Saturday 23 April 2016

Bembeya Jazz 2002/03 UK recordings

After all the concerts in Holland let's cross the sea and listen to Bembeya Jazz from Guinee in two concerts of their 2002/03 return tour in the UK. Both recorded by the BBC and broadcasted on their Radio 3, I don't have  full concerts, only catched some tracks, some even doubled, from their radio streams, so may be it's not all that has been boadcasted......
(anybody who has more, please don't hesitate to comment/contact).
Bembeya Jazz at Womad 2003 (gettyimages)
About Bembeya Jazz there is a lot of info available, but when I was in Guinee (1993/94), they were considered an "old band" and in Conakry nothing to find from them in the music shops. So when I went into the country side (Mamou, Labe and Faranah) a friend, who stayed in Conakry, asked me to look out there for Bembeya K7s. I only found two copies and, as I was not familiar with Bembeya at that time, gave tiose to him when returned to Conakry. Unfortunately didn't make copies for myself then, and don't remember what I have found then.
Luckily for us Bembeya Jazz made in the early 2000s a great comeback, album and tour, and later early recordings where compiled on a fantastic 2CD called "The Syliphone Years".

BEMBEYA-JAZZ-2002-03_BBC recordings

2002.Nov.17 - London Jazz Festival (bc.2002.Nov.17 BBC R3 Andy Kershaw)
setlist: 1.Bembeya / 2.Gbapie / 3.Guitar Fo
2003.Jul.25 - Womad Festival (bc.same day BBC R3 Womad Special)
setlist: 1.Bembeya / 2.Sou / 3.Guitar Fo 3.Petit Sekou (correction, thanks NGONI!)
sources: for both BBC radio stream

More on the 2002/03 tour in the UK:
More on Bembeya Jazz:
  • fabulous discography by Graeme Counsel (radioafrica)
  • brilliant Yekeke live 1980s in Holland (video)

Profiter de la musique! Toujours MANGER

CRUES!!!

7 comments:

  1. You can see some of those video recordings.
    https://youtu.be/dUeaCKEeDAU
    https://youtu.be/bSzvRAyYMIM
    https://youtu.be/TvbqnNRKxYA

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you very much for this juicy little BBC rarity.

    I do not know if it's only me, but the track "Gbapie" only plays for about 30 seconds here...Great job by Diamond Fingers on the two tracks labelled "Guitar Fo", but I am not so sure they are indeed the same track; I wouldn't question Lucy Durans' knowledge thus if one is misnamed it is probably the one appearing in the 2002 section.

    Finally, another excellent cd compilation of 70s and 80s Bembeya material is the 2-volume released by Syllart in 2012.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. =>doyadig
      1.I think "Guitar Fo" is a sort of guitar jam for Diamond Fingers, and as jams are in the moment, the tracks are not the same, only titled as such.
      2.About your problem with "Gbapie", try downloading again (just did it myself and here it played fine). But if your problem remains, please comment with email info and we'll send you my track directly.

      Delete

    2. => mangue
      Guitar Fo in London Jazz is correct, Guitar Fo in Womad corresponds to "Petit Séckou".

      Delete
    3. Thanks NGONI!
      You're spot on! Never trust those radio DJs!

      Delete
    4. Thanks to you, to correct my typing mistake.

      Delete
  3. yeah thanks it is all fine with Gbapie in fact. Simply a case of dirty disc sorry for the confusion.

    ReplyDelete