After being out of stock for years finally the debut release of Habibi Funk by Tunisian band Dalton is back in stock including an updated artwork and booklet.
This is the story of the release: Dalton’s “Alech” single was our first release as a label in 2015. In the years before we had started to get into Arabic records and we came across a Moroccan singer called Fadoul and after some time we decided to try to find him to get his blessing to re-release his music. This search eventually took years and in the end we learned that Fadoul had passed many years ago but we managed to find his family and license an album from them. Sometime during this search we came across a copy of Dalton’s single and we immediately fell in love with it. While it was only a 7″ single with 2 songs it was the perfect mix. An upbeat and infectious a-side, paired with a mellow and soulful b-side. While the search to learn about Fadoul took us years, Dalton’s band leader Fawzi Chekili was just one online search away and within minutes we found his profile on social media. We reached out to him presenting the idea of a reissue and he was with it from the get go. Over the years to come we have met him a few times in Tunis and he has told us the story of the band:
Dalton was a band from Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. They came together as a band around 1968 when most of the members studied together at the University of Tunis. Fawzi Chekili studied English literature, though he didn’t graduate as after his first seat he started to focus more on his music. Back in Tunis there was a community of musicians and eventually he met Ridha who studied French literature at the same time and together they decided to form a band, this was the moment Dalton was born. The members changed frequently in the beginning until the key members came together: Fawzi Chekili on guitar, piano and vocals, Ridha Kouhen on bass guitar, Mustapha Rehouma and sax and percussion, Sadok Gharbi on trumpet and vocals and Skander Alim on drums and vocals.
They were active in the local scene, playing music that was heavily influenced by American soul and funk and rock’n’roll. Fawzi Chekili recalls that it was bands like “Chicago”, “Blood, Sweat & Tears”, “Average White Band” and “Billy Cobham” that they listened to at the time and that left a big impression on them.
Eventually they realized that if they wanted to keep on going as a band they needed to make sure they were able to play shows frequently which would guarantee them a certain income. After some shows here in there they eventually got lucky. In the early 70s the band got a regular gig at a beach hotel called Sahara Beach Resort on the coastline of Tunisia. It was a huge compound spread through 3 major buildings. During peak season it allowed 3000 guests to stay there at the same time. They signed a six month contract which eventually kept on getting renewed for a couple of years and during that time they would play every single night of the tourist season. While the hotel gig required the band to play sets leaning towards tourist entertainment, the regular work helped put some money into the band’s accounts. Using those funds the band was able to travel to Rome to record their one and only 7″ single release “Alech” around 1971/1972. While the b-side “Soul Brother” sounds like a Tunisian version of modern soul / AOR with it’s English lyrics and lush arrangements, the title track “Alech” is the one that will get every party started. An infectious 3/4 rhythm, a great horn arrangement and brillantly layered vocals that made us think of Brazillian music or the Georgian groove band Gaya.
The band eventually dismantled in the mid 70s and returned briefly as a new group with new members in the late 1970s under the name Carthago. You can listen to their music on another Habibi Funk release. Fawzi Chekili is still active as a renowned musician in the Tunisian jazz scene and remains active recording and playing concerts both in Tunisia and internationally. Ridha Kouhen, his co-founder in Dalton sadly passed away in a car crash in the 1980s.
