"Living is Hard: West African Music in Britain 1927-1929"
First in a series from Honest Jon's trawl through more than 150,000 78 rpm records stored in the EMI archive in Hayes. Originally exported to Africa, these musical letters home are exotic songs of pragmatism, resignation, warning and defiance.
Honest Jon's
The 23 tracks on Living is Hard are studio sessions recorded in Hayes, Middlesex, rather than out in some distant dusty field. The resulting clarity is pretty wonderful and there are some delightful breezy rhythms from such artists as George Williams Aingo and also by the Kumasi Trio. Their pieces tickle in a way that falls midway between highlife and one of my favorite of all musical styles: early calypso. Listening to mournful tones on other parts of the album, though, got me thinking about the immigrant experience. It is not hard to imagine the, shall we say, mixed response that these black-skinned people faced in their daily lives in Britain of the 1920s. Part of the appeal of this collection is that even today, 'difference' can draw unpredictable reactions. Presumably, kindness can always be found, but the risk of deadly violence, pure disdain, and being treated as a freakish curiosity is not uncommon.
I suspect sitting through this entire record might be a pretty dry experience for most people and I recommend dipping in and out—as a patient reader might explore a book of poetry. There is a sense of weary hardship in these grooves, but it never strays into either wallowing in self pity or succumbing to defeat. The songs have an elemental strength that brings the participants vividly to life, not least James Thomas (and his backing) who bring an intense call and response to "Jon Jo Ko." The West African Instrumental Quintet plays with a lightness and hotness not too many arrondisements from Django Reinhardt and all that gypsy jazz. On his sole track, John Mugat begins as if reading a limerick before he leads us on a percussive dance that (it’s easy to fantasize) might lead to waking with a dreadful hangover, broke and half-naked on the edge of a desert town. Perhaps most powerful of all the pieces is Ben Simmons' splendid vocal performance on his untitled track; a slightly feverish, unhinged, other-worldly excursion into the kind of rambling catharsis that the late Ernie K. Doe perfected during his radio DJ stints.
Honest Jon's will release similar compilations from the vault at Hayes focusing on, amongst others, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Eqypt, the Beligian Congo, and somewhere called Caucasia (the location of which I'm looking forward to learning).
samples:
- John Mugat - Bukay
- George Williams Aingo - Akkuo Nu Banto
- Ben Simmons - untitled
