Filed under: Thailand
♬ โอษิปอด
Sodsai Chaengkij was from Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit, which most people know simply as Bangkok, Thailand.
I have not been able to find any other information about Sodsai other than what was printed in the liner notes of the first two volumes of the Thai Beat A Go Go compilations that she was featured on:
The cute Sodsai Chaengkij had a prolific record output during the 60s and was the most popular singer in Bangkok where she frequently appeared at the famous Lolita Night Club on Rajdamnoen Avenue.
Thanks to Mr. Sompong Houdjung for translating the titles for me.
If you have any information, please contact me.
Catalog number SPC-3016… I think that the name of the record label is Metro, but all of the information is in Thai except that it was recorded at the Somchai Studio.
Filed under: Cameroon
Pierre Didy Tchakounte And The Black Tulips were from Cameroon.
Cameroon, a German colony at the time of World War I, was split among the French and British as war spoils after the defeat of Germany. In 1960, French Cameroun became an independent republic, merging with the southern part of British Cameroons in 1961 to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon. It was renamed the United Republic of Cameroon in 1972, and the Republic of Cameroon or République du Cameroun in 1984
During the 1960s, modern makossa developed and became the most popular genre in Cameroon. Makossa is a type of funky dance music, best-known outside Africa for Manu Dibango, whose 1972 single “Soul Makossa” was an international hit. Outside of Africa, Dibango and makossa were only briefly popular, but the genre has produced several pan-African superstars through the 70s, 80s and 90s. Following Dibango, a wave of musicians electrified makossa in an attempt at making it more accessible outside of Cameroon.
Apparently Pierre Didy Tchakounte became an actor later on, and starred in a film called Suicides that was produced in Cameroon in 1983.
Catalog number EM2709 on Editions Makossa, licensed from Sonafric and distributed by African Record Center, Ltd of New York City, released in 1973.
Filed under: Turkey
Rana Alagöz was from Turkey.
Turkey has a long tradition of musical talent to begin with, and being Europe’s crossroads into Asia, the whole phenomenon of East-meets-West hybridization (in this case, traditional Anatolian folk and ’60s pop) makes for some amazing music that couldn’t come from anyplace else. In the last few years there has been a few great compilations and a handful of albums that have been re-issued.
Here is a really good overview of the evolution of the music scene in Turkey, written by Gökhan Aya:
Turkish rock’n’roll scene started as early as 1956 and blossomed by the arrival of The Shadows. It is very important to underline the influence of The Shadows because the missing essence which held the rock music from being popular in the first years was the problem of language. As Turkish did not have any roots in relation to English it was really very hard to understand what rock’n’roll was all about. The Shadows served very good as the nation was very used to listen to instrumental music. It also should be noted that 60’s marked very rapid changes in Turkey: year by year general level of culture was increasing, by 1961 the most democratic period of country started and by every year, as far music’s concerned, record sales were geometrically multiplying.
The Shadows reigned heavily until The Beatles came along and that blew up everything! There was such a blasting of bands that one of the biggest national newspapers called Hürriyet decided to organise a big contest that would help the young amateur bands have their names heard throughout the country. But, what the contest organisers wanted was interesting: the musicians who wanted to attend the contest had to either compose songs in Turkish or arrange a traditional tune. Also they had to perform this in a western style with electric western instruments! The ones who ware finalists ware to perform live In many cities that the newspapers arranged a tour for them. If Altin Mikrofon had not been assembled, we wouldn’t likely to be talking about 60’s & 70’s Turkish rock scene.”
This song is from her first single, which was part of the Altin Mikrofon (Golden Microphone) contest from 1967, which she won 3rd place. She was backed by her brother Selçuk’s band, who was also a well know musician in Turkey.
There is plenty more information and pictures of Rana and Selçuk are avaliable at the Psyche Van Het Folk website.
Catalog number H-021 on Altin Mikrofon of Turkey, released 1967.
Filed under: Hong Kong
♬ Man-li
The New Wave were from Hong Kong.
After the First Opium War, Hong Kong became a crown colony in 1843. The first urban settlement was named Victoria City. The Kowloon Peninsula south of Boundary Street and Stonecutter’s Island was ceded to the British in 1860 under the Convention of Peking after the Second Opium War. Various adjacent lands, known as the New Territories (including New Kowloon and Lantau Island), were then leased by Britain for 99 years, from 1 July 1898 to 30 June 1997.
The New Wave were apparently a creation of their record label, New Wave Record Company, were most likely comprised of studio musicians. I have not been able to find other information about this recording.
