Ernie's African Odyssey Pt 19 - Esawtini

I'm running a bit behind on the blog this week - I had people staying over who seemed to think I needed to spend time with them instead of writing posts - so instead of the usual preparatory fluff we're heading straight to Africa. Eswatini to be precise.

It is a country I have visited a few times, although not for ages. For a few years in the mid 1970s my family lived in the north of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa about 100 miles from the border with Swaziland (as it was then called), and we had a couple of enjoyable family holidays there. I also visited in the 1990s when my sister was working as a doctor in a small rural hospital 30 miles from the border, way up in the Lubombo mountains.

If you have tuned in expecting the usual perfectly curated blend of sounds then you are in for a bit of a disappointment. This episode is a real mish-mash. And it starts with a bit of cheating.

Zacks Nkosi  is widely considered to be one of the founding fathers of Southern African jazz for his work with the Jazz Maniacs, the African Swingsters and others in the 1940s and 1950s. While he was an ethnic Swazi he was actually born in KwaZula-Natal in 1918, not very far from where we used to live. It is estimated that roughly half the Swazi people are born and live in South Africa.

I decided to include Bra Zacks today because frankly we were a bit short of contenders for Eswatini, and because there is so much competition for places in the South African post that - as great as he was - he wasn't likely to make the shortlist. If you like what you hear below, you can find a reasonably priced compilation of his solo work on Bandcamp.

From smooth jazz we move to more traditional Swazi sounds featuring the makhoyan and umtshingosi, which as you know are the Swazi bow and bark flute respectively.  They are showcased on the 2014 album "Akuna'nkomo" by Gogo Mphila & Phayinaphu Mncini (also available on Bandcamp as are all today's featured albums). I hope this will satisfy George's recent demands for more flute.

I don't know what the opposite of 'seamless' is - seamful? - but whatever the word is it can be used to describe this next transition. From Gogo & Phayinaphu we go to Dusty & Stones, three times winners of Eswatini's prestigious Best Country Music Artists of the Year award and now the subjects of a much acclaimed documentary which came out last year.

Off the back of the documentary Dusty & Stones made their debut at the Grand Ol' Opry a month ago - which must be a dream come true for any country musician - and have reissued their 2009 album "Mooihoek Country Fever", from which today's selection comes.

For a long time those three were all I had. The only other music from Eswatini I could find was lots of house and amapiano which did nothing for me. I could have included some but I am incapable of judging what is good and what is bad when it comes to that sort of thing.

Fortunately I was saved by the Lubombo Community Radio station when it was in the process of saving itself. Back in 2013 the station enlisted the help of nine local acts and released an album to raise some funds to enable them to buy much needed equipment. 

I could have chosen to include pretty much any of the acts on the album as the overall standard is very good, but I opted for the Happy Sisters because we have not included any female artists yet and Plateau Roots for the Mandatory African Reggae. Enjoy!

"Zavolo" - Zacks Nkosi

"Ungadza Nimdzalakangaka" - Gogo Mphila & Phayinaphu Mncini 

"Mooihoek For Me Will Never Be The Same" - Dusty & Stones

"Zandile" - Happy Sisters

"Jah Rastafari" - Plateau Roots

Dusty & Stones are doing well, but they are not the shiniest Swazi star on the scene right now. That honour going to Uncle Waffles. She (no typo) is a DJ and record producer whose single "Tanzania" topped the South African charts last year and has since toured globally, in the process becoming the first amapiano artist to play Coachella.

We kick off the video section with her smash hit. It isn't my cup of tea really, but it is good to know she is out there smashing the avuncularchy one waffle at a time.

Sarajevo's Midnight Runners

Today we are taking another dip into the bag of goodies I brought back from my trip to Zagreb in September. This time we are featuring a band so beloved in their native Bosnia that the national music award is named after them. You'll have guessed it already. It's Indexi, of course.

Indexi were founded way back in 1962 and only disbanded in 2001 when singer Davorin Popović passed away. His longstanding comrade-in-arms, the great guitarist Bodo Kovačević, joined him on the other side three years later. 

I picked up a double CD compilation called "The Ultimate Collection". The first CD covers the period 1967 to 1973, the second 1974 to the end of their career. The first is excellent, and includes such gems as "Negdje Na Kraju u Zatišju", believed to be the first rock recording of over ten minutes duration from the former Yugoslavia.

