Ernie's African Odyssey Part 55 - Zimbabwe

After a journey that started over 18 months ago we finally arrive at our final destination. This is not the final post in the series though. There are two more to come - one themed and one tying up some loose ends - before we can shake the dust from our shoes and settle down to enjoy a refreshing glass of Zambezi lager.

For this last leg we have made the short trip over the river named after the lager from Zambia to Zimbabwe. Like so many of the countries we have visited on our odyssey it is one with a troubled political history but a rich musical heritage. 

In our recent post on Zambia the 1970s Zamrock scene featured heavily. There wasn't an equivalent Zimrock scene on anything like the same scale, but there were a few bands who latched on to the heavy new sound from the north. One of these was Wells Fargo from Bulawayo whose members included the likes of the magnificently named Never Mpofu and Handsome Mabhiza. 

Fortunately the good folks at Now-Again took no notice of Mr Mpofu's subliminal messaging and a few years ago they released an excellent compilation of the band's mid-1970s singles called "Watch Out!". That is where you can find our opening feast of funk.

Zimbabwean music really came into its own in the 1980s with jit bands like The Bhundu Boys and The Four Brothers rightly gaining international recognition. All you hipsters will be familiar with them already which is why they are not included apart from a video (I couldn't leave them out completely).

Back home jit was often overshadowed by sungura and soukous, but collectively Zimbabwean musicians in the 1980s and 1990s were making some of the best pop music ever to emerge from Africa. The next four selections all feature artists from the golden age. 

Safirio Madzikatire was a comedian and musician and quite a character by all accounts. Highlights of this list of his achievements include using his wife as collateral during a particularly frenetic gambling session and being regularly deserted by his bands for reasons unspecified. The list rather understates the excellence of the singles he released with the Sea Cottage Sisters in the 1980s, of which this is one. 

System Tazvida formed the Chazezesa Challengers in the early 1990s having previous played as a sideman with various well-known bands. His own band blended elements of sungura, South African mbaqanga and traditional music and enjoyed great success locally until his untimely death in 1999 aged only 30. Today's track dates from 1995.

One of the bands that System that system used to play with were the Khiama Boys, formed in 1984 by Nicholas Zakaria. One of the leading exponents of 'pure' sungura, the band survived a split in 1997 when co-leader Alick Macheso went off in a huff to form his own band and were still making excellent music as recently as 2017. This is from their 2003 album "Munomgedzo". 

Admire Kazenga's career began in the early 1990s but it was not until he moved to Harare from rural Mashonaland up near the border with Mozambique that his career took off. "Auntie Rhoda" was a massive hit for him and the lads in 1996. He was another to leave us far too soon, passing away at 34 in 2004. 

As good and as many as Zimbabwe's musicians and bands were back then there was (and is) one man who stands above them all and bestrides the local music scene like a colossus  - the great Thomas Mapfumo. 

Mr Mapfumo's early career with the Hallelujah Chicken Run Band and the Acid Band had already established him as a force to be reckoned with - the Acid Band's 1978 album "Hokoyo!" being a particular highlight - but it was the creation of his patent Chimurenga sound with Blacks Unlimited that took him to another level entirely.

I found it almost impossible to choose just one track to represent Mr Mapfumo's music. In the end I opted for this 1981 single but Global Press Music have reissued a lot of his back catalogue at a mere $4 an album. Personal favourites include "Chimurenga For Justice" (1986), "Toi Toi" and "Zvichapera" (both 2002). I would encourage you to check out the Global Press Bandcamp page as there are also lots more top quality Zimbabwean albums to be found there at the same price. 

One of the features of Mr M's music over the years has been the use made of the mbira, a type of thumb piano used by the Shona people. One of the leading exponents of the mbira was Dumisani Maraire who was responsible for introducing it to North America. His son Tendai is the main man in Chimurenga Renaissance, based in Seattle but committed to honouring and updating Shona culture. This track comes from their 2020 album "Wona Baba Maraire" which features the mbira extensively.

And so to the MAR slot. Man Soul Jah (Joseph Nhara to his Mum) was a regular fixture on the Zim reggae scene in the 1990s and early 2000s before apparently packing it all in. He reemerged last year by releasing three new albums at the same time, his first recordings for 17 years. This track comes from "Shine Jah Light". The other two albums are "Mr Government Man" and "Mhoroi Chigwa".

