Filed under: Iran
Manouchehr is from Iran. I have not been able to find any information about him, except that his last name is either Sakhai or Sakhaie…
Unfourtunately, when Farsi is translated into English… You tend to get many different variations depending on who translated the text. For instance, I have seen multiple different spellings on the name Kourosh Yaghmaie (Yaghamaie, Yaghmayee, Yaghmaee…) as well as two totally different spellings for The Remarkables (Aajubehaa and Ojoobeha).
Thanks to Arash who runs a very informative blog on Iranian music on MySpace called Fars Funk. Keep an eye out for his compilation “Pomegranates”, which is to be released on the B-Music label.
Catalog number SARE-1045 on Ahang Rooz (which means “Song Of The Day”) of Iran, no release date given.
Filed under: Gambia
Anyone who has heard the song Love’s A Real Thing from Luaka Bop’s World Psychedelic Classics volume 3: Love’s A Real Thing will know why that song’s title was selected for the title of the compilation.
Here are the liner notes from the RetroAfric disc Senegambian Sensation (which for some reason, these two songs were left off):
The Gambian band Super Eagles were pioneers of popular music in the Senegambian region at the end of the 1960s / start of the 70s, delivering a progressive blend of afrocuban, pop, soul, bluebeat, Congolese rumba, highlife and ndagga music. Using Wolof lyrics and rhythms, ndagga is the basis of what was to become ‘mbalax’. During their five year existence, the Super Eagles became one of the best travelled bands in West Africa.
In Bathurst (now Banjul), the capital of this ex-British colony, the first modern dance band was a loose collection of musicians who played under the name African Jazz. Members included Badou Jobe, Paps Touray, Laha Sosseh (later to join Afrocuban outfits such as Africando), Modou Cham and Oussou Njie.
Jobe, Cham and Njie had started their careers with the Foyer Jazz Band, formed by veteran, partly classically trained musicians, which provided a rich cocktail of European & Latin ballroom music, light classical, old jazz and the hugely popular ‘morna’ from Cape Verde. The popular music scene, catered for by modern dance hands, had no connection with traditional music, which remained the exclusive domain of the hereditary musicians caste known as griots.
In 1965 seven of the African Jazz musicians turned full-time professionals as The Eagles of Banjul. They played regularly in Banjul’s dancehalls and throughout the country and their patron Malick Seck took them on international tours to Senegal and Sierra Leone. After Sammy Ndami left, Badou Jobe took over as bandleader, and increasingly defined the band’s repertoire by composing original music.
Eventually the core members regrouped in 1967 as the Super Eagles. Helped with a generous gift from diamond dealer Solo Darboe, they ordered instruments, amps and a PA from England. this independence enabled them to travel and play what they liked for whom they liked.
The front men of the new Super Eagles were solo guitarist / bandleader Badou Jobe, lead vocalists Paps Touray (seen in this photo) and Datida Njie (a.k.a. Edu Haffner) and guitar / keyboard wizard Francis ‘Senami’ Taylor. Other members were Modou Cham (tenor sax and congas), Oussou Njie (singer and lyricist), Charles Valentine (bass) and Malan Gassama (drums, percussion), who was one of The Gambia’s finest drummers.
Jobe assisted by Taylor formed the creative team behind most of the compositions and arrangements. The songs were mostly in Wolof or (broken) English with Touray providing some belting vocals in the style of Otis Redding – he was voted best soul singer of Africa – and the band’s compositions melded elements from the indigenous music of The Gambia, specifically Wolof and Mandinka.
The Super Eagles’ use of amplifiers, effects and electric keyboards to interpret African music laid the foundation for mbalax, which was popularised a decade later by Youssou N’Dour. In 1968, while touring all over the larger neighbouring country, the band earned acclaim as the top group in Senegal.
In 1969 they visited Europe and were the first Senegambian band to tour England, where they recorded their album Viva Super Eagles, the title track of which called on Gambians to unite in support of the group. At a memorable concert at the Commonwealth Institute in London the band was joined by Teddy Osei and Mac Tontoh, founders of Osibisa. The album was a hit throughout West Africa but, typically the musicians claim never to have seen a penny of the royalties.
Jobe and Touray deliberately disbanded the Super Eagles in 1972 at the height of their popularity. As pan-Africanists and music pioneers they felt the urgent need for an authentic African identity which led to the creation of the seminal roots hand Ifang Bondi (Be Yourself), since grown into one of West Africa’s leading bands.
In 1999 Badou Jobe Won the prestigious KORA All Africa Music Award – the African equivalent of the Grammy – for Best Arranger in Africa.
