Filed under: Singapore
The Stylers were from Singapore.
Singapore is an island nation located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula and is one of the few remaining city-states in the world and the smallest country in Southeast Asia.
When the main island was colonized by the British East India Company in 1819, it contained a fishing village sparsely populated by indigenous Malays and Orang Lauts at the mouth of the Singapore River. The British used the position as a strategic trading outpost along the spice route. It became one of the most important commercial and military centres of the British Empire and the site, in 1942, of what Winston Churchill called “Britain’s biggest defeat” at the hands of the Japanese. Occupied by the Japanese Empire during World War II, it reverted to British rule in 1945 and was later part of the merger which established Malasia in 1963. Less than two years later it left the federation and became an independent republic on August 9th, 1965. The new republic was admitted to the United Nations on September 21 that same year.
Although these songs are from their first single, The Stylers would eventually join the list of ‘Non-Stop Music’ bands like The Silverstones, Tony & The Polar Bear Five and The Travellers. I pestered Mack over at FarEastAudio to give me a brief history on the Non-Stop Music craze:
Non-stop instrumental dancing records go at least as for back as the 1950s orchestral work of Germany‘s James Last. Non-stop ballroom has had a lasting influence in East and Southeast Asia. (In the mid-1990s, I purchased a wonderful cassette in the Philippines called “Non-Stop Cha Cha Extravaganza,” for example.) However, it is the Asian version of the “A Go-Go” pop medley sound that has captured the imaginations of Western record collectors in recent years. Influenced by instrumental rock groups from the US and UK, the 60s teen scenes of Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore produced numerous dancing albums. These albums often retained the ballroom sensibility of listing the intended dance styles next to the track titles (A Go-Go, Blues, Fox Trot, Cha Cha, etc.), but relied on a rock line-up of bass, drums, guitar and organ. As for the songs performed, Western pop hits, regional pop hits and even traditional folk melodies were all fair game.
By the 1970s, surviving instrumental bands like The Stylers seem to have gotten more ambitious, incorporating into their albums film themes, sound effects, “hi-fi” production values, and musical elements of the emerging disco sound. By this point, non-stop instrumental albums were less a teen dance phenomenon than they were fodder for the high-end stereo equipment of Asian audiophiles.
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.
Catalog number SE 1010 on Polar Bear Record of Singapore. No release date given.
Filed under: Morocco
♬ El Harib
The four Megri brothers were popular session musicians / composers / producers from Morocco. There names were Hassan, Mahmoud, Jalila and Younès. Jalila was apparently a songwriter and producer, and Younès had a solo career. But, Hassan and Mahmoud recorded two singles singles as Les Frères Megri.
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a new form of pop music emerged in the region of North Africa. This new form resulted from the fusion of local Arabic music with European pop music. Arab media often referred to this new style as “Progressive”. In many ways, it is an independent form of music that has strong and variable Arab, African and European influences; an expression that has branched out and evolved separately from popular traditional Cha’abi music of the region.
Darja, the Arabic dialect of North Africa, is often used as the lyrical language for songs in this genre. While the music is sometimes distinguishably Arabic, it is often not. The rhythms are mixtures of Berber, Arab, African and popular European, performed to the artists’ own recipe and vary to their interpretation.
I have seen quite a few records that they have either played on or produced, but I’ve only seen two singles (with Hassan and Mahmoud) and two albums (one with Hassan, Mahmoud and Younès, and one with just Mahmoud and Younès) by ‘Les Frères Megri’. Apparently they still run a recording studio in Morocco, and Younès released an album in 2004.
The majority of the information in the above post was taken from the Quarter Tone Fusion website, which you can find here.
Catalog Number 6269 014 on Philips Records of France. No release date given.
Filed under: Zaïre
Sebastien Marini was from Zaïre, which is now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The name ‘Zaïre’ came about from the Portuguese mispronunciation of the Kongo word nzere or nzadi, or “the river that swallows all rivers”. And while many people inaccurately refer to the Democratic Republic of the Congo even today, it was only officially called Zaïre from October 27th, 1971 to May 17th, 1997.
