Gibraltar Drakus - Hommage A Zanzibae LP
No shortage of colorful characters emerged from Cameroon’s bikutsi scene in the 1980’s and early 90’s. Gibraltar Drakus is one of the most enduring and enigmatic of the artists who helped transform bikutsi into a beautifully endless fabric of triplet rhythms that eventually reached ears around the world.
Following the advent of Cameroon Radio Television in 1987, bikutsi began to supplant makossa and soukous for domination of the local airwaves and the attention of cosmopolitan, thrill-seeking residents of Cameroon’s capital Yaoundé and beyond. Biktusi perfectly fused Beti traditional music and increasingly electronic, highly rhythmic guitar-based bikutsi. Mimicking the sound of village-based xylophone music by rigging a mute to electric guitar strings, bikutsi artists provided a relentlessly energetic dance format for those with a taste for music steeped in their hometown sensibility (countering the popular makossa that many felt sounded less indigenous).
By the early 1990’s, Les Têtes Brûlées were indisputably the most famous and influential artists in bikutsi, due in part to the innovations of their incendiary guitarist Théodore Zanzibar Epeme. The band captured everything that was exciting about the fast-developing bikutsi scene, lending their virtuosity to countless albums behind the major singers of the day and supporting each other on solo outings. Their signature post-modern face paint, outlandish haircuts, ubiquitous backpacks and irreverent vibe (a striking image dreamt up by journalist/impresario/bandleader Jean-Marie Ahanda) coalesced around astounding arrangements and perfect, interlocking musical performances by simply extraordinary technicians. Following their first European tour in 1987, the band blew up internationally but Zanzibar tragically, and mysteriously, passed away on the eve of their return to Europe, which nearly brought an end to the band completely. In hindsight, the consensus among most Cameroonians is Zanzibar’s contributions to biktusi were transformational and immeasurable.
Swept up in all this was Gibraltar Drakus, who was the youngest member of Les Têtes Brûlées and was also the protégé of his biggest fan, Zanzibar. So it was fitting that he dedicate his 1989 debut to their groundbreaking late guitarist who had meant so much to him.
Born Nkodo Owona Bernard, Drakus took on an alter-ego to make a clear distinction between his musical life and his daytime self. Taking on a handful of monikers including Jojo Owona, Les Roi du Bantowbol (the king of bantowbol, a form of bikutsi), Le Grand Imperator and combinations thereof, he has graced Yaoundé stages since the age of 14 as a singer and later as a guitarist—after Zanzibar’s encouragement. Drakus has released six solo albums, four band recordings and appears on countless albums as featured producer or vocalist. He got his start in school orchestras and immersed himself in the cabarets and bars of Yaoundé with a seemingness endless list of crucial characters in the long story of Cameroonian bikutsi. At home his bedside music, as he calls it, was zouk, biguine, Afro-Cuban music and Congolese and Zairean music. However: “I was born into biktusi, it’s a home rhythm and I’ve known it since I was born,” he proudly proclaims.
Gibraltar Drakus literally exploded from his first album Hommage A Zanzibar (1989), which sold over 100,000 copies despite rampant piracy. For the recording, Drakus made sure he engaged prolific producer Mystic Jim to record and mix the album. Drakus’ other band during that period was Les Martiens but due to leadership disagreements they didn’t play on the album. He was advised and encouraged by Mystic Jim to change band personnel for the recording and work with Simba Daniel Evoussa on solo guitar, Pierrot Ahenot on rhythm guitar and Jean-Paul Litché on bass.
The innovation musically rests both within the guitar interplay and the discipline in the orchestration, which result in a mind-bending clockwork of cross-rhythmic harmony. Sublime on several levels the music is remarkably relaxed in its gymnastic execution. He aimed for the sound to exist somewhere between the sensibilities of the famous Les Veterans, Zanzibar and Messi Martin. He had worked a lot of Zanzibar and Messi Martin, both of whom allowed him to fully immerse himself in bikutsi and Beti music. “Zanzibar is the one who taught me how to compose a song, and I learned a lot from Zanzibar musically. We spent whole nights working on methods and other approaches to compose beautiful songs. I owe half of everything I have today to Zanzibar!”
He was quite young at the time of the recording, much younger than most bikutsi artists of the era. He brought a different type of energy, he says, and that was something he relished showing his bandmates in Les Têtes Brûlées and Les Martiens. The former sidelined him from their famous debut European tour (immortalized in the Claire Denis film Man No Run), as he was too young and should finish school, they told him. Despite providing him a place to increase his visibility as a solo artist while he was frustrated with his groups, his association with Inter Diffusion Systems ended in disappointment. The label never paid him royalties from Hommage A Zanzibar and a later album Zobiakkk.
