Radiodiffusion Internasionaal Annexe

♬ Aliho Kow

Orchestre Renova-Band D’Abomey Dahomey were, as you can guess from their name, from Abomey – the same town as Orchestre Picoby-Band – which was the former capitol of the kingdom of Dahomey, which is now known as Benin. They recorded 11 singles during their run – most of which were released on the legendary Albarika Store label.

If you have any further information about this artist or anything else about this recording, please leave it in the comment section below.

Catalog number ASB 107 on Albarika Store of Cotonou, Benin. Released 1972.

♬ E Non Ve Nou Kinto

The only information I have been able to find is that the singer’s name was Lay José. They released one other single for the legendary Albarika Store label and one on the Daho-Disco Ambiance label. But other than that? Nada.

If you have any further information about this artist or anything else about this recording, please leave it in the comment section below.

Catalog number ASB 187 on Albarika Store of Porto Novo, Dahomey. No release date listed.

♬ Boro Non Andou Nan

Orchestre Anos Band de Parakou Nord-Dahomey were, as their name implies, from Parakou, Dahomey – now known as Benin. They released a dozen singles during their run – all but two for the legendary Albarika Store label. According to a post on the Oro God blog, the band was founded by singer and composer Boukary Alidou in 1973. Boukary was also band leader of Orchestre Anassoua-Jazz de Parakou Nord-Dahomey which were active at the same time and also released the majority of their records on Albarika Store.

If you have any further information about this artist or anything else about this recording, please leave it in the comment section below.

Catalog number ASB 92 on Albarika Store, released 1973.

♬ Béthel

One hit wonder from Dahomey – now Benin. There’s only three mentions of this single out there on the web: YouTube, Discogs and the Oro God blog… In the comments of the YouTube posting, Victor Hountondji said that he was 19 when he recorded that song and that it was arranged by someone named Wellborn Henry – who I have not been able to find anything about.

If you have any further information about this artist or anything else about this recording, please leave it in the comment section below.

Catalog number SAT 022 on Disques Tropiques of Dahomey – now known as Benin. Released 1972.

♬ Tonye Ye Vena

My introduction to Orchestre Discafric-Band De Cotonou was the song “Houiou Djin Nan Zon Aklumon” that was included on Analog Africa‘s first volume of African Scream Contest – which if you do not own a copy of, you need to rectify that immediately. But the extensive liner notes of that compilation do not offer much information about the band.

Orchestre Discafric-Band De Cotonou recorded nine singles, six for the Discafric label. This is the only recording the did with Allognon Degbevi. The song of the flip side of this single is without Discafric-Band. He also recorded six other singles as well as an album – many for the Togolese label International Radisco.

If you have any further information, please leave it in the comment section below.

Catalog number D. F. 003 on Discafric of Cotonou Dahomey – now Benin. No release date listed.

♬ Edio (Part 1)

♬ Edio (Part 2)

There are times when I am inspired to write. And then… Well, it’s like pulling teeth.

If you are somewhat familiar with the music of Benin – formerly known as Dahomey, you should own a copy of Analog Africa‘s African Scream Contest (If not, stop what you are doing, run – don’t walk – to your local record store and purchase it. Right now. Go on. Get.). Besides the closing track “Oya Ka Jojo”, you will find an interview with Atchadé Joseph in the extensive liner notes.

For further information, as well as a number of great tracks, head over to ORO (Here, here, here, here, here and here.).

Catalog number VG EP 0007 on Les Volcans. Released 1977.

♬ Jacques Ou Es-Tu-Alougba Hué

This one is a weird one… From what I can tell, H. C. Clementophe is chanting and singing over a previously released recording by Orchestre Super Borgou. The flip, is the same sort of thing, but over two Orchestre Poly-Rythmo tracks…

What you have is very similar to toasting, which started in Jamaica as early as the 1950s. But, to the best of my knowledge, toasting was done live in the dance halls – and not in the recording studios. I also seriously doubt that H. C. Clementophe was listening to Gil Scott-Heron – who was using a live band… So how did some one in Africa – presumably in the 1970s – pick up on this?

I have to admit, I am a bit suspicious as to the origins of this particular record… I have never seen another record on this label, and there is no indication as to when it was released. If you have any information, please drop me a line or leave a comment.

Catalog number IMEC 0001 on E. M. E. C., manufactured in France.

♬ Oluwa Lohanmi Nichai

♬ Toba Walemi

I don’t have too much to say about this one. Luckily, the record more than speaks for itself.

