M Bembeya Jazz National

The Syliphone Years

Stern’s, 13.99

Pop and political tyranny don’t generally sit well together.  But in the post-independence euphoria of the 1950s and ‘60s, the cultural policies of Guinean president Sekou Toure triggered a West African pop renaissance that gave rise, to superstars such as Youssou N’Dour and Salif Keita. 

            But the most influential band of that first heroic phase was without a doubt Guinea’s Bembeya Jazz.  On this double album of classic vintage recordings, their melancholy, Islamically-inflected voices – rooted in traditional praise singing – hold forth over cascading electric guitars and throbbing Latin-flavoured rhythms.  The dark, material tone of the blaring horns suggests that the players were plucked from military bands – which of course they were.

            The slight roughness of some of the recordings only enhances the sense of joyous spontaneity, of plugging into nocturnal festivity that takes its time to build and develop.

            Traore’s rule, meanwhile, grew ever more dictatorial.  His policy of endangering cultural pride by making musicians look to indigenous influences bore glorious fruit, but it’s sobering to reflect that some of those responsible for this magnificent music died in prison.

Mark Hudson