Marie-Line Dahomay & Kalindi-Ka - Yo (1999)

«The islands of Guadeloupe were colonized by the French in 1635. Under their watch the indigenous Carib Indians were routed and African slaves were brought onto the islands and forced to work in the burgeoning sugar industry. Several hundred years later, soon after the French abolished slavery on Guadeloupe in 1848, the island’s plantation owners had workers from one of France’s East Indian colonies, Pondicherry, brought over to labor in the cane fields. As a result of these multifarious influences, Guadeloupe’s cultural practices – including its music – are hybrids of various traditions. For example, gwo ka music, which is traditionally performed during nocturnal gatherings called léwòz, incorporates the French-influenced Creole vocals of a lead singer and accompanying chorus with drummers playing on African-modeled gwo ka drums, the low-pitched boula and the higher-pitched makyè. Among the more popular practitioners of gwo ka music is the vocalist Marie-Line Dahomay. On Yo, Dahomay is joined by an all-female choir, Kalindi-Ka, and a battery of percussionists. Dahomay delves into such issues as femininity, religiosity, unrequited love, reclaimed ancestry, and Guadeloupe’s complex cultural identity. Dahomay’s powerful and soulful voice allows her to deliver these and other messages with conviction. As stated in her liner notes, the songs on this particular CD are not meant to reflect traditional gwo ka music. Rather, they “were inspired by traditional songs, enriched by Cuban rhythms.” Indeed, Afro-Cuban rumba rhythms and timbres from such drums as the bata and conga at times overpower the gwo ka drums, thus giving the music a predominately Afro-Cuban sound. Whatever its relation to traditional gwo ka, Marie-Line Dahomay & Kalindi-Ka’s Yo is full of beautiful vocal harmonies, vibrant polyrhythms, and thoughtful lyrics. All in all, it’s a must-have for those interested in contemporary interpretations of traditional Caribbean music.» (AMG)

«La musique Gwo Ka est un héritage de l’esclavage aux Antilles et en Guadeloupe en particulier. Autour du Gwo Ka gravitent la danse, le jeu, l’humour... une certaine façon d’être. Aujourd’hui, le groupe Kalindi-ka s’inscrit dans cette mouvance identitaire. Ce choeur féminin polyphonique et polyrythmique porte une note originale dans l’interprétation des morceaux anciens. Les compositions les plus récentes s’inspirent de chants traditionnels et sont enrichies de rythmes cubains. Les percussions ka se marient au djembé, au conga et au bata ce qui donne une plus large place à l’improvisation. La chanteuse principale, Marie-Line Dahomay, s’accompagne parfois d’un instrument indien: l’Ektara. Yo sorti en 2000, sur Playa Sound.» (Mondomix)

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Trinidad Steel Combo - Steel Drums from the Caribbean Islands (1995)

«The Steel Drum, or Pan, is a unique instrument, and one of the most recently invented. It is a skillfully hammered 55-gallon oil drum which has been carefully tuned to produce tones. The Steel Drum carries the full chromatic range of notes, and can produce just about any type of music you can think of!

During British Colonial rule of Trinidad in the 1800's, hand drums were used as a call for neighbourhood gangs to collect and 'mash up' with the other gangs. Hoping to curb the violence, the government outlawed hand drums in 1886.

Deprived of the drums, the Trinidadians turned to the 'Bamboo Tamboo', where each member of the group would carry a length of bamboo and pound it on the ground as the group walked through the streets, producing distinctive rhythmic 'signatures' which identified each gang. (The word "Tamboo" is from the French "tambeau", or "drum".) When two gangs met on a march, they would pull out the machetes they had hidden inside the long bamboo poles, which solved none of the violence problems.

Soon, the government outlawed the bamboo bands as well. Deprived of all traditional rhythmic instruments, the Trinis took any objects they could find, including garbage can lids, old car parts, and empty oil barrels (from the Navy bases on the island). They used these instruments to form the Iron Bands, which marched down the streets playing the same distinctive rhythms. These impromptu parades were called Iron Band.

One day in the late 1930's, during a particularly rough iron band session, somebody discovered that a dented section of barrel head produced a tone. Winston "Spree" Simon is generally credited with being the first person to put a note on a steel drum. Originally the pans were convex, like a dome rather than a dish. Ellie Manette, a pan-maker still active in the US today, was the first to dish out a pan and give the steel drum its mature form. Many tuners began experimenting with and producing tuned 'pans', eventually forming large groups of the neighborhood panmen into orchestrated bands. There are many great musicians, arrangers and innovators in the history of the steel bands.