The second CD is not so good in my view. Like many bands of that era their music got progressively less interesting as the 60s turned into the 70s and then into the 80s. Having said that, their 1978 album "Modra Rijeka" is apparently considered a symphonic prog masterpiece, but there is only one track from that album on the compilation so I can't vouch for the accuracy of that claim.

Here are a couple of cracking tunes from when they were in their pomp in the late 1960s. 

"Šabn-Dabn-Šabn-Du-Bajo" - Indexi

"Jutro Će Promijeniti Sve" - Indexi

Indexi's "Pružam Ruke" was entered into the competition to represent Yugoslavia in the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest but it lost out to Lado Leskovar's "Vse rože sveta" - an absolute travesty in my opinion. 

A couple of members of the band made it there eventually. Davorin Popović represented Bosnia in 1995 and finished 19th out of 23. But he was beaten there by Kornelije Kovač, whose keyboard playing adorns "Jutro Će Promijeniti Sve". 

After leaving Indexi Kornelije formed his own band called Korni Grupa who were chosen to represent Yugoslavia in Brighton in 1974. They may have been feeling hopeful as they stepped off the stage; those hopes lasted only until the next act (some Swedes). Korni Grupa came in 12th - another travesty, it should have been much higher.

Ernie's African Odyssey Pt 18 - Eritrea

Ernie's mobile DJ unit continues to trundle its leisurely way through Africa. This week we have parked up outside the Fiat Tagliero building in Asmara to give you a blast of the sounds of swinging Eritrea.

I am very conscious that I have probably failed to do justice to Eritrea's musical legacy. That is not an implied criticism of the featured artists, all of whom are splendid, just a reflection of the fact that Eritrea only gained its independence in 1993, having been annexed to its neighbour Ethiopia against its will in 1950. 

In addition, the Eritreans had to suffer under the monstrous Derg regime - more about them when we get to Ethiopia itself in a couple of weeks - who banned music and pretty much everything else. So from 1974 to 1991 there was little or no recorded music (not in Eritrea itself anyway), and before that  Eritrean artists may have been classified as Ethiopian so there may be some I have not been able to identify.

Enough caveats, on with the show. We kick things off with Abraham Afewerki, who joined the Eritrean People's Liberation Front in 1979 when just 13 years old as part of a cultural troupe that performed in areas controlled by the EPLF. He later emigrated to the US, where he released his first album in 1991. Sadly he died in a drowning accident back home in Eritrea in 2006 at the tender age of 40. Today's selection is from his 2000 album "Hadera". 

Another musician who was involved in the liberation struggle before having to emigrate - in her case to the Netherlands - was Tsehaytu Beraki. Born in 1939, she accompanied herself on the krar (a five-stringed harp-like instrument found in Ethiopia and Eritrea) and began performing in the 1950s.  She passed away in 2018 at the age of 78. 

From the mid 1960s onwards her lyrics became more political, which was frowned on but tolerated until the Derg came along and everything changed. I have not been able to find any of Tsehaytu's recordings from the 1960s or 1970s, so today's track comes from an album called "Selam" that she released in 2004 and which is available on Bandcamp.

Back in 2008 French producer Bruno Blum had the bright idea of bringing together members of the current generation of Eritrean musicians to make a record. The resulting album "Eritrea's Got Soul" was released under the name of Asmara Allstars in 2012, and is well worth the €8 they are asking for it on Bandcamp. Today's pick features Yosef Tsehaye on lead vocals.

I have been able to find out a grand total of nothing at all about our fourth artist, Efrem Arefaine, other than that he has been performing for over ten years and is still active, having released some new videos earlier this year. This track comes from his 2012 album "Nishaney".

For the final audio clip we have some Mandatory African Reggae which comes with the endorsement of none other than Adrian Sherwood. One of my favourite albums of last year was "Dub No Frontiers" on which the man that they call Mr Sherwood collaborated with female singers from around the world. One of them was Saba Tewelde (a.k.a. Injera Soul), born in Eritrea but a long-time resident of Germany. And very good she is too.  

"Nii" - Abraham Afewerki

"Atzmtom Keskisom" - Tsehaytu Beraki

"Haki" - Asmara Allstars

"Wintana" - Efrem Arefaine

"Semarulay Daqey" - Saba Tewelde

Hightone Silver Lining

The other week I popped into our local second-hand Buddhist bookshop, It is the books not the Buddhists that are second-hand, although they may be too if they have been reincarnated.