He kept performing and holding the torch for a certain way of playing bikutsi, as the style continued to evolve and younger artists came into the picture. Over the years he has worked with an enormous list of players like Rogers Mballa, Messi Ambroise, Aijo Mamadou, Ottou Marcelin and Zélé le Bombardier, as well as a member of super group Bikutsi System, which included Roger Bekono, Govinal and Saint-Desir Atango. More active than ever, within his association working to support musicians, Drakus lovingly recalls Zanzibar, the musician to whom he owes so much.
"I met Zanzibar around 1984 or 1985 through the bassist of Les Têtes Brûlées at the time, it was "Soul Mangouma" Martin Maah who introduced me to the group long before the arrival of Atebass (the bass player associated with Les Martiens who helped carry the flag for the band in its later years). Soul watched me play a show in college and he told me that my level was quite high, that he was going to take me somewhere where I could express myself better with good musicians. This is how he brought me to Les Têtes Brûlées. From the first evening Liberté bar cabaret in the Mvog Ada neighborhood, Zanzibar put me through a baptism by fire in a way without having rehearsed before and that evening I won 8000 Francs of farotage or cash tips from the audience.”
“I played a repertoire of about twenty songs. Since that day, Zanzi was very impressed by my performance. I believe that Zanzi had become my number one fan that evening. And he suddenly adopted me as a little brother, a son, a protege. He very quickly established a very close bond between Zanzibar and me and through him, I learned a lot and I quickly became a pro at the age of 15!”
“Over the days and weeks, I became Zanzibar's best friend. Sometimes I spent days and nights at his house in Essos, working on the repertoire. We were working on the methods and notions of musical compositions and he gave me some notions of guitar, but I had no desire to become a guitarist. He thought that I had very good predispositions to become a guitarist. He always told me, ‘Big brother’—because he called me that—‘to compose beautiful melodies, you have to play an instrument. This will make things easier for you and allow you to understand them better.’ So I soon became proficient in guitar and worked especially hard after Zanzibar’s death to become a guitarist in addition vocalist.”
“Zanzibar was for me a big brother, a father, a professional guide, in fact my best friend! A very precious friend. Since his death in 1988, I have only had hypocrites and false friends around me. Each time that I have frankly set to work since his death, I always feel his presence around me. Certainly to frame me, protect me and guide me. His qualities that I appreciated the most: simplicity, humility, love of a job well done, application and dedication to work and love of neighbor. As a man he had love and respect for his neighbor.”
Following the advent of Cameroon Radio Television in 1987, bikutsi began to supplant makossa and soukous for domination of the local airwaves and the attention of cosmopolitan, thrill-seeking residents of Cameroon’s capital Yaoundé and beyond. Biktusi perfectly fused Beti traditional music and increasingly electronic, highly rhythmic guitar-based bikutsi. Mimicking the sound of village-based xylophone music by rigging a mute to electric guitar strings, bikutsi artists provided a relentlessly energetic dance format for those with a taste for music steeped in their hometown sensibility (countering the popular makossa that many felt sounded less indigenous).
By the early 1990’s, Les Têtes Brûlées were indisputably the most famous and influential artists in bikutsi, due in part to the innovations of their incendiary guitarist Théodore Zanzibar Epeme. The band captured everything that was exciting about the fast-developing bikutsi scene, lending their virtuosity to countless albums behind the major singers of the day and supporting each other on solo outings. Their signature post-modern face paint, outlandish haircuts, ubiquitous backpacks and irreverent vibe (a striking image dreamt up by journalist/impresario/bandleader Jean-Marie Ahanda) coalesced around astounding arrangements and perfect, interlocking musical performances by simply extraordinary technicians. Following their first European tour in 1987, the band blew up internationally but Zanzibar tragically, and mysteriously, passed away on the eve of their return to Europe, which nearly brought an end to the band completely. In hindsight, the consensus among most Cameroonians is Zanzibar’s contributions to biktusi were transformational and immeasurable.
Swept up in all this was Gibraltar Drakus, who was the youngest member of Les Têtes Brûlées and was also the protégé of his biggest fan, Zanzibar. So it was fitting that he dedicate his 1989 debut to their groundbreaking late guitarist who had meant so much to him.
