![]() ![]() Idy Oldrissa goes solo and gets soulful on ballad “Arindo”, while Ouedraogo Youssef indulges in delightfully rapid and complex organ lines on “He Ya Wannan”. Les Imbattables Léopards tends toward a bigger, more Latin-influenced sound, showcasing flute on “Nene” and saxophone everywhere else. Known as “The People’s Orchestra” for their political activism and led by a former Volta Jazz singer, Echo Del Africa plays a couple of cool, slightly off-key singles, one of which was recorded with a single microphone. These last tracks tend to be rough, with lower production values and a thinner, more amateur sound, but they’re no less interesting in context. On the box set’s final disc, a few other groups get their chance to shine. ![]() The sounds here are more explosive than the more straightforward Volta Jazz tracks, and even when the songs are simpler, as in catchy Afropop duet “Yafamma” with Amadou Balaké and the swaying repetitions of “Sondja Magni”, they have enough forward momentum to take them from swinging background jazz to choice dance floor picks. For instance, “Si Tu Maime” borders on the psychedelic with plugged-in organ and guitar backing up Coulibaly’s passionate lyrics, while “Sie Koumgolo” rides a roller coaster of syncopated percussion into a hypnotic keyboard line with the potential for perpetual motion. Volta Jazz aims to uplift, and in 1970s Upper Volta, it did so at political balls for one of the most crucial pan-African parties in the region, creating music in the same vein as African jazz groups from Mali through the vast Congo, always with a strong sense of nationalism.ĭafra Star’s music pulls away from jazz and makes music with heavier, more intriguing rhythms and a greater emphasis on both traditional balafon and more modern electronic instruments. Volta Jazz has a big band sound, with buoyant hints of brassy highlife and Afro-Cuban influences, especially noticeable here on the fast-moving and danceable “Wêrê Wêrê Magni” and more relaxed “Cherie Nawa”. While both groups benefited from his artistic vision, each one has its own distinct texture and structure. Much of the album follows the career of Upper Voltaic superstar Tidiani Coulibaly the first disc is devoted to Volta Jazz, an orchestra he sometimes led, and the second to his band Dafra Star, founded after a schism in Volta Jazz. It is this sense of identity that Bobo Yéyé demonstrates and personalizes, putting faces and sounds together as it traces a path through the independent nation’s youth with painstakingly chosen sounds and images of 1970s Upper Volta. Parts of the story are familiar ones: the Scramble for Africa, decades of colonization, independence, and then a further struggle for stability and national identity. ![]() Its three discs, coupled with nearly 150 pages of beautiful black-and-white photos from local photographer Sory Sanlé, band profiles, and brief interviews, offer a fascinating history of the first few decades following the liberation of landlocked African nation Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso). Putumayo Presents and the Rough Guide releases offer good starting points, but to provide true insight into a culture requires much more than most compilations can provide.īobo Yéyé is not like most compilations. The concept of “world music” is a dangerous one, rife with traps and pitfalls and often populated by compilation albums that skim the surface of a nation or even an entire continent for easy, digestible musical selections without offering any real depth. ![]()
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