Shocking news that the producer Hector Zazou has died, at the age of 60.

It was such an exotic name, when first encountered back around 1980, often linked with the name of a singer from the Congo as in Zazou/Bikaye. These were the early days of hybrid experiments, when Western, studio-based musicians collaborated with improvising singers to make music that sounded like nothing we had heard before. Hector Zazou was a made-up name for a man whose French/Spanish parents raised their son in Algeria. He never forgot the impact of hearing singers and rhythms from another culture, and somehow linked up with Marc Hollander and Vincent Kenis, who ran the pioneering Belgian independent label, Crammed Discs. 

Of all Hector’s early albums, the one that struck me most was his project Sahara, which set the poems of Rimbaud to music. The combination of the voices of Algerian singer Khaled and the Israeli, Malka Spigel, is particularly haunting and effective. 

First released on a 12” single, ‘Mama Lenvo’ by Zazou/Bikaye features the Congolese singer Boni Bikaye, and still sounds adventurous all these years later.

Sprigs of Time is the latest in the series of reissues from the EMI archives on  Hones Jon’s. Widely referred to as if it were Damon Albarn’s label, Honest Jon’s is a collaboration between Damon and two men who run the Honest Jon’s record shop in Notting Hill, Mark Ainley  and Alan Scholefield. Mark was the researcher who spent many hours sifting through the dusty and mostly unlabelled 78s, allowing his ears to pick out what intrigued them and sorting out a running order later. There is little obvious rhyme or reason behind the sequencing, but the album has many delights and surprises, .including what has become my favourite track by the legendary Lebanese singer Fairuz, much  less sweet than many of her recordings.

Moussu e Lei Jovents continue their valiant project to revitalise the Occitane music of Southern France, sung in a language unique to the region. The latest album is uneven, but ‘Desamarra’ stands out, melodically and instruemnbtally.

On a recent trip to South Africa, Ben Mandelson brought back two CDs he liked the look of in a Durban record shop. I had not realised that the Mbaqanga style  was still actively being recorded but it is evidently alive and well.

Sticking to the concept of music being recorded by local labels for African listeners, here’s Lily Tembo from Zambia.

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