Filed under: Ethiopia
Tilahoun Gessesse was one of the most popular singers of Ethiopia‘s “Golden Age” in the 1960s – nicknamed “The Voice”. There are four posts (so far) that cover the legendary musician over at the mighty Likembe blog.
Here is Tilahun’s biography from Ethio LA3:
Artist Dr. Tilahun Gessesse was born to Woizero Gete Gurmu and Ato Gessesse Wolde Kidan on Sunday, September 27, 1942, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. When he was fourteen years old, he was taken by his grandfather to Woliso. While he was in Woliso, he began attending Ras Gobena Elementary School. As time went by, his interest in music became so clear that his grandfather urged him to concentrate in his school studies instead of music. On the other hand, the Ras Gobena School Principal Mr. Shedad (Sudanian) who realized Tilahun’s interest in music urged him to go to Sudan to pursue his interest in music. Even though young Tilahun did not go to Sudan to pursue his music career, he took Mr. Shedad’s advice very seriously. When artists form Hager Feker Theater, Woizro Negatwa Kelkai, Ato Eyoel Yohanes and others came to Ras Gobena Elementary School to perform, Tilahun grabbed this opportunity to discuss his interest in music with Ato Eyoel. Young Tialhun was told to go to Addis Ababa if he wanted to pursue his career in music. […]
Once Tilahun arrived in Addis Ababa, he immediately began to show his talent. He was first hired by the Hager Feker Association, which is nowadays known as Hager Feker Theater.
After a few years at the Hager Feker Theater, Tilahun joined the Imperial Body Guard Band where he became a leading star singer. He then moved to the National Theater where he became famous and successful with his wonderful voice. Tilahun was so famous that he appeared three times in front of His Majesty, Emperor Haile Selassie I. During his visit with his Majesty, His Majesty advised Tilahun not to abuse his gifted talent. Tilahun kept his majesty’s advice and has become the king of Ethiopian music and his name has also become a household name among all Ethiopians.
Tilahoun Gessesse passed away on April 19th of 2009. A state funeral was held on three days later in Addis Ababa.
Catalog number PH 7-224 on Philips Records Ethiopia. No release date listed.
Filed under: India
[Note: This is a re-print of a guest post that I wrote for Jonathon Ward’s amazing Excavated Shellac back in September of last year. For that post there is a song from one of Van Shipley’s earliest 78, where as here you have a song from the 70s.]
The earliest known report of anyone playing slide guitar was Gabriel Davion, a native of India who had been kidnapped by Portuguese sailors and was brought to Hawaii in 1876. Of course, Indian string instruments, like the gottuvadhyam and the vichitra veena, use a slide are known to have existed since the 11th century. But it was not until Ernest Ka’ai and his Royal Hawaiian Troubadours’ toured in 1919 that the slide guitar was introduced to India.
Most people agree that Van Shipley was the first electric guitarist in India and the first to record instrumental versions of film songs beginning sometime in the early 1950s. Van was born in the city of Lucknow in Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. When most people hear his name, they say “But that’s not an Indian name!”. Well, that’s because not everyone in India is Hindu. Shipley was Methodist.
Inspired by his mother, who played the sitar, Shipley took to music at a young age. His first instrument was the violin. He attended Saharanpur to study Indian Classical music. There, he studied under Ustad Bande Hassan Khan and his son Ustad Zinda Hassan Khan, who were both famous Khyal singers from Northern India. At the same time, he took lessons in western music from an American identified as Dr. Wizer.
Shipley then returned to Lucknow to attend college, where he became involved with All India Radio. After college, we went to the city of Pune to work for the Prabhat Film Company before moving to the center of India’s film industry, Bombay (Mumbai). It was there that he caught the attention of producer and director Raj Kapoor, who spotted him performing on stage. Kapoor enlisted Shipley to play violin on the soundtrack for Barsaat (Rain) in 1949. The following year, Shipley added his electric guitar to a dream sequence in Awaara (The Tramp), which brought him to the attention of The Gramophone Co. of India. In 1955, Shipley teamed up with accordionist Enoch Daniels, who he had met while working for the Prabhat Film Company in Pune. This musical partnership ultimately lasted for many years.
Shipley set off the steel guitar craze in India. Other steel guitar players from the 78 era include Batuk Nandy, Brij Bhushan Kabra, Kazi Aniruddha, Mohon Bhattacharya, Nalin Mazumdar, Robin Paul, S. Hazarasingh, Sujit Nath and Sunil Ganguly. But most of these guitarists only recorded Tagore songs, with only a few (Kazi Aniruddha and S. Hazarasingh) recording Filmi tunes (Sunil Ganguly and Batuk Nandy would start doing film songs in the 60s and the 70s, respectively).