Announcing his return his PR company stated that "with unwavering defiance, Man Soul Jah is poised to etch his name into history's sacred walls by orchestrating a triumphant symphony of courage, conviction, and creativity.” While I suspect history's sacred walls will remain largely unetched upon on this occasion, "courage, conviction, and creativity" is an apt description of many of the musicians we have featured during the series. 

"Love Is The In Thing" - Wells Fargo

"First Aid" - Safirio Madzikatire & Sea Cottage Sisters

"Anodyiwa Haataure" - System Tazvida & The Chazezesa Challengers

"Mutupo Umwechete" - Nicholas Zakaria & Khiama Boys

"Auntie Rhoda" - Admire Kasenga & Ngosimbi Crew

"Nyarai" - Thomas Mapfumo & The Blacks Unlimited

"Chimurenga Chitsva" - Chimurenga Renaissance

"Love This Reggae" - Man Soul Jah

We will start the video section with someone I once spent an enjoyably boozy evening with in swinging Shoreditch after he admired the sonar equipment for repelling rats that I happened to have on my person at the time. You had to be there really.

And be sure to pay attention to Jonah Moyo's pan-African message in the second video, which has happier news from Zimbabwe's neighbour to the south than Zeke does.

Spears For Souvenirs

It has been thirty years since Michael Franti wound up Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and launched his new direction which he once described using this vegetable analogy: "The big problem with Disposable Heroes was that it was a record people listened to because it was good for them - kind of like broccoli. I want Spearhead to be more like sweet potatoes".

The first batch of sweet potatoes came piping hot out of Mr Franti's creative ovens in September 1994 in the form of Spearhead's debut album "Home". I bought it at the time but that copy has long since gone the way of all flesh. So when I saw one going for £1 in a charity shop recently I snapped it up. I'm very glad that I did, it is even better than I remember.

 "Hole In The Bucket" - Spearhead

"Dream Team" - Spearhead

Way back in much earlier times many spearheads were made of stones or flint. Here are some examples from the 1970s.

And here is the biggest piece of broccoli you'll ever see.

No Resting On Laurels

Last week Mister F and I went up to the Shacklewell Arms in London's trendy Dalston to see the young American noise-a-teers Laurel Canyon.

According to the blurb for their self-titled debut album "the guitars are drenched in an Asheton worshipping haze, melded alongside a Velvets chug and mid-to-late 80s Pacific Northwest guttural/ primal howl... this is American primitive music at its most powerful". 

Now I don't know about any of that but they make a splendid racket and deserved a more responsive crowd than they got. Go and cheer them on if they pass through your town.

I have teamed them up with an earlier Laurel to pad things out a bit (not that anything Mr Aitken did could ever be dismissed as padding),

"Tangiers" - Laurel Canyon

"Boogie In My Bones" - Laurel Aitken

From Younng American Noise-a-teers to Young New Mexican Puppeteers - not Tom's original but a German Version for George and Mister F. They know what they did.

Ernie's African Odyssey Part 54 - Zambia

We have arrived at the penultimate destination in our musical tour of Africa. And a fine one it is too - Zambia.

Normally in this series I try to come up with a selection that spans the musical generations of whatever country we are in, but not this time. Apart from the MAR there is nothing in the audio section less than 35 years old. That is not to suggest that there has been nothing decent since 1989, just that I already had so much good Zambian music from the 1970s and 1980s in my collection that I did not feel the need to go searching further afield.

You can blame that on Zamrock, the heavy rock sound that swept the nation back in the 1970s. Regular readers may remember me raving about it in the past, and I know some of you went off and picked up Volume 1 and Volume 2 of "Welcome to Zamrock!" put together by the good folks at Now-Again Records. The rest of you should do so just as soon as you finish here.

From Volume 1 we bring you the great Chrissy 'Zebby' Tembo with a track originally released on his 1978 album "Heavy Connection". Chrissy was the drummer with The Ngozi Family, of whom more anon, and the rest of the band backed him on this and his earlier, equally excellent album, "My Ancestors". 

