Filed under: Turkey
The music of Turkey includes diverse elements ranging from Central Asian folk music and music from Ottoman Empire dominions such as Persian music, Balkan music and ancient Byzantine music, as well as more modern European and American popular music influences.
The roots of traditional music in Turkey spans across centuries to a time when the Seljuk Turks colonized Anatolia and Persia in the 11th century and contains elements of both Turkic and pre-Turkic influences. Much of its modern popular music can trace its roots to the emergence in the early 1930s drive for Westernization.
With the absorbance of immigrants from various regions the diversity of musical genres and musical instrumentation also expanded. Turkey has also seen documented folk music and recorded popular music produced in the ethnic styles of Armenian, Greek, Polish, Azeri and Jewish communities, among others.
Born in Adana in 1936, Erol Büyükburç began his career as what can be called “highschool pop”. Erol mixed more classic Anatolian pop with Western music, with influences ranging from Elvis to The Ventures, and was known for performing commercial ballroom shows. Although his career started before the Altin Mikrofon bands of the late Sixties, and even before Erkin Koray’s first single, Erol is considered kitschy by most collectors of Turkish music and is generally overlooked. Erol passed away in 2003.
The only information that I have been able to find, other than a Turkish Wikipedia entry, is a biography that is in Turkish. There is also a complete discography listing that you can find here. Erol’s song “Hop Dedik” was included on Normal / QDK Media’s “Love, Peace & Poetry – Turkish Psychedelic Music”.
Catalog number XPTX 612 on Pathé / EMI, manufactured by Gramofon Limitet Şirketi of Istanbul. No release date listed.
Filed under: Ghana
Highlife is a dance music that originated in Ghana and spread to most of West Africa, and it represents one of the last century’s first fusions of African roots and western music. Trumpeter and bandleader E.T. Mensah, who was born in 1919 in Accra, is generally credited with the creation of the genre. He formed his first band in 1930s and went on to be crowned the King of Highlife.
The World War II era introduced American swing to the highlife mix, already a blend of Trinidadian calypso, military brass band music, Cuban son and older African song forms. Then with the introduction of the electric guitar and the synthesizer, the music started to incorporate more rock ‘n’ roll elements. By the late Sixties, the influence of the psychedelic music of America and England started to show its influence on the music of Africa.
Pat Thomas was born in Agona, in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. His father who was a music teacher and a mother who was a band leader. Pat has always been in love with music from an early age, and he learned a lot of band organization and music writing from his uncle Onyina who played with Nat King Cole, Miriam Makeba, Ray Charles and Ella Fitzgerald. It was during his stay with his uncle that he learned how to play the guitar and drums.
In the early 70’s he went to Accra to join a band known as The Blue Monks under the leadership of Ebo Taylor. This was the resident band of Tip Toe Nite Club. It was during one of his shows that one Caucasian lady who was in attendance fell in love with his voice and signed him up to go to Côte d’Ivoire to form a group called The Satellites. He later came back to Ghana to form The Sweat Beans Band, which became the band of choice during the Kutu Acheampong Era.
In July of 1976, Pat Thomas was recognized by the Arts Council of Ghana as “Nana Amu Mensah I” for his contribution to music. Also that year, as well as the following year, he was awarded the Vocalist of the Year by the Entertainment Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana. In 1991 he also won the Album of the Year with his “Sika Ye Mogya” song.
After moving to Germany, and then on to London, Pat eventually settled in Toronto, Canada. But after 15 years, he decided to go back to Ghana, where he still records and performs.
The core members of Pat Thomas’s backing band Marijata were Kofi “Electrik” Addison on drums, Bob Fischian on keyboards and Nate Osmanu on guitar, all of which had been in The Sweat Beans Band. Marijata, as well as Ebo Taylor, were featured on both of Soundway Records’ first and second volumes of the Ghana Soundz compilations.
Catalog number GAPLP 771 on Gapophone Records of Accra, Ghana, pressed in Nigeria. No release date listed.
Filed under: South Korea
♬ 해변으로 가요
Korea is one of the oldest continuing civilizations in the world, founded in 2333 BC by the legendary Dangun according to Samguk Yusa. The Korean Peninsula was first inhabited as early as the Lower Paleolithic. Following the unification of the Three Korean Kingdoms under Silla in AD 668, Korea went through the Goryeo and Joseon Dynasty as one nation until the end of the Korean Empire in 1910. After division, South Korea was established in 1948 and has since developed a successful democracy, maintaining a strong alliance with the United States and its allies. South Korea is now working towards a peaceful reunification with North Korea.
