tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1821601833754525692024-03-05T12:11:16.151-08:00Hot pianosomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.comBlogger501125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-5071973353301078032014-10-12T15:25:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:44.770-07:00From Poland: Warsaw Afrobeat Orchestra - Wendelu<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibl9GppGBgKBqXSUAy2goPouqtKAJgsYgSGaobsscDALBpSBSNR4sZ0uPqKY65nHjjbimSJvgUGLaYYMovLyOFzMVoguc36-_JupB1hHVfYXDL1TFcxsF9G4PPQPuPL5jpYhpuyPExQNM/s1600/band.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibl9GppGBgKBqXSUAy2goPouqtKAJgsYgSGaobsscDALBpSBSNR4sZ0uPqKY65nHjjbimSJvgUGLaYYMovLyOFzMVoguc36-_JupB1hHVfYXDL1TFcxsF9G4PPQPuPL5jpYhpuyPExQNM/s1600/band.jpg" height="273" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /> It is hard to believe an afrobeat live orchestra playing in the snow of Warsaw. But you have to face the facts - WAO are the first band of this kind in their homeland and perhaps in the whole Eastern Europe. With experienced players known in the Polish ethno scene for bands like Zywiolak or Village Kollektiv, they are pushing the boundaries of Lagos-born style with unusual vocals and mixing with funk, reggae, jazz, dub and traditional European music. The band marked their presence with self-titled EP released in March 2013, quickly noticed for original music, known here before only from the local shows of afrofunk luminaries like Tony Allen and Femi Kuti. WAO promoted it: "This release is like a hot wind blow from Africa. It brings the rhythm and melodies full of joy and activates you. Check it on your way to work or school!" The band encouraged with the reception of the EP started to perform live at the local clubs and outside the town. Original Warsaw`s music brought them to attention of respected Ubiquity Records from California, with over 250 releases ranging from hip-hop to funk to electronic music. "Only Now", WAO`s beautiful red vinyl 12" was released in November 2013 and includes a massive remix from Ubiquitys friendly producer Bosq from Whiskey Barons. Bosq pushed the track even harder into a massive clubby dancefloor killer. The release promotes the band`s upcoming full-length album on Ubiquity, in production now, planned for the release in Autumn 2014. <div itemprop="name"><b> </b></div><div itemprop="name"><b><a href="http://www.warsawafrobeatorchestra.com/english.html">warsawafrobeatorchestra.com</a> </b></div><div itemprop="name"><b> </b></div><div itemprop="name"><b>---</b></div><div itemprop="name"><b> </b></div><div itemprop="name"><b>Warsaw Afrobeat Orchestra - Wendelu </b></div><div itemprop="name"><b> </b></div><b> </b><div class="comment" itemprop="description" style="text-align: justify;"><b> </b>Following up on their well-received single “Only Now” featuring a remix with label mate Bosq, Warsaw Afrobeat Orchestra deliver a knockout debut album full of heavy Afro and island-inspired tunes. <br /><br />The album title Wëndelu means “Wanderer” in the native African Wolof language and is a fitting name for the album which explores the wide-range of sounds from the African diaspora and infused with their own traditional Polish folk, jazz and rock sensibilities. Tracks such as “No Such Thing”,“Let It Flow” and “Usurpation” reflect an obvious Reggae and Dub influence while the uptempo numbers on the album “Close To Far” and “Which Direction” veer towards Afro-Disco and Funk. <br /><br />Formed in 2012, the 10-piece band consists of musicians that have worked and collaborated with each other in different projects ranging from rock, jazz, folk, reggae and funk in the ever-evolving and musically diverse underground music scene in Poland. Inspired by the masters of Afrobeat, world music, as well as African tribal music which is evident in their lyrics and choruses that repeat and weave in and out of deep, hypnotic grooves infusing it with a transcendental quality. </div><div class="comment" itemprop="description" style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div class="comment" itemprop="description" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><a href="http://www.hhv.de/shop/de/artikel/warsaw-afrobeat-orchestra-wendelu-390730">hhv</a></b> </span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtYCoq-x6z1NvlwekcEHNwB_w_BmBc0vjZ0kdlTr7UBJ0jqkejFSwnvYBymWxKMMNfOLONUDNnlBVsXX7i38eyyhdzkZmWZzD-HUaoCV1wLS-EQJ-FiO4_xZl4xssZ8ocREAgdVly0kwU/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtYCoq-x6z1NvlwekcEHNwB_w_BmBc0vjZ0kdlTr7UBJ0jqkejFSwnvYBymWxKMMNfOLONUDNnlBVsXX7i38eyyhdzkZmWZzD-HUaoCV1wLS-EQJ-FiO4_xZl4xssZ8ocREAgdVly0kwU/s1600/cover.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div><br /><b>Tracklist</b><br /><br /><div class="info"><div class="info"> <span class="position">A1</span> <span class="title" itemprop="name">Stop</span> </div><div class="track " itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <div class="info"> <span class="position">A2</span> <span class="title" itemprop="name">Signs</span> </div></div><div class="track new_side " itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <div class="info"> <span class="position">B1</span> <span class="title" itemprop="name">Empty Words</span> </div></div><div class="track " itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <div class="info"> <span class="position">B2</span> <span class="title" itemprop="name">No Such Thing</span> </div></div><div class="track " itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <div class="info"> <span class="position">B3</span> <span class="title" itemprop="name">Only Now</span> </div></div><span class="position"></span></div><div class="info"><span class="position">C1</span> <span class="title" itemprop="name">Usurpation</span> </div><div class="track " itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <div class="info"> <span class="position">C2</span> <span class="title" itemprop="name">Close To Far</span> </div></div><div class="track " itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <div class="info"> <span class="position">C3</span> <span class="title" itemprop="name">Which Direction</span> </div></div><div class="track new_side " itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <div class="info"> <span class="position">D1</span> <span class="title" itemprop="name">Your Way</span> </div></div><div class="track " itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <div class="info"> <span class="position">D2</span> <span class="title" itemprop="name">Let It Flow</span> </div></div><div class="track " itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <div class="info"> <span class="position">D3</span> <span class="title" itemprop="name">Your Way (Remix)</span></div><div class="info"><span class="title" itemprop="name"> </span></div><div class="info"><span class="title" itemprop="name"> </span></div><div class="info"><span class="title" itemprop="name"> </span></div><div class="info"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="title" itemprop="name"><b>Check out <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_xKRs9ZJdY">here</a></b>!!!!</span></span> </div></div>somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-89112359562615534532014-10-09T02:44:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:44.786-07:00The Broadway Quintet – Amalume<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCxRqve-WftEFc4cCkWxAUODRcFhY60ME6dX1kZhgE8SYBtr7B6AaBZEpM_6pNeS1nPRyOL0DJe4gqJeVoK800QulFGE2fuwa6vXG1QfMAL1yyLtD2WeFpSfDw2Ids85ghZAK-mBpVgwU/s1600/broadway-quintet-amalume.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCxRqve-WftEFc4cCkWxAUODRcFhY60ME6dX1kZhgE8SYBtr7B6AaBZEpM_6pNeS1nPRyOL0DJe4gqJeVoK800QulFGE2fuwa6vXG1QfMAL1yyLtD2WeFpSfDw2Ids85ghZAK-mBpVgwU/s1600/broadway-quintet-amalume.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br />Liner Notes:<br /><br />They hail from such old-time groups as the Rhokana Melodies, The Crooners, De Black Evening Follies and The City Quads. It was the UNIP National Band of 1962 that brought the boys together. And they’re still together 14 years later! Tony Maonde, Zacks Gwaze, Timothy Sikova, Jonah Marumahoko, Simanga Tutani – individually, musicians of rare talent; together, The Broadway Quintet, polished night-club performers of Lusaka’s Hotel Intercontinental. But, beneath their public image there runs, like the mighty Zambezi, a creative force that explodes with originality and electrifying beauty. From vocal compositions like “Mr. Music” and “Change Your Mind” through the more traditional “Jiye Manguwe” and title-track “<a href="https://soundcloud.com/rescued-from-the-fire/01-amalume" target="_blank">Amalume</a>,” The Broadway Quintet move into instrumentals of the brilliance and vitality of “Matteo” and “Nifyo Fine.” To The Broadway Quintet we say, “Thanks for a fantastic LP.”<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>Tracklist</b> <br /><br />A1. Amalume<br />A2. Kanyange<br />A3. Nifyo Fine<br />A4. Chingoma<br />A5. Change Your Mind<br /><br />B1. Akana Ndiwo<br />B2. Jiye Manguwe<br />B3. Matteo<br />B4. Kayuni<br />B5. Mr. Music<br />B6. Pimu Chinanga somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-73561830368127246582014-10-07T13:48:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:44.798-07:00More zamrock ... THE WITCH interview ...<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjheiGNrPZooBdi_etRVMW3S341kruGvO2oeiJJ6KXT8odT30KcGI6unUbxug7S7sN8jhf0uAE4E44RoZXNwPuT_ng1vIl_auPa_vXMM3DSLhc6zmxIFj1PCUl3jrOo3ivbCoxrClGB1hU/s1600/WITCH_Times+of+Zambia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjheiGNrPZooBdi_etRVMW3S341kruGvO2oeiJJ6KXT8odT30KcGI6unUbxug7S7sN8jhf0uAE4E44RoZXNwPuT_ng1vIl_auPa_vXMM3DSLhc6zmxIFj1PCUl3jrOo3ivbCoxrClGB1hU/s1600/WITCH_Times+of+Zambia.jpg" height="206" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US">By the mid 1970s, the Southern African nation known as the Republic of Zambia had fallen on hard times. The new Federation found itself under party rule. Zambia’s then-president engaged what was then Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in a political fencing match that damaged his country’s ability to trade with its main partner. The Portuguese colonies of Angola to the West and Mozambique to the East were fighting their own battles for independence; conflict loomed on all sides of this landlocked nation.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US">This is the environment in which the catchy – if misleadingly – titled “Zam Rock” scene that flourished in 1970s Zambian cities such as Lusaka and Chingola emerged. Though full of beacons of hope for its numerous musical hopeful it was a tumultuous time and it’s no wonder that the Zambian musicians taken by European and English influences gravitated to the hard, dark side of the rock and funk spectrum. From the little of the Zambian 70s rock and funk music that has been spread via small blogs and bootlegs – the likes of Chrissy Zebby, Paul Ngozi and the Ngozi Family, and the devastating Peace – we learn that fuzz guitars were commonplace, driving rhythms as influenced by James Brown’s funk as Jimi Hendrix’s rock predominated, and the bands largely sang in the country’s national language, English. (<a href="http://www.nowagainrecords.com/">http://www.nowagainrecords.com</a>)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Interview:</b><br /></span><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><i>It's a truly great pleasure to talk with you Emmanuel "Jagari" Chanda. I'd mostly like to talk about two things. Firstly about scene itself and then about your band in particular. Let's start at the beginning. What do you think was the moment when you began listening to rock music. It was hard and almost impossible for you to buy records, so the only way was probably via radio stations?</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US">I started listening to pop music first on the radio in the early ‘60s as a young boy-it was the DJ’s choice-e.g. "Top Of The Pops", "Beat In Germany" and Mozambiques forerunner to "Maputo Lorenzo Marica Hits Parade". My late elder brother George, who brought me up, had a radio and a record player, but his taste was Jim Reeves’ type of music, mine was more of Cliff Richard, Beatles, Hollies, Monkeys, Manfred Mann, Troggs, Rolling Stones, Dave Clark Five, Elvis Presley, and the like. The rock influence came slightly later, after I listened to Deep Purple, Grand Funk Railroad, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Free, Alice Cooper, Santana, Black Sabbath, etc. This time I had access to records through friends and schoolmates as Teal Records Company and Zambia Music Parlor came into the scene.</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i>'WITCH' was the first band that released an LP. But were artists such as Paul Ngozi or Rikki Ililonga, already established as musicians? They didn't record yet anything at the time, right?</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Paul Ngozi, whose real name is Paul Nyirongo, was first in 'The Scorpions' and 'The 3 Years Before', before he formed the 'Ngozi Family'. He changed his name to Paul Ngozi when he went solo. The same is true for Rikki Ililonga who had been in many bands, including 'Mosi-o-Tunya' before he went solo. Both were established/experienced musicians playing live gigs in various clubs and places. Rikki and Paul settled in Lusaka while the 'WITCH' were in Kitwe (about 340 kilometers apart). But recordings by various bands and solo artists only came after 'WITCH', and when Teal Records and Zambia Music Parlor started signing on musicians from the mid-1970s onward.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i>What did the very early beginnings of the scene look like? I'm thinking prior to 'WITCH'. Was there actually anything connected with rock music? Anything not recorded at the time but played in concerts?</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Yes, there were unrecorded bands, both along the Copperbelt (copper mining towns near one another, about 40-50 kilometers apart) and Lusaka (the capital city of Zambia). From the Copperbelt we had at least a band or two in each town. Kitwe had 'The Black Souls', 'Red Balloons', 'The Boy Friends' (later 'The Peace'), 'Peanuts', 'Fire Balls' etc. Ndola had 'The Yatagana', 'Armanaz', 'Black Foot', '5 Revolutions', 'Upshoots', etc. In Luanshya there were 'The Twikels' and 'Black Jesus', while in Mufulira there was 'The Gas Company' (later On Paper). 'The Oscillations' were in Bancroft (later to become 'Chililabombwe'). I cannot remember any bands in Chingola, another of the Copperbelt towns. There were also many bands in Lusaka, such as 'Rev 5', 'Salty Dog', 'MIGS', 'Lusaka Beatles' (later 'The Earth Quakes'), 'Mkusi', 'Cross Town Traffic', 'Born Free' (later 'Cross Bones'), 'He/She Mambo', 'Explosives', etc.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i>What year did 'WITCH' form? How did you meet the guys and what were their names? I know you'd begun being musicians at early ages in school, where you were all classmates. Those bands never recorded anything, but I would like you to tell us the musicians names and how you came to form 'The WITCH'.</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i><br /></i></span></div><span lang="EN-US">'The WITCH' was formed in 1971-1972. It was first called 'The Kingstone Market' but after some members left the band Chris Mbewe, Wingo, and George Kunda (known as Groovy Joe) and I remained in Kitwe to become 'The WITCH'. I was recruited by Groovy Joe after he saw me jam with 'The Red Balloons', 'The Boy Friends' and at some school performances (I was at Chaboli Secondary/High School). I was in the same class as two members of The Black Souls (Jeff Mushinge and Leonard "Lee" Bwalya. Later on Groovy Joe and Wingo left 'The WITCH'. They were replaced by Boyd Sinkala ('Black Souls'), John "Music" Muwia and Gideon Mwamulenga ('Boy Friends'). So the new lineup was: Chris Mbewe (lead guitar), John Muma (and guitar and vocals), Gideon Mwamulenga (bass), Boyd Sinkala (drums) and myself (vocals and percussion). This is the lineup that recorded the album "Introduction". We later added Paul "Jones" Mumba on organ.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i>'WITCH' is an acronym for "We Intend to Cause Havoc". How did you come up with such a name?