Catalogue                 Group                                                 A side/B side                                                                  Year

Number

STR 7-2001         Orch Fauvette                          Jacqueline/Siempre Y Su Passa

STR 7-2003         Orch Fauvette                          Vivi/Monte Ardento                                            1971

STR 7-2004         Orch Fauvette                          Camarade Ya Nzela/Mama Nakupenda                 1971

STR 7-2006         Orch Fauvette                          Melinda/Maria Sala Tobana

(A-side credited to Bazianos & Orch

Fauvette; B-side to Freddy Supreme

& Orch Fauvette)

STR 7-2007         Orch Fauvette                          Souvenir Ya Bolingo/Mobembo Nasalaki

STR 7-2008         Orch Fauvette                          Voyage Emonani/Fauvette Akobola

STR 7-2009         Orch Fauvette                          Papy Nakomi Kobanga/Celina

STR 7-2010         Orch Fauvette                          Mposa Nainu Esili Te/Nabungi Nlela

STR 7-2011         Orch Fauvette                          Maria Na Kampala/Flora

STR 7-2012         Orch Fauvette                          Congo Ya M.P.R./Libala Ya Ba Pensee Zomi

STR 7-2013         Orch Fauvette                          Nakei Zanzibar/Tumba Wa Menda

STR 7-2014         Orch Fauvette                          Nalembi Dit Marie/Shalam Malecum

STR 7-2052         Orch Nova Success                    Georgina/Ah Josse

STR 7-2056         Orch Safaris-Nkoi                      Angel Mon Amour/?

A label for Lingala bands recorded and released by AP Chandarana of Kericho in the 1970s. Nova Success also recorded for Uhuru Stars so must have been based in Tanzania at some point.

Thanks to Pieter Remes for the label scan of STR 7-2006, which has left me thinking whether there was a whole Clint Eastwood/Sergio Leone/Man With No Name/Spaghetti Western line of thought behind the label’s name.

The Kenya Gazette, which lists government activities and debates in parliament, also covers registered trademarks, albeit in a haphazard fashion. The Kenya Gazette for 15 May 1998, for instance reveals that Stranger of the 70s was registered as a trademark on 29 October 1975, but it is entirely possible that the label had already released  these records by then. Indeed, the Ebay seller of STR 7-2004 dates the record as being from 1971.

The gazette lists the three principals of AP Chandarana & Sons as being Arvindkumar P Chandarana, Mansukhari P Chandarana and Rasikkumar P Chandarana and notes that all are British citizens

Apart from STR 7-2004 and 7-2006, information on all of the other Orch Fauvette recordings has come from the Mwanamuziki wa Tanzania blog, which in September 2011 published the list pictured left. The site notes that the band’s line-up included both Ndala Kasheba and King Kiki, who went on to become a key player on the Tanzanian music scene and presumably got to know the country while on tour with Orch Fauvette.