Wind of change
Sweet soul from a forgotten musical corner of Africa.
UNSURPRISINGLY for a country that was, until recently, the largest in Africa, there was no shortage of music in Sudan before the 1980s brought the imposition of a harsh form of sharia, the imprisonment of poets and the proscription of live performance. In the south, Congolese rhumba filled nightclubs; from the north, the Nubian blues was an easy export to the West; and in the middle, in Khartoum, The Scorpions – locally known as Al Agarib, and nothing to do with the German metallers – had a loose, horn-driven groove that fell somewhere between jazz and funk, blending James Brown with Junior Walker. It’s the brass that grabs you straight off with The Scorpions, a sax riff floating above the instrumental Seira Music, with its stopstart backing played on organ, bass and drums. The trick is repeated for Shaikan Music: taking a traditional rhythm, adapting it with a little extra kick and letting the horns do the heavy lifting. If that was the sound of 1970s Sudanese clubland, you immediately want to be there, in killer flares to slay the opposition on the dancefloor. Saif Abu Bakr, the band’s vocalist, finally appears on Saat Alfarah, which also features a full horn section and another of those juddery rhythms. One trick ponies? Not a bit of it. Farrah Galbi Aljadeed goes down a different route entirely, the drummer opting for a discofied motorik groove, a muscular rhythm guitar driving alongside him. Having worked us in slowly, the band are flying now: Kaif Halo is a rollicking, Ethiopiques-style dancer; Bride Of Africa is the full rhumba experience – not OK Jazz standard but evidence enough that The Scorpions could acquit themselves adequately if they had travelled south. Beyond this, however, not a great deal is known about the band outside Sudan. Having played through the 1970s – including frequent residencies in Kuwait – they, along with many others, ran foul of increasingly hardline laws from 1983 onwards. By the end of the decade the band was no more and many musicians decided it was wiser to act as if there had never been any music scene to be part of. Released in Kuwait in 1980, Jazz, Jazz, Jazz, The Scorpions’ sole album, has become a link to the old world and less turbulent times: the Habibi Funk boss only discovered them while watching an original copy fetching $1,000 on eBay. But the story doesn’t stop there. Sudan may still be on few people’s holiday itinerary, but there is a live music scene once more. The Scorpions are currently back together and rehearsing. There may yet be a second act to the band’s story that sees them reaping the reward and recognition these 10 tracks suggest they always deserved.