Filed under: Philippines
Ramon Jacinto & The Riots were, and apparently still are, from the Philippines.
In 1960, at the age of 15, Ramon Jacinto set up his first business called RJ ENTERPRISES. His company produced and released numerous records by his classmates, as well as his band RJ and The Riots. RJ Enterprises also pioneered multi-track recording in the country being the first owner of the Ampeg 300-3 track machine and became the studio of choice of many artists and advertising agencies.
Two years later at the age of 17, RJ established what was to become a legendary radio station, DZRJ, in his parents’ backyard. Manned by his volunteer group of classmates and experimenting with radio concepts unknown and unheard of before, DZRJ developed a “cult like” following. It did away with rampant “payola” and introduced alternative music. It was the first to expose The Beatles and Filipino bands on the airwaves.
A decade later, the Marcos dictatorship and the declaration of martial law on Sept. 21, 1972 changed everything in the Philippines. During this time RJ lived in exile until 1986 when he returned. At that point he reopened his radio station. He went on the air and said: “Hi, this is Ramon Jacinto. Some of you know me as RJ. Some of you don’t remember me and don’t even know there is a man behind the name RJ. Well, I own this station but I’ve been gone for 14 ½ years. Help me by calling in and suggesting what I should do…” Thousands of phone calls later, DZRJ became the leader in the revival/retro wave of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.
After that, betting on his hunch that live bands would stage a comeback, he proved that nightspots could earn more by hiring live bands. He opened the Bistro RJ, a phenomenally successful 60’s Rock n’ Roll music lounge. At the time he did it, live bands were dead. Night life in the Philippines was confined to piano bars and discos. Bands had to travel abroad to make a living.
RJ also bet on the guitar coming back as the instrument of choice when karaoke and Yamaha Portatones were in vogue. He bought a hole-in-the-wall guitar repair shop owned by luthier Rudy Discipulo and set out to manufacture world-class guitars. RJ Music City now has 150 dealers and 3 retail showrooms.
Today, RJ still manages and operates his 10 radio stations, one TV station, a wholesale and retail musical instrument company, a company that has the exclusive franchise for Radio Shack stores, a shopping mall and has relocated Bistro RJ (now called RJ Bar) back to it’s original location at 826 Pasay Road, Makati. He still performs, sometimes with even Nokie Edwards of The Ventures. But for some reason, you can’t find any his records (vinyl or otherwise) anywhere…
Catalog number RR – 184 on Rajah Records of the Philippines. No release date listed.
Filed under: Nigeria
♬ Onye Ije
The Strangers were from town of Enugu, which was in the Biafra region of Nigeria.
Formed in the early 70’s by organist Bob Miga, The Strangers were influenced by the music that was coming out of the United Kingdom at the time. But The Strangers life would be short lived when Ani Hoffner and his colleagues parted ways with Bob Miga and formed the group One World. Then came Black Children, another offshoot of Strangers and One World. Bob Miga would go on to form The Hykkers (who were featured on the Soundway Records compilation NIGERIA SPECIAL: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds and Nigerian Blues, 1970-76)
I have heard a few other songs by them, and almost all of them have more of a Motown influence and are sung in English. This song seems to be the exception. Here they are singing in the Igbo language, and sound a bit more like fellow Nigerian and label mate of the time, Fela Kuti.
There is an interesting post on Nigeria-Biafra war, and the songwriters from that period here.
If you have any information, please contact me.
Catalog number HNS 1205 on EMI / HMV of Nigeria. No release date listed.
Filed under: Iran
This song, which title translates into “Hey Girl”, was recorded with the band Golden Ring.
Born Aref Arefkia, he introduced Western melodies with romantic lyrics to Iran in the 1960’s at a time when the only kind of popular music was in “Tasnif” style. Aref was one of the pioneers of this trend. This style was quite popular among the youth, so much that at the age of 21 he was invited to appear and sing on the Iranian National Television.
His first hit was “Daryacheye Noor” which is still popular among most Iranians to this day. Aref was also a very popular singer for movie soundtracks. His songs were heard on numerous Iranian films of the 1960’s & early 1970’s among which “Gholam Gandarm” and “Soltan-e Ghalbha” are the most famous. He also appeared in six different musical films.
Aref received many awards, one of which was granted to him by the Shah himself. Aref received the Highest Cultural Imperial Medallion from the Shah for singing at the Asian Games of 1974 in Iran. In this concert with Tehran’s Philharmonic Orchestra, Aref sang in front of 100,000 Iranians and in the presence of many International state officials and dignitaries. Aref performed his first concert out of Iran in New York City in Madison Square to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the American Independence.
