Charlie Gillett - Eyuphuro - Duos & Duets

Time for more old Charlie Gillett radio shows now from my treasured pile of cassettes from the 80's and 90's.
The first show in two parts features an African band called something like Eperu or Aparoux? They play a session for the show on Capital Radio dated 7th July 1990. They played the WOMAD festival apparently but having searched the internet I did not find anything that fitted the description. Maybe you'll have better luck! Do let me know if you figure out how to spell their name and what country they came from.

The second is a rare show where Charlie gets to pick some of his favourite duos and duets which mainly come from the 50's and 60's. He was sitting in for DJ David Hepworth on GLR Radio in 1995. Some lovely choices here including The Righteous Brothers, Delmore Brothers, Santo & Johnny to name but a few.

"Eyuphuro (which means "whirlwind" in the Macua language) was formed in 1981 by Omar Issa, Gimo Remane and dynamic female vocalist Zena Bacar, and became one of the most successful bands to emerge from Mozambique.

The group comes from the Ilha de Moçambique, the island in the north of the country that was the historic crucible of African, Arabic and Portuguese influences that forged modern Mozambique. Eyuphuro's music reflects this cultural syncretism, offering up a rich blend of traditional rhythms from the Nampula province, including tufo, namahandga, masepua, djarimane, morro and chakacha. Eyuphuro's songs express the island's traditional way of life, taking the fishermen with their typical canoa sailboats and women with their faces painted with homegrown msiro cosmetic, as their topics and their totems.

In 1989, Eyuphuro embarked on its first European tour, and soon became a hit on the European festival circuit. The group's stunning performances at the WOMAD festival led to the their recording of Mama Mosambiki for the Real World label, becoming the first Mozambican group to record an international release. The record, released in 1990, won critical acclaim and won singer Zena Bacar—a former fisherwoman—high praise as "the golden voice of Mozambique."

But Eyuphuro's story was almost over before it began, when bandleader Gimo Remane married and relocated to Denmark, Zena Bacar's only son, a pilot, died in a plane accident, and Omar Issa left the group for family reasons

Then, in 1998, Zena Bacar reformed the group and began writing new songs with the singer and songwriter Issufo Manuel. The revitalised Eyuphuro successfully toured in Europe during the summer of 2000, supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. In 2001, with the help of Swiss producer Roland Hohberg, the band returned to recording with the release of Yellela. That same year, original founder Omar Issa returned to the band in time to join the international tour in support of Yellela.—Tom Pryor"


Charlie Gillett - Eyuphuro Side One

Charlie Gillett - Eyuphuro Side Two

Charlie Gillett - Duos & Duets