</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">'The WITCH' was coined by the late 'Wingo'. It was picked from a sound effect (wah wah) "footswitch". He removed "foot" and suggested "Switch". Then we removed the "S" leaving 'WITCH', like a witch on a broom stick, but later a graphic artist (our friend in Kitwe) coined the acronym "We Intend To Cause Havoc".</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i>You formed in second largest city of Zambia called Kitwe. Was the Zam Rock scene only in this city or was it across the whole country?</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The Zamrock scene was a common feature along the whole line of rail in Zambia (the urban towns) from the border town Chiliabombwe (near Congo D.R.C.) through the Copperbelt, from Kabwe and Lusaka to Livingstone (the last town before Zimbabwe). There were similar performances at clubs, festivals, agricultural and commercial shows, trade fairs etc. in these cities, probably because the sources of music and the influences were similar. The rural areas were not so much influenced by Zamrock or pop music and instead played mostly ethnic traditional music on various occasions and ceremonies. Part of this rural music is the Kalindula genre.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><span lang="EN-US"><i>In 1972 you released your first LP called "Introduction", which is probably the first Zam Rock LP. Previously there were only 'Musi-O-Tunyas' singles. This album is one of the first indicators of how pure and catchy Zambian garage rock can be. This was private release of 300 copies if I recall correctly and you went to Nairobi to record it. Would you like to share with us some of your memories from recording this LP? I would also like to know what kind of gear you guys used. Also, what can you tell me about the cover artwork?</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><i><span lang="EN-US">"Introduction" and "In The Past" were recorded at Malachite Studio in Chingola (Copperbelt); "Lazy Bones” was recorded at DB Studio in Lusaka; but "Lukombo Vibes" and 'WITCH' (including Janet)" were recorded at Sapra Studio in Nairobi, Kenya. The music qualities and studio professionalism graduated to better as we progressed in the recordings. 'Sapra' was the best of all the studios we had used. Mr. Debef, the sound engineer was the most experimental of them all. The local recordings were just like a stage live performance, done in mono, and if one made a mistake we had to start all over again as a band. The common gear was bell bottom trousers; high heeled shoes and afro hair do (Black American/Jimi Hendrix style of those days). The album artwork of "Introduction" depicted a new thing coming down from Heaven. The "Lukombo Vibes" artwork was my concept. Lukombo is a drinking cup/gourd in my language. For the back cover I was thinking of a lonely banished/outcast traditional composer (not in the picture) as he saw his dwelling place deserted. "Lazy Bones" was for the ladies and girls who believe men should fend for them all the way, waiting for spoon feeding.</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><i><span lang="EN-US"> </span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Brand of gear – we used different types<br />- Fender, Yamaha, Marshall for amplifiers<br />- P.A. system: Dynacord and Yamaha</span></div><span lang="EN-US"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">- Guitars: Gibson (Les Paul), Fender (Stratocaster), </span></div><span lang="EN-US"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">- Mics: variety, including »Shure«</span></div><span lang="EN-US"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Chris Ideally preferred Fender, but we had only a few choices depending on what "Piano House" stocked at the time.</span></div><span lang="EN-US"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal">Trick of the Trade:</div><span lang="EN-US"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">When we started managing our selves/own affairs (apart from contractual recording obligation).</span></div><span lang="EN-US"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">- We devised a work schedule for rehearsal; from 09:00hrs to 13:00hrs (Monday to Thursday) – own compositions: 14:00hrs to 17:00hrs copyrights (usually western pop/rock music).</span></div><span lang="EN-US"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">- No girlfriends were allowed in the rehearsal room (so that everyone was free to agree or disagree with bands' direction of rehearsal).</span></div><span lang="EN-US"></span><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><span lang="EN-US"><div class="MsoNormal">- We kept some money in the band, and only got $200 out of pocket allowances each per week (reason being: all royalties went to redeem the musical equipment on live shows in come).</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">- Later on, we rotated band leadership every six months in order to share responsibilities and develop the scene of ownership and belonging (even though in the practical sense the rotation was only amongs, Gideon, Chris and myself).</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">- Driving of our van to transport the equipment was restricted to Chris, because he was the most sober of the lot. Boyd drove too, only when Chris either unwell or too tired.</div></span><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i>The LP was selling at shows. How did people react when they heard a local band on vinyl?</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">People were quite excited and we would have sold a lot more if it had not been that one member (usually myself) had to go and have master stamps and records done in Kenya for limited copies before Teal Record Company came on the scene to start printing records.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i>Two years later you released another LP called "In the Past" which was again privately released but was reissued the same year by the legendary label, 'ZMP' (Zambia Music Parlour LTD). It was founded by Edward Khuzwayo and was located in Ndola. How did he get in contact with you? In fact would you tell us what you know about the beginning of this label, which released most of the Zam Rock stuff. Who was Edward?</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Zambia Music Parlour, owned by Edward Khzwayo started as one of the first distributors of records which were printed/pressed by Teal Records, also in Nidola. In addition to that he managed 3 bands: 'The Twinkies', '5 Revolutions' and 'Black Foot'. He lived in the neighboring town of Luanshya but operated most of his businesses in Ndola. I am told that he had worked for Zambia Railways before he left to set up his own company. He was originally from either Bulawayo or Prum Tree in Zimbabwe. His right hand man, David Billy Nyat, help him run the bands, including supervising their recordings. Sometimes he also sang with 'Black Foot'. When 'WITCH' parted company with their manager, Mr. Phillip Musonda, due to some contractual differences, I approached both Teal Records and Zambia Music Parlour for possible management of the band and sale of our master tapes ("Introduction" and "In The Past"). Mr. Musonda took his musical equipment from the band despite the fact that we had contributed to its purchase. So we demanded our master tapes back. He paid for our music being recorded but we composed the music. Finally we resolved to go our separate ways amicably. We sold the master tapes to Mr. Khuzwayo and signed a 4 year recording contract with Teal Records. Mr. Musonda took one third of the proceeds and we called it a day. I personally got along fairly well with Mr. Khuzwayo.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span lang="EN-US"><i>Back in 1972 ZMP released Blackfoot's "Minnie" album, another great example of Zamrock. There is another band you might help me to get more information about. It's called 'The Peace'. I know they were from Andola and they released album called "Black Power", but I don't know when it was released and I don't know anything about them. Can you tell our readers who they were, because the album is a great example of fuzzy psychedelic rock.</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">'The Peace' was formed after its forerunner, 'Boy Friends', broke up. John Mums and Gideon were part of 'Boy Friends' before they came to join 'WITCH'. The manager/leader was Ted Makombe. His parents came from Zimbabwe. The band was based in Kitwe rather than Ndora. Ted has since passed on, but I am in touch with his brother and sister. His children are still around too. Ted was a personal friend of mine. I cannot remember which year the "Black Power" album was actually released.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><span lang="EN-US"><i>Let's move forward through your discography. Probably your most well known LP is called "Lazy Bones!!" It was released in 1975 on Teal Records from Bulawayo, Matabeleland, North Zimbabwe. Before the LP came out you also released a couple of singles and one of them sold out around 7000 copies, which is absolutely amazing. How many copies do you think the LP sold? Where did you record it and what are some of your strongest memories from producing and recording this amazing LP?</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Teal Records Company came from South Africa, not Zimbabwe. I believe its sister company is Gallo Records. The "Lazy Bones" LP actually sold over 7,000 copies. I am not sure of the singles sales. "Lazy Bones" was The WITCH’s first album under the Teal Records contract and the first taste of a more serious studio. Ms. Niki and Mrs. Skinner managed the studio and Peter Musungilo was their sound engineer.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i>You released two more albums, can you tell me their names? The production and songwriting improved with each album. I know there was a moment when you could afford to buy a new gear. What did you buy?</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i><br /></i></span></div><span lang="EN-US">"Lukomo Vibes" and "WITCH (Including Hit Single Janet)" were our 4th and 5th albums. Yes, indeed the music, arrangements and lyrics were progressive. Another guy, Shadreck Bwalya joined hands with me (we both finished our high school while the rest of the band members did not) so it was easier for the two of us to write English lyrics. He got paid for songwriting, but not as a full band member. We got a 15,000 kwacha (Zambian currency) loan from Teal Records Company to buy our own set of musical instruments so all the royalties from the records under contract went to offset the loan and the band lived on the income from live shows/performances. We had put ourselves on monthly wages and that’s where we got our up keep money and gear (uniforms and personal tastes). We had velvet (black and maroon) uniforms for special shows like weddings. There was no formality in terms of gear, anything would do.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US">Music composition and arrangement: Anyone would bring ideas – tune/lyrics but usually the band agreed on the arrangement. On "INTRODUCTION" and "IN THE PAST", the music was done and recorded almost at random and in haste – not much work was put in because we were anxious to put our works on wax/vinyl. However, later on we were more serious, sensitive to critists and we had an extra head in Shadiki Bwalya – together we pooled ideas. There were also some rare cases of one person putting the whole piece of music/song together while the rest of the band just added a little touch or flavour to the piece ("The way I feel" by Boyd Sakala; "The only way" - my self; "Nazungwa", Chris Mbewe) etc.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US"> </span><br /><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i>You once mentioned that concerts were very long and not properly organized. You just started playing and then people came. Would you like to share a little about that?</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i><br /></i></span></div><span lang="EN-US">Sometimes we were hired to perform at social functions, promotions of goods and services, weddings, etc. At other times we booked venues ourselves, put up posters and played there while someone else sold beverages and food. The shows varied between 2 to 6 hours with 30 minute breaks every 1 ½ to 2 hours.</span><br /><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The largest concerts were at music festivals, Agricultural and commercial shows and trade fair stinst - The arenas were big and people only paid at the gate to see many different exhibitions (including musical bonds who were hired by show organizers/companies exhibiting at the show) other wise its not easy to pinpoint one of the biggest show in nine years I was with the band.</span></div><span lang="EN-US"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The most prestigious concert was in Lilongwe, Malawi in 1974/5. The band had police escort on the way from Blantyre to Lilongwe and we had diplomats in the audience. Curtains raising for 'Osibisa' was also remarkable.</span></div><span lang="EN-US"></span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US">Payments for band performances varied with the type of shows e.g. for a wedding up to $400 plus transport (plus drinks and food); teen – time (after noon) shows 14:00hrs to 19:00hrs realized between $200 and $300. Night clubs or sessions where $1500 plus transport per show (from 19:00 hrs to 02:00hrs) or up $2000 sometimes when the band hired venues and collected gate takings or shared gate takings with venue owners 50/50 or 60/40 while someone else sold beverages at shows if it was not a night club. Gate charges were $2 per person – usually at night – 50C per person for teen – time (this included school going audiences).</span><span lang="EN-US"></span><br /></span></span><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><span lang="EN-US"></span><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i>Let's get back to the beginning of the scene. One of the major influences or breakthroughs if you prefer was 'Osibisa'. Did they tour your country or how did you were you so influenced by them?</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">We once opened for 'Osibisa' when they toured Zambia and played in Kitwe at Nkana Stadium. We had the privilege of mingling with the band members and asked them questions and observed their organization. They were musical, happy going, quite sure of themselves, very creative and energetic; they were marvelous to watch and listen to. They definitely influenced my approach to fusing an African touch to my rock compositions, as could be seen on the "Lukombo Vibes" album which my band recorded after our experiences with 'Osibisa'. Personally, Ted Osei (their band leader) inspired and encouraged me to go to the school of music, which I did in 1977.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i>In an interview you did with Egon you mention bands like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Grand Funk Railroad, Deep Purple and Jimi Hendrix as influences. Were there any other artists you liked at the time?</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><span lang="EN-US">Apart from those groups I also listened to a lot of other Western music, such as Albert Hammond, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Bread, The Doors, etc.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US"><i>Let's get back to some of the releases. Paul Ngozy is one of the better known names. What do you know about him. Were you friends? He released some really amazing albums first in english and then deciding to use one of your language on late 70's albums.</i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US">Yes Paul Ngozi was a personal friend. I was one of the pall bearers at his funeral. He was friendly and a tribal cousin (in Zambian people from the Northern and Eastern parts of the country regard one another as cousins after a historical war they fought many centuries ago). I came from the North and he came from the East. He was a rocker with a central theme of social commentary in most of his lyrics. English was not one of his favored languages.