On Volume 2 you can find The Peace, although not this particular track. Fortunately Now-Again did it again when they reissued their 1975 album "Black Power" last year. I have opted for the title track but the whole album is worth having. It has some soul and blues-rock influences that make it stand apart from most of the other Zamrock bands of the time. Some tracks sound like Steve Miller back when he was still good.

Its time to cast your mind back to the paragraph before last. You may remember me mentioning the Ngozi Family, whose 1977 album "45,000 Volts" would probably have been featured today if I hadn't plugged it heavily when it was reissued. Paul Ngozi was the guitarist and leader of the Family and he also had a successful solo career before his untimely demise in 1989 aged only 40.

You can find two of his solo albums from the late 1970s on Bandcamp (I would particularly recommend "Lightning And Thunder"). He was still firmly pushing the Zamrock sound at that stage but his music became progressively poppier during the 1980s. Today's track was first released as a 12" single in 1987. I found it on a bootleg CD called "The Definitive Collection of Zambian Legends" that I picked up on a very brief visit to Lusaka a few years ago.

We are sticking with the 1980s for our next two selections. Emmanuel Mulemena was a big name in the Zambian music scene of the 1970s and was one of the artists responsible for popularising the kalindula sound. After his death in 1982 his backing band renamed itself The Mulemena Boys and recorded a tribute album to their former boss. While largely sticking to his formula they spiced it up with one of those exciting new drum machines, which features prominently on this (and every other) track.

It appears the kalindula scene in the 1980s was dominated by a few families. Emmanuel's son John Mulemena led the Masasu Band, whose other main member was one Geasi Bwaluka. Geasi in turn had a younger brother Timothy who led the Bwaluka Founders Band. This track from their 1989 album "Kangumbe" can be found on a compilation that came out a couple of months ago called "Kampire Presents: A Dancefloor in Ndola" (Kampire being a DJ of some note it seems). 

Which brings us to the MAR. I have struggled a bit because while there is plenty of good Zambian reggae very little of it is available to download. I intend no disrespect to the estimable MILZ (whose 2017 album "The Teacher" this comes from) when I say that he would not have been my first choice. It is still a nice tune though.

"Born Black" - Chrissy 'Zebby' Tembo

"Black Power" - The Peace

"Bauze" - Paul Ngozi

"Kwi Lamba Ekwesu" - The Mulemena Boys

"Kimbera" - Bwaluka Founders Band

"Johane" - MILZ

Hello This Is Joni

If any of you have looked at the title of this post and thought to yourself "surely he can't inflict that song on us" - oh yes I can. And worse.

But that is for later. First we must deal with the business of the day.

I don't think it will be seen as courting controversy to say I'm not a big fan of those archive boxed sets that ask you to stump up lots of money for multiple (and usually not as good) versions of songs that you already have, even when they are from artists I like.

Take for example Volumes 3 and 4 of Joni Mitchell's Archives series that between them cover the period 1972 to 1980. Volume 3 came out last year, Volume 4 last month. The combined price is £125 for eleven discs. For that you get six different live versions of "Big Yellow Taxi" which is probably at least five more than anyone needs.

That is not to say there isn't some good stuff tucked away in there. I really enjoyed the early demos of songs that ended up on "Hissing Of Summer Lawns" and "Hejira", my favourite Joni albums along with "Blue". I would happily buy a double album with just them on (which is sort of what I ended up doing by downloading the individual tracks).

Here are a couple of those demos, one each from Volumes 3 and 4 and one each from the two aforementioned albums, with the title track of "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter" added on - it seems that it was originally envisaged as a medley with "Coyote".

"Don't Interrupt The Sorrow (demo)" - Joni Mitchell

"Coyote/ Don Juan's Reckless Daughter (demo)" - Joni Mitchell

And now what you've all been waiting for...

... with an extra special treat just for George. After a less than stellar solo career as Andy Andres, which included a German language version of the Paul Evans smash, young Andreas Lebbing became the lead singer of top pop act Wind under his real name. 

The Wind of change paid off for him. In 1987 they took "Lass die sonne in dein herz" to second place in Eurovision behind Johnny Logan. Feast your eyes on the lady with the keytar and the enormous shoulder pads of the man playing the steel drums. And, yes, that is indeed one half of the future Milli Vanilli showing he could mime guitar playing as well as he could mime singing.

