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Bembeya Jazz National: "Pont l'amitie"
 Graeme Counsel  © Copyright
Two rare and unreleased Bembeya Jazz National songs featuring Demba Camara!

During Guinea’s 1st republic, President Sékou Touré created many state enterprises that oversaw the development of local arts and culture. These included Syliphone (music), Syli-Cinema (film) and Syli-Photo (photography). The "syli" in these names is taken from the local Susoxi word for elephant, as the elephant was the emblem of Guinea’s sole political party of the era, the Parti Démocratique de Guinée (PDG), who led the nation from independence in 1958 until Touré’s death in 1984. The symbolism and use of the “syli” became so enmeshed and pervasive in public life during this era that the nation’s currency was re-named as the Syli, the public smoked Syli cigarettes, which they lit with Syli matches.
  • Syliphone is the most well-known of these state-run cultural entities. One can also still buy old postcards which feature photographs from Syli-Photo. Syli-Cinema, which released dozens of documentaries and films from the early 1960s, is perhaps the least known, as many of its films and documentaries are now lost. Some were destroyed when the Radio Télévision Guinée buildings were bombed in 1985, others were obliterated during the post-Touré era purges, with others lost due to poor archival infrastructures.
  • “Hafia triple champion d'Afrique” is a Syli-Cinema documentary from 1978 which features Guinea’s national football team, Hafia, the “triple champions” of the Africa Cup. Directed by Moussa Diakité Kémoko, the documentary features unique footage of the celebrations of the football team's victories and a soundtrack which contains a snippet of “Pont l’amitie”, an unreleased Bembeya Jazz National song featuring Demba Camara on vocals.

    I have annotated the documentary, below, to include timings and performers:

  • - The “Hafia triple champion d'Afrique,” documentary celebrated Guinea’s third African Cup title and commences with highlights from their 1977 match including a stunning goal for Guinea at 5’49”. President Sékou Touré delivers a speech after the match.
  •      - The match celebrations and music begin at 7'04" when a cavalcade of musicians, dancers, acrobats and motorcycle-police-stuntmen put on a show at the football stadium. The soundtrack to the footage is Diely Fodé Diabaté performing the song “Hafia Football Club – Triple Champion d'Afrique”.
  •      - At 7'15" we see an all-female orchestra in the parade which is likely Les Amazones de Guinée. As Guinea had at least two all-female orchestras, however, it could also be the Orchestre Feminin de Mamou.
         - At 8'53" the post-match soirée commences and we hear Demba Camara and Bembeya Jazz National performing “Pont l’amitie”, unreleased on Syliphone, with Sékou Diabaté on slide guitar. (Links to the full versions of the song are below).
         - At 11'09" we hear Keletigui et ses Tambourinis performing a live version of “Temedi” (a wonderful studio clip of it is here).
         - Unfortunately I can’t recognise the orchestra who appears at 11'13" – is that Kerfala Camara on the right? If it is then the orchestra is Keletigui et ses Tambourinis, especially as “Temedi” is dubbed over the footage, however I am not certain.
         - At 12'43" we hear Kemo(ko) Kouyaté, the rhythm guitarist from Balla et ses Balladins, who later joined Myriam Makeba’s Quintette Guinéenne, and then it’s back to “Temedi” by Keletigui.
         - At 14'14" we again hear Kemo(ko) Kouyaté, and at 14'27" we hear Kouyaté Sory Kandia & l’Ensemble Instrumental de la Voix de la Revolution who perform “Hafia”, which concludes the documentary.

  • “Pont l’amitie” was recorded by Bembeya Jazz National in circa 1971, which is my estimate based upon on “Alalaké” and "Wouloukoro", two other Bembeya Jazz songs that feature Sékou Diabaté’s slide guitar. I archived “Pont l’amitie” for the Endangered Archives Programme as part of three sound archive projects (“Syliphone - an early recording label from Guinea”), and from these I digitised two versions of the song:

     Pont l’amitie (1)
     Pont l'amitie (2)

    Initially I thought the (longer) 2nd version was the best of the two recordings, given Sékou Diabaté’s solo, and the segue is smoother, but the overall mix is better in the first version, especially the brass sections. Its dueling horn sections (saxes & trumpets) towards the end of the song remind me a lot of Franco et le TPOK Jazz’s recordings (e.g. “Liberté), who employed the same technique, and of course it is a style common in Cuban orchestras, who influenced the globe and Africa’s popular music from the west coast to the east.

**Attention**!
If you share the two versions of “Pont l’amitie” by Bembeya Jazz National then ensure that you link to the songs at the British Library Sound archive website via the links provided above. Do not release the songs or upload the songs onto Facebook, YouTube or similar. The British Library is the legal depository of the songs and if you copy them or share them without due acknowledgement and prior agreement with The British Library and with the copyright holders, you will be breaking copyright law. The British Library is the legal depository of the two versions of “Pont l’amitie” by Bembeya Jazz National and its website clearly states that it is prohibited “to transmit or re-circulate any material obtained from the [The British Library] Website to any third party except where expressly permitted on the Website”. See https://www.bl.uk/.../terms.../websites-and-online-services for further information.
 
Hafia triple champion d'Afrique (Syli-Cinema 1978)
At 8'53" Demba Camara and Bembeya Jazz National perform “Pont l’amitie”