Ferry Djimmy was, as far as I know, from Benin – or maybe Côte d’Ivoire. He released at least two singles on EMI / Pathé, as well as a single and an LP on his own Revolution Records – which I do know was based in Cotonou. Everything I’ve heard by him has been scorching. Surprised his stuff hasn’t been reissued, or even popped up on a compilation yet…

If you have any further information about Ferry Djimmy or his backing band the Dji-kins, please contact me or leave a comment.

Catalog number 2 C 006 – 15173 W on EMI / Pathé, pressed in France. No release date listed.

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UPDATE: 06/06/22 Acid Jazz Records has reissued Ferry Djimmy’s album – ‘Rhythm Revolution” – as well as all of his singles as a gatefold double album. The liner notes finally shed some light on his history:

Acid Jazz presents one of Afrobeat’s most mysterious and rare records by a former schoolteacher, boxer, Jacques Chirac’s bodyguard, and Beninese musical visionary: Ferry Djimmy – Rhythm Revolution.

The album was originally recorded in the mid-1970s in support of Benin’s revolutionary leader Mathieu Kérékou. Rumour has it that less than two hundred copies survived a late-‘70s fire.

Ferry Djimmy’s life story is one of the most extraordinary you’re ever likely to hear. Born in 1939, Jean Maurille Ogoudjobi (the nickname Ferry comes from ‘ferry djimmy’ being short for ‘please forgive me’ in Yoruba as he was a very smart but unruly kid), Ferry had 43 siblings. By the late 1950s, he started a career as a schoolteacher. As a tall and imposing young man, Ferry also started a parallel career as a boxer. When he wasn’t teaching or fighting, he also caught up with the emerging night scene in the city of Cotonou, where local folklore, Congolese rumba, highlife and Cuban adaptations were favoured by local audiences as well as some blues, jazz and rhythm’n’blues.

By the late 1960s, Ferry had relocated to Paris where he became a policeman, often asked to assist Jacques Chirac on various missions before the future President of France became mayor of Paris in 1977. It was here in the early ‘70s he recorded his first two singles, ‘A Were Were We Coco’ and ‘Aluma Loranmi Nichai’. These songs met little interest and by 1974 Ferry was back in Cotonou.

His return to Benin coincided with 1972s revolution’s journey toward Marxist-Leninism. The country’s leader Mathieu Kerekou was impressed by Ferry’s charisma and striking look and became fast friends with him. He saw in him a personality that could seduce the younger generation in a funkier way than straight Socialist speeches. He allowed Ferry a certain budget to start his own record company called Revolution Records.
Inspired by Afrobeat, Nigeria’s Fela Kuti and his musical journey over the past decade, Ferry recorded Rhythm Revolution in Cotonou at the Satel studio. Wanting his musical vision to stay as intact and raw as possible, Ferry played most of the instruments himself – guitar, saxophone, drums/percussion and keyboards.

The resulting album is one of the toughest and deepest slices of African funk ever cut, combining raw African rhythms with distortion, energy and wit. In spite of obvious nods to James Brown, Fela Kuti, George Clinton and Jimi Hendrix, Ferry managed to create something very unique. Eight slices of raw garage-funk from Benin as evidenced by the raw ‘Carry Me Black’, a definitive ode to blackness sung in the West African language Yoruba. A dozen years past Benin’s independence from France, ‘Be Free’ tells the never-ending story about a country’s disillusions and the importance of keeping some African roots, no matter how westernized it could be.

The album’s sleeve, designed by Ferry’s friend and local artist Gratien Zossou, perfectly captures the time and the African revolutionary struggle. It stands as one of the fiercest African LP covers ever designed, inspired by the ANC’s struggle in South Africa as well as the Black Panthers movement in the US.

Ahead of his time with an original artistic vision, fifty years after his heyday, very few Beninese remember Ferry Djimmy’s name. Mathieu Kerekou ordered his ministers and administration to buy this album when it came out. Very few did so. The proceeds were supposed to fund the association for Benin’s paralytics and crippled persons. It was a total failure, nobody bought the album in spite of being played a few times on Benin national radio.

Way too wild, too far out, Rhythm Revolution couldn’t sustain the Ehouzou (Revolution) ideology and Kerekou lost interest in Ferry as his plan to speak to the youth didn’t work out. By 1977, on the advice of Fela Kuti, Ferry had relocated to neighbouring Lagos with his family. He often visited his friends Fela, Orlando Julius and Geraldo Pino and hung around with Juju music master King Sunny Ade. In early 1980, he got to meet up with his long-time idol, Mohammed Ali, who was on an official visit to Lagos in order to convince Nigeria to boycott the 1980’s Moscow Olympics.

Keeping his artistic vision intact, Ferry continued touring and recording music with his family band, the Sunshine Sisters, but these songs were never released. A heavy smoker, Ferry died of a heart failure on 29th May 1996 in Lagos.

