Baba Scholae for Psych

A band with quite an unusual story, founded by a man with an even more unbelievable (hi)story (and who I will present in a seperate suggestion)... Baba Scholae.  A band that recorded only one album in 1969, which was only released in 2012...I discovered this unknown band thanks to a radio program last Monday where Jean-Yves Labat was invited, telling his incredible experience with dictator Idi Amin on the occasion of a book he is publishing about it (you can listen to the radio show here, if you understand French).

Bio:

Baba Scholae was first formed by Jean-Yves Labat and a couple of friends in 1967 in Paris. Their music garnered some interest and thanks to a friend, producer Tommy Weber, they landed a gig at the famous Marquee club in London, sharing the bill with Traffic. Unfortunately two truck loads of their gear got stolen on the eve of the concert, but with the help of other musicians they could perform before an audience who was mainly there to see and hear Traffic. Broke and demoralized they returned to France and it would have been the end of story was it not for Labat's determination. In 1969, encouraged by Jules Vigh, band member from the start, and with the financial help of Olivier Mosset of Zanzibar Productions, he returned to London and recorded an album under the name of Baba Scholae with the musicians John Arthur Holbrook (former sound enineer of the IBC Studios where the recording took place: guitar, keyboards, vocals), Steve Baylis (drums), Alan Jones (bass), Woody Woodbine (vocals), Jules Vigh (guitar, Mellotron) and Jean-Yves Labat himself on flutes, saxophone, bombard, keyboards and vocals. Bad luck continued which meant that there was no money for the pressing of the disc and after a short tour in 1969 and some musical dissension between the musicians the band ceased to exist the same year. John Holbrook and Jean-Yves Labat moved to Woodstock, where the first became sound engineer at the Bearsville Studios and the second a recording artist for Bearsville Records. The three original recording acetate copies were so "well kept" that they resurfaced only 40 years later during a move of John Holbrook, leading to a restoration and the first release of Babae Scholae's first and only work in 2012, titled "69".

The music of Baba Scholae is both a product of its time as it was ahead of its time in 1969: a psychedelic rock album mixing in elements of Canterbury, Krautrock, electronic experimentation and with its Zappaesque and Beatlesque moments. A lost gem that resurfaced.


Interview J-Y L: https://www.advitam-records.com/artistes/23-babaScholae
Review: https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2013/06/baba-scholae-69-1969-france-uk-superb.html