Thanks to Mack at Far East Audio for translating the titles for me.
If you have any information, please contact me.
Catalog number NWLP 5, released by the New Wave Recording Company of Hong Kong. No date given.
Filed under: Madagascar
Les Jockers were from the island nation of Madagascar which is in the Indian Ocean, off the eastern coast of Africa.
I have not been able to find anything about the band. If you have any information, please contact me.
Catalog number 466 499 on Discomad records of Diégo-Suarez. No date listed, but the name of the city Diégo-Suarez was changed to Antsiranana in 1975… No other information is available.
Filed under: Iraq
Munir Bachir was born in Mosul, Iraq in 1930, into a long established family of musicians. His father thought him to play the oud at a very young age. He then spent six years studying at the Baghdad Institute of Music, directed by Sharif Muhiddin. Later, he completed a doctorate of musicology in Budapest.
He is most known for having created a completely different playing style of oud in Iraq, but also to that of other Arabian states. His style is composed of elements from Flamenco guitar playing, and also from the tradition of Western Classical music.
Although I have read that Munir Bachir passed in 1997, I have also seen that he released a new recording with the Iraqi Traditional Music Ensemble (which he founded in 1981) that was released by Le Chant Du Monde in 2005.
For some reason, this song is the only song on this album that actually has oud on it. Also, you can tell this record was an attempt to appeal to a different audience than traditional Iraqi music.
Catalog number 2C 054 – 11.804 on Pathé Marconi / EMI, released 1974.
Filed under: Indonesia
Diah Iskander, and her backing band The Steps, were from Indonesia.
Indonesia has a population of over 200 million making ts the world’s fourth most populous country and the most populous Muslim-majority nation.
Under the influences of Hinduism and Buddhism, several kingdoms formed on the islands of Sumatra and Java from the 7th to 14th century. The arrival of Arabs trading in spices later brought Islam, which became the dominant religion in many parts of the archipelago after the collapse of Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms. When the Portuguese came in early 16th century, they found a multitude of small states, vulnerable to the Portuguese, and later other Europeans wanting to dominate the spice trade.
In the 17th century, the Dutch became the most powerful of the Europeans, ousting the Spanish and Portuguese (except for their colony of Portuguese Timor on the island of Timor). British occupied Benkulu (south of Sumatra) from 1685 to 1824 and built Fort Marlborough. The Dutch ruled Indonesia until the end of World War II.
Before 1965, pop music was banned from being broadcast on the state run Radio Republik Indonesia. The government had rejected Western culture, and specifically rock and roll. But after 1965, a new regime came into power, that embraced European and American music. Soon, The Beatles and Rolling Stones were became very popular, and as a result there were many groups forming in Indonesia.
I have not been able to fins any information about Diah Iskander, other than I have seen a couple of singles by her. The Steps recorded a half dozen or so albums, mostly instumental “Krontjong” music. I have only seen one other record that they recorded together, which was a single with all of the songs in English (also on Pop Records – catalog number 112300 PSE).
Catalog number PSY 112 221 on Pop Records of Indonesia. No release date listed.
Filed under: Senegal
Les Tabalas were from Dakar, Senegal.
Here’s what the liner notes have to say (translated from French):
Les Tabalas… They are four young people Dakaoris students for the majority. They all are musicians banded together in this formation by the love of the music. They interpret with brilliance their own compositions…
Dérétou Senegal (Blood of Senegal) – a composition of bass player. A nostalgic song rhythm on the tempo of the tom-tom of the village.
Initiation – a composition of the soloist. Song enchantment which emphasizes the mysterious side of traditional habits.
Here is their first disc! And if you like to dance, you will not be disappointed… Remember the name well Les Tabalas!
If you have any information, please contact me.
Catalog number EG855 on Cadici of Dakar, pressed by Pathé Marconi of France. No other information is available.
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I recently received an e-mail from Serge Michel Huchard, from Senegal. Serge knew the drummer‘s brother. Here, I’ll let Serge explain it:
I gotta tell ya, this 45 vinyl cover (4 guys in a “4 chevaux” Renault French car) has been obsessin’ me for decades, for a lotta reasons: First of all, I had French friends who had a copy in 1965 and I used to listen to it a lot and secondly, I tried to find this record for decades, to no avail. But fortunately, last year (2008) a drummer friend of mine got me the original cover, but not the record.
