Appearances Can Be Deceptive

It has been a several weeks since the last post, but with this, I hope it has been worth the wait.

The Volta River and its three tributaries, the White, Red and Black Volta, form a region in Burkina Faso in the North and Ghana in the South, where the rivers feed Lake Volta, the largest natural reservoir in the world. The region is not only geographically rich; it contains numerous tribal groups with the Ewe making up a large part of the population mainly in Ghana, but formally Togoland, and the Gurma in Burkina Faso in the North. With bands like Super Volta Jazz and Amadou Balake the music in this region is, unsurprisingly, pretty special.

Featured today is a single from prolific Orchestre Volta Jazz. They have recorded over 30 7 inches for Burkinabé label Disques France-Afrique; a fullish discography can be found on Radio Africa’s great site here. The band was formed around the same time as Super Volta Jazz in the 1960s but did not appear to start releasing until mid to late 70s. This could explain why despite today’s record being released in the late 1970s it is appears musically to be from a decade earlier.

The A side is a Congolese style piece but the B side has a great 60s Garage sound to it. Having a love of Garage this really ticks the boxes for me. The guitar break could have easily been written by The Sonics or The Dirty Wurds.

BOSS!

B.B. Peyrissac

Bi Kaméléou

Record Details:
Orchestre Volta Jazz – B.B. Peyrissac / Bi Kaméléou (197?) – Disques France-Afrique (LGVD 1.089)