Aref and his family left Iran in 1979, following the Islamic revolution. He first lived in London for a period of 3 years, then moved to Los Angeles, California.
Thanks to Delaram Koushyar for translating the Farsi for me.
Catalog number C – 2126 for MonoGram Records of Iran. No release date listed.
Filed under: Singapore
I can’t tell you anything about Yvonne or her backing band The Sparklers, except that they were from Singapore.
In 2003, Singapore’s Media Development Authority (MDA) commissioned a six-part series documentary for televison on the Singapore music scene from the 1960s to the present day, entitled Jammin’. If anyone knows how I could get a copy of that documentary (especially the first two episodes), I would greatly appreciate it.
If you have any information, please contact me.
Catalog number MEP 8003 on Magpie Record (that’s right, singular…), manufactured by EMI Australia Limited. No other information available.
Filed under: Pakistan
♬ Jungee
The Fore Thoughts were from Pakistan.
Apparently, there was a market for traditional music played on Western instruments. Not sure who this was being marketed to, either the indigenous population or foreign tourists. But there were a number of bands that released similar records, most notable being The Mods, The Panthers and The Slihouettes. The Four Thoughts actually released two records, both with the exact same front cover.
Here are the liner notes from the e.p.:
Let me present to you the first record released by the up coming group, ‘Fore Thoughts’. In this album they are playing four of the very popular Pakistani Folk tunes composed and arranged by the brilliant young maestro Sohail Rana.
Together they present a sound which you have not heard before, it is a successful and happy marriage of Eastern melodies to Western instruments. The instruments you will hear in this album are: Electric Guitar (lead, played by Anif Luqmani [printed as ‘Anis Luqmani’]), Electric Organ (played by Anis Ahmed), Bass Guitar (played by Bashir Belouch) and the drums (played by young Umeed Ansari).
The tunes presented here are from different regions of Pakistan, namely former provinces of Sindh, Punjab, and East Pakistan. You will agree with me when I say that they have done full justice to melodies by retaining their Eastern Flavour in the interpretation.
Wishing you all a very happy listening time,
Fazili Shakil, Manager
If you have any information, please contact me.
Catalog number EKCE 20003. on The Gramophone Company of Pakistan Limited and was manufactured by Columbia in Pakistan.
Filed under: Kenya
I could find no information what so ever on either the Rift Valley Brothers or the their label Sawa Sawa Sound. But, as you can see by the label’s address, they were most likely from Nairobi, Kenya. Also the language listed on the single is Kĩkũyũ, which is a language native to that region.
Here’s some information on the Kĩkũyũ tribe from Wikipedia:
The Kĩkũyũ are Kenya’s most populous ethnic group. ‘Kikuyu’ is the anglicised form of the proper name and pronunciation of Gĩkũyũ although they refer to themselves as the Agĩkũyũ people. There are about 5,347,000 Kikuyu people in Kenya, equal to about 22% of Kenya’s total population. They cultivate the fertile central highlands and are also the most economically active ethnic group in Kenya.
Although uncertain, ethnologists believe the Kikuyu came to Kenya from West Africa together with the other Bantu groups. On reaching present Tanzania, they moved east past Mount Kilimanjaro and into Kenya, finally settling around Mount Kenya, while the rest of the group continued migrating to Southern Africa . They were originally hunter-gatherers but unlike the Nilotic tribes who were pastoralists, they began farming the very fertile volcanic land around Mt. Kenya and the Kenyan highlands.
Since the initial posting, I have found that the Rift Valley Brothers recorded two more singles, one on Kalamindi label and the other on the Nguirubi lable. They also recorded as the Rift Valley Stars for the Sibour label.
Catalog number STD 7-06 on Sawa Sawa Sound of Nairobi, Kenya. No other information available.
Filed under: Israel
♬ Katja
The Lions of Juda were from Israel. They released a handful of singles, almost all of which are credited to The Lions. But in 1968, they recorded their big hit “Our Love’s A Growin’ Thing”, which was released all over Europe. But the flipside is the track that they are most remembered for today.
This song is probably one of the heaviest songs to come out of the Middle East, with the exception of some of Erkin Koray’s records.
I have not been able to find any information on the band, although I know that they were somehow connected to Uzi & The Styles, who were a legendary band in the history of rock music in Israel.
