The Syliphone Years: Hits and Rare Recordings [Extra tracks]

Bembeya Jazz National | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 14, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Extra tracks
• Label: Stern's Africa
• ASIN: B000TYCX0C
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #228,067 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. République Guinée

2. Sabor de Guajira

3. Armée Guinéenne

4. Guantanamera-seyni

5. Dembaty Galant

6. Air Guinée

7. Guinée Hety Horémoun

8. Montuno de la Sierra

9. Waraba

10. Dagna

See all 15 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Beyla

2. Fatoumata

3. Moussogbe

4. Sou

5. N'Gamokorô

6. Ballake

7. Mussofing

8. Dya Dya

9. Sina Mousso

10. N'Temenna

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

When the West African nation of Guinea achieved independence in 1958, the new government hastened to encourage local art forms. Within a few years, each region had its own orchestra and Bembeya Jazz (named for a river flowing through their South-Western home province) was considered the best of all. Fronted by Aboubacar Demba Camara¹s visceral yet sensitively phrased vocals, the sinuous, glistening guitar of Sékou "Diamond Fingers" Diabaté and a full-blooded brass section, the band became a national institution and the first Guinean ensemble to perform outside Africa. These 26 tracks were originally released as 45 RPM singles and on LPs from the Syliphon label and if the sound quality varies, the music has held up remarkably well. Bembeya's nonpareil synthesis of slow-simmering Latin rhythms with otherworldly Islamic traditions constitutes a priceless legacy that simply must be heard. Fans of 1960s Congolese music and Senegal's Orchestre Baobab will adore them. --Christina Roden

Product Description

"Guinean music was the avant-garde of African music...it was the lighthouse to music in Africa."

The story of Guinean popular music is so closely tied with the story of Bembeya Jazz National that the two are inseparable. These 2 CDs contain songs from the 60s and 70s, and were recorded when the group was at the height of its creative powers. All 27 tracks were originally on the legendary Syliphone label and include their hits plus rare recordings never before released on CD.

This edition (replacing STCD3021-22) has been remastered and redesigned and now includes over two and a half hours of music in a deluxe slipcase that includes a 44 page illustrated booklet packed with details about the band and the wonderful music they made.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Original World Music, March 12, 2005

By 

otserick (Bordentown, New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Syliphone Years (Audio CD)

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. . .

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Syliphone Years, Bembeya Jazz Natl, March 14, 2005

By 

jqr "Know what free advice is worth" (Brooklyn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Syliphone Years (Audio CD)

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'gamokorô," 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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Decent compilation on this group, but not the best, July 14, 2010

By 

Idiosyncrat (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Syliphone Years: Hits and Rare Recordings (Audio CD)

Bembeya Jazz National were the top of the classic Guinean orchestras, on a level of their own, who recorded some of the very best music I've ever heard. The material here certainly merits at least four stars.

The extra star is held back because there exists a Bembeya compilation that I think is better than this one: Hommage a Demba Camara is a compilation album released back in the mid-70's as an homage to the band's lead singer, who suffered an untimely death back in 1973. That album (as I remark in my review of it) concentrates more on the group's prime period (1968-1973), while "The Syliphone Years" aims to cover all of their history from the early 60's to the late 70's. The early and late material can be skipped, in my opinion.

Sadly, this is hard to find in CD format (I got lucky enough to find a CD copy in England), but the album is at least available in MP3 format here in Amazon.