There’s not a whole lot of information available about the early days of rock ‘n’ roll in South Korea. Despite having a lengthy article on “K-pop”, Wikipedia has only a brief mentions of “T’ong Guitar” and “Norae Undong”. The Key Boys would fall in to the latter category.
Most of the information that can be found on Korean rock music (in English), is posted at the website for the Psyche Van Het Folk programme from Radio Centraal of Belgium.
There is an older post on the Key Boys HERE.
Catalog number K-APPLE 가 20 on Universal of Korea, released in 1970.
Filed under: Morocco
Many Berbers call themselves some variant of the word Imazighen (singular Amazigh), meaning “free men”. This is common in Morocco, but elsewhere within the Berber homeland a local, more particular term, such as Kabyle or Chaoui, is more often used instead. The Imazighen have lived in North Africa for thousands of years, long before the Phoenicians, Romans or Arabs arrived. They’ve survived a constant stream of foreign occupation with their culture and language intact.
The Imazighen are intermittently distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Between fourteen and twenty-five million live within this region, most densely in Morocco and becoming generally scarcer eastward through the rest of the Maghreb and beyond. They speak various Berber languages, which together form a branch of the Afroasiatic language family.
Now, for the band Imazighene… The person who sold me this record, said that they were from Algeria. But after I had asked a few people what they knew, I discovered that he must have had this band confused with the Algerian band Imazighen Imula, which was formed by Kabyle singer and political activist Ferhat Mehenni.
The only clue, other than the Moroccan record label, is the text on the record itself. Apparently, only Moroccan Imazighen use Arabic lettering. Algerian Imazighen, who are more radical and against Arab culture, tend to use Latin letters or Tifinagh, or even French.
What little I have been able to find out about the record label Boussiphone, is that it was founded by Saïd Boussif. The company would eventually become the production company Boussivision, which later changed its name to Tamgharet Ouragh.
Thanks to Anis Bousbia and Hicham Chadly for their help. If you any information about the band, please contact me.
Catalog number MB 197.70 on Boussiphone of Morocco. No other information is available.
Filed under: India
Bollywood film music of India is commonly refered to as “filmi music” (from Hindi, meaning “of films”). Songs from Bollywood movies are generally pre-recorded by professional playback singers, with the actors then lip synching the words to the song on-screen, often while dancing. Playback singers are prominently featured in the opening credits and have their own fans who will go to an otherwise lackluster movie just to hear their favourites. Their songs can make or break a film and usually do.
Songs typically comment on the action taking place in the movie, in several ways. Sometimes, a song is worked into the plot, so that a character has a reason to sing; other times, a song is an externalisation of a character’s thoughts, or presages an event that has not occurred yet in the plot of the movie. In this case, the event is almost always two characters falling in love.
Bollywood films have always used what are now called “item numbers“. A physically attractive female character (the “item girl”), often completely unrelated to the main cast and plot of the film, performs a catchy song and dance number in the film. In older films, the “item number” may be performed by a courtesan (tawaif) dancing for a rich client or as part of a cabaret show. The dancer Helen Jairag Richardson Khan was famous for her cabaret numbers. In modern films, item numbers may be inserted as discotheque sequences, dancing at celebrations, or as stage shows.
As for Charanjit Singh, there is not a whole lot of information available. According to the liner notes of his “One Man Show” album which was recorded in 1977, he had apparently been playing live for two decades. But his first single was not released until 1973. Unlike other performers who chose to pay tribute to the songs of Bollywood, Charanjit played a variety of instruments. He would feature either bass, steel guitar, the electric violin or the Transicord electric accordion as the prominent instrument on each song. He would eventually switch to the synthesizer, covering entire soundtracks.
Charanjit Singh has been featured on Bombay Connection’s “The Bombay Connection Vol. 1: Funk from Bollywood Action Thrillers 1977-1984” and Sublime Frequencies‘ “Bollywood Steel Guitar”. In 2010, his only non-Filmi record from 1982 “Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat” was reissued by Bombay connection. If you any further information, please contact me.
Catalog number S/MOCE 4204 on Odeon / EMI of India, manufactured & distributed by The Gramophone Company of India Limited in 1975. No other information is available.
