Ernie's African Odyssey Pt 30 - Madagascar

The African odyssey resumes after a little break, and as it is Monday it must be Madagascar.

It is a big island, nearly three times the size of Great Britain, and ties with Burkina Faso for having the capital city with the best name. I can't choose between Antananarivo and Ouagadougou.

Madagascar is famed for its biodiversity, with an estimated 90% of all its animal and plant species found nowhere else in the world. The Malagasy music scene doesn't quite match that but it is pretty diverse in its own right - as you are about to hear.

Before starting this series I only owned two albums of Malagasy music, so we will kick things off with a track from each of them. First up is the band that was possibly Madagascar's most successful musical export in  its time, Tarika.

Tarika were led by two sisters Hanitra and Noro and made a name for themselves in the 1990s through their albums and live performances. In 2001 Time magazine listed them as one of the ten best bands on Earth. In the same year they released the album "Soul Makassar", which is the one I own.

Things have been fairly quiet since then, at least on the recording front. They took a break after which Hanitra relaunched the band as Tarika Bé but there have been no further albums as far as I can tell (at least none that have been released internationally).

The second album is "Alefa Madagascar", a fine compilation of soukous, soul and salegy - an electrified version of one of the local traditional musical styles - from the 1970s and 1980s that was released in 2019 on Strut Records. There are a lot of groovy tunes to be enjoyed, but after much deliberation I opted for Papa James. I learnt from Mama James's Facebook page that Papa recently celebrated his 74th birthday. Many belated happy returns, Sir.

If that puts you in the mood for quality Malagasy compilation albums then might I suggest you try "Feedback Madagascar"? It is a fundraising album that was released by the charity of the same name in 2014 and features local acts that were active at the time. Again there are plenty of goodies to choose from; I have gone with Zambey. 

Next we have Damily, a musician from the Tsapiky region of Madagascar who has been playing since the mid 1980s and whose first album came out thirty years ago. As the title suggests his "Early Years: Madagascar Cassette Archives" album compiles some of his recordings from back in those days. The comprehensive sleeve notes tell you more than you could ever want to know about him and the local scene at the time.

Moving nearer the present day we have The Dizzy Brains, a Malagasy garage rock band who cite The Sonics and Jacques Dutronc (of "Et Moi Et Moi Et Moi" fame) as their biggest influences. While not up to those standards they make a decent enough racket. Today's selection is the title track of their 2015 debut EP "Vangy".  

As always we end with some Mandatory African Reggae, on this occasion from Abdou Day, a man sufficiently well-regarded in reggae circles to have recorded with ex-Wailers Tyrone Downie and Earl 'Chinna' Smith among others. This track comes from his 2002 album "Libre". He still gigs regularly but almost exclusively in Germany it seems. Maybe Walter can pop along to a show and report back. 

"Koba" - Tarika

"Ngôma Hoe" - Papa James

"Tsy Hagnaligno" - Zambey

"Zaho Va" - Damily

"Vangy" - The Dizzy Brains

"Tia Hody" - Abdou Day