This record (45 vinyl) was recorded round 1963-1964 in Dakar (Senegal). The Photograph was taken behind the actual presidential palace in Dakar. Back seat: left: Lucien Blain (not Blein) was the bass player, on the right at the back or sitting on the car: Ben Tall or Caristan (can’t remember who is who), one played the lead guitar and the other one played the rhythm guitar. And finally the guy holding the snare drum is Lucien Blain’s elder brother: Alain Blain. The Tabalas never recorded again as a group.
In this heyday, there were no recordin’ studios in Senegal (only the national AM radio “Radio Sénégal” would record artists on reel to reel tapes for broadcasting only).
From what I heard, CADICI was a musical production structure (not well known, they were just a few bands on the musical scene in Senegal in the early 60’s), but as far as I know, they were located in Dakar, downtown (49, rue de Grammont) in an electronic and record shop (selling old fashioned radios, amps, mics, loudspeakers, reel tapes, spare parts, records…) I guess, at the same time, they were recording a few artists locally in that location (I ain’t sure). This shop (which I knew very well) was later ran by a Spanish bloke by the name of Codina. This shop ain’t there no more.
To cut a long story short, I would say that The Tabalas were mainly influenced by Cliff Richard and the Shadows (whose records were being played on our local Senegalese radio very often). Lucien Blain (who was not only a bass player but also an accordionist, piano, organ and vibraphone player, and singer) and I met for the first time in 1971, when I joined his variety big band as a drummer (1971-1972). He left Dakar in late 72 for Abidjan (Ivory Coast). Since then, I lost track of him. His brother Alain Blain played as a profesional drummer for decades, in various bands in France. I ain’t never heard of Ben Tall & Caristan again since The Tabalas.
Thanks Serge!
Filed under: Sri Lanka
Mignonne & The Jetliners are from Sri Lanka, which is also known as Ceylon.
Mignonne Fernando first appeared onto the Sri Lankan music scene in 1963 when as Mignonne Rutnam she won a song contest on Radio Ceylon. The radio station is one of the oldest broadcasting institutions in South Asia.
Vernon Corea, who was a popular disc jockey in Colombo, Sri Lanka, introduced Mignonne to The Jetliners in 1965. Later, he would go on to play their music on his popular radio program on BBC Radio London called ‘London Sounds Eastern‘ in the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1980, Mignonne and The Jetliners began a 17 year contract to play The Regent Hotel in Hong Kong. And in 2003 when Mignonne Fernando released her first CD titled ‘A Celebration of Life.’ They still perform in and around South Asia, Australia and supposedly some dates in the United States in 2006.
This is the only song I have been able to find by them (so far) that is actually in Sinhalese. I’m also guessing that this is from the mid-Seventies since that sounds like an early drum machine and the liner notes talk about Mignonne’s succes at the World Popular Song Festival of 1972…
Catalog number LBEP-009 on Lewis Brown records of Columbo, Sri Lanka.
Filed under: Armenia
Eddie Petrosian was from Armenia, or at least of Armenian decent.
There are not that many records from Armenian other than the tradtional classical and / or folk music. This is mainly due to the fact that Armenia was part of the Soviet Union until 1991. And what little pop music that was recorded there was recorded in Russian.
Armenia had a strong influence on the Ethiopian music scene. Most of the state sanctioned bands were comprised of Armenian refugees who had been invited by Emperor Haile Selassie during the Armenian Genocide. But many others left soon after, and setteled in other countries.
Many popular musicans from around the world are of Armenian descent. Most notable being Sylvie Vartan and Charles Aznavour who were popular in France, Adiss Harmandyan who moved to neighboring Turkey, and Cherilyn Sarkisian (better known as Cher)…
I was unable to find any information on Eddie Petrosian. But since the record was released by Parseghian Record Studio of California, it’s most likely that this was recorded in the United States. I did find some information about the producer Albert Armen, who has recorded numerous of his own albums and is currently a music teacher in Southern California. And the record label Parseghian Record Studio, is now know as ArmenianMusic.com is the “largest producers and distributors of Armenian music in the world”. They have been in business since 1948.
If you have any information, please contact me.
Released by Parseghian Record Studio of California. There is no catalog number or release date listed.
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Since the initial posting, I have been contacted by friends of Eddie Petrosian – a.k.a. Ed Petros. And though he is of Armenian descent, he was born in America. He has worked as a Building Inspector in Costa Mesa, California since 1986. Eddie is also an avid, amateur wine maker. He is an active member of the Orange County Wine Society (OCWS). He specializes in cabernets and is doing very well. He bottles as “Petros Vineyards.”
Thanks to Dashiell Morgan for the additional information.
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