The song “Sock It To Me” was re-recorder by El Rego as “Feeling You Got” for the Legendary Albarika Store label in Dahomey (now Benin), which was the first hit for the label.
Catalog number FN28 Ghana Films Label FNS, manufactured and distributed by Decca. No release date given.
Filed under: Taiwan
I could find no information what so ever on Wu Jing Xian, who was to the best of my knowledge, from Taiwan.
This record has almost no English on it, with the exception of the song titles. I scanned it in, and e-mailed it to Menghsin Cindy Horng, who I had corresponded with in the past about Asian pop music… But she couldn’t find anything either.
Thanks to Menghsin Cindy Horng for her help.
If you have any information, please contact me.
There is no catalog number listed, but “吴 SM-1“ is engraved in the vinyl. It was released on Four Seas Records. No other information is available.
Filed under: Azerbaijan
Despite the fact that it was part of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1991, Azerbaijan’s population mostly Muslim, with 70% Shī‘a and the remaining 30% are Sunni.
Surprisingly, Azerbaijan has a long history of jazz dating back to the first State Popular Orchestra in 1938. But during to Cold War, Soviet authorities dubbed jazz a “seditious western music” and jazz performances were officially banned. Despite the prohibition, jazz fans gathered in secret to listen to western radio stations and afterwards tried to play what they had heard.
In the late 1960s, jazz music began its second life in Azerbaijan with such composers as Gara Garayev, Tofig Guliyev, Rauf Hajiyev and Rafiq Babayev who formed Boкaльньiй Kвapтет „ГAЯ” or Vocal Quartet “Gaya”.
Rafiq Babayev later went on to become the conductor of the National Orchestra for the Azerbaijani National Radio and Television. Unfortunately, he was killedwhen a bomb exploded in a public transit train station in Baku, Azerbaijan on March 19, 1994.
Catalog number C 01735-36 on the Soviet state-owned and operated Μелодия (Melodiya) label. No release date listed.
Filed under: Ghana
♬ Hammatan
Tall Emma & His Skippers were from Ghana.
Unfortunately this record, like many singles from Africa, doesn’t have a picture sleeve. I can only imagine what they must have looked like.
The only information I have been able to find about this band is from a mention from an article by Miles Cleret from Soundway Records. While the single is credited to “Tall Emma”, the song writing credit is “Richard Tall Amma”. Also, the vocals are credited to Chester Adams, who went on to play in the Uppers International and the Kamela Band.
Hammatan is the Ghanaian Twi word for the cold dry air blows off the Sahara in the Winter.
If you know anything about them, especially if there is any more recordings by them, please contact me.
Catalog number DKN 231 on Obuoba of Ghana. No other information available.
Filed under: New Guinea
♬ The Kopy Kats • Meisi Emu Nega
♬ The Freebeats • Kekeni Ani Mase
When I started this whole thing, there were a few places I was sure that I would never find records from… Papau New Guinea was definitely on that list.
This record is of a somewhat questionable origin. There is no information about the three bands on this compilation: The Kopy Kats, The Freebeats and The Stalemates. All three suspiciously sound like the same band and most of the songs are covers like “Last Train to Clarksville”. “The Mighty Quinn” and the Scottish folk tune “Skye Boat Song”.
After I initially had posted this record, I was informed that The Freebeats were all Australians who had moved to New Guinea. The band consisted of Graham Dunich, Roy Turner, Neville Josey, Ray Michelle and Phil Neilson. They were originally know as The Statesman when they were based in Sydney, but changed their name after moving to Port Moresby at the invite of Graham Dunich who was already living there. The Freebeats supposedly did quite well, especially since they were known to translate popular songs into “Motu“, which was the local language. They were together for three years before they became The Combines in 1970.
Thanks to Bård Hodneland for the information.
Catalog number VP 318 on Viking Record Company Ltd of New Zealand. Recorded by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Port Moresby, New Guinea. No release date given.
Filed under: Lebanon
Mayada was from Lebanon.
Her sister was Taroub, who was a well known singer in both Lebanon and Turkey as well, and they both were of Turkish descent. Mayada had a very short lived career from mid to late Sixties, recording few singles and singing in night clubs in Beirut. From this single, you can hear an influence of the Yé Yé Girl movement from France.
Thanks to Hany Zaki for the information.
Catalog number BP 145 on Brotherphone of Beirut, Lebanon. No other information is available.
Filed under: Nigeria
♬ Allah Wakbarr (live in East Berlin)
Ofo The Black Company was formed in 1972 by Larry Ifediorama in Lagos, Nigeria.