</span><i><span lang="EN-US"> </span></i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US"><i><span lang="EN-US"> </span></i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US"><i><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US"><i>One of the best LP's was "My Ancestors" by 'Chrissy Zebby Tembo & Ngozi Family'. Chrissy was a drummer who later also started a solo career. Who all was in 'the Ngozi Family'?</i></span><br /> </span></i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US"><i><span lang="EN-US"> <span lang="EN-US">The other guys I remember in the 'Ngozi Family' were Peter Bwalya (bass) later replaced by Justin Nyirongo, Scare (drums), and Jasper Lungu (2nd guitar/vocals), but I was not in constant check with the changes in the lineup. There were several.</span> </span> </i></span> </span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span><span lang="EN-US"><i><span lang="EN-US"> </span> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><i><span lang="EN-US"><i>One of the most important groups from the scene was 'Musi-O-Tunya', which featured an amazing guitarist who later released several solo albums. His name was Rikki Ililonga. Another amazing guitarist was Keith Mlevhu. Mlevhu played for 'The Real Five' and who else? I know he recorded some solo albums later with great heavy guitar work on them.</i></span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><i><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><i><span lang="EN-US"><i><span lang="EN-US">Keith Mlevu (Shem Mulevu was his real name) was one of Zambia’s most accomplished musicians and guitarists. I first saw and heard him play during a music festival at Jubilee Hall in Lusaka, during my school holidays when I visited my grandfather in Lusaka. Keith was impressive with his solos and vocals. His band was called 'The Rev 5'. They mostly mimicked The Rolling Stones while the Lusaka Beatles, later 'Earth Quakes', followed the Beatles style. He later left and played with various groups before he went solo.</span> </i></span> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><i><span lang="EN-US"><i>Its interesting, that instrumental music was not very popular, with a few exceptions including Rikki's work. The main thing was rhythm. You once mentioned that the rhythms rather than the harmonies are most important in your music.</i></span></i></span><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><span lang="EN-US">Yes, in my study of African music. I have discovered that the strength of African music is crisscross rhythmic patterns that provoke reactions from the participants who are tempted to dance along. The vocals are usually call and response with short lines of verses and 2 to 3 harmonic parts which are not notated. The Western music can sometimes be quite complicated in arrangements, melodies and harmonies, e.g. orchestras and choirs.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US"><i>Do you think that there is a certain reflection of war times in your music? Not just in yours but in Zamrock music in general, which kind of settled down and create an atmosphere we can hear on the records?</i></span></span><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Zambia has never experienced any serious war per se, even though we supported a lot of freedom fighters from around us, such as Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, South Africa and Mozambique. Maybe what you hear in some Zamrock music has to do with cries and protests by artists so as to be recognized and respected in society by the authorities that be. Usually, musicians were regarded as failures in most parts of our society, such that no one wanted to marry their daughters off to musicians. In my band’s case "Tooth Factory" and "Black Tears" reflect these conflicts. Once we were arrested for "noise making to annoyance". The Home Affairs Minister ordered our arrest during a performance at a nightclub near his home so I wrote "October Nights" while in police custody. It took protests from our fans to secure our release after 2 or 3 nights (the arrest was on Zambia’s Independence Eve).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i>Circumstances were hard for you guys in Zambia. For instance when the Paul Ngozi got a record deal and released his album, but he still went to Nairobi and printed out bootlegs of his albums.</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Maybe I missed that Paul Ngozi turn of events but what I know is that at one point in Zambia we had a censorship board which banned or could disallow certain songs being played on national radio if that’s what you are referring to. Insulting songs or those criticizing government policies were considered to be in bad taste, for instance.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i>Was the scene influenced by any psychedelic or other sort of drugs or perhaps rituals? I don't mean just your band, but in general?</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Marijuana was a common feature in Zambia’s rural set ups, before it became illegal. Some villagers believed it gave them desire and push to go an extra mile while working on their fields to grow more food. Likewise most musicians and artists in general, as well as some athletes used it with a belief that it increased their creativity and zeal. There were no rituals during Zamrock shows, nothing like the "Woodstock" scenario either. Fans smoked privately too, especially those who could not afford beer and hard drinks to help them enjoy the gigs.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><span lang="EN-US"><i>There is one band I want to ask you about. They were called Amanaz and they came out of your town and formed around late 1973 and recorded absolutely amazing LP called "Africa" in 1975 on ZMP label? What are perhaps some other bands, that we didn't mention yet?</i></span><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US">"Armanz" were based in Ndola. There are still two living members of this group. Keith Kabwe (drums/vocals) is now a Penticostal Pastor in Mbala, a town in the Northern part of Zambia, while Isaac Mpofu (lead guitar/vocals) is now a farmer in Chongwe, a suburb east of Lusaka. Your other info on the band is correct. There were many other Zamrock/Pop groups around that either recorded one LP or never recorded their music for one reason or the other, e.g. Oscilations, Mkushi, Fire Fballs, Sentries, Explosives, Upshoots, Salty Dog, etc. in addition to those I have mentioned previously.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i>I know 'WITCH' toured some neighboring countries. How did citizens in neighboring countries react to your music? Besides Nigeria you were the only country that had rock music. In fact the only country who invented something musically. Nigeria was in my opinion highly influenced by Ginger Baker experimentations.</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">We never toured Nigeria, but we recorded in Kenya, performed in Tanzania (Bahai Beach), Malawi (almost the entire country), Zimbabwe (few towns), Swaziland, Botswana (many towns), and almost all the provinces of Zambia. I do not remember experiencing flops in these areas, some of our music was rather new to them so our repertoire was a mix of Western songs and our own compositions. My band was highly talented so it was easy for us to read our audience’s expectations and adapt to the occasion. Generally the band was appreciated and well received. We were quite entertaining and a lovable bunch.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i>Out of the scene there was another genre born called "Kalindula". The most well known representatives were the "Five Revolutions" I believe. Would you care to share a few words about this genre. It was mainly released on ZMP label, right?</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">There are 10 provinces, about 72 ethnic groups in Zambia. In each province there are a few common social ceremonies, festivals, lifeline occupational activities, etc. which determine the type of music and musical instruments to employ. In turn, these give guidance to the genre that is relevant. Kalindula is just one of the many there are in Zambia and its common in some parts of Central and most of Luapula provinces in the country. However, Kalindula became more popular after ZMPL signed recording contracts with a few bands and solo artists who had the bias of this genre. These included 'The 5 Revoutions', 'Mulemena Boys', 'Sereje Kalindula Band', 'Lima Jazz Band', 'Spokes Chola', 'P.K. Chishala', 'Shalawambe' and many more.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i>What occupies your life lately?</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">There are a few things that have occupied my life lately and presently. I am a mentor, resource person and teacher in many projects and organizations which tap and promote music talents among the youth of Zambia. I am also on the Adjudicator’s Panel that rewards deserving musicians each year through the National Arts Council. I still write songs, mostly Christian, which I intend to record as soon as funds are available for booking a good studio and hire good Christian session musicians to help me record. Another goal is to raise sufficient funds to build a school of music and to accommodate a world standard recording studio for the less privileged in my society. I have gotten into a gemstone mining venture because sponsors are not easy to come by. But I really believe God will make a way one day.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><i>I sincerely thank you for taking your time. Would you like to share anything else? Perhaps a message to It's Psychedelic Baby readers? </i></span><br /><span lang="EN-US"><i><br /></i></span>Thanks for the wake up call and a nudge for me to start thinking about writing a book on my experiencers in the music industry – a good idea indeed. Thanks also for giving me a starting point. Maybe I should let you edit – what do you think?<br /><div class="MsoNormal">Unfortunately, there are no footages of me performing with the 'WITCH BAND'. Even though I have one or two footages of me jamming with other bands the other guys. The guys who kept the footages at our Nationa Broad Caster (ZNBC) passed away many years ago and left no info as to where they kept them (since the footages were personal to holder stuff) – pity eh! No diary either on my part – but I can try to recall many things, events, incidences etc.</div><span lang="EN-US"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal">Thanks to Egon (Eothen, man you are great, and a God sent pal), Klemen and Kevin and all the readers of It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine. Thanks to all you guys. Please buy the 'WITCH' music and help me realize my wildest dreams, as well as helping the families of my departed band mates through royalties. I really feel resurrected musically and expectant of living my dream as a world renowned musician with a number of hits on various world hits lists, or at least with a song or two for a major film. You guys have rekindled my hopes. I pray that we can meet face to face at some of my promotional tours/performances.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><span lang="EN-US">God bless you all meanwhile!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: orange;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: orange;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://psychedelicbaby.blogspot.de/2012/10/witch-interview-with-emmanuel-jagari.html">psychedelicbaby.blogspot.com</a></b></span> </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: orange;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: orange;"> </span></span> </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><i> </i></span><span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: orange;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></div>somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-24123748986462148642014-10-06T04:31:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:44.814-07:00More zamrock ... Harry Mwale Experience <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCQuVXcAid_B56k-y50ZfXBXzSvjQ1HfstZvB9E1qXmgkYmHTaoFe0X0zJ8pXFAjqLRebrTj2j01JB93XWDcfrcWuiX4Ddl7F5tSQcB9aCrFy9_1RA4XHRgwh3pMoQu-2gccszyNyAjAg/s1600/harry-mwale-experience.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCQuVXcAid_B56k-y50ZfXBXzSvjQ1HfstZvB9E1qXmgkYmHTaoFe0X0zJ8pXFAjqLRebrTj2j01JB93XWDcfrcWuiX4Ddl7F5tSQcB9aCrFy9_1RA4XHRgwh3pMoQu-2gccszyNyAjAg/s1600/harry-mwale-experience.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div itemprop="name"> <b>Harry Mwale Experience - Harry Mwale Experience </b></div><div itemprop="name"> </div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"> Another rare Zamrock album comes to light with the Harry Mwale Experience. The sole and lone album from the legendary figure is fully licensed, and is a blend of psychedelic rock, ethnic psychedelic (with fuzz guitar) and even some soul. Overall a very robust and strong effort with above average fidelity as compared to most Zamrock releases, and one of the more obscure and harder to find records from Zambia, as well as one of the more unique. Limited to 500 copies on LP, one time limited edition pressing. For fans of BLO, WITCH, Salty Dog, Amanaz, The Peace, Survival and other afro rock albums. Look out for our upcoming Zamrock selections as we have a lot to roll out, including some from the original master tapes! </div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"> </div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"><b><a href="http://www.hhv.de/shop/de/artikel/harry-mwale-experience-harry-mwale-experience-390159">hhv.de</a> </b></div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"><b> </b></div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"><b> </b></div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"><b>Tracklist</b></div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"><b> </b></div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"><div class="info"> <span class="position">A1</span> <span class="title" itemprop="name">Doing Up</span> </div><div class="track " itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <div class="info"> <span class="position">A2</span> <span class="title" itemprop="name">Don't Feel Shy</span> </div></div><div class="track " itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <div class="info"> <span class="position">A3</span> <span class="title" itemprop="name">In The Midair</span> </div></div><div class="track " itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <div class="info"> <span class="position">A4</span> <span class="title" itemprop="name">Mkango</span> </div></div><div class="track new_side " itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <div class="info"> <span class="position">B1</span> <span class="title" itemprop="name">Osaye Party</span> </div></div><div class="track " itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <div class="info"> <span class="position">B2</span> <span class="title" itemprop="name">Forgotten Islands</span> </div></div><div class="track " itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <div class="info"> <span class="position">B3</span> <span class="title" itemprop="name">Njanji</span> </div></div><div class="track " itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <div class="info"> <span class="position">B4</span> <span class="title" itemprop="name">Osaye</span> </div></div><b> </b></div>somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-15889379955780573642014-10-04T12:41:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:44.826-07:00 Voices Of Darkness - Voices Of Darkness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo5e9svJn_Tga9mTaYcrSz4IHErbB4fu_Sxqc9lsGcGq7y12JYq5ZC3Kzy3muUpzSOIztCNG7wKzNaZBsugC8qw23YqWnyOjWTfJPXgqCvvPQlRPh3ZrwGWh3cMGe-fCq3Esvakn94Rdw/s1600/band.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo5e9svJn_Tga9mTaYcrSz4IHErbB4fu_Sxqc9lsGcGq7y12JYq5ZC3Kzy3muUpzSOIztCNG7wKzNaZBsugC8qw23YqWnyOjWTfJPXgqCvvPQlRPh3ZrwGWh3cMGe-fCq3Esvakn94Rdw/s1600/band.png" height="240" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><div itemprop="name"> <b>Voices Of Darkness - Voices Of Darkness </b></div><div itemprop="name"> </div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"> Long-awaited Superfly reissue of legendary Nigerian Funk UFO LP, this record is so rare in its original format that only a handfull of copies are known to be in existence, co-produced with Voodoo Funk, this LP is filled with Afro Funk nuggets, check 'Mota ginya' or 'we're gonna make it' - as usual, beautiful quality repress with paste on covers made in Japan and 180grs vinyl, limited to 1000 copies only! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgnhecmH3qWJ3GJdL1FAN2QBuE1xy3rTN2rKH6kOrxcv8J8hdvvjZyAnxM7hptjoruK-KlDP0Id5fCsc_ctN7Y7lGGHXTF2epF2sokUmbgh7hboLVjRwImtgEzpJAJXH0Ab9R6W5oy44s/s1600/front.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgnhecmH3qWJ3GJdL1FAN2QBuE1xy3rTN2rKH6kOrxcv8J8hdvvjZyAnxM7hptjoruK-KlDP0Id5fCsc_ctN7Y7lGGHXTF2epF2sokUmbgh7hboLVjRwImtgEzpJAJXH0Ab9R6W5oy44s/s1600/front.png" height="400" width="400" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhptj8v0vQQwZLaXECbqIwurA6uoABZJcHcznvs4uH40Nr0U8F5mZB5zW8T7fXHpZidUyhLPa2h5P1mGf0Pc6RyrhE9EV-HZDByHu5URxBJ9uoufPQCMvGCgvuHprnhB0JwgAYlSjK9d5M/s1600/back.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhptj8v0vQQwZLaXECbqIwurA6uoABZJcHcznvs4uH40Nr0U8F5mZB5zW8T7fXHpZidUyhLPa2h5P1mGf0Pc6RyrhE9EV-HZDByHu5URxBJ9uoufPQCMvGCgvuHprnhB0JwgAYlSjK9d5M/s1600/back.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a> </div><br /><b>Tracklist</b><br /><br /><table class="playlist" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicGroup"><tbody><tr class="first tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"><td class="tracklist_track_pos">A1</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">We Gonna Make It</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">A2</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">No More Tears To Cry</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">A3</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Caution</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">A4</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">I Was Loving You Lucy</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">B1</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Mota Ginya</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">B2</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Bonjour Cherie</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">B3</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">We Are Origins Of Africa</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/AqXkWn3wvd8?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><br /><br /><br />somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-13757295776594763632014-10-02T03:29:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:44.847-07:00750th post: Francis Bebey - African Electronic Music 1975-1982<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdBBykttNe-M4CNd_p9I2UJZcnKIlsJbJSqZoVJPxdEHm6SaPS7vX1s0SNd-EsrIjHGyFXeiR-xhIztftvxvfHHRsCaNCH6ubefSuztcVrcyHm0mESZC47Dz-nh-gLc3X4M_lTxsUrX1I/s1600/bebey.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdBBykttNe-M4CNd_p9I2UJZcnKIlsJbJSqZoVJPxdEHm6SaPS7vX1s0SNd-EsrIjHGyFXeiR-xhIztftvxvfHHRsCaNCH6ubefSuztcVrcyHm0mESZC47Dz-nh-gLc3X4M_lTxsUrX1I/s1600/bebey.jpg" height="276" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Francis Bebey was never one for rest. The Cameroonian native had already lived a full life as an accomplished academic attending the Sorbonne (for English) and NYU (for journalism and media studies), radio correspondent in Ghana and later for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outre-Mer_1%C3%A8re">SORAFOM</a>, award-winning novelist, and even sculptor by the time his first album of music came out in the late 1960s. A rare talent, Bebey was also relentless as an artist in general and, more specifically, as a musician. His father was a Protestant minister who appreciated the Western classical canon and exposed Francis to a wide range of music early; as such, Bebey was exposed to European and American instruments like the accordion and banjo as much as traditional instruments like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_bow">mouth bow</a> his pals were playing. <br /><br />Given this willingness to try out so many instruments and a natural sponge-like ability to soak up influences and new directions, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Bebey plugged in and gave electronic keyboards, organs and drum machines a go in the late ’70s. African Electronic Music 1975-1982 is a compilation that gives some shine to a facet of the man’s vast discography that may otherwise be easy to pass by without context. Paris-based Born Bad’s efforts should be appreciated. <br /><br />It’s worth noting, however, that this stuff isn’t as hard to find as one may initially be led to believe. A little hunting reveals that a third of these songs appear in some form on 1982’s Pygmy Love Song alone. Pygmy Love Song came in the final year of the presented span where Bebey was utilizing everything from synths to “sound on sound” recording techniques to different languages (English, French and the Bantu language Duala all feature here) in addition to the more traditional material of 1978’s Ballades Africaines or 1980’s live Afrikanischer Frühing. <br /><br />That doesn’t necessarily mean Born Bad was lazy in its presentation, though. On the contrary, many of the songs on Pygmy Love Song appear earlier in his discography anyway — see, for instance, “Fleur Tropicale” from the 1976 LP of the same name or “Tiers Monde” from 1979’s Un Petit Ivoirien. You also get the entire second side of 1982’s New Track in the title-track, which opens this compilation, and the ponderous “Super Jungle.” Both songs strike me as equally fascinating for different reasons: “New Track” opens as an eight-minute socially minded groover that should be half as long but still delights in small doses, juxtaposing the first chorus (“I want some bananas, some water and dance on the new track”) with the first verse’s line (“It is my belief that there is something wrong with that system”) in a memorably simple melody. It’s Bebey’s electronic explorations in a nutshell. <br /><br />“Super Jungle,” on the other hand, is an instrumental jam clocking in north of nine minutes that sounds less disposable on repeat listens, perhaps because of its lack of lyrics. Impressive enough back to back, Born Bad’s sequencing does Bebey a favor here by breaking up these and other long songs by sprinkling them in among the easier listens, stuff like the ultra-poppy “The Coffee Cola Song” or charmingly breezy “Fleur Tropicale.” I also keep returning to “Agatha,” where his deep, rich laugh never fails to delight. The guy sounds like he’s having a ball and it’s easily my favorite song here. <br /><br />African Electronic Music 1975-1982 is a deceptively smart compilation sequenced at least as well as Bebey’s own albums which, for someone who’s discovering this side of him for the first time, helps show how far Francis was willing to stray from his roots. If the prospect of a limitlessly talented artist workshopping with a dingy drum machine and a few keyboards sounds tantalizing but you prefer high quality recordings and a 16-page booklet over <a href="http://www.awesometapes.com/">Awesome Tapes From Africa</a> rips, you’d be a fool to pass this up.</div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b> <a href="http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/7316">By Patrick Masterson, Dusted Magazine</a></b></span><br /><br />---<br /><br /><br />By the time Francis Bebey started making these home recordings he was already in his mid-30s. The son of a Protestant minister, he grew up in the Cameroon port town of Douala, surrounded by books and music. Seemingly able to play anything he got his hands on, from the guitar to the pygmy flute, Bebey moved to Paris in the mid-1950s to study music at the Sorbonne. It was there, frustrated by what he saw as colonial prejudice towards traditional African music and rhythms, that he came up with his great plan – to use Western technology to spread an appreciation of the African music and culture he so loved. A staunch proponent of Negritude, or Blackness, Bebey wrote poetry, novels and journalism, all of which aimed to promote the common values of Black civilisation; this remarkable record forms part of that aim. A piece like Tiers Monde (Third World) has a beautiful, circular acoustic guitar pattern overlaid with a joyously free-floating melody, while The Coffee Cola Song makes distinct – and wonderful – reference to emerging synthpop styles. Then there's the incredible Catching Up, which is a minor miracle, a heat-soaked, utterly psychedelic pop oddity and the achingly heavy, yodel-friendly Pygmy Love Song which sounds like the sort of record Damon Albarn would give his gold tooth to write. In the late 90s, after moving into film-making and having released 20 albums in 30 years, Bebey wrote his masterpiece, African Music: A People's Art, which remains the definitive work on the subject. He died, aged 71, in 2001.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/jan/30/101-strangest-spotify-francis-bebey">theguardian.com</a> </b><br /><br />---<br /><br />Francis Bebey is not exactly a household name. However, he was one of the last true “Renaissance men”, something of a Franco-African Leonard Cohen, if you will. Born in Cameroon and educated at the Sorbonne and in the United States, Bebey was a successful novelist, journalist, sculptor and diplomatic consultant.<br /><br />He also made music, releasing scores of albums from 1969 onward, mostly in a singularly eclectic, acoustic guitar-based mixture of African and Western styles. But, as its title suggests, <i>African Electronic Music 1975-1982</i> highlights a lesser-known aspect of Bebey’s career in music. Inspired by his father’s electronic organ, Bebey experimented with its sounds and pre-programmed drum patterns, releasing several rare, electronics-based albums. <i>African Electronic Music 1975-1982</i> collects 14 tracks from these releases. It is, not surprisingly given Bebey’s history, an eclectic mix nonetheless.<br /><br />Crucially, the music here is not <i>all</i> electronic. Bebey used the electronic instruments to intermingle experimental techniques and new textures with traditional acoustic guitar, bass and African percussion. This amalgam plays out in exemplary fashion on opener “New Track”. Chiming, gamelan-like percussion gives way to a huge synthesizer riff that sounds like a hoarse, highly-processed wah-wah guitar. Electric bass holds down the bottom as Bebey chants, “I wanna banana and water / And dance on the new track”. In its heavily-syncopated strangeness it’s all very reminiscent of fellow Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, though with a one-man-band taking place of Kuti’s Africa 70.<br /><br />You might well figure you know exactly what you’re in for, then, but <i>African Electronic Music 1975-1982</i> takes several twists and turns. “La Condition Masculine” heads up a suite of tracks that are made up of Bebey orating in French as a hissing drum machine and squiggly synths do their polyrhythmic thing in the background. Of these, “Divorce Pygmee” gets a nice, laid-back groove going, while “Fleur Tropicale” is based on acoustic guitar. “Tiers Monde” and the wonderfully-titled “Coffee Cola Song” are bright folk-pop that must have at some point passed through Cornershop’s turntable.<br /><br />Then there are the real curiosities. “Pygmy Love Song” is a brooding, organ-led, English-language ballad that sounds like David Bowie or even Cohen himself. The only giveaway is the crude pan flute synth that punctures the track. “Catching Up” is Bebey on the edge, a hard-funk Afrobeat rhythm over which Bebey denounces an “impossible love” before moaning and hissing “Cheer up!” in a manner that is anything but encouraging. Fascinating.<br /><br />The remaining tracks are mostly jams and freakouts, instrumental meanderings more than proper compositions. These are reminders that <i>African Electronic Music 1975-1982</i> is, after all, a bit of a hodgepodge compilation, and that Bebey was indulging his creative spirit more than he was creating music for a mass audience. Still, the more structured tracks serve notice Bebey was an accomplished composer who had several big hits in his native land.<br /><br />Electronic music technology developed swiftly over the time span covered by this compilation, but Bebey’s does not seem to have kept up. The rudimentary drum machines, organs, and synthesizers that sounded groundbreaking in 1975 had become outdated by 1982. What’s really impressive and timeless is the loose, independent spirit that permeates this music.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.popmatters.com/review/160243-francis-bebey-african-electronic-music-1975-1982/">popmatters.com</a> </b><br /> <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaNUxL_OhtZrweAHb4246Gr-qbbdfsTapknWAj9Vm-pjveSiaeeExr5VEGBwGglWjc4S1VY3lkBv9XebyF9nyPv065yyQyQ6x3bta7kpzVe-pFCABI7SYawhNBgWClApXo5vkitdSVxM8/s1600/front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaNUxL_OhtZrweAHb4246Gr-qbbdfsTapknWAj9Vm-pjveSiaeeExr5VEGBwGglWjc4S1VY3lkBv9XebyF9nyPv065yyQyQ6x3bta7kpzVe-pFCABI7SYawhNBgWClApXo5vkitdSVxM8/s1600/front.jpg" height="400" width="400" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVx2JT9l7Dj086_2DQlLLGvXJIoNWHSfQkPdaFZr6BY9sKbwY3iZWK4a2Qcw1MqYjU6Fh61WidE3ynTwaAeB4WMyHsi7It1W441o3z4oWDop4Uy16_f18qQmhyphenhyphenqD9FLKs92Xz966fV7bA/s1600/back.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVx2JT9l7Dj086_2DQlLLGvXJIoNWHSfQkPdaFZr6BY9sKbwY3iZWK4a2Qcw1MqYjU6Fh61WidE3ynTwaAeB4WMyHsi7It1W441o3z4oWDop4Uy16_f18qQmhyphenhyphenqD9FLKs92Xz966fV7bA/s1600/back.jpg" height="400" width="388" /></a></div><br /><br /><b>Tracklist</b><br /><br /><table class="playlist" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicGroup"><tbody><tr class="first tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"><td class="tracklist_track_pos">A1</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">New Track</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25">8:16 </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">A2</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">La Condition Masculine</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25">3:23 </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">A3</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Wuma Te</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25">5:27 </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">B1</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Divorce Pygmée</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25">5:26 </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">B2</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Fleur Tropical</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25">3:52 </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">B3</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Tiers Monde</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25">3:25 </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">C1</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Agatha</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25">7:05 </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">C2</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Pygmy Love Song</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25">3:49 </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">C3</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Catching Up</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25">2:36 </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">C4</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Sahel</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25">5:07 </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">D1</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">The Coffee Cola Song</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25">5:04 </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">D2</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Super Jingle</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25">9:17 </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">D3</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Savanah Georgia</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25">3:31 </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">D4</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Il N'y A Pas De Crocodiles A Cocody</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25">2:37</td></tr></tbody></table>somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-29816977660374517612014-09-29T04:18:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:44.878-07:00Francis Bebey - Psychedelic Sanza 1982-1984<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYpwynjLyqP5nNHhSXFSv1zHbRGOhCLRqjj_v1o2lbMtHWoKVZBh-yPM2_SdWLP96tsj0ehFYGgDkTiYT_a2RgcuoJA1LD3FsUbyZZM6aWPZy64BGf2db1r2Ea9bAxeDKFB7DRiMes1Ko/s1600/bebey.jpg+w=490.