Radiodiffusion Internasionaal Annexe

♬ Ya Tounes

Yet another “one hit wonder” from Tunisia.

I have not been able to find any other information about any of the musicians of this band:

• Electric Guitar, Voice – Ridha Cherif
• Bass Guitar – Brahim Tlili
• Drums, Percussion – Taieb Karchani
• Saxophone, Flute – Nabil Bougattef
• Violin, Piano – Ahmed Karchani

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 Super Hit 1, released 1978. Published by النغم / En’nagham of Tunisia.

♬ Baba Bahri

On my last Tunisian post, I got some emails that there are plenty of musicians from there who released more than one single. And whereas that is true – like K. R. Nagti for example – most of the artists that I am interested in only did release one single. An exception to that rule is Carthago.

Carthago was founded in the late 1970s with Fawzi Chekili (guitar), Ridha Kouhen (bass) and Skander Almi (drums) of the band Dalton and Hechmi Miliani (guitar) and Kamel Sellam (synthesizer) of Marhaba Band. Both bands had similar musical influences, despite the fact that they were competition with each other. Musically, Carthago followed the same path of Dalton and Marhaba but incorporated disco, a relatively new style at that time. At the end of the 70s, Carthago went to Paris to record their self-titled album.

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

Catalog number MB 01 on Marhaba Band Records of Tunisia. No release date listed.

♬ Tiou Tiou Tiou (Instrumental)

Maybe it has something to do with Tunisia’s proximity to Italy, but Disco sure seems to have been a major force there back in the day. And with the exception of Professeur Kakino de Paz, every record I’ve seen from Tunisia has been a band’s lone single that they self-released.

But recently there’s been some interesting music coming out of Tunisia. There’s AMMAR 808, which is mainly Sofyann Ben Youssef who is also in Bargou 08. Yeah, I listen to new music, too. It’s not all vintage wonderfulness here at the Radiodiffusion Internasionaal Annexe Control Center.

I have not been able to find anything on Zalila – also known as Ridha Zalila – nor his record label. If you have any further information, please leave it in the comment section below.

Catalog number 291181 on D. B. S. Production of Tunis, Tunisia. Released 1981.

♬ Teksim Rasd

Information is not static… Especially when the internet is your primary source.

When I first got this record, I could not find anything on the good Professeur. I e-mailed a few of my contacts, and they turned up nothing. Then when I sat down to write this post, out of nowhere – Voila! A Wikipedia post magically appears (en français, bien sûr).

Kakino Isaac de Paz was born on July 12th, 1919 in the Ariana region of Tunisia. After losing his site at a young age, he immersed himself in music and became a virtuoso on accordion, piano, qanún (zither), oud and violin. In 1946, Kakino joined the Tunis Municipal Orchestra and the Orchestra of La Rachidia. Three years later, he became conductor of a weekly radio program on Radio Tunis. In 1956, Kakino moved to Paris where he worked with Enrico Macias and Brigitte Fontaine – to name a few. He continued to live and work in Paris until his death December 7th of 1983.

Catalog number 1060 on Sono L’Aube of Paris, France. No release date listed.

♬ Yendam

Writing about music, at least for me, is a somewhat laborious process. It is definitely much less enjoyable than actually just listening to it. Even though in high school I was voted most likely to write for Rolling Stone, I’ve always thought that my writing skills were… Well, let’s just say it could use some work. But I keep slugging away at it, like a monkey with a typewriter.

For the most part, in these posts I try not to pass judgment on the music. I usually try to find as much information as I can, slap it all together, and voila – another post is hurled into cyberspace. Although I do think that the historical and geographical context is important and can temper the listener’s opinion, I believe that the music pretty much speaks for itself. But there are many times when I get a record and have nothing to go on. I start searching the interwebs, e-mailing a few contacts… Nothing. What then?

Unlike the record that I thought was from there, I am pretty sure that these guys were actually from Tunisia. The record was self released with no information about where the songs were recorded, or the address of the label that released it – only a phone number. On the back, it lists the musicians including the principle singer / songwriter “Mahjoub H.”, who also released the record. The only real clue, is that it says “Presse Ennagham” on the bottom of the back cover. Disques Ennagham was a Tunisian label that had their own pressing plant. Other than that, I know the band’s name, Omnya, translates as “Hope”, but song title “Yendam” means “Regret”.

Thanks to Alan Bishop, Anis Bousbia and Hicham Chadly for their help. If you any information about the band, please contact me.

Catalog number A. 77 001 on Omnya, pressed by Disques Ennagham of Tunisia, released 1977.

♬ Sidi Mansour

Mohammed Hanesh was supposedly from Tunisia.

The only information I was able to find was on a cached Dutch Wikipedia page that was not ready to be published (and that is no longer on the web)… Apparently, someone by the name of Mike Vincent played bass on this song. And since this record was originally released in Holland, there a possibility that this may be a studio creation. That may explain that fake bear that guy with the flute is wearing on the cover…

If you have any information, please contact me.

Catalog number 16 236 AT on Ariola of Munich, Germany, released 1975.

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UPDATE: I stumbled upon this discussion board the other day:

“My name is Cees Vermeulen Wind Sant, music producer. It was 1975, there raged an oil crisis. Together with my family, I was on holiday in Tunisia. We walked about a bazaar and I heard a whistle a tune playing in a so-called traditional music. The tune stayed in my mind for days and that gave me the idea to take a stab at the song in a modern way. No sooner said than done. Under the alias Mohammed Hanesh, I was with some friends, recorded the song “Sidi Mansour” produced, published and distribution by Ariola. The song hit directly and quickly became a in various countries. This was also supported by the Tunisian airline, which produced large posters. Something that today we would not get together quickly…”