the musical selection from “World Africa” #194

Every Friday, The World Africa presents three new musical releases from or inspired by the continent. This week, we’re featuring reissues with Algerian composer Ahmed Malek, South African guitarist Madala Kunene and Congolese student orchestras in Belgium.

“Djalti Theme”, byAhmed Malek (feat. Aïda Guéchoud)

He is nicknamed “the Algerian Ennio Morricone”. Born in 1931 in Bordj Al-Kiffan, east of Algiers, and died in 2008 in the capital, the composer Ahmed Malek is the author of numerous film scores from the 1970s, including the original soundtracks of the three first feature films by director Merzak Allouache (Omar Gatlato in 1976, The Adventures of a Hero in 1978 and The Man Who Looked at the Windows in 1986).

After dedicating a first compilation to him in 2016, the German label Habibi Funk is back with the album Original Film Music (Volume 2), available since June 21 on vinyl, CD and digital. There are thirteen titles, alternately serious or light, which oscillate between jazz, funk, bossa-nova, reggae and Algerian folklore. “I didn’t choose music, music chose me,” said Ahmed Malek.

« Let the Givers », de Really Old

Born in 1951 in Durban, Madala Kunene made his first guitar at the age of 7, using an oil can for the sound box and fish guts for the strings. Spotted by “real” musicians, he began playing alongside luminaries such as guitarist Robert “Doc” Mthalane, saxophonist Winston “Mankunku” Ngozi and singer Busi Mhlongo, before releasing his first album, simply titled Old Right, in 1990.

More than thirty years later, the British label Bella Union offers the first reissue on vinyl, released at the end of May under the name 1990 : The Hidden Years Recording. It features seven tracks, inspired by traditional songs, nursery rhymes and the artist’s dreams, which mix Zulu folklore with township blues in a style called « low-line » by its creator.

“Sounds Sounds”, by the Black Afro Orchestra

In the 1960s, after the independence of many African countries, particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Belgium invited young people from its former colony to continue their studies at its universities. These students would form music groups which, encouraged by producer Nikiforos Cavvadias – himself from the Ngoma label in Léopoldville (now Kinshasa), before moving to Brussels – would bring a breath of Congolese rumba to the “flat country”.

These orchestras have for names Afro Negro, Ebuka Ebuka, Ye Ye National, Ba Bolinga, Los Nickelos… and have been since mid-April the subject of a compilation, The Belgians – In The Time Of Covadia 1964 – 70, available on vinyl, CD and digital from the Belgian label Covadia, founded at the time by “Niki” to record and distribute these groups.