|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CD
|
|
STEW 045CD
|
2001 release. Super Mazembe, whose name means "giant earth-movers," was a Congolese band that achieved widespread success outside of the Congo. Its single "Kassongo" (which kicks off this compilation) was a huge hit in Kenya in 1977, and for the next ten years the band produced hit after hit, toured East Africa almost constantly, and filled clubs, theaters, and stadiums wherever it appeared. Mazembe's biggest hit was "Shauri Yako" (written by Nguashi Ntimbo), which gained further popularity in a cover version by Tabu Ley Rochereau and Mbilia Bel. Super Mazembe reciprocated by recording -- and improving on -- Rochereau's "Jiji." Giants of East Africa is a perfect complement to the 2013 Sterns CD Mazembe @ 45RPM (STCD 3063CD).
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
STCD 3063CD
|
In the era of vinyl records, the format of most African pop music was not the album but the single. As Doug Paterson, the compiler of this album, explains: "In Kenya in 1980, the average music fan might not have found it too difficult to come up with 10 shillings for a single, but it would have been much harder to find the 55 shillings necessary for an album." This album, then, is a celebration of singles. It is a selection of tracks from the late 1970s, most of which have never appeared in albums and none on CD before now. It tells the story of one of the most successful East African bands of the time, Orchestra Super Mazembe, a sprawling, prolific, dynamic unit that recorded hit after hit and is still remembered today with pleasure and affection. In 1975, some five years after leaving its origins in Zaire, Super Mazembe (whose name means "giant earth-movers") finally arrived in Nairobi, Kenya. Its early years in Nairobi were lean, but in 1977 the band scored a huge hit with the single "Kassongo," and from that point on its fortunes lay in East Africa. It was an incredibly productive group: by 1984 it had released 42 singles under the Editions Mazembe imprint alone, and it toured relentlessly. Honed to perfection on the road, in the studio the songs were recorded in one session each. The structure of every song had to fit the limits of a 45 rpm single. At around the five-minute mark, there was a repeat or chorus or instrumental; this would be the fade-out of side A and the fade-in for side B, which then usually featured a fabulous guitar breakdown before building up again for the end. Our tracks have been painstakingly mastered and reunified as originally recorded.
|