Wind had previously finished second in 1985, and remain the only act to finish second twice, but that was before Andreas joined them.

Jam Today

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. And that man is King Jammy.

Just as the world seems on the verge of collapsing, the great man comes riding to the rescue with a brand new album called "King Jammy's Unites The Nation With Dub". Having successfully ended the pandemic with his 2022 album "King Jammy Destroys The Virus With Dub" he will be hoping to repeat the trick with this one. 

The album comes out this Friday. Vinyl copies are already available for pre-order. There's no sign of the digital version yet but no doubt it will be up on his Bandcamp page in time for Bandcamp Friday next week. 

The good folks at Greensleeves very kindly sent me an advance copy in the mistaken belief that I am some sort of mover and shaker (I'm not but keep it quiet, I don't want them to find out). The first track below is a sneak preview of the new record. I have teamed it up with a couple of golden oldies.

"General Assembly Of Dub" - King Jammy

"271 Utica Dub" - King Jammy

"Timeless Dub" - King Jammy

Other uniters of nations are available.

Ernie's African Odyssey Part 53 - Western Sahara

According to the United Nations there are 54 countries in Africa, yet there will be 55 posts in this series. This is the reason why.

The territory known as Western Sahara is the one remaining colony in Africa. Initially occupied by Spain in the 1880s, the Spanish handed it over to Morocco in 1975. It has been blocking independence ever since - the Sahrawi people are still waiting for the referendum that was meant to take place in 1992 - despite political pressure and the military efforts of the Polisario Front, who control about 30% of the territory.

Although only two countries have ever recognised Morocco's claim to Western Sahara, one of them being the US under the previous Trump presidency, there is no sign that the Sahrawi people will get the self-determination they want any time soon. Bad news for the estimated 150,000 Sahrawi (almost 40% of them) living in refugee camps in Algeria, many of them since the 1970s.

Despite the small population and the difficult conditions in which they live the Sahrawi have produced some amazing music. None more so than the mighty Mariem Hassan, one of best female singers I've ever heard and someone I have raved about many times on these pages. She only recorded three solo albums before her premature death from cancer in 2015. Today's selection comes from her third and final album " El Aaiun Egdat". 

Before going solo Mariem had spent many years as the lead singer of El Wali who were essentially the Polisario Front house band and through whose ranks many fine singers have passed. A few years ago the always excellent Sahel Sounds reissued their 1994 album "Tiris". It really is a must have. 

The line-up of El Wali that recorded that album does not include either Mariem Hassan or Dighya Moh-Salem, who also sang with them for a while. These days she lives in exile in Paris and fronts her own band. Their album "Leflij" came out just last month. Hot off the press, here is their tribute to the man who brought you such hits as "Boombastic" and "It Wasn't Me".  

Group Doueh hail from the port city of Dakhla. Led by guitarist Salmou "Doueh" Bamaar with various friends and family members in tow, I saw them live in 2011 and found it a bit much at the time but have warmed to them since. They are not your typical desert blues band, more of a desert blues band that for some obscure reason has chosen "I Looked Up" era Incredible String Band as its blueprint. See what you make of this track from their 2012 album "Beatte Harab". 

For a more conventional desert blues sound you could do a lot worse than give a listen to Aziza Brahim. Born in one of the Algerian refugee camps in the 1970s but now based in Spain. Her latest album "Majwa" came out in March this year but this track comes from her 2016 record "Abbar el Hamada". 

Slipping smoothly into the MRV slot are Tiris, an eight-piece ensemble formed following a talent competition in the refugee camps in 2005 (making them the Sahrawi One Direction or something). Their debut - and possibly only - album "Sandtracks" came out a couple of years later. While not primarily a reggae band, the album does include the splendid Saharan skank of "Aid Istiqal".

"Arrabi al Arabe" - Mariem Hassan

"The Day of the Free Nation" - El Wali

"Shawgy" - Dighya Moh-Salem Band

"Mawak Lakhaal" - Group Doueh

"Calles de Dajla" - Aziza Brahim

"Aid Istiqal" - Tiris