime, enjoy these other Musa Juma and Orchestra Limpopo tracks.
+ Tim asked for some help with my attribution on a couple of tracks, Gilly asked for Safari ya Samburu which I do not have while Joe was looking for lyrics for a couple of others. Finally, Jay asked if anyone can help him save the files on the blog to his PC. Can anyone help?
Mutunga and Ricky Oduol from (don’t mess with) Texas asked for Ngali by Orchestra Les Kiam. I am sorry but I cannot seem to find that anywhere. Would Pamuzo by the same group be an acceptable substitute?
In the same vein, I have no idea if Mona Afinda is the same as Moni Atinda which I have. I suspect that this might have been me taking down the same track’s name incorrectly. Is this what you are looking for?
Tina asked for one of a couple of different tracks from either Orchesta Lipua Lipua or Orchestra Veve. It seems like today might be my day for failure as I do not seem to have any of these tracks. I have a couple of other tracks from the groups though. Please take a listen and let me know what you think.
Josephine Ayiera in a very very nice note, one of the nicest I have ever received actually, asked for Marijani Rajab.
Nice notes get tracks.
And then, as far as Ndala Kasheba goes, I have a track Marashi ya Pemba by International Orchestra Safari Sound but I am not sure if he was part of the group when this particular cover was done. Any experts with a definite opinion on this out there?
These made it onto my playlist for this week and I had to share.
From African Serenades 29 by trackfinder extraordinaire Cheeku, always the man with the master plan, here is Likambo ya Supa
A couple of things before I go,
+ If I did not respond to your request here, do not take it the wrong way but I sometimes get lost. I wade through about 200 spam comments a day trying to find the pearls you leave (where have I heard those words before).
Please leave another request and I will come around to posting what you ask for as soon as I can.
+ please be sure to weigh in at Likembe on this debate and that got me all worked up and let me know if I am just speaking out of my (insert noun of choice here). I mean, don’t get me wrong, I really really really appreciate the great work that Alistair and other professionals in the field are doing but I think that it is time to face the fact that there is and should be enough room in the pond for both minnows and whales.
—Steve | 16 comments
(posted in the Random, Kenya, Arts & Culture, Africa, Music, The world we live in, Life, The Internet, pre-1990 East African music, pre-1990 African music, African Music category)
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