Cyril Davies, 1963. Question for you guys: Are the black female background singers anglophone or francophone? I think I detect a French African accent, but I could be hearing Nigeria--or Jamaica. They definitely ain't from Chicago or Mississippi:
It's hard to tell. I'm not good enough with accents, but they seem to hit the first part of mojo really oddly, kind of like majo. It's hard because the on the longer 'I got my mojo working' the tambourine guy is singing too. ---------- Nate Facebook
I would guess that it's West Indian, probably Jamaican. Purely because we had a large quantity of immigrants from the West Indies in the late 50's and early 60's enter the UK.
Last Edited by on Apr 06, 2010 12:15 PM
This website http://www.cyrildavies.com/allstars.html mentions Peggy Phango who was South African and appearing in a musical version of King Kong - the backing singers went by the name of the Velvettes (not to be confused with the American Velvelettes)
Thanks for the vid. I cant provide any input on the heritage of the women, but Kingley's ideas seems plausible. Ive never heard this version, and our lead singer asked me, recently, if Id heard "this song about mojo?" (I beamed inside) Im gonna show this one to him. ---------- Kyzer's Travels
More googling has turned up this obituary http://www.mg.co.za/article/1998-08-21-from-tradesmans-daughter-to-stage The King Kong jazz musical was a South African touring production. When the tour finished many of the black cast, including Peggy and the other Velvettes, chose to stay in the UK rather than return to the apartheid system in South Africa.
*Edit* the stuff online is sparse to say the least, but I think by the time of this video Phango had left the Velvettes. I just discovered though that I saw her in the 80s performing with Dudu Pukwana's African-Jazz-funk band 'Zila'.
Last Edited by on Apr 06, 2010 3:06 PM