Filed under: Angola
During the early 1960s, the Portuguese government that ruled Angola realized that they needed to silence the musicians and other artists who were breeding resentment against their colonial authority. Instead of ostracizing Angolan culture, the Portuguese started to encourage it, although in a very controlled way. A small local recording industry began, and radio stations started to play Angolan music. At the time, the music of Angola was heavily influenced by the popularity of Congolese music from the neighboring country as well as Portuguese Fado, Latin Merengue and American Jazz.
Originally a locksmith by trade, Antonio Urbano de Castro started out in show business as a side show performer. He and his friends Dikembé, Fakir and Silva would run shows of acrobatics, lifting barrels with their teeth and other exercises. Shortly afterwards, De Castro and Dikembé formed a vocal duo, and would sing for small auditoriums at funerals and other rituals.
But that changed when Luis Montês caught De Casto performing at the N’gola cinema in Luanda. Montês would go on to arranged for De Castro to perform at the “Kutonoca”, a programme of popular music that occurred on Saturdays in different districts of the capital.
In a career that only lasted five years, De Castro recorded over fifty songs. He also was able to record with the best known groups existing at the time – Os Kiezos, Jovens do Prenda, África Ritmos, África Show, Super Koba and Águias Reais.
When Portugal’s Carnation Revolution happened in 1974, there was a sudden withdrawal of administrative and military personnel from Portugal’s overseas colonies. As a result, Angola would enter into a decades-long civil war. During this time, De Castro illegally moved to Congo-Brazzaville. Upon his return to Angola, he joined the anti-Communist Union for the Total Independence of Angola political party.
On May 27, 1977. Urbano De Castro was killed by members of the opposing Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola party that has ruled the country since its independence.
The song “Revolução De Angola “ was included in Buda Musique’s “Angola 70’s: 1974-1978“ compilation, and three of De Castro’s songs were on the “Soul of Angola Anthology: 1965-1975” on Lusafrica.
Catalog number R:- 1003 on Rebita, pressed by Fadiang (also known as Rádio Reparadora do Bié) in Silva Porto for Discoteca de Angola in Luanda. No release date listed.
Filed under: Japan
When The Ventures returned to Japan in January 1965, they had become household names. The impact of their music on Japanese teenagers was enormous. Unhindered by the language barriers inherent in performing American or British vocal music, hundreds of Eleki (Japanese English for “electric”, as in electric guitars) combos sprung up all over the country.
Domestic guitar manufacturers such as Guya couldn’t keep up with the demand, so companies usually associated with other industries such as Victor (better known as JVC in the U.S.) began producing electric guitars. In 1965, 760,000 guitars were made in Japan, a record that has yet to be broken.
All I can tell you about The Spacemen is that they recorded a handful of singles (most of which you can view here), and at least three albums (one of which you can listen to here). If you any information about the band, please contact me.
Catalog number JAEP-6 on JVC Nivico. No release date listed.
Filed under: Sudan
Abdel Karim El Kabli (also seen as Abdel Karim Al Kabli) is from Sudan.
Sudanese music is based on the pentatonic scale: scale with five notes to the octave, like the black notes in the piano (in contrast to an heptatonic, seven note, scale like the gypsy or Egyptian scale). It is similar to the Scottish, Chinese and Puerto Rican music. Celtic folk music, American blues music also utilize the pentatonic scale music. Well, here… I’ll let Abdel Karim El Kabli explain.
Contemporary Sudanese music might be a potpourri of diverse traditions, but it has emerged as a unique blend, with a character all of its own. It is rooted in the madeeh (praising the Prophet Mohamed in song). The genre filled out into something quite irreverent in the 1930s and 1940s when Haqibah music, the madeeh’s secular successor, caught on. Haqiba, a predominantly vocal art in which the musicians accompanying the lead singer use few instruments, spread like wildfire in the urban centres of Sudan. It was the music of weddings, family gatherings and wild impromptu parties. Haqibah drew inspiration from indigenous Sudanese and other African musical traditions in which backing singers clapped along rhythmically and the audience joined in both song and dance. The lead singer’s incantations induced a trance-like experience in which spectators swayed along to the rhythm of the beat. The Sudanese music influence can also be heard in neighbouring countries such as Ethiopia, Somalia, Chad and Eritrea.
