Edited by Azizi Powell
This post showcases Chadian singer Maitre Gazonga and his band's now classic song "Jaloux Saboteurs".
The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Maitre Gazonga and his band for their musical legacy. Thanks also to those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this sound file on YouTube.
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INFORMATION ABOUT MAITRE GAZONGA
From http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma%C3%AEtre_Gazonga
"Born in 1948 in Chad and died on 1 st April 2006 in N'Djamena , Maitre Gazonga real name Saleh Ahmat Rougalta is undoubtedly the singer Chad best known through his country. It is also in Africa after MC Solaar .
Biography
Barely reaching his twenties, Ahmat Saleh had to discover his taste for music. He entered the group International Chalal which he was a founding member. He recorded his first album Golden Afrique in Abidjan in 1984 . He coasted other singers like Manu Dibango , Tiken Jah Fakoly , etc…
Maitre Gazonga Chalal and his group had found a way to go on tour across the Chad while being properly paid 1 . Gazonga knowing that in rural areas people are often poor, do not have money but still want to have fun, the group gave concerts for several months in all regions of Chad, where villagers could pay with that they had: the sorghum , the rice , the dried fish , the chicken , the beans ... and the concerts took so much success.
And while the group went from village to village, two trucks were making round trips to the capital N'Djamena to sell at the market recovered some of the products, the other being given directly to the families of musicians. The money recovered enough to pay salaries and the profits they could repeat the rest of the year and record new material."
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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SONG
From http://www.muzikifan.com/misc.html">http://www.muzikifan.com/misc.html http://www.muzikifan.com/misc.html
..."GOLDEN AFRIQUE VOL 1 (Network 27.677)
No matter how good your record collection is, you know there is someone with a better one! You think you have the best of a band, but there's always the chance that there are some stellar recordings that you just don't know about. So I've been holding my breath for GOLDEN AFRIQUE. With Günter Gretz behind the programming you know it would not be ordinary. Subtitled "Highlights and Rarities from the Golden Era of African Pop Music 1971-83," this first double disc focusses on Francophone West Africa…
Disc one starts in a pan-African mood with Maitre Gazonga shouting out to all the countries he's visited in "Les Jaloux saboteurs," a great jumping party number, recorded in Ivory Coast by an exile from Chad who comments on all the jealous people with crocodile eyes that envy his success. Today he's still the biggest star in Chad! There's speedy merengue-meets-soukous guitar, echoey sax and a pumping beat."...
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From http://www.kotonteej.com/maitre-gazonga-et-les-jaloux-saboteurs/#.UQg40r_C3EQ
Maitre Gazonga et les Jaloux Saboteurs
C’est un classique, je sais, mais j’aime toujours autant…
Et en recherchant des infos pour ce billet, j’ai (re)découvert que ce titre faisait partie de la bande originale du film Black Mic Mac de Thomas Gillou avec Jacques Villeret et Isaac de Bankole (1986)… Je me souviens que cette BOF m’avait marqué et que je l’ai cherchée, vainement… On y retrouve Papa Wemba, Youssou N’dour, Ray Lema… et donc Maitre Gazonga.
Hamed Gazonga, de son vrai nom Ahamat Salet Rougalta, est un musicien Tchadien, né en 1948 et malheureusement décédé en avril 2006.
Travaillant à N’Djamena, il décide à 21 ans de devenir musicien, rejoint un 1er orchestre, qu’il quitte rapidement pour former l’International Challal. Il tire son inspiration de la musique folklorique des diverses régions du Tchad avec des influences musicales très variées : soukouss, highlife, mbalax voire funk éthiopien…
L’album Les Jaloux Saboteurs a été enregistré à Abidjan vers 1984, avec des musiciens de divers pays africains et tout ce qu’il faut en guitares (entre autres certainement son frère, lui-même décédé récemment) et en cuivres sur les 4 titres qui le composent.
Maitre Gazonga était l’un des musiciens les plus connus du Tchad, et sa popularité allait largement au-delà des limites régionales… R.I.P
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[Google translate from French to English]
"Les Jaloux Saboteurs
Maitre Gazonga and Jealous Saboteurs
This is a classic, I know, but I still love it ...
