Dur-Dur Band Int., The Berlin Session, Germany, Out Here Records, oh 035 CD / OH 036 vinyl LP (2023)
Founded in Mogadishu (Somalia) in 1984, the original Dur-Dur Band quickly became prominent in the Somali pop music scene with its blend of funk, disco, soul and maybe a bit of reggae (according to Wikipedia, the band was inspired by Michael Jackson, Bob Marley and Santana) and the band’s popularity extended into Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. Boasting nearly 20 members with several vocalists and backing vocalists by 1987, the Dur-Dur Band recorded several albums before having to disband in the early 1990s due to deteriorating political situation in Somalia which forced band members to flee to other countries. At some point in the early 1990s, the band was based in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and made recordings there.
As a tribute to the original Dur-Dur Band, the Dur-Dur Band International was founded in London in 2011. In 2019, the Dur-Dur Band International, then an eight-piece live band, made recordings backing three Somali singers (Xabiib Sharaabi, Cabdinuur Alaale, Faadumina Hilowle) at Butterama Studios in Neukölln in Berlin, and this album is the result of those performances. It’s a very lively, often jaunty work of big-band performances but at times there appear moments of melancholy, nostalgia and longing for happy times that now seem very distant. The intriguing thing about much of the singing and the music is that it seems as much Asian in mood and style as it does African and Afro-Caribbean; this may be a reflection of the eclectic Somali culture, having taken in influences from the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and even Southeast Asia over hundreds of years as befits Somalia’s position in eastern Africa at the centre of trade networks from Europe and Africa to Asia. The singing on tracks like “Wan ka helaa” and “Hasha geel” takes me back to all those Khmer pop recordings of the 1960s and early 1970s I was hearing some 20 years ago, and the reggae-like rhythms (derived from local Somali dhaanto beats which simulate a camel’s walking rhythm) on a number of songs here also recall some early experimentation with reggae those madcap Cambodians were doing way back when before the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975. At the same time, the more virtuoso singing has its parallel in the singing of famous past Ethiopian jazz and soul singers like Tilahun Gessesse and Alemayehu Eshete, and much the same can be said for the music on tracks like “Jija love”.
The songs are not very long and listening to the album right through in one sitting is worthwhile as the music is very rich in its textures and moods. Organ and synthesisers add their own distinct tones and the moods and atmospheres associated with these sounds are heady and redolent of what must have been a very rich and exuberant pop music culture in Somalia back in the 1980s. If there is one track though that pays constant revisits until the groove wears right through the vinyl record is “Duurka”, with the catchiest pop melody and chorus this side of bubblegum pop; combined with emotive singing and soaring vocals from Xabiib Sharaabi, plaintive organ tones and unearthly effects, this song is pure heaven. It encapsulates so much of what “The Berlin Session” is about: bringing together distinct sounds and genres, emotions and virtuoso performances, and a polished standard of recording that captures as much emotion and mood as possible, in a context that could only take place in Somalia or among Somali musicians.
The joy and energy that these musicians felt on being able at long last to play together again after being separated for so long from one another, living in different countries, are very palpable on “The Berlin Session”, and exuberance, along with nostalgic feeling, pain and sadness, is evident in the music. Perhaps those happy times of Somali pop from nearly 40 years ago are not so far away after all.