The Kora Player Remains Anonymous

Kora harp-lute (Senegal)/Francis Bebey, 14x11 inches, oil, 2021

I was delighted when I found the book African Music: A People's Art by Francis Bebey at a thrift store last year. I cost me a dollar and I've read through most of the book since. Francis Bebey is a Cameroonian author and musician who had been in my top 100 twice about a decade ago so I anticipated an account of African Music from the inside (as opposed to the account of western musicologists.) but I have to say I was a little disappointed by the content of the book. Bebey in his texts, fell into the same traps of western academic chauvinism as he is railing against. An example: While the author dutifully credits western musicologists when credit is due he fails to identify by name many of the musicians he discusses. The images in the book (I don't think they're Bebey's) are not identified. Thus the kora player on the left in the painting is unnamed (the same kora player appears on the cover.) Reading the book did make pull me out the Akwaaba cassette tape that I have and the title song made it into this year's list. The instrument is not a kora but a sanza (similar to the better known Rhodesian mbira.) Bebey is playing a sanza in the portrait on the right. Akwaaba: Music for Sanza is from 1985 and was recorded by John Storm Roberts. Francis Bebey play all instruments himself and sings too. Akwaaba is part of the continued top 100, a list that adds the points of all entries since I started the project in 1983.

Daniel Johnston too played all instruments and sings on his LP 1990 (except that Kramer, who produced the LP, appears on the song Some Things Last a Long Time, which is also the song that appears in the Top 100 2020, his second.) I had just started to make my first lists for the Top 100 2020 when the news broke that Daniel Johnston had died. Daniel Johnston had appeared in many top 100s many many times in the late 1990s and early 2000s but he had not been in the list since 2009. Needless to say Daniel Johnston's passing made quite an impact on me and and as a result I played many of his records.

Daniel Johnston, charcoal, ink, 14x11 inches, 2021