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

 

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: #88, Francis Bebey

African guitars

S.E. Rogie (unfinished)
46" x 40"
oil on canvas, 2012

The biggest top 100 canvas of the year so far was supposed to have three musicians on it, all guitarists from Africa. S.E. Rogie (1926–1994) from Sierra Leone, Francis Bebey (1929–2001) from Cameroon, and Ilunga Patrice (rec. 1957) from the Congo. They were all on there, in various sizes, and in various places, laid out with white and pink chalk. S.E. Rogie was the only one that earned a permanent spot in the painting. For the second Francis Bebey song/painting I used a small piece of plywood, while I stretched a medium sized canvas for the Patrice painting to be. The S.E. Rogie song in the list is Please Go Easy With Me from the record Twist with the Morning Stars, the song was in the top 100 before some 25 years ago. It was the first Afro-pop record I ever bought. Francis Bebey's second song this year is called La Condition Masculine from a record with the same title. Next week more on Ilunga Patrice. By not putting the three together in one painting, the projected total number of paintings for the Top 100 2011 is back to one hundred (in stead of 98). Only 60 of them are done and I have just under two months to finish the last 40. Here's the the announcement for the Top 100 2011:

March 26–April 12, 2012, Swing Space Gallery, Columbus, Ohio. Reception and countdown: Monday 3/26/2012.

Francis Bebey
5.5" x 5.25"
oil on wood, 2012

Francis Bebey

Francis Bebey
16" x 20"
oil on canvas, 2011

Francis Bebey (1929-2001) was born in Cameroon, he was an Afro-pop superstar, recorded more than 20 albums, yet I had never heard of him before. A post featuring the album Akwaaba on the site Awesome Tapes From Africa that I follow, changed all that and Bebey now will be forever a part of my musical appreciation history cemented in the Top 100. So far two of his songs secured a spot within the hundred this year. The first song to enter is the title track from the aforementioned Akwaaba, the second the title track from his LP  La Condition Masculine, that comes with a bare breasted cute African girl on its cover. More to come about that one later but first things first: Akwaaba was released in 1985 by John Storm Roberts, a Britsh musicologist who I discussed at length earlier this year http://berrystop100.blogspot.com/2011/03/african-pop-part-2.html, on his Original label. The painting above, still wet, features the green backdrop of my own backyard (as if he were playing his acoustic guitar right here in front of me—in a painting anything can happen, I wish it could be true for real, but Bebey is no longer with us and even if he were... my backyard would be a most unlikely place for him to visit.)