Hi!
    Thanks Oko for the additional info on Ifangbondi. Pa Musa, Coach and 
Karamba, thanks for realising the role Ifang played in the subregion. I hope 
they will be given their rightful place very soon, i.e., while the remaining 
members are still alive. I will dedicate one of these coming days to 
Ifangbondi on Raki Web Radio. I will let you know the day. I hope Dave 
Manneh will be able to tune in as he is an Afromanding fan. Have a good 
night.
                                                                             
                                                                             
                            Buharry.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "pasamba jow" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2006 3:45 PM
Subject: Re: Ifangbondi - History


> Buharry,
>  Thanks for this wonderful info. It is always refreshing to read something 
> inspiring about Gambian heroes, and believe or not  the Pap Tourays and 
> the Badou Jobes are as important to the shaping of Gambia's identity as 
> any politician. Just maybe one day, soon i hope, Gambia will put these 
> great pioneers in their right historical place, as Gambia's social and 
> cultural icons.
>  Pasamba Jow
>
> Momodou Buharry Gassama <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>  Biography:
>
> For more than twenty years the Gambian roots band Ifang Bondi ('be 
> yourself') has had a leading role within West African popular music. It 
> was one of the first groups that decided to return to its African roots by 
> playing traditional Manding music.
>
> To talk about an influential band such as Ifang Bondi, one needs to know 
> how its origins came about. It was the year 1970. The auditorium of Legon 
> University in Accra (Ghana) was filled to capacity. There was an 
> environment of restless expectation awaiting the arrival on stage of the 
> Super Eagles of The Gambia. The devastating performance of highlife, soul, 
> Cuban music, reggae and western pop songs which followed, faultlessly 
> delivered by the men in sharp suits, revealed why this band from The 
> Gambia had become West Africa's number one superstar attraction. West 
> Africa had just completed its first decade of independence and was in the 
> throes of anticolonialist sentiment, pan-Africanism and 'Say it loud, I am 
> Black and Proud'. This was to be the last time most people saw the Super 
> Eagles, leaving only the legacy of their all-time classic album 'Viva 
> Super Eagles'.
>
> Unknown to their thousands of fans, this was not the end of the story, but 
> just the end of the First chapter in one of the longest-running sagas in 
> African musical history. The truth is that the founders of the band, 
> leader Badou Jobe and vocalist Paps Touray had taken a deliberate decision 
> to end Super Eagles at the height of their popularity. Being true 
> revolutionary pan Africanists and musical pioneers, they had become 
> increasingly disturbed by the music they were playing and the image they 
> presented. Despite the greater fame and fortune that was theirs for the 
> taking. They radically gave it all up to go back to square one, back to 
> the roots, to create something African for Africans, to challenge the 
> cultural imperialism of the west which still gripped the continent. They 
> went into the bush to sit at the feet of the jelis - the master drummers 
> and the old maestros of the kora, xalam, and bala - the guardians of a 
> thousand years of culture and tradition.
>
> After two years of exhaustive research and hard practice, Badou Jobe and 
> the few musicians like Paps Touray and Ali Harb, who had felt inspired to 
> join, came back with unique new music, born from their amazingly rich 
> heritage. To their modern electric outfit, including the novelty of an 
> electric organ, they had added traditional drums, which, next to the drum 
> kit's chromium sheen and the fancy sunburst of the guitars, looked like 
> alien objects from another planet. The new repertoire, painstakingly 
> composed according to the rules of the jeli teachers, had meant a struggle 
> with unfamiliar scales and mind-boggling rhythm structures. They proudly 
> coined their music the Afro Manding Sound after the legendary Manding 
> empire, cradle of their West African culture.
>
> By 1973 the group had shed its eagles' feathers to reappear as Ifang Bondi 
> ('Be yourself), a fearsome Manding spirit that puts the newly initiated to 
> the test and seeks out evildoers within society. The band's First public 
> performances were greeted with dismay and disbelief by their devoted fans, 
> who were outraged by the 'bush' sound of mbalax and jambadongo rhythms, 
> although the musicians had been careful to hide the sabar (drums) under 
> the British flag. At that time this type of music was considered to be 
> played only at weddings and family-gatherings and not for big audiences. 
> But bandleader Badou Jobe, veteran of an earlier bade against caste taboos 
> to become a musician in the first place, stuck by his guns through the 
> sticks and stones of this initial period. The only support at this time 
> came from fellow musicians, later to form Toure Kunda and Super Diamono, 
> who appreciated the Afro Manding Sound for the momentum it was bound to 
> give African music. Gradually their
> revolutionary ideas got accepted, and this was the birth of the popular 
> West African modern music that has since catapulted Toure Kunda, Youssou 
> N'dour, Mory Kante, and Baaba Maal onto the world stage.
>
> The role of Ifang Bondi has been pivotal - by rehabilitating the 
> traditional musicians they made people aware of their own heritage, and 
> they offered new dimensions to African artists in search of an authentic 
> sound. To rigorously deprive a devoted public of their pop idols, the 
> ultimate symbol of modern western cultureto induce them to set their own 
> cultural values and to get rid of the inferiority complex, a lingering 
> legacy of colonialism, had not been a venture for the faint-hearted. But 
> in the end the effort proved to be worthwhile. Ifang Bondi have achieved 
> their goal - to create something African for Africans - beyond 
> expectations.
>
> Badou Jobe's innovative ideas, based on a vast musical knowledge, have 
> crystallized into a comprehensive artistic concept that created also the 
> inimitable sound, Ifang Bondi's trademark. Throughout the years, Ifang 
> Bondi has continued to develop its unique music which reflects the 
> enormous variety and richness of authentic styles, be it Wolof, Mandingo, 
> Fula, Jola or other. The band's line-up shows a similar ethnic diversity 
> They put fresh blood into musical traditions, not only by a prolific 
> output of original material but also by organizing festivals in which they 
> invited pop, jazz and reggae musicians from as far as the US and Jamaica 
> to play with traditional performers.
>
> From the beginning Ifang Bondi have acted as a true academy of music from 
> which many great artists have graduated. Outside West Africa Ifang Bondi 
> has always had a solid cult following. The infrequency of record releases, 
> all sought after collector's items, plus the enigmatic personality of its 
> bandleader, who seems quite happy to stay out of the limelight, "I once 
> opened the door to the hell of stardom, had a good look around, and 
> slammed it shut again", has only enhanced the mystique surrounding this 
> group. Badou Jobe received the prestigious Kora All Africa Music Award, 
> also known as the African Grammy Award, in 1989.
>
> The band:
>
> Badou Jobe - bass
> El Hadj Samb - vocals, percussion
> Jali Momodou Suso - kora, vocals
> Juldeh Camara - riti, vocals
> Lin Diaw - guitars
> Bassirou Mbaye - sabar, bugarabu, tama, jembe
> Tafa Ndiaye - keyboards
> Ibou Gueye - drums
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Discography:
>
> Saraba (Disques Griot, 1979)
>
> Mantra (Interstate Records LPH 2366, 1983)
>
> Sanjo (D&K 860017, 1989)
>
> Daraja (MW Records MWCD 3009, 1994)
>
> Gis Gis (MW Records MWCD 3019, 1998)
>
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Booking:
>
> Musik + Aktion. Address: Uta Hofmann, Musik + Aktion, Egilolfstr.77, 91349 
> Egloffstein, Germany. Phone: +49 (0) 9197697970, Fax: +49(0)9197697971. 
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>
> Source: http://worldmusiccentral.org/artists/artist_page.php?id=1021
>
>
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