I haven’t been able to find any information about Sebastien Marini, except for what is written on the back of the record (originally in French):
Born on January 20, 1950 with Point-Black (Pontoon on Sea) in Congo-Brazzaville, Sebastien Marini was taken by the hand by Tino Baroza, one year before its tragedy disappearance with Yaounde, and then by Gracia former bass player of Ryco Jazz which ‘initiated it’ with the music. In 1969 it is sound arrival in Paris, after Equatorial Guinea, The Canary Islands and Spain. 1970, it is the departure in Canada and the United States of America. African access, Congolese then it is towards the dear children of Africa which it turns and dedicates its works.
“Bolingo Na Motema’ the full love my heart, I come to offer to all those which wait for a long time (friendly, buddies, comrades) this first 45 single” – Sebastien Marini
If you have any information, please contact me.
Catalog Number SAF 1668, Sonafric records of Paris, France. No release date given.
Filed under: Cambodia
♬ Grief Over Dark Night (with Sinn Sisamouth)
Ros Sereysothea was from Cambodia.
Born Ros Sothea in Battambang Province circa 1946, her family made a living by performing Khmer traditional music. Singing duets with her brother, Serey, the Serey-Sothea pair became quite well known and went to the capital Phnom Penh, where they found work performing in clubs. Ros eventually eclipsed her brother and became a solo artist, changing her name to Ros Sereysothea.
During the 60’s and early 70’s, as the war in Vietnam threatened its borders, a new music scene emerged in Cambodia that took Western rock and roll and added the unique melodies and hypnotic rhythms of their traditional music.
While these two songs are more on the tradional side, Sothea’s high, clear voice, coupled with the rock backing bands featuring prominent, distortion-laden lead guitars, pumping organ and loud, driving drums, made for an intense, sometimes haunting sound that is best described today as psychedelic or garage rock.
She was honored by King Norodom Sihanouk with the royal title, “Preah Rheich Teany Somlang Meas”, the “Golden Voice of the Royal Capital.”
On April 17, 1975, after taking over the country, the Khmer Rouge began one of the most brutal genocides in history, killing 2 million people – 1/4 of the Cambodian population. Intellectuals, artists and musicians were murdered simply for their status.
Forced out of Phnom Penh with all the other residents, Sothea lived at a worksite in Kampong Speu. When her identity was learned by Khmer Rouge leaders, she was made to write and perform songs celebrating the regime. When she wasn’t singing, she was required to work at digging irrigation ditches like everyone else in the camp. And, she was forced by the insistance of Pol Pot to marry one of his assistants in 1977.
She disappeared under mysterious circumstances during the brutal regime of the Killing Fields. Most believe that she died from being overworked in a Khmer Rouge agricultural camp, although it has also been reported that she either died of malnutrition in a hospital in Phnom Pehnh during the last weeks of the Khmer Rouge regime or that she had a fight with her husband and was sent away, never to be seen again.
There is an extensive biography, with tons of pictures and MP3’s, as well as links to an interview with Ros Sereysothea’s sister and other YouTube videos HERE. Also, there is a short film about her life called The Golden Voice. And the documentary Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten has been in production for some time, but no release date has been announced.
Thanks to Linda Saphan for the translation.
Catalog number C7135 on Chanchhaya Records of Cambodia. No release date given.
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.
There is also a posting on Waxidermy for this album and Volume 2.
Catalog number VLMX 87 Voix de l’Orient series for A. Chahine & Fils in Lebanon, manufactured and distributed by EMI of Greece, 1978.
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Since the initial posting of this article, Hany Zaki has started work on a website dedicated to Omar Khorshid.
Filed under: Zambia
The Ngozi Family were from Zambia.
The Republic of Zambia, which had previously been called Northern Rhodesia, was founded in 1964. The country had seceded from part of the British controlled Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which had joined Northern and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) with Nyasaland (now Malawi).
The band started in 1975, and was lead by Paul Dobson Nyirongo (a.k.a. Paul Ngozi) who was know for his spectacular stage antics, that included playing the guitar with his teeth. They were the first band to have been called ‘Zamrock’.