Catalog number 72007 on Phonodor Records of Israel, released in 1968. This record was re-issued in France, Germany, Holland and Spain by Fontana.
Filed under: Vietnam
♬ Đức Minh • Saigon Thứ Bẩy
♬ Thanh Vū, Hôʼng Phủc & Phượg Bắʼng • Tīnh Yêu Trên Đại Dượng
Records from Vietnam are rare, at best. I have been unable to find hardly any information about music (outside of traditional folk music) in that country before the Eighties. Here is what little information I have been able to find about records such as this one: “Records of this nature were outlawed within days of the fall of Saigon, and most were either destroyed by the Communists or, interestingly, destroyed by their owners who did not want the communists to have them.”
These songs fall a bit more into the Easy Listening or Lounge category, but the use of reverb on both tracks is quite interesting. Also this record came out in 1966, which was one year after the U.S. troops arrived in Vietnam.
If you have any information, please contact me.
Catalog number S.N.1009 / 2177 on Sōng Hnac of Vietnam.
Filed under: Zaïre
♬ Venus
Orchestre Vévé was founded in Léopoldville, Zaïre by Verckys Kiamuangana Mateta after he left Franco & OK Jazz in 1969. Now, Léopoldville is known as Kinshasa and Zaïre is called the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Verckys Kiamuangana Mateta he was mostly known for playing the saxophone, but he also played guitar and organ. He owned a recording studio and established his own production company as well as a record label.
This song was originally by Shocking Blue who were from Holland, and it was later made famous by Bananarama in the Eighties. As far as I can tell, this is the only song that Orchestre Vévé recorded with Bovic (a.k.a. Bovick Ye Bondo) on vocals. I do know that Bovic did record two songs with Docteur Nico & L’Orchestre African Fiesta…
I stumbled across an article (which I am unable to find now) that said Orchestre Vévé were going to reunite and record a new album in 2003, but have yet to find any other information to support that story.
Catalog number 90.465 on African Records of France, originally issued on Vévé records of Zaïre (catalog number 37) in 1970.
Filed under: Egypt
Omar Khorshid is where all this insanity started for me, although I did not know it at the time.
Back in 2005, while I was in San Francisco for my job, a friend of mine took me to Aquarius Records, where I picked up a disc called “Radio Morocco“. Although I had purchased a few other compilations of 60’s and early 70’s music from India, Asia and Turkey, as well as discs by Ananda Shankar and Takeshi Terauchi in the past… This was different. What was this music even called? I had no idea. So, to the internet. I started Google-ing everything I could think of. Eventually, I stumbled on some information about Omar Khorshid.
Omar was originally from Egypt, where he got his start playing with Umm Khulthum, Mohammed Abdel Wahab, and Abdel Halim Hafez. He was the first person to introduce electric guitar into Arab music. Apparently, his brother Elhamy tried to imitate his sound but was supposedly not as popular as Omar.
Besides being a musician, Omar was also an actor as well as having scored thirteen motion picture soundtracks. In 1971 he won the Premier Prize at the Film Festival of Tachkand for his music for the film “Abnati El Aziza” (“A Teen’s Life”). His sister is also a famous Egyptian actress, Sherihan Ahmed Abd El Fatah al-Shalakani.
In 1972, he moved to Lebanon where he recorded a handful of solo albums. He returned to Egypt after the civil war began in Lebanon in 1975. Upon his return, he starred in “Hata Akher El-Omr” (“Until The End of Lifetime”) along with Nagwa Ibrahim and Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz.
Omar delivered his most noted performance opposite Madiha Kamel in “El-Arrafa” (“The Fortuneteller”) in 1981. He played a police officer who sympathizes with a student arrested for her political opinions. Two months after the critical acclaim and box-office success of the film, Khorshid was killed in a car accident. One of the more popular rumors was that he was having an affair with a married woman whose husband arranged the accident.
As of March 2007, actor and singer Sameh Youssry is trying to convince members of Omar Khorshid’s family to authorize a biographical movie in which Youssry would star.
The fact that there is not a shrine (or at least a website) dedicated to the man is a mystery. He does not even have a listing on Wikipedia. What little of his solo recordings that are in print and available on compact disc are not exactly his best material, but are will still worth tracking down.
Catalog number GVDL-202 on Voix de l’Orient series for A. Chahine & Fils in Lebanon, and manufactured and distributed by EMI of Greece, 1974.
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Since the initial posting of this article, Hany Zaki has started work on a website dedicated to Omar Khorshid.
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