Bobo Yéyé : Belle Époque in Upper Volta

Description

The compilation "Bobo Yéyé: Belle Époque in Upper Volta" reveals the musical effervescence of a country undergoing transformation between 1970 and 1979. Last year, Victor Démé, one of the great voices of Burkina Faso, passed away, leaving us with a final album of the folk-blues Mandingue and mixed heritage that he embodied. The artist was part of the long musical tradition of a country we know too little about. The excellent label Numero Group traces a significant part of this cultural history with its compilation "Bobo Yéyé: Belle Époque in Upper Volta." Three CDs and 37 songs to discover the richness of a rapidly expanding music scene. The country was still called Upper Volta, a reminder of a French colonial era despite gaining independence in 1960. It was before Thomas Sankara renamed the country Burkina Faso (Land of Upright Men) in 1984. In the 60s and then the 70s, the cultural revolution saw the emergence of a multitude of groups across the country, such as Volta Jazz, Dafra Star, Echo Del Africa, and Les Imbattables Léopards, blending Western, Cuban, and traditional music, like Volta Jazz and its singer Coulibaly Tidiane on "Wêrê Wêrê Magne." The box set is enriched by the works of photographer Ibrahim Sory Sanlé, who captured all the energy of those years of cultural revolution in the city of Bobo Dioulasso.