Paul Ngozi was adored by Zambian music lovers. His music is also best remembered for his poignant lyrics that reflected the life and times of Zambians. He won many awards and represented Zambian music in both Europe and the United States, and even went on a controversial tour of South Africa at the height of the Apartheid Era.
Catalog number Ngozi-5 ZMPC-41 on A.I.T. Records of Kenya. No release date given.
Filed under: Taiwan
♬ (Wishing You) Well In The New Year
Teresa Teng was from Tienyang, Taiwan.
The main island of Taiwan, also known as Formosa, is located in East Asia off the coast of mainland China, southwest of the main islands of Japan but directly west of the end of Japan’s Ryukyu Islands, and north-northwest of the Philippines.
Teresa Teng was born Deng Lijun in Tienyang, a village in Yunlin County, to a mainlander family originating from Hebei province. She was educated at Ginling Girls High School.
In 1968, she became famous after giving a performance on a popular music programme in Taiwan, and released eight albums within the next two years. In 1973, she attempted to crack the Japanese market, taking part in Japan’s Kōhaku Uta Gassen, a year-round singing match of the most successful artists of that year, and won the prize for “Best New Singing Star”.
In 1974, with the song “Airport” (空港), she conquered Japan, where she remained a leading star despite a short exile in 1979 when she was deported for having entered on a fake Indonesian passport, bought for $20,000, a deception rendered necessary by a break in relations between Taiwan and Japan on China’s entry to the UN Security Council. Singing by now in Cantonese, Japanese and English as well as her native Mandarin, Teng was soon popular as far as Malaysia and Indonesia.
She was well known and her music was also hugely popular in mainland China despite the fact that the authorities had branded most Western music, including her music, as “decadent”. However, she was never to perform there. She performed in Paris during the 1989 Tiananmen student uprising, singing for the students and proclaiming her support for them and for democracy..
Teng died from a severe asthma attack while on holiday in Chiang Mai, Thailand at the age of 42 (43 by Chinese reckoning) on May 8, 1995. She is buried in a mountainside tomb at Chin Pao San (金寶山; translates to Golden Treasure Mountain), a cemetery near Jinshan, Taipei County in Taiwan. A memorial was built at the tomb with a statue of Teng and her stage clothes on display, with her music playing in the background. There is also a large electronic piano keyboard that visitors can play by stepping on the keys.
Thanks to Ho Chui-wa for tanslating the titles.
Catalog number LFEP 3102 on Life Records of Singapore. No release date listed.
Filed under: Singapore
I can’t tell you that much about The Tropicano, except that they were from Singapore. This is the only single that I have seen by them. If you have any information, please contact me.
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.
Catalog number NFEP – 5012 on Play Boy label, which belonged to the Ngee Fat Record Company of Singapore. No date listed.
Filed under: Turkmenistan
Ƨyнeɯ Вокально–Инструментальньıй Ансамбль, or Gunesh Vocal Ensemble Instrumental Experience, were from Turkmenistan.
Turkmenistan (also known as Turkmenia) is a Turkic country in Central Asia. The name Turkmenistan is derived from Persian, meaning “land of the Turkmen“. Its capital is Ashgabat derived from Persian, as well, loosely translates as “the city of love.”. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic. It is bordered by Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the southwest, Uzbekistan to the northeast, Kazakhstan to the northwest, and the Caspian Sea to the west. Eighty-seven percent of the population is Muslim.
Russia gained control of Turkmenistan in 1894, and incorporated it into its empire. Then after the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia and subsequent political unrest led to the declaration of the area as the Turkmen SSR, one of the six republics of the Soviet Union in 1924, assuming the borders of modern Turkmenistan.
The new Turkmen SSR went through a process of further ‘Europeanization’. The tribal Turkmen people were encouraged to become secular and adopt European-style clothing. The Turkmen alphabet was changed from the traditional Arabic script to Latin and finally to Cyrillic.
Gunesh formed in 1970 as part of State TV and Radio Company of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic as a “vocal group with supporting instruments”.