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYpwynjLyqP5nNHhSXFSv1zHbRGOhCLRqjj_v1o2lbMtHWoKVZBh-yPM2_SdWLP96tsj0ehFYGgDkTiYT_a2RgcuoJA1LD3FsUbyZZM6aWPZy64BGf2db1r2Ea9bAxeDKFB7DRiMes1Ko/s1600/bebey.jpg+w=490.jpg" height="400" width="245" /></a> Born Bad Records present 'Psychedelic Sanza 1982-1984', a thrilling collection of material from Cameroonian artist Francis Bebey. A follow-up to 'African Electronic Music 1975 - 1982', this release focuses on music built around the sansa, a traditional African 'thump piano'. Combining his own global interests and electronic pursuits with the traditional sound of the sansa, he fashions an irresistible body of work for full immersion. 'Sanza Tristesse', with its lilting tempo and creaking vocals, could fit in any 80s disco set, while 'Forest Nativity' is an earthy nature walk. This collection is not to be missed. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The first time I saw a sansa (a type of African “thumb piano”), it was just sitting there on a piece of furniture in my family’s living room/dining room – a space that our father also transformed into a recording studio every day. It seemed more like a box than a musical instrument: a mysterious instrument, which arrived at our house, like many things, in a somewhat miraculous way. We knew our father loved to collect anything that could produce a sound. I don’t know where he got this sansa. It was rather crude, clearly handmade, with only a few “keys” or “tines”. I don’t think he really played this one. The sounds it produced seemed particularly bizarre; to my young musician’s ears, trained in Western classical music, it sounded out of tune. That’s because, like my brothers and sisters, I had been trained on the piano. I had trouble understanding how anyone could endure these tones and, honestly, our father’s passion for “unusual sounds” did not interest me. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />I was in secondary school at the time (the very late 1970s) and was not at all oriented toward musical projects. I planned to graduate, and then become a chef. In the early 1980s, my interest in music picked up. I was still undecided about my career. I was content to pursue my “serious” English studies while hanging out at jazz clubs at les Halles in Paris, where I sometimes joined jam sessions. Next, I put together my first band with professional musicians; I had hidden my age and lack of experience from them. France was just beginning to accept “world music.” Musicians of every nationality were performing in Paris. It was a wonderful period. My father asked my brother Toups and me to accompany him for a few concerts. In particular, we toured Tunisia together at the time of the 1983 Carthage International Festival. Back then, my father was renowned across the French-speaking world. Everyone looked forward to hearing his humorous songs, like “Agatha” and “La condition masculine.” But, behind the scenes, he continued his research concerning electronic music, the sansa, pygmy polyphony, etc. <br /><br />One day he put a sansa in my hands, without saying a word. He was sending me a message: “Let’s see what you can do with it!” That’s when I really discovered something. Exploring the instrument and playing, I transcended the “imperfect” aspect of its sound and began to discover its fascinating potential. Playing the sansa, you enter a world that enraptures you in a very serene and mesmerizing way. I think its sounds evoke a rainbow, with rain falling while the sun shines. A very peaceful feeling. It allows you to make music that truly sounds like life. The sansa is also the instrument that my father and I shared the most because I am a pianist and he was a guitarist. I also share this eminently African instrument with my musician brother, Toups. Our father loved to tell us one of the legends of the sansa: how it even managed to dispel the boredom felt by… the Creator himself! This instrument gives life to the world, to beings and things. <br /><br />I did not participate in the production of the various records that my father devoted to the sansa. He did it himself, you might say, in his “laboratory.” Yet today, I cannot imagine playing a concert without using a sansa. The piano remains present so that listeners don’t become disoriented and wonder about the weird sounds invading their ears! However, I find the eccentric and disturbing side of sansa interesting. And the sansa always affects the audience: in reality, it excites them. The secrets of this instrument are surely its beneficial powers and… its magic! <br /><br /><a href="http://www.bornbadrecords.net/releases/1260/"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Patrick Bebey, bornbadrecords</span></b></a></div><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb5ECKSaZiix3q-wEWJ_7M8NXWl0LQCKKMalpLqPqpxBQINNX3THlcbTrz7khKYaKkQLU_xgFbLcqfE5X2aLT9ZJEDEBFoFBEU0m6IZASBwCxlfjYkSZkuirM0mRIPjKLp2cs0l54Xnk4/s1600/cover-bandcamp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb5ECKSaZiix3q-wEWJ_7M8NXWl0LQCKKMalpLqPqpxBQINNX3THlcbTrz7khKYaKkQLU_xgFbLcqfE5X2aLT9ZJEDEBFoFBEU0m6IZASBwCxlfjYkSZkuirM0mRIPjKLp2cs0l54Xnk4/s1600/cover-bandcamp.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><h3>TRACK LISTING</h3>1. Sanza Nocturne<br />2. Bissau<br />3. Sanza Tristesse <br />4. Africa Sanza<br />5. Forest Nativity<br />6. Sunny Crypt<br />7. Binta Madiallo <br />8. Tumu Pakara <br />9. Di Saegri<br />10. Ngoma Likembe<br />11. Guinée<br /><br />somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-18935687336937540652014-09-24T05:56:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:44.890-07:00Vaudou Game <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='420' height='360' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/sN9StbxjJPw?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='420' height='360' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/q8K8BQfpHW4?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='420' height='360' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/MuaQFbqfJvc?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-61049516140975099672014-09-23T06:56:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:44.908-07:00Online Afrobeat Radio!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="http://www.sowhatkombo.com/accuradio_logo.gif" class="decoded" height="105" src="http://www.sowhatkombo.com/accuradio_logo.gif" width="400" /> </div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b>Information on their FB page:</b> </div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #660000;"><b>We just launched a cool new station featuring all the best Afrobeat. If you dig Funk, Jazz, Highlife, and knotty rhythms, check it out today! </b></span></span></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #660000;"><b>Check it out</b></span></span></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #660000;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #660000;"><b><a href="http://www.accuradio.com/share/channel/826/">here</a></b></span></span></div><br />somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-65953654634934022282014-09-22T04:05:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:44.922-07:00Jones Coker - Action Boy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvCGKjNXXKxdOAppYxvhi1kdT-LlyJhBTKA3FWkAdey-A7vqlbpgSOlX7i91XAdtQ-7sL2K5u-tdAeGNk3csyYtmrguod7sltK-1l2uGcemcqIghBYa36B-B59_c9VtNtFVwV9z1cVqd0/s1600/R-2823036-1302629716.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvCGKjNXXKxdOAppYxvhi1kdT-LlyJhBTKA3FWkAdey-A7vqlbpgSOlX7i91XAdtQ-7sL2K5u-tdAeGNk3csyYtmrguod7sltK-1l2uGcemcqIghBYa36B-B59_c9VtNtFVwV9z1cVqd0/s1600/R-2823036-1302629716.jpeg" /></a></div><br /><b>Ultra rare and highly in demand killer nigeria afro boogie lp on zanidisco!!!</b><br /><br /><b>Tracklist</b><br /><br /><table class="playlist" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicGroup"><tbody><tr class="first tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"><td class="tracklist_track_pos">A1</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Walk About</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">A2</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">In My Mind</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">A3</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">I Love My Darling</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">B1</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Action Boy</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">B2</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">I'm Coming Home</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">B3</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Be What You Gonna Be</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">B4</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Black Magic Woman</span></td></tr></tbody></table>somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-9084964626341205702014-09-22T00:33:00.002-07:002014-09-22T00:33:12.485-07:00Hot pianoHot pianosomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-46951349956073170392014-09-19T13:40:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:44.937-07:00Mr Voodoofunk presents ... First Planet - Top Of The World<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKUjdDq4rZV6BneN2GL9fOcullBbKJJj9rFxD-FFChaFQLAW_meG53ivzl6gdV6ov4C-nxKxz1WM535XIZu_rk8Hc6VUqYMTcerzO1gUmx68qm3qkyfRf2b_LRgeTLyExGoZAr99VQ_jQ/s1600/First-Planet.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKUjdDq4rZV6BneN2GL9fOcullBbKJJj9rFxD-FFChaFQLAW_meG53ivzl6gdV6ov4C-nxKxz1WM535XIZu_rk8Hc6VUqYMTcerzO1gUmx68qm3qkyfRf2b_LRgeTLyExGoZAr99VQ_jQ/s1600/First-Planet.png" height="400" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div itemprop="name"> First Planet - Top Of The World </div><div itemprop="name"> </div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"> Afro-space-disco contagion — shuffling and wiggling, synthy and bubbling — from this re-incarnation of Willy Nfor’s Mighty Flames, recruited mostly from the wave of Cameroonian musicians drawn to Nigeria in the late-1970s by its heavy new funk sound. After a stint at the Right Time studio in Onitsha, the FP cadets ended up at Phonodisk in Lagos, quickly in high demand as session-players, running First Planet on the side with other Nigerian session players from the Onitsha/Awka axis. Its name was intended to evoke the cool obliqueness of US handles like Brass Construction and Lakeside, and the mothership connection of chocolate-city P-Funk. Soon Vincent Omoko and the other Planeteers would travel to Port Harcourt, working in Geraldo Pino’s band for several years. </div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"> </div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"><b><a href="http://www.hhv.de/shop/de/artikel/first-planet-top-of-the-world-387749">hhv.de</a> </b></div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"><b> </b></div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Check out <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBiOcFDsrOU">here</a>!!!! </span></b></div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"><b><br /></b></div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"><b><br /></b></div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"><b><br /></b></div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"><b><br /></b></div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"><b>Tracklist</b></div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"><b><br /></b></div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"><table class="playlist" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicGroup"><tbody><tr class="first tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"><td class="tracklist_track_pos">A1</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Top Of The World</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">A2</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">I Believe In Someone</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">A3</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">The Colour Of Black</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">B1</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">I Wanna Thank You Baby</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">B2</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Work Hard (Every Day)</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">B3</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Beatrice</span></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="comment" itemprop="description"><b><br /></b></div>somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-60278870255560464432014-09-16T03:38:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:44.951-07:00Tony Allen: The Beat of Afrobeat<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"> <img alt="" class="size-large wp-image-8874" height="400" src="http://revivalist.okayplayer.com/wp-content/uploads/DSC2668-2008-11-13-at-18-22-18-Version-2-677x1024.jpg" title="_DSC2668 - 2008-11-13 at 18-22-18 - Version 2" width="264" /> </div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The pulsating Yoruban derived rhythms that are so seductive and foundational in Afrobeat can be reduced to the work of one man, Tony Allen. Allen was self-taught, practicing his chops while working as an engineer at a local Lagos radio station when he was only 18. He caught his first break playing claves for the highlife band “The Cool Cats” headed by ‘Sir’ Victor Olaiya, the catalyst that brought him into the nucleus of the Nigerian music circuit where he later met his partner and bandleader from 1964-1979, Fela Kuti. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Allen, like Kuti, was a product of Yoruban culture, a student of a Western Colonial influence, and a child conceived in the tension between European colonialism and African independence, a crack in the earth that spawned the moment of creativity that conceived Afrobeat and allowed it to flourish during the most politically tense environs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another great similarity between Allen and Kuti, was their affection for American jazz. Allen studied the works of Max Roach, Ghanaian highlife drummer Kofi Ghanaba, and Art Blakey, particularly drawn to Max Roach’s use of the hi-hat—a necessary ingredient in jazz that had never been truly utilized in African music—and began incorporating it into his own signature sound. The result was a hybrid of a highly polyrhythmic understanding of drumming from African folk rhythms and popular West African genres like highlife and juju, married with a very authentically American jazz vernacular, and the growingly popular funk aesthetic by pioneers like James Brown.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When Kuti and Allen met again through their intermingling within the same Nigerian music circle, Kuti remarked “How come you are the only guy in Nigeria who plays like this—jazz and highlife?” A serendipitous pairing took place, as Kuti’s (highlife and jazz) band, the “Koola Lobitos” sought Allen as an original band member.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kuti’s formidable trip to the United States set fuel to his political fire. Kuti was captivated by various fragments of Black Nationalism resulting from his relationship to Sandra Smith, a Black Panther, who first introduced him to the Black Power ideology through the works of Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, and others. He came back to Lagos applying his learnings into the African context. With a newfound affinity towards Pan Africanism and an urgent need to infuse it into his music, Kuti changed his band name to The African ’70 as a declaration of his alignment with a continental Liberation movement, and dissent against European imperialism. With a new political consciousness, he needed a sound that would speak it justice, and there arose Kuti as the voice, and Allen as the heartbeat. What Kuti said in words, Allen said through the majestic agility of his four limbs, bearing the ability to play all separate time signatures at once, often giving the illusion of multiple drummers playing simultaneously, a feat that only someone with a profound fluency in the spiritual language of rhythms can achieve.