One of the most distinct things that set Shipley apart was that he played an eight string guitar, which he had designed and built to give him the drone sound that was more common in Indian Classical music than in the Film songs. Almost all of the other Indian steel guitarists played a National Dual Six Console guitar. Shipley also designed his own electric violin as well, which he dubbed the ‘Gypsy Violin’ and used on many of his later records.
Shipley’s first album, The Man with The Golden Guitar, a title that stuck with him the rest of his career, was released in 1962. He would go on to release an album every year until 1982, as well as a dozen or so EPs. He also tour the world, playing shows in Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean Islands, Suriname, Guyana and the U.S., including the cities of New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Buffalo and Detroit. Besides recording, Shipley acted in a few films as well, including 1964s Cha Cha Cha.
Shipley died on March 8, 2008 of a heart attack at his home in Mumbia. His daughter Ingrid is an artist and musician who lives in New York, and his nephew Valentine is a singer/songwriter in India.
Thanks to Derek Taylor at Bagatellen for the information.
Catalog number TAEC. 1648 on Odeon / EMI for The Gramophone Co. of India, released 1970.
Filed under: Cambodia
As I have mentioned before, I sometimes regret having omitted Latin Music from the scope of this site. At the time I decided to start doing this, I thought that I was pretty sure I knew all that I needed to know about the subject. And I have since been proven wrong. There’s a vast amount of amazing material out there. But I really do not need an excuse to buy more records than I already do. Maybe one of these days when I feel that I’ve got the rest of the world taken care of, I will turn my attention to that region.
But the influence of Latin Music on the rest of the world is very evident. You can hear it in the Middle East in the music of Egypt‘s Salah Ragab and Iran‘s Manouchehr to South East Asia with Phoem Khlaibanleng & His International Mixed Mahori Orchestra of Thailand and the Non-Stop Dancing bands of Singapore with their cowbells and timbales… And of course, it can be heard in certain passages of Bollywood film songs (Really, what musical style has Bollywood not incorporated? Maybe Black Metal… But I’m not 100% sure on that.). But the biggest influence can be heard in Africa.
Congolese Rumba – or Soukous – was the most popular music for he majority of Sub-Saharan Africa. But you can hear elements of Latin Music in Nigerian Highlife, Guinean and Malian Manding Jazz, Ethiopian jazz…
And would be remiss in not mentioning Santana… I think I’ve heard versions of either Black Magic Woman, Evil Woman or Oye Como Va from just about every corner of the globe.
There are two sites (That I know of – I’m willing to bet there’s a few more out there.) that cover the Latin Music that this site would cover – Garage Latino and Super Sonido.
You can find information on Sinn Sisamouth here.
Catalog number 45-5012 on Wat Phnom Disques of Cambodia. No release date listed.
Filed under: Madagascar
Our latest guest post is by Gwynne Margaret Bruck, who is a fan of the site. She recently traveled to Madagascar to attend a Famadihana ceremony, but was unsuccessful. So, instead she came back with a stack of Malagasy singles. If you have any interesting records or cassettes that you wish to share from some of the countries that we have yet to hear from – say like Bangladesh, Central African Republic, Kazakhstan, Libya, Somalia or Tanzania – or countries that we need to hear more from – like Laos, Sudan or Syria – please get in touch.
Inspired by the collections of this site and Sublime Frequencies I decided on my recent trip to Madagascar to do a little record hunting. A co-worker from Ghana had suggested I bring a record with me to show people in case I should run into any language barriers. I followed his advice and it worked far better than I expected. Outside my hotel in Antanarivo were people selling local crafts and one day I showed the valiha (Malagasy bamboo zither) salesman a 45 and asked if he knew where I could find a Malagasy version. He didn’t have any but he took me to the tin can toy car salesman who asked me to wait twenty minutes and he’d be right back. He literally ran down the street and the valiha salesman explained he had some records at home. Twenty minutes later he returned with a stack of about ten of the filthiest cracked and scratched 45s I’d ever seen. He told me they were all Malagasy but as I looked through them I found a few Boney M‘s. I told him I would buy the Malagsy stuff only and he tried to persuade me on the greatness of Boney M even though I told him I could get those back home. I bought all the local stuff for around $5 each although I suspected they would be impossible to play. The price seemed steep and I actually did talk him down a little but in the end I figured he needed the money more than me. For the next couple of days until I left Antanarivo I could not leave the hotel without men chasing me down to sell me their records. We would go behind this gate in a kind of a shady back alley sort of spot for the transactions as though it was drug deal. As I would shuffle through their records to sift out the Boney M’s they would look at the disc, sing a bit of the song it contained and show me the corresponding dance. In the end they threw in the Boney M’s for free and I ended up with around forty Malagasy 45s.