According to their website, “The group began to play jazz-rock tightly intertwined with the Oriental tradition. Gunesh’ has always been in the process of reforming and was one of the first combine the similar principles of the melodious improvisation on traditional mugams and jazz improvisation. The unexpectedly beautiful arrangements appeared, and polyrhythmic compositions with odd measure were further developed thematically.”
From the best that I can tell, they relocated to Tbilisi, Georgia in the late Seventies or early Eighties. They recorded two albums, their debut was released in 1980 and the second “Looking at the Earth” in 1984. They toured extensively in the Eastern Bloc, as well as Afghanistan, Cape Verde, China, Guinea-Bissau, Laos, Mongolia, Mozambique, Senegal, Turkey and Vietnam. These two songs are from a flexi disc (one of two they were split with ABBA on the other side) that were released before their first album.
I e-mailed Stanislav Morozov thru his website, but he did not respond.
Catalog number Г 62-07335-6 TУ 43-03-48-73 on the Soviet state-owned and operated Μелодия (Melodiya) label. No release date listed.
Filed under: Ethiopia
Alèmayehu Eshété was from Ethiopia.
If one were to pick a specific point that marked the birth of the distinctive Ethiopian soul music, one could do worse than choose the late Emperor Haile Sellassie’s visit to Jerusalem in 1923. During his stay he heard European brass instruments, which made such an impression on him that he hired a group of Armenian players to become official musicians of the empire. One of these players, Kevork Nalbandian, even composed the current Ethiopian National Anthem in 1926 (Although, according to Wikipedia, it was Solomon Lulu Mitiku).
Thus a distinctly European flavour of brass band music was brought into a country whose traditional music bore heavy influence from Muslim forms, and its own modal pentatonic scale. Additionally, because it was actually impossible to buy saxophones, drums or other musical instruments under the Selassie regime, only the marching bands had access to them, giving the subsequently played music a foreboding, militaristic ambience.
Meanwhile in Europe, a new generation became that baby boomers started the cultural revolution of rock ’n’ roll, R ’n’ B and pop music in the 1960s. The same generation in Ethiopia, in their 20s during the early 60s, wanted to change the country and get connected with the world. But where Ethiopia was different was that they had about 6,000 Peace Corps from America. President Kennedy invented this civil service for youngsters in order to work in third world countries, so these people brought with them a lot of American flavours: long hair, bell-bottom trousers and plenty of vinyl records.
Thanks to the newly acquired influences from the West, the sound emanating from the clubs Addis Ababa was a heady stew of deep, hypnotic rhythms, distinctly Western guitar licks and soulful eastern melodies and vocals. The sound bore the unmistakable badge of American records (Stax and Motown artists in particular) plus something distinctly African and new.
Soon labels such as Amha Records and Kaifa Records sprung up around the city to capture the sounds produced by the more popular singers and performers. Mahmoud Ahmed, Mulatu Astatke, Tlahoun Gèssèssè, as well as others all brought their soulful sound to the clubs and cut records.
The Alem-Girma band was formed by Alèmayehu Eshété and Girma Beyene in 1972. Both supposedly shared the taste of music and clothing fashion that was coming from the United States (James Brown, Elvis Presley, and Wilson Pickett to name a few). The band retained some of the members from the All Star Band. From left to right: Tekle “Huket” Adhanom (guitar), Tamerat “Lotti” Kebede (drums), Alemayehu Eshete (vocals), Girma Beyene (piano and arranger) & Tekle Gebremariam (sax). The band lasted until 1974, after Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam’s military coup against Selassie. Under Mariam’s Derg, or ruling council, Addis Ababa’s nightlife died off.
Volume 9 of the Ethiopiques series is devoted to Alèmayehu Eshété’s earlier music, while Volume 22 of that series covers his career between 1972 and 1974. Some of his songs have also appeared on volumes 3, 8, 10, and 13. Also, L’Arôme, in association with Buda Musique, has recently released a vinyl only collection of some of his best tracks, entitled Ethiopian Urban Modern Music Vol 2. He still active in Ethiopia performing and recording to this day.
Catalog Number PH 172 on Philips, “manufactured by E. A. Records for Phonogram in E. Africa”. Publishing date listed as 1973.
Radiodiffusion Internasionaal Annexe 