Musical instruments in Sudan vary from chordophone instrument such as tambour which is the most common instruments used throughout Sudan. Rabbabah (a stringed bowl-shaped lyre. Its strings determine the available pitches, and its tone depends on the musician playing technique. Bowing, plucking or strumming will yield a harmonious rhythm), um kiki (woodwind instrument) other kinds of such instruments used in Ingasna (now known as New Sudan) and Kassala regions. Percussion instruments such as drums are also common in the Sudan, the nuggara (west Sudan) the taar (Northern and Eastern Sudan) and the dalouka (Eastern and Central) are all names of drums. Sudanese play also other instruments such as lute or oud, as well as western instruments especially in modern Sudanese pop-music, such as accordions, saxophones, electric guitars, basses, violins, banjos are often used.
Abdel Karim El Kabli was born in 1933 in Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast, moving to Khartoum at the age of 16 to attend Khartoum Commercial Secondary School. Having taught himself first the penny-whistle and then the oud and shetern (small drum), he would eventually go on to study Sudanese folk music and Arabic poetry at the University of Khartoum. Although he took a position as a courts inspector for the clerical division of the Sudanese judiciary, following his graduation, he continued to be fascinated by music.
El Kabli first gained popularity, when he wrote Sukkar, Sukkar (Sugar, Sugar) in 1962, a take on the Twist, the dance craze he had just encountered in England, and which he claimed could be traced back to the Zār ritual in Sudan. Soon after his success, he went to live in Saudi Arabia for a few years in the late 1970s. Having found financial security but little creative impulse he returned to Sudan, his primary source of inspiration.
His role in rediscovering and collecting Sudanese folklore has since brought invitations to lecture at academic institutions and perform at cultural events in many countries. Although like most Sudanese his songs are mainly about love, his lyrics increasingly tackle issues of social and human concern. The avuncular poet, composer and folklorist, now in his mid-sixties, has become a walking encyclopaedia of the musical heritage of north, east and central Sudan. El Kabli embraces both colloquial and classical styles, and is equally beloved by academics and ordinary Sudanese. Gifted with a finely-pitched audio memory, which allows him to learn songs after hearing them only a few times, he has built a repertoire of hundreds of traditional Sudanese songs.
Abdel Karim El Kabli is still recording and performing throughout the world. He has a website and he also has a profile on Facebook.
Catalog number 1004 A_B… No record company listed. Produced by Levon Keshishian, who was an Armenian working for the United Nations as correspondent of the Sudan News Agency. No other information available.
◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►
UPDATE: 12/16/23: Since I get asked about this record A LOT, I decided to upload the entire album. You can find it HERE.
Filed under: Sri Lanka
Lalith Mendis was from Sri Lanka.
Officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, the country was known as Ceylon before 1972. Sri Lanka is an island nation in South Asia, located less than 20 miles off the southern coast of India. It is home to around twenty million people.
Because of its location in the path of major sea routes, Sri Lanka is a strategic naval link between West Asia and South East Asia, and has been a center of Buddhist religion and culture from ancient times. Today, the country is a multi-religious and multi-ethnic nation, with more than a quarter of the population following faiths other than Buddhism, notably Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. The Sinhalese community forms the majority of the population, with Tamils, who are concentrated in the north and east of the island, forming the largest ethnic minority. Other communities include the Muslim Moors and Malays and the Burghers.
I have been unable to find any information about Lalith Mendis. He may have been related to Maxwell Mendis (who produced this single) and may have been in the Mendis Foursome. If you know anything about him please contact me.
Catalog number O.M.E. 2024 on Gemtone. No other information available.
Filed under: Liberia
J. Geron was from Liberia.
The name Liberia denotes “liberty” as freed slaves moved to Liberia in 1822, who founded the country in 1847 with the support of the Government of the United States creating a new ethnic group called the Americo-Liberians. However, this introduction of a new ethnic mix compounded ethnic tensions with the sixteen other main ethnicities. Since 1989, Liberia has been in a state of flux witnessing two civil wars, the First Liberian Civil War (1989 – 1996), and the Second Liberian Civil War (1999 – 2003).
The musical heritage of Liberia includes several genres of pop derived that from countries’ neighbors like Ghana and Nigeria, most notably Highlife. Highlife is a musical genre that originated in Ghana and spread to Sierra Leone and Nigeria in the 1920s and other West African countries. It is usually characterized by jazzy horns and multiple guitars which lead the band.
I have been unable to find any information about J. Geron. If you know anything about him please contact me.
Catalog number 45 / 1 / A on ABC Monrovia of Liberia, released 1975. No other information available.
