Radio Africa

Radio Africa was presented by Graeme Counsel and was broadcast on 3 CR in Melbourne, Australia. For the playlist archive click here.

Discographies

Bembeya Jazz National discography Tempo International's Guinean vinyl Guinean orchestras of the 1st republicSyliphone discography Rail Band discography Ambassadeurs discography The Mali Kunkan catalogueGuinea Bissauan vinyl discography Mauritanian vinyl discography Burkinabé vinyl discographyMalian vinyl discography Guinean vinyl discography Gambian vinyl discography
Rail Band and Les Ambassadeurs family tree Salif Keita discographySenegalese vinyl discography - coming soon


New releases of African music


Balla et ses Balladins.
The Syliphone Years.

Listen here
Available from Sterns


Authenticit
é. The Syliphone Years.
Guinea's orchestres Nationaux
and Federaux 1965 - 1980.
Listen here
Available from Sterns


Bembeya Jazz National.
The Syliphone years.

Listen here
Available from Sterns

The lyrics for selected songs from the Balla et ses Balladins CD have been translated from
Maninka to English and are available here.


New publication on African music



Florent Mazzoleni's latest publication covers the music of 13 African nations, including chapters on Ghana,
Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, and Senegal. Mazzoleni explores the local popular music traditions, providing valuable insights
into the musical roots and important information on the original sources and musical pioneers.
Written in French, the book features excellent reproductions of rare and original album cover art.
Highly recommended, and a must for all lovers of African music. Available from Amazon.

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 45 regional and national orchestras. In Mali, the regional orchestras performed for both state and private functions. When performing under their private guise the orchestras used their commercial name. For example, the Regional Orchestra of Mopti also performed under 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 Sekou "Diamond Fingers" Diabaté, plays 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, which features 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.

Graeme Counsel © Copyright 2001-2008

Links to more African classics

 Kanté Manfila & Salif Keita "Dans l'authenticité vol 1" Kanté Manfila & Salif Keita "Dans l'authenticité vol 2"
L'arbre éternel - Syliphone LP 28 Guinée ax XII - Syliphone LP 21 Ambassadeurs du Motel
Orchestre Régional de KayesVictoire à la Révolution - Syliphone LP 29 Doura Barry "Laureat de Guinea"
Orchestre Régional de Mopti Djali Madi Tounkara and The Rail Band Keletigui et ses Tambourinis - Syliphone LP 30
Mamadi Diabaté et Les Ambassadeurs Souleymané Traoré dit Neba Solo Rail Band "Soundiata"
Teningnini Demba Ernesto Djedje "Le roi du ziglibithy" A Search for the Roots of the Blues vols 1 & 2
L'Orchestre National "A" de la République du Mali Ami Koita "Pour le collectionneur vol 3"

Bibliography

          of Graeme Counsel

Forthcoming:
Keletigui et ses Tambourinis. 2 x compact discs
The elephant that will not die: The Syliphone label

2008
Annotations to
Balla et ses Balladins.
The Syliphone years. Sterns STCD 3035-36. 2 x compact discs. Available from this site.

"The search for Authenticity in a global age: Artists and arts policy in Francophone West Africa".  Conference paper, Africans in Australia and outsiders in Africa, Australian National University.

2007

"Music and politics in West Africa". Seminar, The Institute of Postcolonial Studies, Melbourne.

Annotations to Bembeya Jazz National.
The Syliphone years. Hits and rare recordings. Sterns STCD 3029-30. 2 x compact discs. Available from this site

Annotations to Authenticit
é. The Syliphone years. Guinea's Orchestres Nationaux and Federaux 1965 - 1980. Sterns. STCD 3025-26. 2 x compact discs. Available from this site

Book review – "Conflict and collusion in Sierra Leone", David Keen. Australasian Review of African Studies. 28, pp. 168-170.

2006
Mande popular music and cultural policies in West Africa. PhD thesis, Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne. Available from this site

"Syliphone records". World Music. Volume 1. Africa & Middle East. Simon Broughton, Mark Ellingham & Jon Lusk, eds. London: Rough Guides.
Available from this site

2005
Directory of Africanists in Australasia and the Pacific. 6th edition.
(with Wayne Pelling). Melbourne: AFSAAP. Available from this site

Book review – "Sunjata. A West African epic of the Mande peoples", trans. by David C. Conrad. Australasian Review of African Studies. 27 (1), pp. 96-97.

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 from this site

Book review – “Eurafricans in Western Africa”, George E. Brooks. Australasian Review of African Studies. 26 (2), pp. 76-77.

2003
“Cultural policy and music in Mali”. Africa Quarterly. 43 (3), pp. 36-51.

“Views of the past: Music and politics in West Africa”. Seminar, African Research Institute, La Trobe University.

“Cultural policy in Mali”. Conference paper, Africa on a global stage: Politics, history, economics and culture, Flinders University.

2002
“Regionalisation”. fRoots. 225, pp. 45, 47. Available from this site

"Cultural policy in Guinea's first republic: Music, militants and myths".  Conference paper, Africa confronts globalisation, Macquarie University.

2001
“Golden Guinea”. fRoots. 211/212. pp 46-47, 49.
Available from this site

2000
“Music’s political dimension in West Africa”.  Conference paper, African identities, University of Adelaide.

1999
Contributing writer: West Africa, 4th edition; The Gambia and Senegal, 1st edition; Sénégal, 1st edition; India, 7th edition; and East Africa, 5th edition. Australia: Lonely Planet Publications.


1995
Contributing writer: West Africa, 3rd edition. Australia: Lonely Planet Publications.

Links to other sites
 
Music related Africana
Sterns music African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific (AFSAAP)
Flight 1067 to Africa - 3PBS FM Mande Studies Association (MANSA)
African radio stations on the Internet AfricanOz - African Australian online resource
Listen to classic African recordings at Rufus' site Web Guinee - History, politics and culture (in French)
Frank Bessem's "Musique d'Afrique" Web Mande - home of the Mande nation (in French)
Congolese discographies, plus the Kouma & Sonafric labels and others Africa Studies Center - resources for Africa
Discographies of Senegalese and Nigerian musicians African news agency
Analog Africa - classic recordings from the golden era West African news
The African Music Archive Ethnologue - Language group areas in Africa
Popular African Music Mali Watch (in French)
Dakar Sound African government websites on the internet
Lyrichord Woyaa! - Africana search engine
Africassette Clickafrique- Africana search engine
Budamusique African writing systems
Rykodisc Oware - an African board game  
Folkways  International currency converter
fRoots magazine Translator - European languages
Rootsworld Maps of Africa
Ethnomusicology on-line   The Malian Ministry for Culture (in French)
Malian music web site  
Musical instrument encyclopaedia  

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This page was created on July 2 1999 and was last updated on June 20 2008.