Conjunto Papaupa and a brief glimpse on afro-venezuelan culture

(Music With Soul 7").

Actual growing interest for "tropical" music provides a wide variety of projects and vinyl releases. Muzzicaltrips looked into a afro-venezuelan influenced project (Conjunto Papa Upa, from the Netherlands based label Musicwithsoul), a very good actual DJ friendly sound, loaded with interesting traditional elements. This was opportunity to exchange with the father of this project, Alex Figueira, a real music specialist on the (yet little documented) afro-venezuelan culture.

Lets  start with a synthetic 7 minutes historical introduction to afro-venezuelan culture:

Bola de Nieve - Chivo Que Rompe Tambo (Cuba, 1960)

(Sonotone SLP8).

Ignacio Jacinto Villa Fernandez (1911-1971), received his surname Bola de Nieve (Snowball) by cuban singer Rita Montaner. He's a really atypical singer and pianist in cuban musical scene, active from the 30s, then famous internationally, to the 60s he spent back in Cuba.

Presence Africaine Catalogue (1980)

Here's a particular Muzzicaltrips post for book diggers and african literature lovers... Just to have an idea on what was Presence Africaine catalogue in 1980. This Paris-based editor has been since its creation by Alioune Diop in 1947, a real amplifier for african and diasporic written forms of expression, novels poetry, or essays.

This booklet proposes list of titles, list of 2nd hand books, list of authors, list by theme and list of librairies in Africa where you can find Presence Africaine books. A very interesting document for research and to discover new authors, as many titles have not been reedited.

The book store still exists, and always great books to find.

Discover Ahmadou Kourouma's Suns of Independences here.

Mali Blues - Lieve Joris (1996)

Boubacar Traore played this week in Paris, so it reminded me this book. Leive Joris had opportunity to spend time with Boubacar Traore in the late 90s, which led to this novels book including "Je chanterai pour toi" (I'll sing for you). This enlighten context and life of this malian musician surnamed "Kar Kar".

Ahmadou Kourouma - Les Soleils des Independances (1970)

A special post for this record, taking part of a valuable RFI collection focussed on black literature. Ivorian writer Ahmadou Kourouma (+2003) explains his approach and background, particularly on one of his most famous novel published in 1968: The Suns of Independences, which corresponds to this confused post-colonial period where many changes took place but also many disillusions appeared.

Francis Bebey - Concert pour un Vieux Masque (Black Atlantic music, 1980)

(Philips 70.468)

This is a guitar recital, composed and played by Cameroon's multi-artist Francis Bebey. As always with Bebey, it's poetic, sharp and meaningful... (have a look at the enlightening liner notes in french/english).

Jazz et Vin de Palme - Emmanuel Dongala (1982)

Jazz et Vin de palme (Jazz and Palm wine) is composed by 8 novels from congolese writter Emmanuel Dongala who lived in the US during the 60s.

A Date with Lee Morgan at Both/And Club (Hard bop, 1970)

(Trip Jazz TLP-5037).

A Lee Morgan (1938-1972) live session from 1970 on this uncommon LP. It was recorded just few months after the famous "Live at the Lighthouse" session, with the same musicians.