The reason I popped in was to take advantage of their permanent '3 for £1' offer on CDs. Usually there is not much to admire but occasionally you strike lucky, and I did on this occasion. Doubly so, as not only did I find three good CDs but when I got to the counter I was told they were knocking 50% all purchases to try to clear some space. So I ended up paying 50p for the three of them.

The CDs concerned were an early Rosie Flores album, an On U Sound compilation - both of which may feature in the future - and today's record of choice, a double CD anthology from Hightone Records called  "Rockin' From The Roots". It came out in 2007, around about the time the label stopped releasing new material. At 17p for 30 tracks, it works out at less than a ha'penny a song.

I know some readers will be familiar with Hightone. Between the mid 1980s and the mid 2000s it was one of the leading labels for American roots music, a sort of Bloodshot for grown-ups. The artists that released records on Hightone included the likes of Robert Cray, Dave Alvin, Joe Ely, Tom Russell, Buddy & Julie Miller, Dale Watson and many more.

All of the above feature on ""Rockin' From The Roots" but I have selected tracks by two acts that I was not previously familiar with. As a bonus I have added one by the magnificent Gary Stewart, in my view one of the three greatest country singers of all time along with George and Merle.

"Can't Let Go" - Randy Weeks

"Truck Drivin' Man" - The Twang Bangers

"Brand New Whiskey" - Gary Stewart

Some of you might recognise "Can't Let Go" from the version by Lucinda Williams on "Car Wheels On A Gravel Road" or the later cover by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Until now I had always assumed it was a Big Lu original, so fully does she inhabit the song, so many apologies to Randy for failing to recognise his excellent work for far too long. 

The Houseboat Of Dread

Back at the beginning of the month Khayem over at Dubhed shared one of his customarily excellent mixes featuring the works of African Head Charge.

One album that didn't feature in his otherwise comprehensive selection was "Heart", the 1982 solo album by AHC main man Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah under the name Noah House of Dread. We are here to plug the gap.

"Heart" is available from the On U Sound Bandcamp page for a very reasonable price. As the blurb notes "it shows a more harmony-driven and rootical side to his music, in contrast to the heavily experimental soundworlds that his main band were exploring at the time". Nothing wrong with that, I say.

"Children Of Misery" - Noah House Of Dread

"Revelation Time" - Noah House Of Dread

1982 was also a good year for artists from the poppier end of the reggae scene. Our videos feature the 6th and 11th largest selling singles in the UK that year (although for context, Tight Fit and the Goombay Dance Band were both in the top 10 and Renee & Renato were just one place below Musical Youth). 

Schlager Sunday

Ernie writes:

Guest post for you today folks. A few weeks ago in the comment section of this blog George asked Mister F to provide a guest post extolling the virtues of German schlager music. Mister F then sent me the material below. Neither of them seemed to think that I needed to have any say in the matter.

It was originally intended for next Sunday, hence the title of the post. You are getting it early because either (a) it is too good to keep you waiting; (b) I was away and am now under the weather with the result that I have not got round to preparing anything; or (c) both.

Enjoy! Or Endure! As  the case may be.

Mister F writes:

What is “Schlager”? Sometimes called Germany’s most embarrassing musical genre, it is hard to define exactly. Yes, there are simple repetitive patterns of music (often using a one-two oompah beat) with lyrics that are on romantic themes whilst shying away from anything controversial - but that is a broad category. 

And it travels far beyond Germany - ABBA are sometimes classified as schlager or, at least, as heavily influenced by it. Indeed, many countries entering the Eurovision Song Contest have frequently entered schlager style songs in the past, although this has been dying out more recently.

So, to start with, we have Joy Fleming representing Germany in ESC 1975 with “Ein Lied kann eine Brücke sein” (A Song Can Be A Bridge) - she came seventeenth out of nineteen countries. Despite its low placing Joy’s enthusiastic performance made this a favourite with Eurovision fans who mourned her death in 2017. Lyrics by Michael Holm whom we shall hear more from later. 

[Ernie notes: If Joy sounds familiar it may be because last year we featured the excellent "Daytime Nighttime" by her 1960s group Joy Unlimited here.]

Next up is the Greek-German singer Costa Cordalis with “Anita” which was top ten in Germany, Switzerland and Austria in 1976. Costa had other talents too: he was a gifted cross-country skier and was Greek national champion twice. In 1985 he even participated in the Nordic World Ski Championships for Greece. Sadly he passed away during 2019 aged 75 in Mallorca.