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Allen’s tenure with Kuti was a crucial one for the evolution of contemporary African music, and for drawing the bridge between two very disparate worlds musically, culturally, and politically. Allen served as Kuti’s musical director and was the only member of the Africa ’70 who had real creative autonomy. Despite a musical love affair at first, Allen eventually left Kuti and Africa ’70 in 1979 to further pursue his own music (he had recorded 3 solo albums while still Africa ’70 that Kuti supported). Allen was discontent with the unrelenting nature of Kuti towards his band members and was further disillusioned with Kuti’s rather undemocratic handlings of the band as he claimed the majority royalties and credit sought from their recordings. Nonetheless the 30 of Kuti’s albums that Allen recorded on are still remembered as the best from Kuti’s career, surely no coincidence to anyone who understands the impact of Allen to the Afrobeat genre at large. Despite his departure, Kuti would still attribute the joint creation of Afrobeat to both himself and to Allen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today—Allen, now in his 70s—is still known as one of the best drummers of all time. The title is attributed to not only his stellar musicianship, but also to his imaginative and forward thinking mind as an inventor of music, and as a successful bandleader.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Soon after his departure from the Africa ’70, Allen recorded a few albums in Nigeria before relocating first to London, and soon after to Paris, where he has lived for the past 20+ years. Allen’s exposure to a new environment allowed his work to rapidly flourish and evolve, expanding genres even further to include the influences of dub reggae, hip-hop, indie-rock, and electronica into a new genre that he coined as “Afrofunk”. His music is as politically relevant as ever, and his ear has matured to adapt to the nuances of a new world music landscape decades after his work with Kuti.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Allen’s musical anthology is unbelievably vast. After his work with Kuti, he assembled his own group called the Afro Messengers, ventured into his own creation of Afrofunk thereafter, he recorded in Lagos an album compiling the sounds and influences of intergenerational Lagos bred musicians in 2006 entitled <em>Lagos No Shaking</em>, and recently released a richly experimental album <em>Inspiration Information</em> with the Finnish musician Jimi Tenor in 2009. Perhaps one of his most provocative recordings since his tenure with Fela Kuti was with Damon Albarn (of the band Blur) in <em>The Good, The Bad & the Queen</em>, the debut album was critically acclaimed as one of the best rock recordings of 2007.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Allen’s musical tenacity has outlived many genres of music. He has had a career spanning over close to 5 decades, beyond various geographical borders, and many cultural movements. Allen continues to push the envelop while upholding what he believes to be the only real ingredient to Afrobeat—the rhythm. No matter what the project, the collaborators, the influences—so long as Allen holds down the rhythm—the end product will be celebrated as a continuation of the Afrobeat genre that he helped create almost 50 years ago.</div><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b><em>Words by Boyuan Gao</em>, published @<a href="http://revive-music.com/">revive-music.com</a></b></span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></div><br />somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-85933059535385900612014-09-15T03:33:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:44.964-07:00A Guide To The Work Of Fela Kuti<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiptOHu9eF89SsAcFpTxirXg8h7d98m9MSW2DcXaL9-ZDN9YRY4l5JSGiPfsQ5sG_9F1UKl70i5a2yNM1UNPi0l50GeaHcXxlunebGHUfh8SRP3EyLzR7e52pMMhZLdkTvoO3iXgId7E94/s1600/Fela+Kuti_010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiptOHu9eF89SsAcFpTxirXg8h7d98m9MSW2DcXaL9-ZDN9YRY4l5JSGiPfsQ5sG_9F1UKl70i5a2yNM1UNPi0l50GeaHcXxlunebGHUfh8SRP3EyLzR7e52pMMhZLdkTvoO3iXgId7E94/s1600/Fela+Kuti_010.jpg" height="400" width="296" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Originally published by David Katz <a href="http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/magazine/a-guide-to-the-albums-of-fela-kuti">here</a>!</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the most important musical and political figures to emerge in post-independence Nigeria, Fela Kuti was the legendary rebel and agent provocateur that pioneered afrobeat, an invigorating hybrid of dirty funk and traditional African rhythms. A complex man that was equal parts shaman, showman and trickster, whose perpetual criticism of Nigeria’s governmental and religious figures made him a constant target, Fela was one of a handful of exceptional individuals that forever changed our musical landscape. What follows is a guide to his voluminous recorded output, related as chronologically as possible.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some of Fela’s earliest recordings, with the Koola Lobitos band, are featured on <em><strong>Lagos Baby: 1963-1969</strong></em>, but this is mostly fairly tame highlife, with early number “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKSTtdRaPe0&playnext=1&list=PL404400A9B132D817&feature=results_video" target="_blank">Onifere No 2</a>” and later soul-influenced tracks like “Abiora” holding only the barest hint of what would follow. The bonus disc presents the band “Live At The Afro-Spot” playing primarily jazzy highlife and blues. Unfortunately, the sound quality is seriously lacking in places. For completists only. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> <em><strong>The ’69 Los Angeles Sessions</strong></em> stem from Fela’s sojourn in the City of Angels, and kicks off with the shape of things to come in the near wordless “My Lady Frustration”, a gritty, funky number that anticipates afrobeat, but the spectre of James Brown still hangs a little heavy here. “Obe!” (“Soup!”) and “Ako” (“Braggart”) are more in the mode of the standard afrobeat that would follow, and both accordingly deal with social issues, while “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00fl7c5HyaY" target="_blank">Viva Nigeria</a>” is a surprisingly patriotic proto-rap inspired by the Biafran civil war. In this transitional phase, you can hear that Fela is still finding his way. Six songs recorded between 1964-68 are included as CD bonus tracks, mastered from a far better source than on <em>Lagos Baby.</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em><strong>Fela’s London Scene</strong></em> was cut in London at Abbey Road, when Fela and his re-named Africa 70 band were on their way back to Nigeria from the USA. Again, songs like “Who’re You” and “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOqJOPcUgcU" target="_blank">Buy Africa</a>” are edging closer to afrobeat, but are still rooted in big-band jazz and less overtly political than future work.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> By the time we reach the three-song <strong><em>Open And Close</em></strong>, we’re getting closer to full-blown afrobeat. The keyboard-led title track gives instruction for a provocative dance step, “<a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xseiw3_fela-kuti-swegbe-and-pako_music#.UOSCjbbgIy4" target="_blank">Swegbe And Pako</a>” is a slow groove that decries incompetence in broken English, while “Gbagada Gbagada Gbogodo Gbogodo” adapts a folk song that recounts a war of liberation waged against the British. Fela’s keyboard playing is distinctive here, but the afrobeat groove is not yet razor-sharp.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">From the same era is the controversial <strong><em>Na Poi</em></strong>, a languorous track that was banned on release in Nigeria because it alluded too strongly to sex acts; B-side “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eaf55tDhkvM" target="_blank">You No Go Die… Unless</a>”, is a brass-laden, slowly swinging number in which Fela tells his listeners in Yoruba that they will not face death unless they want to die, despite Lagos’s many deadly perils.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span class="figure"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> The four-song concert album <strong><em>With Ginger Baker-Live!</em></strong> features the equally volatile Cream drummer, who lived in Nigeria from 1970-76. Baker gets right into the groove, while Fela pokes at the keyboards. “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1YYsRg1f_Y" target="_blank">Black Man’s Cry</a>” is James Brown-styled funk rock, with Fela crooning, <em>“I am black and proud”</em> in Yoruba. “Ye Ye De Smell”, meaning “Bullshit Stinks”, was written with Baker’s drumming style in mind, but is surprisingly melodic. Edging further into afrobeat, but the overall sound is still largely derivative of the JBs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> The real authentic sound of afrobeat as we know it truly begins with <em><strong>S</strong></em><em><strong>hakara</strong></em>, a groundbreaking two-song LP that first surfaced circa 1972. On “Lady”, Fela explains that African females see the term ‘woman’ as a potential insult; rejecting the Western notions of feminism, the song is a typical Fela reversal. Its flipside, “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMJzL0yiRuQ" target="_blank">Shakara</a>”, is also a total killer: its bright horn blasts frame Fela’s exploration of the false bluffing that hallmarks Lagos’s domestic squabbles.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> <em><strong>Roforofo Fight</strong></em> refers to senseless violence, describing two fools who batter themselves into the mud as a crowd gathers to watch them. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjCyikpl3BY" target="_blank">The music sounds explosive</a>, with trumpet and saxophone paralleling the battle musically, as afrobeat begins finding its way. Then, after a nine-minute instrumental build-up, “Go Slow” describes the deadly crawl of Lagos’s perpetual traffic jams. “Question Jam Answer” notes that hastily-asked questions will inevitably draw an equally hasty response, while “Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am” is an emotive creeper that warns of troubling the troubled, since disturbing the disturbed can have dire consequences. The musical arrangement is superb, with a melodious sax hinting at hidden worries, an eerie vocal chorus heightening the unease.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> Some say <em><strong>Afrodisiac</strong></em> was recorded during the <em>London Scene</em> sessions, though it sounds like it was cut considerably later. “Alu Jon Jonki Jon” is a driving number in which Fela hoarsely relates a traditional Yoruba folk tale about a famine and a crafty dog. “Chop’n Quench” (aka “Jeun Ko Ku”), a spirited instrumental, was Fela’s first big hit, reportedly selling 200,000 copies. “Eko Ile” is another huskily shouted number, singing the praises of Lagos in its original Yoruba name, while “Je’Nwi Temi” (“Don’t Gag Me”) was one of the earliest songs aimed directly at the authorities: against a disjointed guitar and trumpet motif, Fela informs his governmental adversaries that he is not going to shut his mouth, even if they jail him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> 1973’s <em><strong>Gentleman</strong></em> is one of Fela’s first statements decrying his countrymen’s colonial mindset. Following eight minutes of distracted horn solos, Fela says in Pidgin that he is “Africa Man Original”, rather than a ‘gentleman’ that seeks to ape the British – <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ykpwr8K3M4" target="_blank">powerful stuff</a>. Less inspired, but still holding attention, “Fefe Maa Efe” uses an Ashanti proverb about women’s beauty as the launching pad for a tight number in which Fela symbolically relates various topics in different languages. “Igbe (Na Shit)” addresses the volatile nature of human relationships.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As befitting its title, 1974’s <strong><em>Confusion</em></strong> starts with a troublingly empty electric piano, interspersed with echoing drums that don’t go anywhere. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMgA22Biwfg" target="_blank">It takes five minutes for the bass to start</a>, but once the groove gets going, Tony Allen’s drumming percolates superbly, and as more instruments join, everything becomes hypnotic. Eventually, Fela discusses specific types of confusion that beset Africa in the era of the post-colonial hangover. Later, he makes a complex metaphor in which he compares Lagos to a corpse.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"></span><em><strong>Alagbon Close</strong></em> refers to the centre of police investigations in Lagos, where Fela was often interrogated. Here, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6MZi4elZNo" target="_blank">he reports what took place inside its walls</a>, backed by a chillingly sweet female chorus. The flipside, “I No Get Eye For Back”, sung in Yoruba and Pidgin, reminds that we need eyes in the back of our head, since so many always want to attack us.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> 1975’s <em><strong>He Miss Road</strong></em> also has a deceptively pleasant feeling, but its playful lyrics mask a serious message – particularly when Fela sings of a gorilla jumping onto a bus and the inevitable pandemonium that follows. Then, the languorous “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsz_nBB_9J8" target="_blank">Monday Morning In Lagos</a>” feels much more tense, as Fela describes the inevitable comedown of a broke Monday, following the squandering of cash on drinks during the weekend. Similarly, the faster “It’s Not Possible” notes the disingenuous false promises made by people who ultimately let us down.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> <em><strong>Expensive Shit</strong></em> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9S0T0eCdy4" target="_blank">is another true landmark</a>, an excellent record of great political and musical importance. The title track refers to a notorious incident, in which Fela swallowed his marijuana stash during a search of his home, only to have his shit searched for evidence, but not even a seed was found there. This is 13 minutes of sheer musical power, with the first six being particularly tense and tight. “Water No Get Enemy” is equally enthralling, but is driven by beautiful brass blasts, a lilting rhythm and full vocal chorus, all of which salutes water’s great necessity.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> <em><strong>Noise For Vendor Mouth</strong></em> is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KphbTonhkrM" target="_blank">another long, tense song</a>, in which Fela defends the good people of his alternative commune, known as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalakuta_Republic" target="_blank">Kalakuta Republic</a>, who were branded thieves and weed addicts by the corrupt authorities. Its despicable flipside, “Mattress”, compares women to a bed made specifically for men to lie on. Fela’s defense? That men are essentially polygamous by nature.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"></span><em><strong>Everything Scatter</strong></em> is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8V9mkHGm_U" target="_blank">a wonderfully chaotic track</a> that attempts to portray the public’s contradictory views of Kalakuta. The quick-action musical build-up launches directly into hectic jams, punctuated by a wordless female chorus and compelling keyboard chops, then moving on to fine sax soloing and expressive trumpet work. Then, Fela describes the commotion on a public bus as it passes Kalakuta: establishment types say the Republic has rabble, prostitutes and thieves, but others say Kalakuta folk are honourable, their alternative lifestyle commendable in a corrupt society. Fela then broadens the metaphor to point out how conflict has kept Nigeria in a mess, particularly under military rule. The flipside, “Who No Know Go Know”, is even heavier: after a protracted build-up with keyboard noodling and fearsome sax blasts, Fela bemoans Africa’s lack of unity, warning of dire consequences.