Born Nkodo Owona Bernard, Drakus took on an alter-ego to make a clear distinction between his musical life and his daytime self. Taking on a handful of monikers including Jojo Owona, Les Roi du Bantowbol (the king of bantowbol, a form of bikutsi), Le Grand Imperator and combinations thereof, he has graced Yaoundé stages since the age of 14 as a singer and later as a guitarist—after Zanzibar’s encouragement. Drakus has released six solo albums, four band recordings and appears on countless albums as featured producer or vocalist. He got his start in school orchestras and immersed himself in the cabarets and bars of Yaoundé with a seemingness endless list of crucial characters in the long story of Cameroonian bikutsi. At home his bedside music, as he calls it, was zouk, biguine, Afro-Cuban music and Congolese and Zairean music. However: “I was born into biktusi, it’s a home rhythm and I’ve known it since I was born,” he proudly proclaims.
Gibraltar Drakus literally exploded from his first album Hommage A Zanzibar (1989), which sold over 100,000 copies despite rampant piracy. For the recording, Drakus made sure he engaged prolific producer Mystic Jim to record and mix the album. Drakus’ other band during that period was Les Martiens but due to leadership disagreements they didn’t play on the album. He was advised and encouraged by Mystic Jim to change band personnel for the recording and work with Simba Daniel Evoussa on solo guitar, Pierrot Ahenot on rhythm guitar and Jean-Paul Litché on bass.
The innovation musically rests both within the guitar interplay and the discipline in the orchestration, which result in a mind-bending clockwork of cross-rhythmic harmony. Sublime on several levels the music is remarkably relaxed in its gymnastic execution. He aimed for the sound to exist somewhere between the sensibilities of the famous Les Veterans, Zanzibar and Messi Martin. He had worked a lot of Zanzibar and Messi Martin, both of whom allowed him to fully immerse himself in bikutsi and Beti music. “Zanzibar is the one who taught me how to compose a song, and I learned a lot from Zanzibar musically. We spent whole nights working on methods and other approaches to compose beautiful songs. I owe half of everything I have today to Zanzibar!”
He was quite young at the time of the recording, much younger than most bikutsi artists of the era. He brought a different type of energy, he says, and that was something he relished showing his bandmates in Les Têtes Brûlées and Les Martiens. The former sidelined him from their famous debut European tour (immortalized in the Claire Denis film Man No Run), as he was too young and should finish school, they told him. Despite providing him a place to increase his visibility as a solo artist while he was frustrated with his groups, his association with Inter Diffusion Systems ended in disappointment. The label never paid him royalties from Hommage A Zanzibar and a later album Zobiakkk.
He kept performing and holding the torch for a certain way of playing bikutsi, as the style continued to evolve and younger artists came into the picture. Over the years he has worked with an enormous list of players like Rogers Mballa, Messi Ambroise, Aijo Mamadou, Ottou Marcelin and Zélé le Bombardier, as well as a member of super group Bikutsi System, which included Roger Bekono, Govinal and Saint-Desir Atango. More active than ever, within his association working to support musicians, Drakus lovingly recalls Zanzibar, the musician to whom he owes so much.
"I met Zanzibar around 1984 or 1985 through the bassist of Les Têtes Brûlées at the time, it was "Soul Mangouma" Martin Maah who introduced me to the group long before the arrival of Atebass (the bass player associated with Les Martiens who helped carry the flag for the band in its later years). Soul watched me play a show in college and he told me that my level was quite high, that he was going to take me somewhere where I could express myself better with good musicians. This is how he brought me to Les Têtes Brûlées. From the first evening Liberté bar cabaret in the Mvog Ada neighborhood, Zanzibar put me through a baptism by fire in a way without having rehearsed before and that evening I won 8000 Francs of farotage or cash tips from the audience.”
“I played a repertoire of about twenty songs. Since that day, Zanzi was very impressed by my performance. I believe that Zanzi had become my number one fan that evening. And he suddenly adopted me as a little brother, a son, a protege. He very quickly established a very close bond between Zanzibar and me and through him, I learned a lot and I quickly became a pro at the age of 15!”
“Over the days and weeks, I became Zanzibar's best friend. Sometimes I spent days and nights at his house in Essos, working on the repertoire. We were working on the methods and notions of musical compositions and he gave me some notions of guitar, but I had no desire to become a guitarist. He thought that I had very good predispositions to become a guitarist. He always told me, ‘Big brother’—because he called me that—‘to compose beautiful melodies, you have to play an instrument. This will make things easier for you and allow you to understand them better.’ So I soon became proficient in guitar and worked especially hard after Zanzibar’s death to become a guitarist in addition vocalist.”
“Zanzibar was for me a big brother, a father, a professional guide, in fact my best friend! A very precious friend. Since his death in 1988, I have only had hypocrites and false friends around me. Each time that I have frankly set to work since his death, I always feel his presence around me. Certainly to frame me, protect me and guide me. His qualities that I appreciated the most: simplicity, humility, love of a job well done, application and dedication to work and love of neighbor. As a man he had love and respect for his neighbor.”