Artist Bio:
Eusèbe Jaojoby is a pioneer and a giant of Madagascar's salegy style, lively, guitar-driven 12/8 music originally from the island's northeast coast. As a boy growing up in the northeastern village of Ambohingebe, he sang in both sacred music in the church and Malagasy folk songs at village feasts.
Those folk songs, many of them linked to the traditions of particular local ethnic groups, became a crucial ingredient in the development of salegy. But as in the birth sagas of so many 20th century roots pop styles, pioneering musicians also needed to get an education in foreign music. In 1970, at the age of 15, Jaojoby left Ambohingebe to study in the port city of Diego Suarez (now called Antsiranana). There he discovered music from all over the world -- cha-cha, tango, bolero – and sang American soul and R&B hits for the French soldiers still stationed there.
At the same time, established local bands, such as Orchestre Liberty, had been playing band arrangements using the salegy rhythm since the 1960s, but that these were typically instrumental numbers. In the 1970s, nightclub groups like the one Jaojoby sang with began to sing salegy versions of local folk songs, creating the prototypes of a new musical genre. Most of these bands used electric guitars. Some used accordions. In 1975, Jaojoby joined a group called Players, who traveled widely and incorporated other African and Indian Ocean sounds, such as kwassa-kwassa, sigoma, and sega.
Players recorded some singles during the late '70s, but in 1980, Jaojoby moved to Tana to pursue his studies and begin a career as a journalist with the national radio station. For most of the 1980s, he sang music with his band on the side, but it was more a recreational activity than a career. In 1988, all that changed when Jaojoby scored a national hit with the song, "Samy Mandeha Samy Mitady," ("Each one looks for their own good"). This hit made him a national star.
This song, and the album it came from -- Salegy! — opened doors internationally as well after it was released by Rogue Records in the UK in 1992. Jaojoby played his first Paris shows in 1989. In 1994, Jaojoby joined forces with Indigo Records and began recording in France. Aza Arianao, released in 2001, was a milestone, easily the best of Jaojoby's four albums to that point, and one of the most beguiling electric pop albums any Malagasy act has yet recorded. The compositions, arrangements, pacing, and execution are exquisite throughout, from salegy smokers like "Somaiko Somainao" and "Tokony Atasntsika" to a rousing adaptation of a 4/4 Malgasy folk song, "Somainao," and a sweet remake of Jaojoby's early hit, "Alima," shot through with tasty Congo style guitar and kwela-style pennywhistles from South Africa.
In 2004 Jaojoby released another excellent album, Malagasy on the Marabi label, and toured North America for the first time, brining his signature salegy sound to a whole new audience. – Banning Eyre, Courtesy Afropop Worldwide: www.afropop.org
