Sep 29/05
Happy Birthday, Benn loxo
Yeah, it’s been just over a year since I started this audioblog deal. 160 posts and over 34,000 words, not to mention all the great feedback. I think things have gone pretty well. We average about 1000 unique viewers a day and easily plough through 100gb of transfer per month. I’ve learned a lot, met loads of interesting people, and grown my African music collection exponentially. Thanks to all of you who have read, listened, donated and spread the word. I look forward to another good year.
I’ve been away and/or too busy to write for the last couple weeks, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been collecting some great tracks to post on the site. I wanted to come back with a b-bang, so today we’re going to hear some rocking late 70s Chadian music to get us back on track. It follows nicely after the Ernesto Djedje stuff we listened to recently. ..and I’ve lined up about 10-20 posts for the next couple weeks, so stay tuned.
Though today’s track was recorded in Abidjan, its singer, Maître Gazonga, is actually from Chad. His style incorporates Nigerian/Cameroonian/Chadian quick drum rhythms into that oh-so-sweet late 70s / early 80s Ivoirian pop sound.
Like the song, Abidjan must have been a pretty incredible place to be around 1980. The place was just starting to really boom with the first oil and gas discoveries, plus a maturing cocoa sector. The city was growing almost too quickly, and people from all over the continent were heading that way. Pop-styles were being fused en masse with traditional sounds brought to the city by the thousands of migrants seeking work or fun.
Today’s track comes courtesy of Zim - thanks a lot. Great stuff. You can get it on the 2005 re-release compilation, Golden Afrique Volume 1 on the Network Medien label..
Maître Gazonga - Les Jaloux Saboteurs
Tags: chad, ivory coast
September 29th, 2005 at 8:41 pm
many happy returns! looking forward to another year of fabulous african music!
September 29th, 2005 at 11:13 pm
Hey! That’s great. Thanks for the posts over the last year - here’s to many more.
September 30th, 2005 at 8:01 am
Bravo, felicitations et bonne continuation! Keep up the good work.
September 30th, 2005 at 9:56 am
En espérant qu’il y auras beaucoup plus de bonne musique je souhaite bonne anniversaire à « Ben loxo du taccu ». Merci pour tout ce travail.
September 30th, 2005 at 10:15 am
Benn Loxo forever!
Greetings from Amsterdam.
September 30th, 2005 at 3:03 pm
Happy birthday, Matt, long may you run!
I’m glad you returned
I really enjoy (nearly) every song you sung
Greetings from Hamburg
September 30th, 2005 at 9:05 pm
Congratulations! Here’s to another exciting year of gemlike music on your site!
October 1st, 2005 at 1:29 am
What wonderful music you play - I enjoy it and recall those special days in Africa! Continued good luck with your site!
October 1st, 2005 at 12:31 pm
happy b-day benn loxo d t,
much respect for the ongoing stream of music and context and commentary, this is one of my very favorite rest stops on the pothole-strewn information superhighway.
October 2nd, 2005 at 10:23 am
Un seul mot…
Continue.
Et aussi…
Merci.
Yassine
aka
Dj Alfred Hitchcock magazine
CHOCOMIX
Laboratoire de recherches scientifiques sur la fête
chocomix@laposte.net
http://blog.myspace.com/chocomix
October 2nd, 2005 at 10:12 pm
The Maitre Gazonga track comes from his album of the same name, if you ever come across it, buy immediately, best track (in my opinion) is Koysse.
October 3rd, 2005 at 12:36 am
Congratulations! Big up for Benn-Loxo, for enriching musical taste and global knowledge.
October 4th, 2005 at 2:30 am
happy belated birthday! I love this blog and have learned about lots of great music from it.
October 4th, 2005 at 10:09 am
Happy Birthday ….
even if my gratulations to you and your great work are a little late.
A big hug from the guy in Germany (Hamburg), who is beeing cheered up by the sunny music.
I am looking forward to an other year of “Benn Loxo du taccu”.
Yours Frank
October 5th, 2005 at 9:57 pm
Many happy returns, and many MANY thanks for all the fantastic music which you’ve shared over the last year. I’ve been visiting since, hmm, about December last year, and you’ve yet to serve up a dud track.
October 5th, 2005 at 10:26 pm
Oh, and PS: have you heard the new Thione Seck album “Orientation” yet? ‘Cos I reckon it’s an out-and-out masterpiece, just beating Amadou & Mariam as my favourite African album of 2005 thus far. (Incidentally, Amadou & Mariam were jaw-dropping FANTASTIC when I saw them live last week - they add so much more to their recorded work when they’re on stage.)
October 6th, 2005 at 11:25 pm
Agreed- Amadou and Mariam are great live. I’m over the hype; they’re still great musicians and a lot of fun.
October 7th, 2005 at 10:03 am
niceness
October 9th, 2005 at 12:03 pm
Here a nice story about Maitre Gazonga:
http://africambiance.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=250
February 9th, 2006 at 8:09 am
[...] Holy Crap It’s etnobofin’s First Birthday I’ve just realised that I’ve been doing this for a year now. OK, it didn’t really start out as a music blog, but as etnobofin moved through its 6 month adolescent crisis, this blog’s destiny became clear… here’s to a second year of free parking! Thank you to everyone who continnue to visit and have faith in this little corner of Internetworld. And happy birthday to Benn loxo du taccu, the best blog on African music on the web. [...]
August 10th, 2007 at 8:31 am
[...] enough Chadian musicians, maybe? Ok, fair enough, even though Les Jaloux Saboteurs counts for at least ten amazing songs. [...]