23 May 2013

Chad





Ahamat Salet Rougalta (known musically as Maître Hamed Gazonga) was born May 27th, 1948 in N’Djamena (then Fort Lamy), Chad. As a young man he worked as a bookkeeper. When he was 21 he decided to become a musician. Together with several others he created L’Orchestre Saltanat Africa but before long he left them & formed his own band L’International Challal. Hamed drew his inspiration from the folk music of all the regions in Chad.

Maitre Gazonga recorded one of my favorite Afro-musique albums, Les Jaloux Saboteurs. It was recorded in the JBZ studio in Abidjan around 1984. It only contains four songs, but they are all tremendous. All the songs feature the great guitar playing of Nigayo Issa & a fantastic horn section. During the song "Koysse," Hamed says just before the beginning of the sebene (the sebene is a kind of instrumental bridge typically executed on the electric guitar & is a characteristic element of the Congolese rumba) “Les amis, c’est pas le temps de dormir, allez tout le monde debout” (loosely translated as“ Friends, it ain’t the time for sleeping, so get up off of your asses”), then off the band goes again playing a very wild racy rumba.

As you might expect from a country located in the geographical center of Africa, the musical influences run the gamut: from soukous to highlife, mbalax, even Ethiopian funk. Back in 2005 a lot of people were raving about "Les Jaloux Saboteurs," the tune that opened the compilation Golden Afrique Vol. 1.

Ahamat ‘Hamed Gazonga’ Rougalta died on the first of April 2006, of apparent heart failure.

On Les Jaloux Sabateurs, L’International Challal are: Maitre Gazonga – vocals; Nigayo Issa – lead guitar; Mamboué Maurice – rhythm guitar; Kabiné Traoré – trumpet; Beugré Edouard – tenor saxophone; Niamké Louis – bass; & Téoquer Léon – drums, with Rastayou & Saleh – backing vocals.

decryption code in comments

A1 Le Jaloux Saboteurs
A2 Koysse
B1 Fatoumata Kante
B2 Kelina

Get up off yr ass & enjoy,

8 comments:

  1. Jk5V9y_nrTmBCOu2Bc9-T0ui_TBIU9X_oGQL3yGzvSA

    ReplyDelete
  2. I waited a few days for someone else to comment. There is no link in this post.

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    1. Thank you once again.

      You are now the official checker of 'my bad'.
      I try to do a good job on these & check the rips, the tags,
      the links, but sometimes these things just get away from me. You can
      tell how conscientious other visitors are, since you waited several days.
      I really am indebted to you or any other visitor here who takes it upon him or her self to help out. You just seem to be the go-to guy.

      Delete
  3. I waited because I did not want to be the one to always criticize. I appreciate the effort you are making.

    Maybe nobody else noticed the mistake because they are not downloading until you get to another continent. I am eagerly following your African posts but will probably fade away when you do the Middle East and come back again for Asia.

    But since I am the one that seems most interested in these posts, I have a request. It appears that you are posting the countries in the order listed in your sticky posts. I ask that you post Sao Tome & Principe before you move on to Zambia. I am creating personal mixtapes based on the five main regions in Africa, and Sao Tome belongs with the current group of countries because it is off the coast of Equatorial Guinea. I understand that it is possible that you will not find any music from such a tiny group of islands.

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    Replies
    1. I never take comments on mistakes I've made as criticism. It just helps keep things right.

      Another slip up is the order of some countries. I am trying to move easily from one country to the next while accessing them all fluidly. I hadn't re-checked our projected travel path since we worked it out several years ago.

      Obviously Sao Tome & Principe should be next. I have some music from there but don't know if I'm quite ready with it for next. However, thank you again for your help & educated comments. I'll be sorry to see you go when we get to the Middle East, but much of that music may prove too fundamentalist for many. But I must trudge on.

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  4. Once again, this was lifted from my blog, Likembe. I have no problem if you want to pass on music from my blog, but PLEASE give credit where credit is due, and include a link to my blog!

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    Replies
    1. On May 17th I credited many of the blogsphere friends that I got music from to make this journey possible. Your blog is one of the blogs I credited. Now it is directly credited here.

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  5. No problem. Feel free to pass on anything you get from my blog, but please include a link.

    ReplyDelete