And searching for information about this post, I (re) discovered it as part of the soundtrack of the film Black Mic Mac Thomas Gillou with Jacques Villeret and Isaac de Bankole (1986) ... I remember that this BOF had marked me and I have sought in vain ... We find Papa Wemba, Youssou N'Dour, Ray Lema ... and therefore Maitre Gazonga.
Gazonga Hamed, whose real name Ahamat Salet Rougalta, Chad is a musician, born in 1948 and sadly passed away in April 2006.
Working in N'Djamena, he decided at age 21 to become a musician, joined a first orchestra, he quickly leaves to form the International Challal. He draws inspiration from folk music from various regions of Chad with very varied musical influences: soukous, highlife, funk mbalax or Ethiopian ...
The album Les Jaloux Saboteurs was recorded around 1984 in Abidjan, with musicians from various African countries and all it takes guitars (including probably his brother, himself died recently) and brass on the 4 titles that compose it.
Maitre Gazonga was one of the most famous musicians of Chad, and its popularity was far beyond regional boundaries ... RIP
Les Jaloux Saboteurs
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Hat tip to KoToNTeeJ who posted this comment and a link to that article on a YouTube comment thread for this song. That sound file is given below:
"Maitre Gazonga - Jaloux Saboteurs
A classic from #Tchad - read the post for more info on the band and how they lived..."
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Also, click https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Maitre-Gazonga/Les-Jaloux-Saboteurs# for the lyrics to this song in French.
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SHOWCASE EXAMPLE: [TCHAD] Feu Maitre Gazonga - Jaloux Saboteurs. (ChiftaKef.Com) jealous Saboteurs
Erdimi .T. Hamdi, Published on May 7, 2008
Une des chansons mondialement connues du defunt MAITRE GAZONGA " jaloux saboteurs"
Rest In Peace . . .
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Google translate from French to English:
A world-known songs of the deceased Maitre Gazonga "jealous saboteurs"
Rest In Peace. . .
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Selected comments from that YouTube sound file's comment thread:
Didier J. MARY, 2013
"#oldafricanmusic the band came from Tchad, but the track's well known everywhere"
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Bart Massaer, 2013
"Is this what they call "Dombolo"?"
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Didier J. MARY, 2013
"This track is 80s music, where Ndombolo appeared in the late 90s, and is of Congolese origins... I'm not sure this kind of music is of any genre/style at all, just musicians jamming in Abidjan in the 80s, as it really was THE capital city for music exchange"...
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Bart Massaer, 2013
"I see... I've been dancing "Ndombolo" often, not knowing what they meant by it..."
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Didier J. MARY, 2013
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ndombolo with a grain of salt...
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Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
For the record, no pun intended, I want to note that it was only as a result of surfing YouYube's pages on Chadian music that I came across Maitre Gazonda's "Jaloux Saboteurs" record. I hadn't heard of him or that record before then. And I don't think that many African Americans have heard of this artist or his records, although commenters indicate that it is a wellknown classic in Africa.
ReplyDeleteI believe that it's a shame that we (African Americans) know so little about past and contemporary African music culture and music cultures from other Black nations worldwide such as French speaking Caribbean,
I think we (African Americans) are partly to blame for this.
When I was a foster care caseworker about ten years ago, I played a mixed tape of African music while driving a young Black birth mother to pick up her boyfriend and take them to a supervised visit with their toddler son. After we picked up her boyfriend, the young woman told her boyfriend that I was playing some "weird music" and I asked her what was weird about it. She said that they were speaking some kind of language she couldn't understand and she didn't like it because "they might be talking about me". I told them that even though they couldn't understand the words, relax and listen to the rhythm and beat , and they might grow to like it.
I'm not saying that most African Americans who are unfamiliar with songs sung in another language don't like it because they think the singers are talking about them. But I do think that African Americans usually have few opportunities to hear songs sung in a language other than English, with the possible exceptions of Caribbean Reggae (in Patois which is non-standard English) and some Dancehall music such as those sung in Spanish.
We African Americans are missing a lot of good music by limiting our song choices to English speaking vocalists.