The musical competitions which began to take place each year at Carnival quickly replaced the street fights. There are two competitions, one for the popular songs of the year, and a separate contest which showcases both the technical ability of each band and the versatility of the steel drum by presenting highly orchestrated classical pieces. Fifty years after the first such contest, the rivalries between steel bands still exist, but manifest themselves in an excellent quality of musicianship.

The bands, which include Phase Two Pan Groove, the Amoco Renegades, the Trinidad Cement Limited Skiffle Bunch, and the Silver Stars, each perform a masterfully arranged, ten-minute piece for the yearly Panorama competition. Each band can contain over 100 musicians and 300 pans, and rehearses relentlessly for months before Carnival in the hopes of winning the Panorama and being crowned champion steel band for the year. If you are interested in the music produced by this event, Panorama recordings can be found at many fine record stores.» (More info and links here)

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Osibisa - Ayiko Bia (1991)

During my recent holydays in Paris, I've found this somewhat obscure Osibisa live cd, not included in their official discography. Searching for some infos about it in the Internet, I discovered that it was released in Europe in 1991. Judging from the sound quality of the recordings (good but not great), they probably document a live show from the '70s. Since this was Osibisa's "golden" period, this album is really worth a listen, including very good renditions of such classic tracks as "Welcome Home", "Music from Gong Gong" and their biggest UK hit, "Sunshine Day".

«Osibisa was formed in London, England in 1969 by a multi-racial group of musicians; all with the same interests in music. The nucleus of the band was from Ghana, others, like the unbelievable guitarist Wendell Richardson, came from Antigua; the bass player who was simply known as Spartacus (I'm Spartacus!) was from Grenada; the keyboard player from Trinidad; and the saxophonist was from Nigeria. However, what they all had in common was great musical rhythm, enthusiasm, and ability. Their music was borrowed from Jazz, Rhythm & Blues, African based drum music, Rock, Pop, and Latin Groove, to create quite an original sound. In Ghanaian 'Osibisa' means 'criss-cross rhythms that explode with happiness'. Now, how one word can say all that I do not know, but that is exactly how the music sounds, and they are the very words that introduce the first song on Osibisa's first album, aptly titled "Dawn".
Like a breath of fresh air, Osibisa's music first came to prominence with the release of their first single "Music for Gong Gong'', which was released at the tail end of 1970. It is a piece of music that will get even the most conservative of souls out boogieing on the dance floor. So it was great expectations when their first album was released in the early days of 1971 and the boys did not disappoint, arriving as it did when Prog-Rock was in its heyday. Each of these percussive driven songs blew away all the pretensions of those serious minded twiddlers in the likes of Yes, King Crimson, etc. Osibisa's unbridled enthusiasm was so infectious, you could not help but be dragged along by the sheer exuberance of it all. Although Osibisa's main strength was in their live concerts, they could also drum up a storm (quite literally) in the studio. Nobody at the time could have realized how influential their music was going to be in years ahead. Osibisa today is still known as the Godfather of 'World Music', and the effect of their big hit single "Sunshine Day" (1975) was to change the disco scene for ever.» (Kim Fletcher, Amazon)

Official site: http://www.osibisa.co.uk/osibisa.html

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Harry Belafonte - Calypso (1957)

Harry Belafonte sta per compiere ottant’anni. Eppure, poche settimane fa era in Giamaica, dove ha trascorso l’infanzia, a filmare un documentario sulla sua vita. Quella di una star indomita, da cinquant’anni sulle barricate. L’amico fraterno di Martin Luther King e Bob Kennedy, l’uomo che ha scalato, primo afroamericano, le classifiche di tutto il mondo. Per l’Italia degli anni ‘50, Belafonte era soprattutto quell’uomo bellissimo che cantava Banana boat song (Day-O), brano che entrava nel 1957 in classifica svelando l’esotismo del calypso [...] senza che molti si soffermassero sul significato del pezzo, una «work song» sulla tragica vita degli scaricatori di banane giamaicani.
Lui, Belafonte, non si preoccupò più di tanto della mistificazione. Colse il successo e lo utilizzò per spingersi ben oltre, diventando l’antesignano della «world music», l’attivista, una delle voci più autorevoli della diaspora africana. L’Italia osservava compiaciuta il «re del calypso» con quello sguardo voyeurista un po’ provinciale, tanto che quando un anno dopo Carosone lanciò la sua O’ sarracino, confessò di essersi ispirato ad «un uomo bello, un po’ saracino, di quelli che fanno impazzire le donne come Harry Belafonte». (L'Unità, 4 giugno 2006)

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