The two main record labels I found were Discomad and Kaiamba. I could be wrong but I suspect the Kaiamba Orchestra might have been made up of various popular musicians on the label. I found some of the Orchestra members’ names on other records I had obtained, most notably Jean Kely. Here is a link to a video of a Jean Kely and Basth performance from 1999.
Catalog number K.77 ER 3 on Kaiamba Records of Madagascar. No release date listed.
Filed under: Algeria
Every now and then, I stumble upon a record that’s a complete mystery. Anyone out there ever heard Arabic Zouk before? I know I sure have not.
The single was released on a French label called Antilles Musique Diffusion. The liner notes – which according to the Google translator read “Mr. Mallek young composer, still unknown to you, has 45 cm in this attractive entry you” – were written by Tinou Lavital. But Lavital was a well known manager, musician and producer from Guadeloupe… I am assuming that Mallek and Lavital must have crossed paths in France, since Algeria had been and Guadeloupe still is part of the French colonial empire. But beyond that, I got nothing.
If you have any further information on the band, please contact me or leave a comment.
Note: The song title Rohi Ya Hafida is listed as Rouhi Rouhi Ya Hafida on the label of the actual record.
Thanks to Anis Bousbia for helping me at least figure out where Mallek Mohamed was from…
Catalog number AMD 008 on Antilles Musique Diffusion of France. No other information available.
Filed under: Hong Kong
♬ 小拜年
♬ 大拜年
There were two different music scenes in Hong Kong in the late Sixties. First were the garage bands like Teddy Robin & The Playboys, The Mystics, Joe Jr. & The Side Effects, Menace, Lotus, and the like. These bands generally sung in English and covered the latest songs from the UK or the US. And then there were recording artists from the Shaw Brothers film studio, like Nancy Sit and Chan Po Chu (a. k. a. Connie Chan) who recorded Chinese versions of international hits. At the same time, there were also a handful of studio musicians churning out instrumental versions of not only Western songs, but Westernized Chinese songs as well.
Much like their label mates The New Wave, The Apollo Guitar Band were apparently one of these studio bands. I have seen a few other releases by the band, but none of them feature any pictures or credits of musicians. The band’s name may have been taken from the Teisco / Kawai manufactured Apollo model guitar from that time period.
If you have any further information on the band, please contact me or leave a comment.
Thanks to Mack Hagood for translating the titles for me.
Catalog number NWLP 8035 on New Wave Record of Hong Kong, manufactured in Malaysia by Life Records. No release date listed.
Filed under: Taiwan
This week, we have a guest post by my good friend Mack Hagood. Mack and I go way back – all the way to high school (which was a very long time ago). Every few years or so, we’ll lose touch, and then somehow our paths cross again. Besides his Far East Audio Review and managing the mysterious masked Asian A Go Go band Red Chamber, as well as occasionally touring with Pine Top Seven, he is working on his doctorate for Ethnomusicology at Indiana University.
Here’s a Christmas gift to Radiodiffusion listeners: two yuletide tracks from the Taiwanese 60s instro album X’mas A GO GO. I found this LP on a Taipei vinyl hunting trip I that chronicled on my now-defunct website, the Far Eastern Audio Review.
There are several outstanding features of this record, the first being the cover, which has become an integral part of my annual holiday decorations. Damn, these cats look sharp. The back cover features a cross emerging from a jolly wreath of holly and silver bells—nothing like celebrating a kid’s birthday with a foreshadowing of his eventual execution. Also interesting is the name of this band, the Blue Star Chorus–quite an odd name for a Ventures-inspired instrumental rock band. (I am certain that my translation of lan xing he chang tuan is at least literally correct, though the album doesn’t provide its own English translation of the band name.)
As for the Christmas music, we’ve got one standard and one curveball. First off is a sassy chug-a-chug take on “Silent Night, ” complete with slide guitar and vibraphone. Nothing silent or holy about this one.
