In the Tradition of the Classic Guinean Bands

Some of the most glorious music of the twentieth century was recorded in Guinea-Conakry, under the auspices of Sékou Touré's harsh dictatorship (1958 - 84). Guinea was doubtless not a great place to be during this time, due to the repressive political climate. Musically, some great players were frustrated by the nationally mandated musical policy of modernising local folklore (to the exclusion of exploring Jazz or other international developments) - nevertheless the results, recorded and distributed by Syliphone, the state record company, were marvellous. Sterns does a great job of making this superb music available, both as publisher and retailer.

But enough about the past... the band Kaloum Star look set to bring this great music into the twenty-first century. Survivors from the classic period (founded 1969), their album Felenko (1997) is truly worthy of the great Guinean band tradition, and one of the most treasured of my recent musical discoveries.


Cuban charanga flutes, soul/funk arrangements, bluesy ambience, gorgeous saxophone and vocals, typically inventive Mande guitar playing - all add up to a joyous stew just begging to be discovered by lovers of African music everywhere. For dancing or listening, this is a gem.

mp3 Downloads available (with sound samples) from emusic.

Jazz Rock Maloya

Sabouk is an electric band from Reunion Island. Their self-titled album from Discorama Production is groovy, full of jazzy improvisation and creative arrangements, and highly enjoyable. Discorama's catalogue classifies this music as Jazz Rock Maloya (Maloya being the dominant local voice-and-percussion traditional style), and who am I to argue?



The mp3 album is available (with sound samples) from Fnac. The CD is available from Discorama.

(Reunion) Island Charm, Nostalgia and Swing

Claude Vinh San (a.k.a. Bao Vang) is the son of the last Emperor of Annam (Vietnam), Duy Tân, who was exiled to Reunion. As is briefly noted in Vinh San's Wikipedia page, he is an accomplished musician, and a little Reunion label named Takamba have just beautifully reissued his early (1960's) musical output.


"Claude Vinh San et le Jazz Tropical" is a winner of a disc, recommendable to those with an interest in French music (lovely musette and chanson here...), African music (plenty of tasty rhythms), 1960's music, or indeed music with charm and swing to spare.

This is the latest in a series of discs from Takamba devoted to the patrimoine musical of the Indian Ocean. The dics's packaging is fantastic - a small book containing great archival photos (including a comprehensive set of album covers), plus liner notes in English and (in far more detail...) French. I've sometimes been annoyed by Takamba's audio restoration efforts - too much clean-up can rob old recordings of body - but such problems are hardly in evidence here.

Sound samples (and mp3 files for download) are available here. If, like me, you're still hooked on those little shiny discs, buy this from Discorama on Reunion.