Greetings "Koto" Badou Jobe:

My belated condolences to you, on the passing away of your good brother and
childhood friend, Paps Touray. I should have sent you an e-mail message
earlier, but I hardly find/have time to write on the Internet these days,
due to a very tight academic schedule this term.

Anyway, thanks for the instructive piece on Albert Harb. I enjoyed reading
it, and hope you'll write/send more. Send my regards to Irene.

Njok Malick: In the UK, there is indeed a very rich and diversed literature
on "Gambian Studies"; and apart from politics and economics, the literature
on Gambia does cover other important aspects of Gambian life/society,
including our music.

The invaluable contribution(s) to African music of people such as Badou
Jobe, Paps Touray, Albert Harb, Jali Lalo Kebba Drammeh, the late Soundiolou
Cissokho, Amadou Bansang Jobarteh and others might have been
ingnored/undocumented by Gambians in the Gambia, but that is not the case in
the UK. Some of these people's contributions and achievements in African
music are very well documented in Britain.

In fact, next time I am in London, I'll introduce you, God willing, to the
works of the well-respected ethnomusicolist Dr. Lucy Duran, who is one of
the world's leading scholar/authority on African music.

And since you are living in Britain, I would also recommend that you
regularly listen to her radio programme entitled "World Routes" aired on BBC
Radio 3, and also available on the Internet. (Check the BBC Web Page)

Dr Lucy Duran, an American, is a lecturer in African music, Department of
the Languages and Cultures of Africa, at the University of London's "School
of Oriental and African Studies". Her expertise, among other things,
includes the music of the manding culture, the development of popular music
in post-independent Africa and the interconnections between African and
Carribean music.

Lucy, who did live in The Gambia for some time learning HOW to play the
Kora, has written extensively on Gambian music, especially our traditional
music.

She is also an expert on the "Wassalou" sound - the kind of music played by
Oumou Sangare of Mali. In fact, if my memory serves me right, Lucy was among
the first researchers to document the history and evolution of the Wassoulou
sound from Mali.

She has recently edited and contributed a chapter to the book, "Sunjata,
Gambian Versions of the Mande Epic" on penguin classics.

Regards,
Ebrima






>From: Badou Jobe <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Gambian Music History / Albert Harb - Ifang Bondi
>Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2003 19:47:37 +0100
>
>Pa Touray's passing away clearly triggers off an interest in the icons
>of Gambian music.
>Following below the (extended) contents of a private email sent before
>to Momodou Sidibeh, asking about Albert Harb, vocalist/saxophone & flute
>player/ composer of Ifang Bondi.
>I'll be glad to contribute any further details about the history of
>Gambian music.
>
>Badou Jobe/Ifang Bondi
>
>ALBERT HARB (1951 - 1993)
>Albert (aka Ali) Harb was a wonderful singer, saxophone & flute player
>and a gifted composer.
>He was born & grew up in Fatoto, where his father was a trader. As a
>result Ali was fluent in Fula and Mandinka, both the language and the
>traditional music.
>He got his musical training with the Police Band, the hotbed for many
>outstanding musicians, including Super Eagles/Ifang Bondi members Paps
>Touray, Edu Haffner, Pa Njie (bass), Samson Gassama.
>(Commander Nicol of the Police Band used to positively hate SE/IB for
>hijacking his best musicians!)
>
>Albert replaced saxophonist Modou Cham in 1974, when at the end of an
>Ifang Bondi tour in England Cham stayed behind.
>Albert soon became the 2nd front man next to Paps. His superb high tenor
>voice complemented Paps' grave baritone in a combination unmatched in
>African music (as showcased in "Sutukun" on the Saraba album)
>Apart from being an outstanding musician & composer - e.g. "Yolele" and
>"Nyano Faro" -  Albert was also a wonderful person, the eternal
>peacemaker. His exceptional sense of humour & wittiness would make us
>helpless with laughter and made us again and again overcome hard times.
>With his talents, his great personality and his good looks he was
>everyone's darling, both with his colleagues and the audience.
>
>In the early 80s Ifang Bondi got hit by a boycott by the then regime
>after I categorically refused to swap our critical lyrics for songs
>praising the political leaders & their cronies. As a result public
>performance and airplay were denied to us (Ifang Bondi tapes in the
>radio archives still show the banning stickers).
>We had no other option than to go abroad. Albert headed for Ivory Coast
>while the core of Ifang Bondi - Pa Touray, Kunon Jarjutay, Karamo
>Sabally, Mawdo Sy and I myself - went to Europe were we recorded the
>beautiful album Mantra, the title song of which - for obvious reasons
>("Stop the tribalism, nepotism, opportunism") -
>never got airplay in The Gambia.
>
>In 85/86 we came back to The Gambia, and, joined by Albert, tried to
>perform again. Only to find out that the Ifang Bondi music with its
>critical lyrics was still very much unwelcome in our home country. So we
>
>focused on international tours and recorded the album "Sanjo".
>
> >From 89 on Albert came along on all our European tours, forming with
>Paps the most beautiful vocal duo to ever exist in African music.
>When Paps decided to retire in 1990 - tired of the hardship of touring
>and the strenuous demands of working on a new repertoire - Albert
>remained the only front man of Ifang Bondi.
>In 1993 he developed some lung problems and the doctor advised him to
>refrain from singing and playing flute & saxophone for a while. We
>decided to leave him in The Gambia so that he would be in good condition
>
>to come over for the recording sessions planned for the end of the year.
>
>In July, during a big concert in Amsterdam, Samson Gassama -just
>returned from The Gambia -told us Albert had very suddenly died. It was
>the hardest concert I ever had to play in my life: smiling to an
>ecstatic crowd whilst inside I was crying.
>
>Albert's family told us afterwards that he was in good shape, cheerful
>as ever and had died - completely unexpectedly but peacefully - in his
>sleep.
>His sudden death, at only 41 years of age, sent shock waves through the
>international African
>music community but was largely ignored in the Gambia.
>I dedicated the new album "Daraja" to him. I also wrote a tribute to
>Albert, "Kibaru", a re-working of a popular song Ali & I wrote together,
>
>which features as the first song on the following album "Gis Gis".
>
>Then 3 years ago I lost under tragic circumstances another one of my
>lifetime friends, drummer Malan Gassama. In the middle of a live radio
>show we did together on radio FM Malan collapsed and died on the spot of
>
>a heart attack. This was just after Malan told me he wanted to rejoin
>Ifang Bondi and we were very thrilled about the prospect of our renewed
>collaboration. So again the next album - a re-release of the original
>Super Eagles material - sadly featured an obituary...
>
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