The Syliphone Years

Artist: Bembeya Jazz National
Label: Stern's Africa
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 2

UPC: 740042302129
EAN: 0740042302129
ASIN: B0006SGFW8

Release Date: 2004-12-21

Related Categories:

General

| Africa | International | Styles | Music

Guinea

| Africa | International | Styles | Music

General

| International | Styles | Music

General

| Latin Music | Styles | Music

General

| Jazz | Styles | Music

Latin Jazz

| Jazz | Styles | Music

General

| Pop | Styles | Music

Listmania:

The Golden Triangle: Guinea, Mali & Senegal

Tracks:

Republique Guinee
Sabor de guajira
Armee Guineenne
Dembaty galant
Air Guinee
Guinee hety horemoun
Montuno de la sierra
Waraba
Dagna
Doni doni
Camara mousso
Super tentemba
Mami wati
Alalake

Tracks:

Beyla
Fatoumata
Moussogbe
Sou
N'gamokoro
Ballake
Mussofing
Dya dya
Sina mousso
N'temenna
Telephone
Petit Sekou

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Customer Reviews:

Syliphone Years, Bembeya Jazz Natl.......2005-03-14

This is the perfect record to get your collection of Bembeya Jazz, and by extension, modern Mande swing music, started. These players listened to contemporary Cuban rumbas as well as Motown and funk, and drew from both, adding the rumba rhythms and funky orchestrations to a stew of subregional traditional music that featured long vocal lines, call-and-response techniques, and eloquent lyrics that drew from a long tradition of using music for moral instruction. But to describe Bembeya Jazz National in those dry terms hardly gets to the meat of the situation. This music swings like Count Basie in his prime, and takes all the tricks out of James Brown's bag and applies them to the rumba. It's a beautiful sound.

When you put the needle down on "N'gamokorý," for instance, you hear a beautiful horn-section introduction, then an eerie and intoxicating cowbell/bass drum rhythm takes over, underneath a spoken-word chant in Mandeng, then a leaping, bounding, rumba, where the main theme is stated. Demba Camara, the amazing vocalist, starts singing the verses, with the horns answering each line, and the guitarist dropping in obligatos everywhere. You can just imagine a crowd of sweaty, dapper Guineans bopping away at one of those open-air nightclubs in Conakry, the Paris of West Africa. As the guitar sets the rhythm with a hypnotic lick repeating over and over again, the trumpet, then tenor sax take tasty solos. That bleeds into the whole horn section playing in unison, then Demba Camara starts singing again in this amazing, hortatory call-and-response with the backup singers and the horn section, like Fela Anikulapo-Kuti in Mandeng language. It keeps brewing, until a sudden disco-type break, then the djembe drum leaps in for a mind-blowing solo, with the vocalist shouting alongside and the trap drums keeping time with the brushes. At the climactic moment, the horns hop back in and restate the theme, with the guitar lick in the background. Of course, that's not enough! Demba Camara comes back in and starts singing again, while the guitar and drums settle down into a kind of sedate rumba. He takes a break while the guitar unleashes a soulful, keening single-note solo, while the rhythm guitar comps behind. It ends on a sudden shout, then silence, as the dancers wipe their brows and go get a lemonade.

A lot of the best tracks on this record, such as "Armee Guineenne," "N'Borin," and "Moussogbe" are also featured on Bembeya Jazz's "Hommage A Demba Camara" and the compilation "Syliphone 40eme Anniversaire," so if you have either one of those amazing records, you may have some duplication. This one is worth the additional purchase, however, because it comes with a discography and nice explanation of where the group came from and where it fit into the overall politico-cultural situation at the time.

For those of you just starting your collections, however, this 2-cd set includes enough booty-moving, earth-rattling music to get you hooked.

The Original World Music.......2005-03-13

Guinea's Bembeya Jazz is, by any calculation, one of the greatest African bands of all time. As far as I am concerned, in fact, they are one of the greatest popular music bands ANYWHERE in the twentieth century. They also are among the most influential, at least in Africa, since their popularity spread far beyond their Guinean borders. This collection documents their greatest period during the 1960s and 1970s when they enjoyed the lavish if capricious patronage of the Guinean state. Like the wonderful Congolese bands of the same period, they had it all -- amazing, really amazing, guitar playing; mesmerizing singers; a scorching (if not always in tune) brass section. Their sound is hypnotic, funky, swinging - Africa meets Cuba meets U.S. rock; world music before there was world music. While this set is of great historic interest, it also is a complete pleasure to hear. The music still sounds fresh and creative and the tinny recording quality evokes tropical nights, sea breezes, and perhaps one too many beers at an open-air bar. . .

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