Next, we’ve got “I Love to Whistle.” What is a 1930s show tune made famous by the likes of Fats Waller and Deanna Durbin doing on a Christmas album? Well, listen to the first four bars—sounds a lot like “Frosty the Snowman, ” right? Methinks we’re hearing the result of a little cross-cultural confusion. Perhaps one of the boys briefly heard “Frosty” in a Christmas context and assumed it was actually the older tune. Can’t say for sure, but really, who cares? Blue Star lays down some cool dueling guitar action, with one of the guitarists making a “stinger” sound that seems to be a Blue Star trademark.
This album was released in November of the 56th year of the Minguo calendar— better-known to Gregorian calendar fans as 1967–on Union Record (sic), a label probably best known in the West for its counterfeit Ronnie James Dio records.
Catalog number CMX-8015 on Union Record of Taiwan, released 1967.
Filed under: Dahomey
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.
Filed under: Indonesia
Kroncong (also seen spelled: Keroncong, Kerontjong, Kronchong, Krontjong) is the name of a ukulele-type instrument and an Indonesian musical style that typically makes use of the kroncong, a flute, and a female singer. The small kroncong guitar itself is related to the Portuguese cavaquinho, as is the Hawaiian ukulele. The roots of Kroncong music can be traced to Portuguese Fado, having originated in the communities of freed Portuguese slaves in the 16th in Batavia – now known as Jakarta, Indonesia.
During the 1960s, Pop Keroncong emerged in an attempt to modernize the genre by adding electric guitars, keyboards and drums. The most popular singers of that time were Hetty Koes Endang and Mus Mulyadi. Meanwhile, backing bands like The Steps and Band 4 Nada – who were already recording Instrumentalia albums – started making instrumental Kroncong records.
Eka Sapta formed as an instrumental backing band in 1963. From the beginning, they were influenced by The Shadows and The Ventures. Their first album was released the following year, baking up a number of singers, including Lilis Suryani and Elly Kasim. The band became one of the most sought after backing bands, recording albums with Inneke Kusumawati, Sitompul Bersaudara and others. Their last record was released in 1975.
While the band had many members over the years – there are nine people credited as being in the band on this album – two of which were guitarists Jopie Item and Entang. Jopie Item was in Trio Bintang and may or may not have been in Band 4 Nada. Entang had a solo career, backing up the Pattie Bersaudara, as well as others.
The band supposedly reformed in 2007. Other than a lone article, I have not been able to find any other evidence to support that fact.
Catalog number CLP 17003 on Canary Records of Indonesia, released 1970.
Filed under: Israel
Military service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is mandatory, with some exceptions, for all Israeli citizens over the age of 18. But unlike most other countries’ armies, the IDF has had performing groups called Lehakot Tsva’iyot (Army Ensembles) since the 1950s. These groups, comprising soldiers with talent or performing experience, tour bases and field positions to entertain the troops. Every Israeli musician of the 1960s was a product of this system, including Arik Einstein, Shula Chen, and Shalom Hanoch, to name a few.
Shalom Hanoch (also seen spelled Chanoch and Hanokh) was born in Mishmarot, and stared writing and performing at a young age. By the time he was 19, he had a song recorded by folk duo Hedva and David. In 1966, he began his compulsory military service and joined the Infantry Brigade troupe, the Nahal Band. It was during his time with the Nahal Band that he caught the attention of Arik Einstein, who asked Shalom to write for him.
Around this time, Shalom formed The Three’ngers – or Three Singers – with Benny Amdursky and Hanan Yovel. Their only album from 1969, featured Danny Sandersson of Kaveret (a.k.a. Poogy) on guitar and Aharale Kaminsky on drums. The album also showcased a roster of who’s who of Israeli song writers: Dani Litani, Shimrith Or, Ya’akov Rotblit, Yair Rosenblum, Yaron London and Yehonatan Geffen.
The following year, Hanoch teamed up with Einstein to write two albums – Shablul (Snail) and Plastelina (Plasticine). The former was billed as an Arik Einstein album, with all compositions by Hanoch; the latter was credited to both. The next year, Shalom moved to England “without connections or a firm grasp of the English language“. He soon found management with Dick James, and recorded the album Shalom with Elton John‘s backing band. In 1973, he returned to Israel to form the band Tamouz. Although that band also only release one album, it was considered a milestone of Israeli Rock and Roll.
After the demise of Tamouz, Shalom Hanoch has remained a solo artist. He continues to record and perform to this day.
Catalog number BAN 14100 on Hed Arzi Ltd. of Israel, released 1969.
