I am torn.
2 weeks ago, I promised to get to preparing an all-requests post. In the meantime, sick kids + “real life” (TM) have conspired to keep this from happening.
So what to do?
Post something different from what I promised or not post at all.
My take is better something than nothing. The promised post is still on its way.
‘To kick things off, in honor of Friday’s kicking Hugh Masekela concert that I got to attend with my good pals Jeff and Kamau, here are a couple of versions of Mr. Masekela’s classic from the 60s, Grazing in the grass as well as one other track that I just happened to have kicking around.
Video from the event will be going up shortly. My old creaky laptop does not have enough horsepower to go through the 11 or so GB of video I took in a decent amount of time so I am doing it piecemeal.
Hugh Masekela – Grazing In The Grass (1968)
The concert reminded me that I may be one of the last 3 people on the God’s green earth who actually owns Hugh Masekela vinyl. And when I say vinyl, I mean vinyl, not CD re-issue. So I went into the ntwiga archives and dug up my old Hugh Masekela/Herb Alpert LP from 1978, dusted off the old Dual turntable and gave it a listen (YOWZAH, it turns out that punters on the interwebs think that this disk is worth a hundred bucks!!!???!!! One hundred dollars. That is a serious amount of change.)
I tell you, the man can play a horn. (as an aside, you can listen to him talk about his life and times here, here and here.)
Some fun tunes that I really like. In my book, most of these defy classification – for me, music is either (a)rumba (b)deep house or (c)other but I hope some of you will enjoy something different.
A funky new Kenyan band that is making waves and going places. They are well known for the track African Woman (that you can get a taste of here). Here is another excellent piece of music from them, Dereva: the pumping electronic percussion may be a bit much but me thinks me likes!
And the excellent Nyatiti work more than makes up for this.
I grew up listening to this track at my parents’ parties all through the 80s. And somehow, this track just floats up to the top of my playlist in one of the 40-something odd sets in the amazing African Serenades collection from Matsuli.
Can anyone help with some translation / context / story? I mean, this piece of music is beautiful, just beautiful.
This is oh so nice.
But again, aside from what I linked to before, the interwebs are stumped.
Help anyone?
The next couple of items are from African Serenades 29
Meet the maestros on L’Afrisa International on this recording from 1972.
Thank you Zim for these gems: nothing to be had anywhere in on these guys one the net or in the books that I have.
Finally, a repost of a killer track I picked up almost 2 years ago now from another great blog, Bennloxo.
In closing, before I go, make sure you check these other great music blogs that post Kenyan (and African) music: in no particular order
+ likembe
+ africolombia
+ awesome tapes from africa
+ benn loxo du taccu
+ matsuli
+ sea never dry
+ with comb and razor
+ ya congo
+ captain’s crate
+ funky 16 corners
+ world passport
Jean Claude is from Mauritius, I believe. The rhythm seems typical sega.
Hey steve, those links you’ve posted in the past are probably the best source of information for those congolese in kenya bands but here are a couple others
http://www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/home/Julian_Thorpe/sax15.htm
http://bennloxo.com/archives/2007/07/22/congolese-kenya/
Thanks for the references to other music blogs likembe and Ya congo
just great ! asante I am trying to occasionalyy leave a message when I pop in but be knowing your work is apprecaited. Sasa there is this song “Afro” i dont remember by which bad but it was hot in the late 80s
Afro wa kirinyaga sagan….usiniweke pembeni
Would you post it?
Thanks for the references to other music blogs likembe and Ya congo
just great ! asante I am trying to occasionalyy leave a message when I pop in but be knowing your work is apprecaited. Sasa there is this song “Afro” i dont remember by which bad but it was hot in the late 80s
Afro wa kirinyaga sagan….usiniweke pembeni
Would you post it?
Hope you plus family have recovered from the cold
Steve,
Many thanks for posting the tracks by Chuza and Les Noirs. They’re real gold. Thanks too for the unique piece by Tabu Ley Rochereau. Could you possibly post the latter’s “Ibrahim” (I believe it’s from the Album entitled “Sorozo”). I’ve got a cover version by Sam Mangwana but no singer, living or dead can match Rochereau, The King of Soukouss. These wonderful songs do better than any time machine in terms of taking us back to our childhood!
Steve,
As usual,these are great beats and rhythms.Truly,African music lives in you.Bravo.
Keep them coming.
hey,gentleman .thanx for a goodwork you `ve done so far ,but Ihave something to ask you for! pls wajomba wamechacha wapi mahali aliyekula hajulikani of mbaraka mwinshehe,and nitamwendea jirani apate kunisaidia also mbaraka mwinshehe.kipande cha papa kile cha hela kumi of jamhuri jazz band wana kiweke. without forgeting ni
namalizamaliza mwaka 72 of juma kilaza.
one of your heavy weigth fan
mr shamba bin kipori.
Thanks for posting all these great tracks. I got here on a search for Hugh Masekela a few days ago, and I’m really enjoying the other stuff you posted, particularly Dhobi de Classe.
Jean Claude Gaspa (or Gaspard) is from Mauritius and the track is in Kreol Morisyen (Mauritian Creole) as far as I can tell. You can see the lyrics here http://www.radiomoris.com/forum/showthread.php?t=546
The spelling looks similar to Kreyòl Ayisyen (Haitian Creole) and much of it will probably be clear to a French-speaker – sadly my french is not that good, so my French-English translation is only partial and distinctly wobbly. I’m an English-speaker from London, so I’m translating roughly into UK English here.
I think some of the Morisyen words can be roughly translated into French by saying them the way they are spelled phonetically – ki = qui (who), for example. That works sometimes for Aisyen… another language that sadly I don’t actually know. If anyone reading this speaks Morisyen, Ayisyen or French, I’d like to apologise for making ignorant guesses about your language and possibly making a right mess of it.
Dhobi is from Hindi and means someone who does the laundry. I know almost nothing about Mauritius, but it’s on the sea route from India to East Africa, so there may be many Hindi-derived words in use there (I’m guessing again).
I can’t guarantee any of the skimpy translation (?!) that follows, but here goes:
My guess at the first lines:
Who doesn’t know me, laundryman of the class?
Me, little Jean Robert, cock of the walk
It looks like “cock of the race”, literally, but I’m going for something that would make sense in idiomatic UK English. It might actually mean something quite different of course – think “chicken of the race” for contrast…
There is lots of stuff throughout about doing the laundry, including a line that goes:
Rinse, wring (?), scrub, scrub, rinse, wring (?) it dry
and also
I put [it] to dry on the riverside.
At one point:
Customers tell me ‘congatulations’, I’m proud
(something about lots of folding)… Who can iron the washing better?
This line:
Oua zoine mwa tou les zours avan six zer
might have something to do with him being there every day, and starting before six o’clock
(Fr: “tous les jours”/”avant six heures”)
There is reference to a bar of soap and a square of blue (if that is what “ble” is), which I guess would be washing blue, for “the blue whiteness” in UK English)
The last verse has several references to eating – the laundryman presumably has to work hard to feed himself.
I wash-wash, I “chow-chow”.
I think that’s the drift of it anyway, so hopefully it offers a bit of context until you find someone that speaks Morisyen or at least French.
Thanks again for posting this.
red