When he appeared at the Barbican in London last May, the singer,
guitarist and bandleader Geraldo Pino, who has died aged 69, revealed
himself as one of the forgotten fathers of African popular music. He had
a major influence on west Africa's soul, funk and Afrobeat scene in the
1960s and 70s, and made a huge impression on the young Fela Kuti, yet
his music had been largely unheard for the past 30 years.
Born and
raised as Gerald Pine in Freetown, Sierra Leone, he was the son of a
Nigeria-based lawyer and lost his mother and sister at an early age.
Rebelling against his background, he started playing music at a social
club and co-founded the Heartbeats at the start of the 1960s, playing
covers of American hits and Congolese versions of rumba, then sweeping
west Africa. The most famous Congolese musicians were Franco and Dr
Nico, whose names inspired Gerald Pine to turn into the exotic "Geraldo
Pino".
Playing Freetown nightclubs such as the Flamingo, Palm
Beach and Tiwana, the Heartbeats became one of the highest earning bands
in west Africa, and when television was introduced in Sierra Leone in
1962, Pino and the Heartbeats had their own show. In early 1963 they cut
their first records - including Maria Lef For Waka, Heartbeats Merengue
and Zamzie - which were released on his own Pino Records label. Zamzie
is still used by Voice of America as a signature tune.
Africa was
alive with dance music in those optimistic, post-colonial days and the
Heartbeats provided a sophisticated, internationalised sound which began
to challenge the ubiquitous highlife. Pino was also a great manager,
promoter and businessman. Touring Ghana and Nigeria (1965-67), he was
very much the playboy pop star, with a Pontiac convertible, flashy
clothes and, most importantly, hardware unheard of in Africa at that
time: imported amplifiers pumping out the sound of his electronic
instruments and a six-microphone PA system.
Pino had the stage
presence to match, impressing women and men equally. Among his 1960s and
70s hits were Power to the People, Give Me Ganja, Let Them Talk and
Make Me Feel Good.
He impressed Fela Kuti (then still Ransome
Kuti) when he played Lagos, Nigeria. At the time the Nigerian was
playing jazzy highlife while Pino arrived with James Brown's style of
music and formidable equipment. "He had all Nigeria in his pocket," Fela
said in 1982. "Made me fall right on my ass, man."
Pino returned
to Nigeria in 1967, and later that year took up a residency at the
Ringway hotel, Accra, Ghana. The original Heartbeats broke up at the
end of the decade and he recruited Ghanaians for the new Heartbeats 72
from a psychedelic band, the Plastic Jims. In the 70s they played west
African concerts alongside Jimmy Cliff, Rufus Thomas and Manu Dibango.
Pino's records made him famous as far away as Kenya.
In 1969 he
settled in Nigeria and never left, buying a TV station and the Airport
hotel in the city of Port Harcourt. There he introduced up-and-coming
Camerounian musicians and played with Fela Kuti. In 2005 two of his
albums were reissued, bringing his sounds to a new generation. In London
last year, he played again with former Heartbeats drummer and arranger
Francis Fuster, and despite failing health acquitted himself well.
Pino
had cancer and was diabetic. A Port Harcourt paper reported that he was
being treated for "a mere pain on the foot when he finally gave up the
ghost". Pino never married, though he is believed to have fathered
several children.
Geraldo Pino (Gerald Pine), musician, born 10 February 1939; died 10 November 2008.
theguardian.com