♬ Wegne’Nda M’Banda

As I have mentioned before in previous posts on music from Benin – or Dahomey as it was known back then – for such a small country, they sure did have a whole bunch of amazing singles from there. And if you have been following this site with any regularity, you probably are aware of the amazing releases on the Analog Africa label – especially the African Scream Contest compilation. Besides the incredible sounds contained on that disc, are the very informative interviews with all of the artists included – not to mention the great layout and design of the whole package. Orchestre Super Borgou de Parakou were included on that compilation, and Samy Ben Redjeb interviewed lead guitarist Moussa Mama Djima

“The history of modern music in Parakou is directly connected to my father. In the 40s my dad traveled to Accra to become a goldsmith but he returned to the Borgou with something even more important – modern music. In Ghana my father fell in love with Highlife music and studied it intensively after work. When he arrived here he formed the first modern musical group of Northern Benin; it was called L’Orchestre Sinpam. When the adolescents of the region heard about it, many of them came to Parakou asking if they could get a musical education. So we had people staying here for few weeks, sometimes months, getting lessons from my dad, who was known in the area as “Mousse President”. Many of them returned to their villages to form their own bands. That’s how modern music started here in the Borgou. My older sister was the first of our family to take advantage of those classes. She learned how to play the flute and later became one of the most popular singers in northern Benin. Her name was Leha Nato. She was a rebel and the first woman in Parakou to wear trousers, and despite being a Moslem, my father encouraged this attitude. He wanted to modernize the behavior and the thinking of the people.

I was born in 1947; I don’t know the exact date but it was on a Friday, which is why people know me as Moussa “Djima” (Djima is Arabic for Friday). I grew up just watching all those musical things happening around me and I could literally feel music entering my soul. In my early teens, electric guitars started to appear in Parakou, especially during festivities: weddings, circumcision rituals, etc. The first guitarist to perform at our house was Waidy, my brother discovered him in Togo. He would entertain the folks for the whole period of Ramadan, Waidy would sleep end eat at our house, end I watched him practice every day. Then we found another guitarist in Ouidah named Aaron; he was cheaper. We did that for few years until around ’62-63. Throughout those years I never took lessons; I just watched those guys play and tried to copy them on a guitar I built using fishing line and some other tools. In ’63 for some reason we didn’t manage to find a musician to entertain the town, and Ramadan was approaching rapidly. The elders were panicking. I told them not to worry – I would play. They wondered, “When did you learn to play?”, “I will play!” I replied. On the first evening of Ramadan it happened. I performed using just two strings. The next morning people came to see my father to ask him if I was a genius or possessed by evil spirits. Soon youngsters started knocking on my door asking for guitar lessons. They would stay here for two, sometimes three months. We would discuss the price for accommodation, food and beverage. Most of my students used to pay with rice or meat; the ones who had money would pay 50.000 CFA for one month and 100.000 CFA for three months. That’s how I used to earn my living. My first band at that time was named Alafia Jazz. We covered Rumba songs by Franco – that’s where I got the artist name Mama Franco from. I changed the name of the band to OK Jazz later in ’64. A few years later we started to develop our own musical identity based on traditional rhythms and songs from the region. At some point I started thinking, We are the best band from northern Benin singing in Dindi and Bareba, but we have a Congolese name – not good! I decided to choose a name that would show our origins, so we renamed the band Super Borgou de Parakou. Ousman Amoussa handled backing vocal and gon, Sidi Alassane was on the toumba and kit drum, Sidi Seidou played traditional percussions, Soulaima Karim sang lead, Mama Biogado played the bass, Menou Roch was our rhythm guitarist and I was on lead guitar and vocals. We started touring Niger in ’69. We found a job at a bar called Congolaise; the owner was a former Guinean military man who disagreed with the politics of Sékou Touré and had fled the country with his Vietnamese wife. They were a very sweet couple, so we dedicated this song to them. All the money we managed to earn working in Niamey was invested into better equipment, amps, guitars and other stuff. One day I remember entering a music shop to buy a flute back in ’71 when I heard someone playing an instrument I had never even seen before. The sound was absolutely gorgeous. I asked the seller what kind of instrument that is, to which he replied, “It’s an organ“. I asked for the price. He told me 140.000 CFA. We had saved 300.000 CFA, so I bought that organ on the spot. That was on a Monday; by Saturday I played the whole set using it. It took me a day or two to understand it, but it wasn’t really a problem. On the third or so day I used our new acquisition to compose a hugely successful Afrobeat song called Da Doga Bouyo Inin Be. The first musical competition we did was in ’72 in Cotonou. At that time the government would choose one band from each state. Poly-Rythmo, Echos du Zou and many others were all competing. We won and consequently were invited to the International Music Festival in Berlin, Germany“.