Drafi Deutscher’s best known song was "Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht" (Marble, Stone and Iron Break). Nineteen-year-old Deutscher had ad-libbed the tune during an audition at Musikverlag music publishers by humming the melody and only singing the characteristic chorus line of "Dum-Dum, Dum-dum". 

Asked by songwriter Christian Bruhn what he intended to do with it to turn it into a complete song, Deutscher replied, "Det machst du! ("You do that!"), so Bruhn and lyricist Günter Loose subsequently completed the song and wrote the German lyrics to the melody. It became one of the most popular German hits ever with an English version becoming a million seller world-wide. 

Udo Jürgens, was an Austrian-born composer and singer of popular music whose career spanned over 50 years. He won the ESC in 1966 for Austria, composed close to 1,000 songs, and sold over 104 million records. “Griechischer Wein” (Greek Wine) is a song, produced by Ralph Siegel, which describes the longing and homesickness of Greek guest workers in the Federal Republic of Germany of the 1970s.

Ralph Siegel was also responsible for writing "Dschingis Khan" performed by the group Dschingis Khan at the 1979 ESC held in Jerusalem. It came in fourth place, but here is the group with a more disco-oriented version of schlager and the song “Moskau” which has had quite a long life resurfacing periodically such as during the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Moscow. The choreography in the video below is frankly amazing, get your dancing shoes on.

[Ernie notes: The frontman Louis Potgieter was actually South African, but is unlikely to feature in my African Odyssey series.]

The second video brings us more up to date with the current Queen of Schlager, Helene Fischer, and her most famous song "Atemlos durch die Nacht" (Breathless Through the Night), showing that schlager continues to evolve and survive. 

But before that we leave you with two classic earworms: first Michael Holm in a non-Christmas mood - “Tränen lügen nicht” translates as “Tears don’t lie” - and then Henry Valentino doing some stalking of the woman in the car upfront.

“Ein Lied kann eine Brücke sein”  - Joy Fleming

"Anita" - Costa Cordalis

"Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht" - Drafi Deutscher

“Griechischer Wein” - Udo Jürgens

“Tränen lügen nicht” - Michael Holm

"Im Wagen Vor Mir" - Henry Valentino

Some Guys Have... (Refrain)

In last Friday's post I mentioned that me and my pals were off to see Lene Lovich that evening. This created a great deal of interest - well, two people commented but they were people of taste and distinction - so I thought I would report back on  how it went.

It was great fun. Lene was everything you would hope for, still belting it out at the tender age of 74. The entire set was good but I particularly enjoyed her version of "Supernature", the Cerrone smash for which she wrote the lyrics a few years before becoming a star in her own right.

In her comment on the previous post C described Lene as a one-off, which is true but not for the lack of trying on the part of others. Both of the support acts, Das Fluff and SHH, had female singers whose look and sound were heavily influence by Lene. The evening could perhaps have been billed as 'The Three Lives of Lene Lovich'.

Emboldened by this adventure, me and Mr F decided to take a punt on a mystery gig at the Shacklewell Arms in London's fashionable Dalston on Tuesday. For £7.50 we were promised two support acts - Healthy Junkies and Rats-Tails - and some "very special guests" as headliners.

We genuinely had no idea who the mystery headliners were until we got to the gig, and I was delighted to discover it was Girl Ray. They were getting in some last minute practice before flying out today to start a 13 date US tour. If any of our readers happen to be near the Sultan Rooms in Brooklyn tomorrow (Friday) I recommend popping in to see them.

I have been a fan of Girl Ray since their debut album "Earl Grey", which was one of my albums of the year back in 2017. With each successive release their sound has become less indie and more pop, with parts of the new album "Prestige" sounding a lot like old school disco to me. If I was forced to choose I would abide by the Music Bloggers' Code and say I prefer their earlier stuff, but I do like the new record a lot.

Here is a track apiece from the two headliners. The Girl Ray tune comes from their 2019 album "Girl", Lene's from "No Man's Land" (1981).

"Show Me More" - Girl Ray

"Savages" - Lene Lovich

That's me done for the week. I'm off at the crack of dawn tomorrow to spend a long weekend in Amsterdam with my nephew and his girlfriend who have recently moved there. 

I'll be back on here mid-week next week. The Africa series will be back the week after as there is still some digging to be done on the next couple of destinations. Until then, I'll leave you with videos featuring most of the acts mentioned above (I couldn't find SHH).