Bembeya jazz national biography of wales
•
Donal Dineen’s Sunken Treasure: Bembeya National Jazz - ‘Regard sur le passé’
Given that the translation of
regard sur le passé
is ‘look at the past’, it is only right that a review of this masterful record should begin with some historical perspective.
It was made in Conakry in 1968 when Bembeya Jazz were at the peak of their powers. Their very existence was due in large part to Guinea getting independence from France a decade earlier. The country’s first president, Sékou Touré, was a music-lover and was determined to revitalise från guinea culture.
READ MORE
Music was the prime focus with each region being designated an orchestra. Instruments were purchased and eminent musicians dispatched to pass on their knowledge and skills. The desire to make modern sounds while referencing the country’s rich cultural heritage was a state-sponsored affair. From this fertile ground so much magic sprung.
In the small town of Beyla, a group, formed around the prodigiously talented
•
Donal Dineen’s Sunken Treasure - Bembeya Jazz National’s ‘Sous La Direction De Diaouné Hamidou’ (1967)
This wonderful music did not just appear out of thin air. The high standard of the production is no accident and neither is the shimmering quality of the musicianship.
By the time this LP was recorded in the Syliphone studios in Conakry in 1967, Guinea’s artists had spent almost a decade reaping the benefits of an official policy that sought to modernise the arts while still being faithful to the traditional roots.
The music-loving Ahmed Sékou Touré became the country’s first president after independence from France in 1958 and he immediately set about instigating cultural revolution. The policy was called ‘Authenticité’ and music was its prime focus.
Under the policy each region in the country were represented by artistic troupes. Instruments were sent to the regions accompanied by master musicians designated to teach them. Studios were built and engineers and prod
•
Listen to all the music from their recent London Jazz Festival gig.
Listen to a recent World Routes interview with record label, Marabi.
If there's any such thing as a "golden age" in the music of a nation, then the 1960s and 1970s were that time for the West African state of Guinea. Under the forceful unifying leadership of President Sekou Touré, performing artists were subsidised and encouraged to take pride in their local folkloric roots and to compete with each other. The band that eventually came to be called Bembeya Jazz National, after winning first place at one of Touré's biennial arts festivals, first came together in 1961 just a year after his reforms began.
Bembeya Jazz combined the best of their Manding heritage with an Africanized jazz sensibility and a strong affection for Afro-Cuban music to create some of the most sublime big band music ever. With an agreeably off key brass section, sweet and sour harmony vocals and a guitar trio led by the breathtakingly