Catalog number ASB175 on Albarika Store of Lagos, Nigeria. No release date listed.

♬ Winoukin

In Benin, records must grow on trees. For such a small country, there seems to be hundreds of records from there – and most of them are really good. There were loads of small labels both in Benin and in neighboring Nigeria. And in 1973, the Societé Africaine de Techniques Electroniques – or SATEL – pressing plant opened it’s doors on the highway between Cotonou and Porto Novo, which became one of the most popular pressing plans in all of Western Africa.

One of those labels was Albarika Store, which was also then name of a chain of record stores, was ran by Seidou Adissa. Samy Ben Redjeb interviewed Celestin Houenou Seza, who was Adissa’s right hand man, for the liner notes of the African Scream Contest compilation on Analog Africa.

I was giving lessons to Adissa’s children during holidays and I guess I made a good impression on him because as soon as I finished school in 1969 he asked me to help him to manage his new project. He loved traditional music from his tribe, the Yoruba and he wanted to produce a few artists and see if he could make a business out of it. The first artist recorded was Yedenou Adjahaoi, who was the most popular traditional artist in the region. His first single was recorded in Nigeria and distributed by Badejo in 1968. That record was a hit. As a consequence Adissa came to see me and offered me a chance to join his music company. I had just finished school and was a seventeen-year-old boy full of ambition and he was a great businessman who couldn’t read or write. He showed me the whole procedure – from the recording to the pressing plants via the distribution network, and by the time we did our first modern recording. which was by Gnonnas Pedro, I knew how to run the whole label by myself.

In 1969 the students from the University of Porto Novo were going crazy for a track from Ghana called Sock It to Me (by The Super Eagles) and they were bombarding us with requests. We never experienced that kind of reaction so we were wondering what kind of song could that be? So I traveled to Accra to buy a small stock of that record which we would resell in Dahomey. I purchased about a hundred 45s, and in two days they were all gone. We didn’t want to go back to Accra to get some more. Instead, we thought of recording our own version for the Benin market. El Rego had a guy called Eddy Black Power who could do that kind of stuff, so we approached him. We left for Lagos with El Rego et Ses Commandos where they recorded four songs We sold three thousand copies of the title Feeling You Got (the cover version of Sock It To Me) which was a huge success at the time, so we decided to look for the band members of the Super Eagles to buy a license. Despite many trips to Ghana we never managed to find them Then, one day we found out they were actually from Gambia!

A few months later we signed Orchestre Poly-Rythmo. Adissa wanted the song Angelina, so we traveled to Lagos for a recording; that was in early 1970. Adissa hadn’t even noticed the other songs we recorded that day, but I felt something would happen with the track Gbeti Madjro. Man, it spread like wildfire. We sold a lot – not sure how many, but a lot. I believe that song revolutionized the music industry in this country.

At that time we had decided not just to focus on bands from Porto Novo, or Cotonou, but also to travel all over the country to locate and record the best bands. I was in charge of those kinds of operations – I was actually in charge of everything, but that’s the part I am most proud of. I would travel to every corner of Benin looking for groups. In Parakou, which is located in the northeast of the country we bumped into an excellent band led by Alidou Boukari called Anassoua Jazz, Their first recording with us was a Jerk called Fatouma Na Alidou recorded in 1971. We had huge success in the Borgou state with that one, which encouraged other bands from the region to seek our production.

One day I found (Moussa) Mama Franco in front of my door. He explained that he had a group called Super Borgou de Parakou, and that he wanted us to record them, Moussa seemed to be a serious guy with a positive attitude, so I traveled back with him, and found out that the band was having enormous success with its live performances. They had an incredible drum’ mar I forgot his name, and their lead singer had a golden voice; we used to call him “Saka”. It was with Super Borgou that we made our first extended play 7” inch record. Some of the bands we recorded over the years were rebels and I spent a lot of time checking the lyrics and censoring offensive words I had to make sure the songs could be played on the radio. When El Rego covered Sock It to Me, I changed the tide to Feeling You Got. Some of the groups we produced simply didn’t want us to touch to any of their lyrics, so we would just drop the title and get on with our business. But to release a song with naughty lyrics would have given us bad press, and my job as to make sure that didn’t happen.

This interview is just about the only mention of Orchestre Anassoa Jazz de Parakou. The only other information that I have been able to find is that the main person behind the band was Alidou Boukari – who would later go on to form Orchestre Anos Band. Also, Orchestre Anassoa Jazz de Parakou released at least two other singles, both on the Albarika Store label.

Catalog number ASB29 on Albarika Store of Lagos, Nigeria. No release date listed.