Saturday, September 1, 2012

L'Afrique Danse No. 4 (1966)

It pleases me to cap my L'Afrique Danse offerings with this superb record featuring "the voice of lightness," Tabu Ley Rochereau. This album collects hits from Orchestre African Fiesta National, Rochereau's branch of African Fiesta after he split up with Docteur Nico in 1965. Sometimes calling themselves Le Peuple, the band included a young Sam Mangwana on vocals.

The album begins with Rochereau's a cappella voice, and in each tasty rumba it is clear both why he is considered among the elite few singers in Congolese music history, and why he emerged and remained a star, decade following decade. I cannot recommend this album highly enough; it is a true classic, exceptionally preserved.
For a comprehensive collection of Rochereau's profound musical contribution, search for Stern's two relatively recent "Voice of Lightness" double CDs.

Note: While some may find pops and cracks a nostalgic bonus in records, I prefer as little separation as possible between the music and myself. Happily, the sound on this record was about as good as it gets, without me having to do anything to restore it. Perhaps someday I'll post my procedure for achieving the best sound I can in digitalization, in case anyone is interested.

4 comments:

dial africa said...

Perfect! Thank you so much for all your "L'Afrique Danse" contributions.

Apurva Bahadur said...

Thank you for sharing this album. Apurva from Pune, India.

Chris Albertyn said...

Thanks again! Always interested to read on your etecetra, and further on improving digitisation .. agree on 24bit - 32 is good too, (if you have space)- I am using M-Audio Delta AP192, processed on Abelton Live 8.0 ... next step one day is to upgrade turntable and cartridge -cheers

David said...

Just loving that last song "Bel Adidjan"! Great - thank you!