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BEMBEYA JAZZ Bembeya Marabi 46802-5
I'd put up a strong argument that the post-independence electric roots bands of West Africa, during their first creative peaks centred on the '70s, produced a body of the greatest music of 20th century. It's up there with the country blues era of the late '20s/'early '30s or the be-bop explosion of the late '40s/ early '50s. Seriously. And if I had to pick one of those temporal destinations for my one chance in a time machine, then the West African option might get it by a whisker. Most galling of all is knowing that I was a live, grown-up music fan at the time it was happening, completely oblivious to this musical heaven unfolding elsewhere. If nothing else, the explosion of growth in global world music communications must make it less possible that you'll spend the rest of your life kicking yourself.
For those of us who thought all those glorious big band arrangements of Manding and other traditional epics lost and gone forever, with only the occasional foray by Mali's mighty Super Rail Band to provide a lasting thrill, the past year has been very exciting. Firstly Senegal's Orchestra Baobab re-emerged and proceeded to grow in new confidence before our eyes and ears, culminating in a set that will go down in Womad history as one of the festival's greatest. Then news came from France that the blessed Christian Mousset had encouraged Guinea's Bembeya Jazz back together for this year's Angouleme Festival and an album for his new Marabi label. It became clear that both these veteran West African outfits have as much matured experience to offer the world as any of the revered jazz and blues greats who hit higher peaks as their later careers unfolded, and that perhaps a fresh look at musical values from before soul got swamped by technology might be rather a good thing.
Bembeya's '70s output is without doubt my desert island bottom line. They were probably the seminal band of the era, without whom the evolution of the Rail Band, Baobab, Les Ambassadeurs and the rest would have been significantly different. There's no argument that their music was blindingly wonderful, original, awe-insping, and in Sekou 'Diamond Fingers' Diabate they had one of the world's god-like out-there guitarists. When Bembeya's original singer Demba Camara was killed in a road accident, a shock wave went through the region as great as here when Lennon died. And yet, because their country fell apart economically, they floundered before halting in the mid '80s, and narrowly missed out on the World Music boom which came just too late for them. Baobab deservedly became legends through Pirate's Choice, the Rail Band soldiered on, but Bembeya, arguably the greatest of them all in the first go round, are unknown to most current African music fans. We saw them just once, at a blistering Africa Centre show circa '85, and they were gone. World Music history wrote them out. But hopefully this is all about to change.
It's 2002 and here's a new Bembeya record. How will it stand up against the back catalogue, those '70s albums like Défi and Continuité which have accompanied most of my car journeys for years, especially as they've elected to revisit old classics for their first new outing? Well, they did it. Diamond Fingers is back on peak form (including a few of his wiggy steel guitar excursions), original drummer Conde Mory Mangala is still a powerhouse, the singers are just fine (even though Sekouba Bambino is no longer on board), the horn section's rather sweeter-tuned than before (but still with enough hints of their old attractive dissonance), and everybody is firing on all cylinders. It's all there the rolling, circular Guinean melodies, the fabulous structure to their arrangements - going effortlessly from balladry to unfettered cooking energy at the touch of a switch. They still show the scary creativity and imagination, the nods to Ghana, Nigeria and the Congo as well as the hints of the Cuban roots (particularly on the opening title track) that they were among the first to evolve from as they turned to ransacking local roots and folklore for melodies, themes and rhythms. Womad next year, please! - Ian Anderson
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Article is copright 2002 Southern Rag/fROOTS, and is used by permission
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