Madagascar music reviews

Salegy is a fast 12/8 dance beat that is very popular in Madagascar, and Eusebe Jaojoby is nicknamed "The King of Salegy". This 1992 album was his first to be released in the U.S. and Europe. It includes a new recording of his biggest hit, 1988's "Samy Mandeha Samy Mitady". Jaojoby is the songwriter and lead singer for the band that bears his name. The Jaojoby band plays electric instruments instead of the traditional Madagascar instruments used by bands like Tarika. The songs usually have choruses that repeat a call-and-response between Jaojoby and his backup singers. "Tsaiky Joby" and "Tsy Zanaka Mpanarivo" are also highlights; the latter includes a couple of on-purpose coughing fits in its arrangement. The sound quality is pretty decent, considering the album was recorded live onto 8-track with no monitors available in Madagascar before being mixed and mastered in the U.K. The album was co-produced by Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull fame, who also wrote the liner notes.

(1=poor 2=mediocre 3=pretty good 4=very good 5=phenomenal)

Salegy is a fast 12/8 dance beat that is very popular in Madagascar, and Eusebe Jaojoby is nicknamed "The King of Salegy". This 1992 album was his first to be released in the U.S. and Europe. It includes a new recording of his biggest hit, 1988's "Samy Mandeha Samy Mitady". Jaojoby is the songwriter and lead singer for the band that bears his name. The Jaojoby band plays electric instruments instead of the traditional Madagascar instruments used by bands like Tarika. The songs usually have choruses that repeat a call-and-response between Jaojoby and his backup singers. "Tsaiky Joby" and "Tsy Zanaka Mpanarivo" are also highlights; the latter includes a couple of on-purpose coughing fits in its arrangement. The sound quality is pretty decent, considering the album was recorded live onto 8-track with no monitors available in Madagascar before being mixed and mastered in the U.K. The album was co-produced by Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull fame, who also wrote the liner notes.

(1=poor 2=mediocre 3=pretty good 4=very good 5=phenomenal)

Finally got a copy of the Salala CD that I have been looking for since early this year. SAFM, the South Africa national radio station that I primarily listened to while I was living in South Africa for 18 months, compiled a couple of CDs called "The African Connection", after a program on the station by the same name, and used the group Salala, from Madagascar, to promote them. I fell in love with the quality of the voices and especially the superb harmony. I was most disappointed to discover that the track I had heard on the radio is the only track on the whole CD that demonstrates their harmony without frequent, and seemingly unending, repetitions, in some cases. I had already learned, before I ever went to SA, that African native music tends to be repetitious. But 1- or 2-bar repetitions that happen 10 times or more in succession is hard to take, to my Western ear. Sometimes the record sounds like it is stuck. Perhaps the album will grow on me with repeated listening.