Fifteen years ago, French schoolchildren studying African geography and history were taught that "Ivory Coast's success story remains an exception in Africa." The country's political stability and economic development certainly made Ivory Coast a model looked up to by its neighbours. And Abidjan, the erstwhile capital, exerted a magnetic pull, offering employment and all sorts of opportunities for those working in many fields including the arts. Singers and musicians from Senegal and the Congo, Mali and Cameroon were some of the first to take advantage of Abidjan's status as a cultural crossroads and began moving there in force in the 1970s.

While Abidjan's role as West Africa's central music hub has been well documented in the past, relatively little research has been done on how Ivory Coast's local music industry benefited from the capital's synergy. Now, however, the compilation Côte d’Ivoire - West African Crossroads sheds new light on this symbiotic relationship.

This expertly-chosen compilation follows the evolution of Ivorian music during this period when local groups were torn between playing French-style 'variété' music or copying the Cuban-Congolese rhythms which were all the rage in neighbouring countries at that time. Local orchestras such as Les Abidjanais struggled to straddle this divide, while other artists such as Amédée Pierre began weaving their own cultural references around fashionable seventies' sounds.

Funk, soul, and occasionally even disco beats worked their way into the Ivorian hits of the day, making their presence felt on François Lougah's Pecoussa or popular Ivorian crooner Bailly Spinto's Ntelesse. The multi-talented guitarist, singer and arranger Jimmy Hyacinthe also played a significant role in modernising traditional folk sounds, as witnessed on Amouin Souba. Interestingly enough, Jimmy Hyacinthe spent most of his early years helping other Ivorians build careers for themselves before going on to form his own group, Bozambo (who produced a number of seminal African albums.)

Listening to Côte d’Ivoire - West African Crossroads one cannot help but marvel at the force of Ivorian artists' collective creativity and their constant capacity for innovation. Ernesto Djédjé's Bliwana and his bass-heavy masterpiece Zouzoupale make for compelling listening and prove that "the King of Ziglibithy" - who died at the tragic age of 36 - deserves an entire compilation devoted to him alone!