Each month, we are focusing on a record label founded by an active digger. This month, Adamantios Kafetzis, the soul behind the much-respected Teranga Beat label which has become over the past few years the best source for undiscovered Senegalese music gems. The Athens- based digger, label and band manager talks about his singular itinerary in the music business and most astonishing discoveries.
 
 
 

When did you start digging records?
I started buying records when I was 10. Proper digging started I would say when I was around 13 years old.

What Lps did you buy at first? Do you still listen to them?
In the beginning I was listening to Heavy Metal, I sold almost all those records later & many others that I bought later as they were not my kind of music anymore.

Do you have a particular style or favorite period?
My favorite period is the ’70s, especially in Africa, it is the golden age. In the 70’s the music in Africa & Senegal in particular acquired an identity & it was this hybrid of African rhythms played with the western sound of the ’60s that was magic. For me this kind of music reached the highest level in quality globally, it is the most complete music ever produced in the history of humanity, not only in Senegal but in Mali, Guinea, Congo, Ethiopia.This is the period I am digging through also, although digging in Africa is very difficult nowadays, there are very few records left & the condition is usually not good. Actually I now really enjoy digging in Greece.

Are you still digging’, buying vinyl, visiting record shops?
Of course, I do not think I will ever stop digging, buying vinyl & visiting record shops. I am a junky, it is an illness. I am trying to stop it sometimes but I never succeed. There are some periods that I do it less but then I start again. You know the feeling : you are walking down town for any reason, you have a bit of money in your pocket, even €10 and you start thinking : ‘should I pass by a record shop?’, I might find a record to buy even at this price and I do not mind if I do not have the money to buy the bus ticket after, I am going to walk home. It was happening every day when I was a kid but it still happens now sometimes.

What was your first release?
My first release was the Idrissa Diop & Cheikh Tidiane Tall – Diamonoye Tiopite, those were re-cordings from the Legendary group Le Sahel from 1969-1976, including 5 unreleased tracks.

Why did you choose this name, Teranga Beat?
My aim was to export Senegalese music & culture the world over, so I wanted the label to have a Senegalese name. I think the Teranga word is something very common in Senegal & reflects the culture of the country.

What could be the editorial/esthetic line?
For me, music is something that is played live. Any music that comes from a studio & cannot be played live is inferior. That is why you have all these Mega Bands in the Western World who produced huge records in studio but cannot really play live. This music was made to make money, propaganda & nothing else.
This is why even on a record I am listening to, I always enjoy it more if it gives me this Live feeling, like Jazz records, I love live recording in a gig or a studio. The way groups were recording the last decades doesn’t say anything to me, I am listening to the sound engineer not the musicians. Music has to be expressive & emotional & the only way to be true to this is to be played Live. African records of ’50s-’80s were recorded this way, This why I like them so much, even if the sound quality is not on top. But in general all the reference recordings in the history of music were recorded live, I believe.

What could be your leitmotif for the label?
To create a nice cultural artifact that will accompany good music. I am very interested in the quality of the production, I want people to be happy and proud to have my releases in their collection. My aim is not just to release music.

Bassirou with tama player

 

Dieuf Dieul de Thies
Na Binta

How do you decide on the choice of reissues ?
Well I am not exactly doing re-issues, I release previously unreleased music. The music I like
mostly is from ’60s-’80s, it is very rare to find something new that I like. But I am interested to find & create albums with new groups; it is just that I haven’t found something that I really like until now.

How did you come across the lost tapes you have been using for your releases? Has it been difficult to clear all the rights ?
I found them in the house of the sound engineer who did all the recordings. Regarding the rights, it was not that difficult because, since they had never been released, most of the rights belonged to the musicians.

Among all the amazing music you have come across on your hunt for lost tapes, what is the most astonishing thing you have heard?
Definitely the Dieuf-Dieul de Thiès, without a doubt.

What is the major difficulty in trying to arrange tours for your bands?
Probably to convince tour agents or venues that it is worthy to spend money for those bands who are not so famous. A group like Dieuf-Dieul has 9 members so the cost for a tour is quite “high”, but on the other hand how many groups around the world can be as impressive & good as them on stage? With the appropriate promotion in my opinion they could be very successful on tour. I think the major difficulty is that venues do not want to take any risk & also they want to make as much profit as they can.

Royal Band de Thies
Hommage à Mbaye Fall

What is the specificity of the Senegalese musical scene compared to other West African countries? What have been the major influences?
First of all I think that, musically, we have to separate Mali, Guinea & Senegal from the rest of the West African countries, as those three share the musical tradition of the Mandingo Empire, so they have something in common. Then, they all have specificities. Senegal’s music is very much influenced by Afro-Cuban music mixed with the traditional rhythms of Sabar, Sawrouba, Boogaraboo & others. The influence of Afro-Cuban music was stronger in Senegal than any other country in Africa, that is probably why Senegal did not have a musical ID until the beginning of the ’70s in its popular music. The blend of Afro-Cuban & Sabar rhythm gave birth to Mbalax which became the more popular music genre & until the beginning of ’80s remained one of the most interesting music ever played on earth in my opinion. Another difference with Mali is that Senegal produced music for the clubs, whilst a big part of the music in Mali was made to be played in the Desert. In general the music from Senegal is complex & difficult, it doesn’t have elements of western music like funk & soul to make it an easy listen, this is why I like it.

There are more and more reissues of old LPs. Do you think that the LP reissue market could ever reach saturation point?
Yes, I think it can happen. The only reason I think it still goes on is because there is no new good music, so people prefer to buy old stuff which is good & the reissues are giving them this opportunity. On the other hand we have many bad quality re-issues which are killing the market with their low prices & labels like mine who produce good quality LPs cannot sell at a price that reflects their real value, so we earn very little money with it, I do not know for how long we will be able to continue like this.

Will you stay into seventies/early eighties Senegalese music in the future or do you plan to dig into other parts of the world ?
No I will not stay only in Senegal, first of all I have already released 2 albums from Gambia, but I am digging in other parts of the world. For example I am already looking for the rights to release something from Ethiopia, I love also Congo’s music but I think there is a lot of stuff that has already come out from there, so I do not know if it is worth releasing more Congolese stuff. Also very soon I will release something from Greece. I am going to focus a lot in the future to release more stuff from Greece. We have a huge discography but a small percentage of it is really good. Another problem in Greece is the rights, all the discography belongs to 3 big labels and they are very difficult to deal with. But I have already found some really killer stuff, sounds that have never ever been heard outside Greece.

What are your next releases ?
Dieuf-Dieul de Thiès ‘Aw Sa Yone Vol.2’.

http://www.terangabeat.com/
 
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