There is nothing, and I mean nothing, like kicking back at the end of a long hard week, looking back at the blessings of the last seven days and thinking just how great it is to be alive and wondering what to post about.
I actually had a couple of tracks lined up for tonight including a very melancholy one by a gentleman named Mohammed Issa Matona but that will have to wait for next week since I am absolutely positively ready to get down tonight. Has to be straight up jammin’ tunes: none of that girl she left me all by my lonesome” type music.
Interestingly enough, one of the tunes that has been stuck in my craw all week has been a horn-driven high octane track that meets this description to a ‘t’ by none other than Tabu Ley himself. So, tonight, I give you Ibeba
Tabu Ley Rochereau is a musician of legendary ability and impecable pedigree as is clearly illustrated in this photo that captured him with the rest of the musical giants of African Jazz circa 1980.
Can I post anything else that will top that killer track?
I dont think so meaning I won’t even try.
So, because there is absolutely no way I can top Ibeba and since there were only 3 comments last week, until next Friday, I bid you all adieu.
AOB
+ I think that it is just plain ridiculous that the University of Southern California has Congolese and East African music available for patrons to borrow while Kenya National Library Services main branch in Nairobi, which finally has an online presence (but no online catalog) does not.
Baby steps, baby steps.
+ Some of the photos in this thread are just amazing.
+ Robin Marantz Henig in the New York Times on Darwin’s God
Why always complain about the lack of comments? I suppose it has not occurred to you that maybe we, your readers, are literate just enough to be able to click and maybe read a few words here and there but not to click, read AND write? Why look down on us?
Anyway, thanks a lot for the great music, pour ce Rochereau d’enfer as we would say here.
Eh, I was just kidding…
Again, thanks a lot for that great scratchy track and all the others I have silently downloaded over the past few months. Thanks for ripping all those quasi museum pieces. They’re always interesting and it’s a great job you do posting them and sharing them with complete strangers like me. I am really grateful and I suppose so are we all.
Henri
I trust the name of the said institution is Www (as in “click now, think later”)
I’m a latecomer to the party – look in the kitchen, that’s where I’m usually lurking at parties – and see you have posted many tracks that I would gladly have downloaded had I turned up earlier. It is a great blog and, yes, I think you are right to want to encourage people to comment on the tracks you have posted and to talk about the music they love.
I’m always glad to see posts of the old tunes, zilizopendwa, from the 1970s and early 1980s – before the synthesiser replaced the horn section – from East and Central Africa. So, the more the merrier as far as I am concerned.
I would also like to hear some feedback from you, for example, on Rumba on the River, which you greeted with much fanfare when it arrived in the post. Although I recognise that it is a great work of scholarship, in fact essential for anyone with an interest in Congolese music, yet to me it still somehow loses its way. After an excellent start that puts many aspects of the music in context, it gets bogged down in seemingly endless lists of changing band line-ups. As such, it fails to bring the music alive in a way that it deserves.
I only discovered your blog about a month ago, but I’m loving it.
I remember the first Tabu Ley record I bought — Sacramento. I loved the title track so much I practically tore a hole through it and now it’s unplayable (and I don’t have a working turntable anyway). I can’t find it on CD anywhere, even as an import (I’m in the US).
I don’t suppose you’d have an mp3 of that track….
I always check out your site since I get the feeds on my newsreader and like following some of the links you provide, pity I can’t download any of the music you post. Internet connecetion out here truly truly sucks big time and trying to use GPRS for anything other than text is blue murder.
Ahh Kirima, have to feel for you: the vagaries of dial up. I think that they did a study somewhere in the US and the group they talked to said that they would rather lose steady access to anything, even food, than lose their high speed connection to da internets – can’t find that link now!
Drop me an email and we can talk about shipping something!
- Steve
Sacramento was reissued late last year by the French Syllart label as the title track of the CD Sacramento avec Canta Nyboma by Tabu Ley Rochereau & Afrisa. The disc’s catalogue number is 823424/SC 865 and you should be able to order it – and a wealth of other Rochereau material – from Sterns in London.
Cool!
Hi Steve!
Had a little guilty laugh reading your interaction with Henri above.
Ibeba is definitely an excellent number — up there with Franco’s Mamou.
I especially like the long 7 to 10 minute old lingala songs that seem to go on forever.
Have a great week!
[...] One last thing, last week’s Tabu Ley Rochereau post whipped up a storm! While cleaning up afterwards, one of the things that I found lying around was this track that qwerty asked for: thank you Tim! [...]
I have tried to download ibeba to no avail. Pls what do i do???
Thanks Steve. Meanwhile please do more swahili rumba eg marjan Rajab, marquis, bimalee, vijana jazz, simba wanyika, kenya blue stars etc. Lingala is fine but we also may need to hear more of our own.
Do you have any stuff of Zuhura Swaleh, caiphus semenya, soul brothers? would be interesting and lovely to hear them.
We are keeping the homeland warm and when going to meru next, you may drop by Thika and have a beer! Thanks
I just discovered your blog this morning at 5:27 am because the cat woke me up howling as usual wanting to be fed . So what better to do before I get ready for work? What a pleasant surprise to have found and bookmarked you!! ~ Alicia
[...] Tabu Ley’s Ibeba was Kabuga’s request from so here it is. [...]
Hi Steve, Thanks for the golden oldies you post. i am wondering why i get the “error 404, not found” page for your music links. i would need some stuff from Tabu Ley Rochereau. keep up the good work.
Maingi
Good Man,thanks alot for what you are doing considering at home many wishes to access quality music. Kindly show us any way we can send you music that you might want for this kind of international audience. I personally like the very old music of 60′s and 70′s by all east africans and congolese they were good music!!! Burmen
Hi Steve,
I was employed till last year in Dec 2007. I resigned at 26 yrs and started my own IT Company in South Sudan. ( that is by the way).
Well, I had saved serious loads of songs from your posts but because I did not have a personal PC, they are left in the former employer’s Desktop machine. ( this is by the way)
Glad that you are keeping us rocking to african vibes! I have a request for a Mbilia Abel song. I am not sure about the name but not Faux, or Binadamu.
Regards
Maroa
Hello,
Back in early 1970, I bought a a Congo (African Jazz) Vynl album that contains the beautiful song called B.B.69. I like all the songs in this album, and have been looking for this album for over 10 years. Another song in this album is called (Kirikiri). I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Thanks!
Cy Mojo – I’m African.
why did tabuley separate with mbilia bell.i always feel happy when a man and a woman come together to share love but when i hear of separation i get sad coz it seems they didnt hold unto what they shared.