That same year, he took his band to London, England to record their first for London Records. The single with “Allah Wakbarr” on the A side and “Beautiful Daddy” on the B side is highly collectable, usually fetching $100 or more per copy. Allah Wakbar has also been featured on the now defunct Afro Strut label’s Nigeria 70: The Definitive Story of 1970’s Funky Lagos compilation and recently on Luaka Bop’s World Psychedelic Classics 3: Love’s A Real Thing • The Funky Fuzzy Sounds of West Africa.
But in 1973, Ofo The Black Company was asked by the East German government to play the “World festivals of the youth and student Berlin capital of the GDR” International Folklore festival in East Berlin along with Miriam Makeba as well as other musicians from Argentina, Bulgaria, Chile and Vietnam.
As far as I know, they recorded two singles for London Records, the one mentioned above which was credited to “Ofo The Black Company” and another credited to “Ofo”. They released an album on the Afrodesia label – a subsidiary of Decca – in 1974, which has the song Eniaro that was featured on Soundway Record‘s Nigeria Rock Special: Psychedelic Afro-Rock & Fuzz Funk in 1970s Nigeria. There is also a live record by “Ofo The Rock Company” that was recorded somewhere in Europe.
Larry Ifediorama died in 2005 in Lagos, Nigeria.
Thanks to Volker Rohde for his help.
Catalog number 8 35 057 on Eterna VEB Deutsche Schallplatten, Berlin, East Germany released in 1973.
Filed under: Singapore
♬ Golden Dragon Greeting The New Year
I can’t tell you that much about The Tones, except that they were from Singapore. I had originally thought that the name of the band was The Music of White Crane & The Tones due to the cool guitar logo, but I have since seen other records by them and realized that White Crane was the name of the record lable.
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.
If you have any information, please contact me.
Catalog number PH-2067 on White Crane Records of Singapore. No other information available.
Filed under: South Korea
The records from that time are very scarce, since they did not press that many. Even today when one of these records are re-issued, there is usually only a pressing of 300 copies. Due to this, there’s not a whole lot of information available about the early days of rock ‘n’ roll in South Korea. The website for the Psyche Van Het Folk programme from Radio Centraal of Belgium has a whole section on Korean rock music (as well as other countires / regions).
Taken from liner notes on “Go Go Sound vol 2” by HE6:
Kim Hong-Tak was one of the two leading figures in the early days of “Group Sound Era”, of course with Shin Jung-Hyun. Kim Hong Tak was guitarist and naturally leader of the group. Here, it seems better to put aside the question ” Who was the first?”. Because with this question of ‘the first’ or more properly ‘the Origin’, the answers will not is the same according to the questioner’s perspectives.
For example, if we take one perspective, in this case that of ‘popularity’, it will be the Key Boys of Kim Hong Tak which was followed soon afterwards by the Add4 of Shin Jung-Hyun.
A little remark. This Key Boys is not the ‘Later’ Key Boys who sang the smash hits like “Let’s Go To The Seashore”. or “Memories of The Seaside”, but the ‘Earlier’ Keyboys. They played some ‘Package shows’, under the name of the Lock & Key in the stages of the U.S. Eighth Army which settled in South Korea. Also they played at some new venues like ‘Music Listen Rooms’, ‘Live Music Salons’, or the traditional ones like in Cinema. [At that time the concert was held frequently in Cinema Houses. It was called as ‘Cinema Show’].
With these latter acts they were known to general ‘Korean’ public. They were nicknamed as the ‘Beatles of Korea‘ – At that time this meant more similar to a ‘cover band of the Beatles’. [Because the stages in U.S Eight Army was for the Korean in the forbidden area for the evident reason of security. So generally a Korean group or artist who played there was a totally unknown figure to general Korean public].
In the mid-60s which prevailed by the worldwide phenomenon ‘Beatlemania’, the Key Boys, in molding the archetype of the Rock band (or Rock Group) who ‘sing and play’ [With the Kkokkirri Brothers, the Fools, the Kim Chies], became the pioneers of a new cultural phenomenon [we may now be able to say that it was the early days of ‘Pop culture’ in Korea]. And here lies one symbolic fact concerning the popular culture in general that 1964-1965, the period of their debuts coincides with that of the birth of the ‘Weekly Magazine’. With the time, the members of the Key Boys left the group: some Cha Jung Rak and Cha Do Gyun going to solos, some Yoon Hang Ki joining to the Korean Army‘s entertainment Unit which was sent to the Viet-Nam War, and finally Kim Hong Tak too. But Kim Hong Tak had launched his career of guitarist in a rock group. It was the He 5.
Catalog number 킹 가 1006 on Universal of Korea. No release date listed.
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