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Radio Africa was presented by Graeme Counsel and was broadcast on 3 CR in Melbourne. For the playlist archive click here.
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New publication
My latest book has recently been published. It is now
available
from Amazon.

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Radio Africa videos
Great videos from West Africa.
Click
here.
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Report on the Syliphone archive in Conakry
In 2008 I received funding from the British Library's
Endangered Archives Programme
to create the complete collection of the Syliphone catalogue.
Read an account of the fieldtrip
here.
Need a translator in Guinea?
Contact Allen
Nyoka. Ph: 224 6481 2797 / 224 6387 0437. Allen is fluent in French, English & Susu and is highly recommended.
***I have received further funding from the British Library and will be in Guinea for 6 months from July 2009***
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Discographies
by record label - • Syliphone • Club Voltaïque du Disque • Tempo International • Mali Kunkan
by group -
•
Bembeya Jazz
•
Les Ambassadeurs •
Rail Band
•
Salif Keita
by nation -
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Guinea Bissau
•
Mali
•
Guinea
•
Mauritania
•
The
Gambia
•
Burkina Faso
•
Senegal - coming soon
other -
•
Guinean orchestras of the 1st republic
•
Malian
orchestras 1960-1980
- new
•
Rail Band & Les Ambassadeurs family tree
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Recommended CDs
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Listen here |
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The lyrics for selected songs from the Balla et ses Balladins CD have been translated from Maninka to English and are available here.
→ African
classics
Occasional reviews of rare and out of print classic recordings
from Africa
L'Orchestre Kanaga de
Mopti
The decade of the 1970s was a golden era for the
big bands of West Africa. State-funding in Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, and to a
lesser extent, Senegal, had created a vast network of modern orchestras across
the region. In Guinea alone there were more than 50
regional and national orchestras. In Mali, the
regional orchestras performed for both state and private
functions, and when performing under their private guise the orchestras used
their commercial name. For example, the Regional Orchestra of Mopti also
performed in their private guise as Kanaga de Mopti. In 1977 the Malian government released a series of LPs on the
Mali Kunkan label highlighting some of the great Malian orchestras of the
period. Kanaga de Mopti's release is pictured above.
The opening track,
Gambari, encapsulates the essence of the Malian orchestra style. The guitar solo,
which evokes the best of Sékou "Diamond Fingers" Diabaté, assumes a central role,
and explores the melody across several
octaves. The solo is
well-supported by electric organ, and the brass section is used sparingly to
punctuate and reiterate the melody. All the sections of the orchestra combine in
the last stanza of the song, thus unifying and reinforcing the theme. Gambari
is unquestionably one of the great songs recorded by Mali's orchestras, yet,
incredibly,
it is available only on this LP. Side B opens with Kanaga, and a
funk-laden organ solo which segues into one of the most compelling brass section
riffs one is ever likely to come across. This song really swings and towers
above its contemporaries. The track is followed by N'do N'do, another classic,
featuring a weaving organ and staccato brass section. The backing vocalists
propel the number with their call-and-response Fela-like chorus, and
are led by the vocals of Sory Bamba, who is in career-best form throughout the
LP.
This record is quite simply one of West Africa's masterpieces. Why it has never been
re-released is a tragedy, and one that underscores the need for a retrospective
of Mali's regional orchestras. Other LPs on the Mali Kunkan label featured
National Badema, Kéné Star de
Mopti, Mystere Jazz de Tombouctou, L'Orchestre Sidi Yassa de Kayes, and
L'Orchestre Bida de la Capitale, with only
the National Badema LP released on CD. There are many other classic Malian orchestra
recordings from the 1970s (for example, Regard sur le passé à
travers le présent - 1973, Panorama du Mali - 1973, and the Rail
Band's RCAM series of five LPs recorded in Nigeria in 1975) resting in the
vaults, gathering dust, and waiting to be brought back to life.…
For the discography of the Mali Kunkan label
click here and for a discography of Malian vinyl
recordings
click here.
L'Orchestre Kanaga de Mopti continues to perform today.
Copyright
©
Graeme Counsel
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More African classics
→
Selected bibliography
Forthcoming:
The elephant that will not die: The Syliphone label
2009
Mande popular music and cultural policies in West Africa. Germany: VDM.
Available
here
Annotations to
Keletigui et ses
Tambourinis.
The Syliphone years.
Sterns.
2 x compact discs.
Available
very soon.
"Archival and
research resources in Conakry, Guinea". History in Africa.
36.
Available soon here
"Digitising and archiving
Syliphone recordings in Guinea".
Australasian Review of African
Studies. 30 (1), pp. 144-150.
Available
here
2008
Annotations to
Balla et ses Balladins.
The Syliphone years.
Sterns STCD 3035-36.
2 x compact discs.
Available here
2007
Annotations to Bembeya
Jazz National.
The Syliphone years. Hits and rare recordings.
Sterns STCD 3029-30.
2 x compact discs.
Available here
Annotations to Authenticité.
The Syliphone years. Guinea's Orchestres Nationaux and Federaux 1965 -
1980. Sterns. STCD 3025-26. 2 x compact discs.
Available here
2006
"Syliphone records". World Music. Volume 1. Africa & Middle East. Simon Broughton,
Mark Ellingham & Jon Lusk, eds. London: Rough Guides.
Available
here
2005
Directory
of Africanists in Australasia and the Pacific. 6th edition. (with Wayne
Pelling). Melbourne: AFSAAP.
Available
here
2004
Annotations to Bembeya Jazz National. The
Syliphone Years. Sterns. STCD 3021-22. 2 x compact discs.
“Music in
Guinea’s first republic”, in Mande-Manding. Background Reading for
Ethnographic Research in the Region South of Bamako. Jan Jansen (ed).
Leiden: Leiden University Department of Cultural Anthropology and Development
Sociology.
“The return of Mali’s national arts festival”, in
Mande-Manding. Background Reading for Ethnographic Research in the Region
South of Bamako. Jan Jansen (ed). Leiden: Leiden University Department of
Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology.
"Popular music and
politics in Sékou Touré’s Guinea". Australasian Review of African
Studies. 26 (1), pp. 26-42.
Available here
2003
“Cultural policy and
music in Mali”. Africa Quarterly. 43 (3), pp. 36-51.
2002
“Regionalisation”. fRoots. 225, pp. 45, 47. Available here
2001
“Golden Guinea”.
fRoots. 211/212. pp 46-47, 49. Available here
→ Links to other sites
Email:
graeme @ radio africa . com . au
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This page was created on July 2 1999 and was last updated on June 21 2009.