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> <em><strong>Kalakuta Show</strong></em> was Fela’s dramatic response to two notorious police raids that took place in 1974. The first saw Fela charged with “possession of dangerous drugs” and “abduction of minors.” With the case collapsing, the authorities raided the compound again, breaking Fela’s arm and cracking his skull. But the tactics backfired: the judge deemed Fela’s wounds unacceptable, and after his acquittal, 50,000 youths carried Fela back to Kalakuta. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s8-Wk0OHzU" target="_blank">The song is 14 minutes of defiance</a>: Fela sounds completely enraged, yet full of wisdom. Flipside “Don’t Make Garan Garan” is another slow creeper, this time with Fela railing in Yoruba against self-centred egomaniacs that make life difficult for the poor.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"></span><em><strong>Unnecessary Begging</strong></em> begins with impressive sax work from Lekan Animashaun, before <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=614ZdP8SIbg" target="_blank">Fela delivers another complex metaphor</a>, explaining in Pidgin that begging is not needed in the ghetto, because when someone lives by their word, they can gain their necessary rewards. Then he widens the net to explain that in Nigeria, some make the mistake of trusting the government to provide adequate facilities, but the government says their mismanagement is a problem of fledgling democracies – an idea as unnecessary as begging in the ghetto.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> The mocking <em><strong>Ikoyi Blindness</strong></em> has Fela railing against the Lagos elite, who look down on ghetto dwellers whilst blindly aping colonial masters. Flipside “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLwQekx72gA" target="_blank">Gba Mi Leti Ki N’Dolowo</a>“, or “Slap Me Make I Get Money”, referenced recent lawsuits served by poor Nigerians against influential figures. Both tracks cruise along at a fair pace, and are engaging, if not quite essential.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> <em><strong>Yellow Fever</strong></em> has a slow build-up with keyboards giving way to horns, before Fela names various fevers that affect mankind, including malaria, hay fever, influenza and jaundice, as well as “freedom fever” and “inflation fever”, before moving on to “yellow fever,” a condition of the mind that causes Africans to bleach their skins – <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIRXNA3Eofs" target="_blank">another killer, voiced atop a wicked groove</a>. But the flipside revises “Na Poi”, which is more filler than killer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span class="figure"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"></span> </span>1975’s semi-obscure <em><strong>Monkey Banana</strong></em> advances with caution, the keyboards giving way to trumpet and sax (along with fine conga work), before a ‘la-la-la’ chorus starts up and Fela begins his diatribe against “book people,” warning the poor not to be hoodwinked into a life of servitude by the propaganda of the rich. His ultimate demand: <em>“Give him the banana, straight…don’t make him work like a monkey!”</em> Flipside “Sense Wiseness” continues the attack, warning that foreign degrees are meaningless if locals distance themselves from common people.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span class="figure"> <span class="figcaption"> <span class="credits"></span> </span></span> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em><strong>Excuse O</strong></em> is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMSguQQiidw" target="_blank">an up-tempo groove in which Fela speaks of things our fellow men do to annoy us</a>, such as pilfering our beer, picking our pockets, trying to steal our girlfriends… the obvious reaction is to shout, “Excuse, O!”, as in, ‘Excuse me! Let’s not quarrel, give me back my thing!’ Unusually, this one has foreboding music but light-hearted lyrics. Flipside “Mr Grammarticalogylisationalism Is The Boss” is a slower, meditative number with surprisingly psychedelic keyboard scales, on which Fela decries the Nigerian education system, and the fact that a better command of English results in a higher salary. Delivered in strangely unbalanced Pidgin, yet still holding powerfully mocking anger.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> <em><strong>Upside Down</strong></em> is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4BeSulLoIU" target="_blank">a compelling one-off cut with American muse Sandra Isidore</a>, during her 1976 Lagos visit, that contrasts the orderliness of the West with the chaos of Africa. Fela wrote the track and Sandra tackles it with verve, despite the Pidgin sounding peculiar in her mouth. On the flip, Fela revisits “Go Slow” in a more abstract form.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> <em><strong>Zombie</strong></em> is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBgewcFh-cg" target="_blank">one of the most outstanding works of the period</a>. It starts off strong with a rousing horn fanfare that holds portents of the important message he will deliver: the zombie of the title, who does whatever he is told unthinkingly, is revealed to be a soldier of the Nigerian Army. The song became a huge hit, but cost Fela dearly, as it led to a thousand soldiers unleashing a brutal attack on Kalakuta in February 1977, in which Fela was nearly killed, his wives raped and his mother thrown out of a window. The record is simply superb – Fela firing on all cylinders and the band at their prime. Original flipside “Mr Follow Follow” is also thoroughly excellent: a powerful creeper in which Fela warns listeners not to follow blindly – if one needs to follow at all, it is best to follow with eyes and ears open! Some CD reissues also include outtake “Observation Is No Crime”, another slow and surprisingly playful track in which Fela proclaims in Pidgin that he will not accept censure. There is also a live Berlin Jazz Festival bonus track, “Mistake”, in which Fela differentiates between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ mistakes, calling on African leaders to acknowledge their errors.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> 1977’s <em><strong>Johnny Just Drop</strong></em> is billed as “Live from the Kalakuta Republic”, but credits indicate a studio recording. It <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYLqcQpaZ4s" target="_blank">begins with an extended bongo jam</a> before the bass kicks in, a sax solo starts and the song speeds up considerably. After 13 minutes, an abstract female chorus joins, before Fela describes the folly of “JJDs,” those Nigerians freshly returned from overseas, whose way of being is anything but African. An obscure number, initially issued with an instrumental mix on the flip.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> True classic <em><strong>Sorrow, Tears And Blood</strong></em> has <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_ODwq7jm3E" target="_blank">Fela at the peak of his powers</a>, another hard-hitting statement that directly addressed the horrendous Feb ’77 raid (although it was also inspired by the June 1976 Soweto Uprising). The song feels ominous from the get-go, with fine sax and keyboard interplay before Fela emotively describes the attack, the soldiers leaving their “regular trademark” of violence. Flipside “Colonial Mentality” has another dramatic build-up, the horns nicely counterbalanced by intricate percussion, and Fela himself on expressive tenor sax, the lyrics again addressing the colonial mindset of Africans.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"></span> <em><strong>Opposite People</strong></em> zips along quickly, with <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kX_kKnA290" target="_blank">brighter than usual Fela keyboard chops</a>, and rousing horn fanfares for ten minutes, before Fela explains that “opposite people” will reveal themselves as a disruptive presence. Flipside “Equalisation Of Trouser And Pant” sounds more foreboding, the horns holding a sense of urgent discord and the percussion hinting at unforeseen troubles; after ten minutes, Fela playfully uses trousers and pants as a metaphor for class inequality.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> <em><strong>Stalemate</strong></em> is another post-raid track concerned with man’s inability to resolve conflict. The intro has some bum notes, along with a strong sax melody, and the lyrics concern stalemates forged by quarrelling women and untrusting hustlers. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QufTwp5vqpw" target="_blank">All very playful, considering the turbulent era in which it was cut</a>. Flipside “Don’t Worry About My Mouth O”, aka “African Message”, has a heavier rhythm. Its symbolic message skates between playfulness and seriousness. Fela says he will use a chewing stick to clean his teeth and water to clean his ass instead of toilet paper, because this is the African way, and points the listener to <em>The Black Man And The Nile</em>, instead of the Bible. A most peculiar outing, but still good.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> <em><strong>Fear Not For Man</strong></em> begins with a tortured scream and a cough, before Fela delivers a drum-backed sermon on Kwame Nkrumah. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Equ3QbFE6sI" target="_blank">An addictive funk groove follows</a>, leading to more shrieking and impressive conga lines. Flipside “Palm Wine Sound” is a pleasant instrumental referencing the guitar style, but here with added afrobeat emphasis.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Around the same time, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozyZEJiig8U" target="_blank">Fela cut a new version</a> of <em><strong>Why Blackman Dey Suffer</strong></em>, a fearsome indictment of colonialism, again with Ginger Baker in tow (it was first cut circa 1971, but deemed too radical). It starts with a slow, portentous groove, swiftly invoking a traditional Yoruba chant. Soon some floor-toms kick in as the keyboard improvisation becomes more intense, offset by a rousing horn fanfare, in which baritone sax is particularly resonant, leading to extended tenor soloing. Fela then reminds that black folks are perpetually broke because Africa was raped and pillaged; unity is the ultimate solution. The mix makes excellent spatial placement of instruments, and stereo panning heightens the effect of disjuncture – fiercely radical and expertly arranged. The CD includes another misplaced track, “Ikoyi Mentality Versus Mushin Mentality”, with another great stereo mix. Here Fela contrasts the avarice of Lagos’s wealthy with the honest openness of ghetto folk.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> After a delicious 11-minute build up, <em><strong>No Agreement</strong></em> finds Fela almost professing the opposite of what we expect: he says he will keep his mouth shut if speaking up is going to betray his fellow Nigerians. The rhythm is fearsome with vibrant conga beats, the horn section particularly tight, and there is a fine trumpet solo from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_Bowie" target="_blank">Lester Bowie</a>. Flipside “Dog Eat Dog” is a moody, helter-skelter instrumental, leading with oddball keyboards from Fela, and settling into an insistent stomp.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> On 1978’s super-heavy <strong><em>Shuffering And Shmiling</em></strong>, after a long build-up, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y--5IlljO78" target="_blank">Fela launches an attack Christianity and Islam</a>, condemned as non-African imports from Rome, London and Mecca. His intended targets were then-President Obasanjo, a Christian, and MKO Abiola, an Islamic businessman that later ran the country, but he also vents frustration with religious hypocrisy in general. Fela goes on to describe the over-crammed public busses, full of poor workers “shuffering and shmiling,” blinded by the promise of a better status in the afterlife. For its original release in France, the B-side was “Perambulator”, which starts with an odd bass solo, soon switching to a rapid rhythm led by off-key keyboards, replaced by chaotic horn blasts and percolating congas. Later, trumpet and sax solos lend a feeling of seriousness, until Fela begins an odd rant about perambulators coming and going – another symbolic look at the state of modern Africa, which Fela says is stuck in a rut. <em><strong>Perambulator</strong></em> finally surfaced in Nigeria in 1983, backed by “Frustration” – an extended re-cut of ‘My Lady Frustration’ in fuller stereophonic form.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> 1978 was a very tumultuous year for Fela. After marrying 27 women, he travelled to Ghana, but was expelled when a performance of “Zombie” instigated a riot. That November, after Fela was heckled at the Berlin Jazz Festival, much of his band ditched him, fearing he would pour the profits into his campaign for the Nigerian presidency, following his formation of a (disqualified) political party. But the following year, another landmark recording surfaced: <em><strong>Unknown Soldier</strong></em>, one of Fela’s most direct statements about the Kalakuta raid, which a government report attributed to “unknown soldiers.” The 15-minute introduction is heavily laden with ominous fear before Fela starts up his sermon, recounting the horrible brutality that saw so many raped, a student’s eye knocked out, and Fela’s 78-year-old mother sustain injuries which ultimately killed her. Stevie Wonder gets a namecheck as well. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUnyAE93GZ4" target="_blank">Over 30 minutes of ultra-powerful magic</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> <em><strong>VIP (Vagabonds In Power)</strong></em> was the opening number from <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bpThXP9f8I" target="_blank">Fela’s controversial headlining of the 1978 Berlin Jazz Festival</a>. The 20-minute track begins with a rambling introduction in which Fela informs the audience that 99% of what they hear about Africa is wrong. He then reveals that the VIPs who abandon the poor are really “vagabonds in power.” Later, the rhythm charges, the audience starts clapping along and an emotive sax solo leads to full horn fanfares and percussive breaks atop Tony Allen’s livid drum rolls. Fela eventually decries the greedy VIPs and their evil ways.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"></span> Surfacing in 1979, <em><strong>ITT</strong></em> is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK9ysqn5hQg" target="_blank">another Fela killer straight to the head of corrupt leaders</a> and the cronies that prop them up, namely President Obasanjo and corporate business whiz Mashood Abiola – then head of the Nigerian branch of International Telephone and Telegraph, here re-cast as “International Thief-Thief.” The song has urgency right from the start, its wailing sax demanding notice as a cute chorus shrieks out the “thief-thief” motif. Fela links the evil deeds of ITT to the legacy of colonialism – strong words with a forceful rhythm behind them.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"></span></span> 1980’s <em><strong>Authority Stealing</strong></em> continues the theme of thievery in power, this time with a parallel drawn to the rough justice meted out to petty thieves in the street markets, their crimes linked to the reduced price of Nigerian oil. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgqxFHMqlxs" target="_blank">The band is totally tight here</a>, with super-fine soloing from the saxophonists (particularly Lekan Animashaun), as well as trumpet blasts, wicked lead guitar and oddball keyboards from Fela. A fine work, worthy of wider acknowledgement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Half of <strong><em>Music Of Many Colours</em></strong> is Fela at his most funky, helped by the looming presence of Roy Ayers, who toured Nigeria with Fela in 1979. The original B-side, “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Tq28s3T8aE" target="_blank">2000 Blacks Got To Be Free</a>”, sees Ayers in fine form, banging out a fast-paced vibraphone line as he implores Africans to unite. Ayers dominates this super-funky track, but gets some three-dimensional embellishments with African percussion and the chorus of Fela’s wives. The original A-side, “Africa Centre Of The World”, feels much more afrobeat, yet has extra atmospheric brilliance though Ayers’s chilling vibraphone. The horn parts are particularly complex and resonant, and the chorus that chants the title sounds magnificent, as Fela rejects the notion of Africa as the ‘Third World.’ Another absolute winner.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> 1981’s <em><strong>Coffin For Head Of State</strong></em> again returned to the 1977 Kalakuta raid, which resulted in the death of Fela’s mother in September 1979. Specifically, the track references the parading of a symbolic coffin to the seat of government immediately after, delivered as a gesture of defiant anger to then-president Obasanjo. The song holds anxiety and tension in the off-kilter keyboards and vacillating horn blasts, before Fela begins a lament about religious hypocrisy aimed at corrupt leaders such as Obasanjo and his northern Muslim ally, Yar Adua (who would become President in 2007), who both witnessed the coffin’s delivery. Fela delivers his message in jester mode, but the seriousness is not lost on the listener in this hefty track – <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PXcbjNkTSk" target="_blank">serious and deep</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"></span></span> The understated <em><strong>Original Sufferhead</strong></em>, the first album to name Fela’s band as Egypt 80, was released soon after yet another brutal attack on Fela’s compound, in which he nearly met his death. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdiwtmUSG9Q" target="_blank">The title track starts off with an urgent pace and frightful keyboard sprints</a>, then forceful horns work up the tension and an odd ‘la-la’ chorus presents a discordant diversion. After emotive soloing, Fela sings in Pidgin about the non-availability of water, food, lighting and housing – post-colonial problems that have turned Africans into “sufferheads,” despite the continent’s many resources. B-side “Power Show” has a complex, full-force arrangement that makes spectacular use of the horns, Fela’s own tenor sax work sounding particularly strong. Then Fela attacks obstructive immigration officers, money-grubbing postal workers and egoistic generals that abuse their poor labourers just to exercise power over another.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> From here on, as Fela became more reclusive, his recorded studio output seriously slowed. <em><strong>Music Is The Weapon</strong></em> is a live album, recorded in Amsterdam in November 1983 and given a final mix-down by Fela and <a href="http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lectures/dennis-bovell--bass-culture-pt1-">Dennis Bovell</a>. The chaotic concert featured Fela’s son Femi on alto sax and Dele Soshimi on electric piano, along with four faithful wives and some rising unknowns. “MOP” or “Movement Of The People” referenced the political party Fela formed to contest the 1979 general elections. On “You Give Me Shit I Give You Shit”, Fela ultimately calls for tit-for-tat action; the slow groove has a long-winded tale about a corrupt businessman, and future president Abiola is again targeted. The final track, “Custom Check Point”, begins with frantic and discordant keyboard work, leading to abstract female choruses. Fela’s subject this time is the “scramble for Africa” that resulted in the continent’s terrible division. A complicated work of several distinctive sections, with some fine soprano sax soloing from Fela.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> 1985’s <em><strong>Army Arrangement</strong></em> is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5USwWBtwceI" target="_blank">another complex creation</a> that looks at Nigeria’s neo-colonial situation. After searing horns and distracted choruses, Fela starts his complex Pidgin sermon on injustice, which is incongruously disrupted by ribald commentary. There follows thoughts on the way that Nigeria’s military governments always end up giving the reins back to the same politicians that were in power before their coups – a highly contradictory situation – and reminds that dissenting political parties such as Fela’s MOP are always obliterated; all of which is dismissed as an “army arrangement,” a corrupt and repressive double-dealing that results in death and destruction. Some CD reissues also included the previously unreleased “Government Chicken Boy”, revealed as those petty civil servants and media fools that support Nigeria’s corrupt political system. The peculiar track, which rides a pseudo-Latin rhythm, has a terribly muddy, cluttered mix – perhaps it was unfinished.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> <a href="http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lectures/wally-badarou--wally-street-journals">Wally Badarou</a> produced 1986’s <em><strong>Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense</strong></em>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrBlsXZk3_A" target="_blank">a high point of this sparse period</a>, making full use of the audio spectrum though a superb arrangement that emphasises the brass through expert spatial placement. This time, Fela’s message concerns the role of teachers, but he fears that after schooling, the corrupt governments of post-colonial Africa become our teacher; instead of democracy, Nigeria has “dem-all-crazy.” Therefore, he surmises, if the former colonisers of Europe and the neo-colonial US are meant to be Africa’s teachers, then please, don’t teach me no nonsense! B-side (of overseas editions) “Look And Laugh” resembles a melancholy highlife: in it, Fela attempts to explain why he had become so reclusive, due largely to the brutal attacks by soldiers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> 1989’s <em><strong>Beasts Of No Nation</strong></em> has many targets, being <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCpua4dvUXs" target="_blank">another great Fela diatribe</a>, despite some vocal weakness. This quietly meditative number starts with fine musical interplay and some Yoruba choruses, before Fela appears as “basket mouth” to deliver his message: he speaks of time spent in prison on trumped-up charges, and references a campaign unleashed by the military government led by General Buhari, known as the ‘war against indiscipline’, in which the Nigerian public were deemed “stupid.” Fela then speaks of the “animals in human skin,” such as Thatcher, Reagan, Botha and Mobutu – the “Beasts Of No Nation” of the title. Overseas issues also had the track “Just Like That” (issued in Nigeria as a separate album with “MOPP”), a witty, funky ditty in which Fela says that change can come swiftly in Africa – both positive and negative.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> On 1989’s <em><strong>Overtake Don Overtake Overtake</strong></em>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2aArlIHnOU" target="_blank">a clavé-type cowbell leads the insistent rhythm</a>. Fela references past classics like “Kalakuta Show” and “Zombie”, moving on to attack the military governments of Africa, which fail to liberate the people. Musically, the second bass that appears late in the song adds another layer of texture. Some US issues include the track <em><strong>Confusion Break Bone</strong></em> (a separate LP in Nigeria), a slowly creeping update of “Confusion”. After sax solos and a trippy conga break, Fela speaks of police, military and governmental wrongdoings. Then, a weary Fela ultimately says that the situation that turned Lagos into a corpse on “Confusion” has now seen the corpse run over by traffic; hence the idea that “confusion break bone.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span class="figure"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="figure"><span class="figcaption"><span class="credits"></span> </span></span> The final Fela studio album was 1992’s <em><strong>Underground System</strong></em>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GaQ_vuutxE" target="_blank">a messy disc that evidences a chaotic frame of mind</a>. “Underground System” starts with a ghostly bass, adds throbbing percussion and stabbing piano, then shrieking female choruses and horn fanfares. Fela begins to chant in Yoruba, then speaks in garbled Pidgin about trying to stop soldiers from ruining Africa. He praises Nkrumah and curses “great African thieves,” like Obasanjo and Abiola. He says the “underground system” that operates in Africa will always see a leader like Nkrumah, Lumumba, Sekou Toure, Thomas Sankara or Idi Amin killed off, while scoundrels will always force their way into office at the expense of the people – evidence of the underground system at work. B-side “Pansa Passa” is also chaotic: drums clash with wobbly piano, then bass and guitars are met by a woodblock, and sax solos start, but Fela says little, other than recalling the earlier defiant masterworks he cut, such as “Alagbon Close” and “Monkey Banana”. The overall feeling here is of weariness, rather than originality, which is perhaps unsurprising, considering all he had gone through, his wariness of harassment by the repressive regime of Sani Abacha, and the AIDS that was already wreaking havoc with his immune system. In just a few short years, Fela would make his final transition, leaving our physical plane on August 2, 1997, aged 58.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of the posthumous releases, there are two must-have DVDs: <em><strong>Music Is The Weapon</strong></em> (included in the <em><strong>Fela Kuti Anthology</strong></em>), a revealing documentary made largely in Nigeria by Stephane Tchal-Gadjieff and Jean Jacques Flori in 1983, and <em><strong>Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense</strong></em>, a BBC documentary from 1984 which has a sober interview, interspersed with concert footage and bolstered by contextual scenes exploring Nigeria’s recent history. Fela is also part of <em><strong>Konkombe: The Nigerian Pop Music Scene</strong></em>, from Jeremey Marre’s excellent B<em>eats Of The Heart</em> documentary series. Concert DVDs include <em><strong>Live at Glastonbury</strong></em> from 1984 and <strong><em>L</em></strong><em><strong>ive In Paris</strong></em> from 1981.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The first Fela book was the revealing <em><strong>This Bitch Of A Life</strong></em> by Cuban ethnologist Carlos Moore, first printed in 1982 and recently revised. It was adapted from the pair’s personal conversations, so there is much ‘hip’ jargon, as well as firsthand testimony from wives and Sandra Isidore. The most in-depth exploration of Fela’s life and work is <em><strong>Fela: The Life And Times Of An African Musical Icon</strong></em> by Michael Veal, an academic at Yale that spent a long time in Nigeria conducting research, and even played for a time in Fela’s band. And Steve McQueen is currently working a Fela bio-pic, so watch this space. Viva Fela!</div><br /> <br /> <span style="font-size: large;"><b><em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/dubmealways">David Katz</a> is an author, music journalist, DJ and reggae historian residing in the UK.</em> <em>He has previously written about </em><a href="http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/magazine/sao-luis-reggae"><em>the reggae scene in </em></a><em><a href="http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/magazine/sao-luis-reggae">São Luís Do Maranhão, Brasil</a> for the Academy web magazine.</em></b></span><br />somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-37792593649016972362014-09-13T12:01:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:44.977-07:00Coming soon ... Next Stop Soweto - Volume 4 - Spirit Of Malombo: Malombo Jazz Makers, Jabula And Jazz Afrika 1966-1984 <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjokisZo7S00JK4CVbPZuzxFzpgFaWrTEgjsWgstdjYVpHvx2jY9bOUIx_5esnNpWqrgyfnjmkoV3faSCj6_RhlXQT2TQZIFr9cuMVpNmtKSYFNtiQfyNdA0PBT5Cf1_xHQrHVKOqDWhMY/s1600/CS544459-01A-BIG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjokisZo7S00JK4CVbPZuzxFzpgFaWrTEgjsWgstdjYVpHvx2jY9bOUIx_5esnNpWqrgyfnjmkoV3faSCj6_RhlXQT2TQZIFr9cuMVpNmtKSYFNtiQfyNdA0PBT5Cf1_xHQrHVKOqDWhMY/s1600/CS544459-01A-BIG.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div><br /><b>Malombo Jazz Makers</b><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Essentially the broad history of Malombo can be broken up into two separate groups that often used the same name for different recordings by each group. Though starting as a single group, the two threads soon split apart, one wing with Philip Tabane, the other with Abbey Cindi and Julian Bahula. To unpack this history I have put together two discographies, one for Philip Tabane, the other for Julian Bahula. Though many others were involved, Tabane and Bahula are the two members of the original group that seemed to continue separately each thread of Malombo music. (Cindi and Lucky Ranku, of course, played major roles in what I am loosely calling the "Bahula" thread.) Today's post focuses on "Philip Tabane and Malombo". The "Julian Bahula and Malombo" discography can be viewed <a href="http://flatint.blogspot.com/2011/11/julian-bahula-and-malombo-discography.html">here</a>.<br /><br />Some of these albums as well as their re-issues have fetched amazing prices on auction at eBay and so I have put together a discography that attempts, at least in part, to identify the many different issues. If you have an album or an issue not featured in this list please let us know and we can add it to the discography.<br /><br />Yvonne Huskisson in her <i>Bantu Composers of Southern Africa</i> has Abbey Cindi and Philip Tabane forming a group called the Lullaby-Landers in 1961 or 1963, depending on which entry you read. In 1963 the group changed their name to the Malombo Jazz Men which included Julian Bahula on a set of "African drums". He had originally come from the Vlakfontein City Council Band. As Huskisson puts it, Malombo's aim was "to produce a new sound in Jazz by introducing African drums and African drum beats and an African traditional sound into a Progressive-Jazz trio." The group was hugely successful, winning a number of competitions most notably the 1964 Castle Lager Jazz Festival at Orlando Stadium. The trio made their first recordings with "Radio Bantu" that same year and soon a debut, studio LP—<i>Castle Lager Jazz Festival 1964</i>—was issued by EMI. The B-side of the album also included the Early Mabuza Quartet.<br /><br />This classic record featured the original line-up of the Malombo Jazz Men (sometimes Jazzmen) with Philip Tabane on guitar, Abbey Cindi on flute and Julian Bahula on the "Malombo drums". The group would soon split somewhere around 1966.<br /><br />After the break-up, Tabane began working with Gabriel 'Mabi' Thobejane and continued recording under the name Malombo Jazzmen and then later simplified it to just Malombo. In 1978 Oupa Monareng took over the Malombo drums with Fish Phale on percussion. And then around the mid to late 1980s, Raymond Motau assumed percussion.<b> </b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="http://flatint.blogspot.ch/2011/11/philip-tabane-and-malombo-discography.html">flatint.blogspot.ch</a></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>---</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Philip Tabane: The Rolling Stone Interview </b></span><br /><br /><b>Bongani Madondo books an hour with the Ancestral-Jazz-Rock god's ultimate recluse. And two weeks later he's not left the house. They're still talking, even as you read.</b><br /><br /><div class="itemFullText">Half a century after Philip Tabane and his band of fledgling wizards took South Africa by storm with their Kwela-Avant-Blues record, "Foolish Fly" – influencing every other local style from Blues to Black Consciousness Punks – Tabane finds himself the Last Pirate rowing. Bongani Madondo books an hour with the Ancestral-Jazz-Rock god's ultimate recluse. And two weeks later he's not left the house. They're still talking, even as you read... <br /><br />Spring 2002: Three Blues Brothers – Arabi Mucheke, manager (and "godsent" as the artist would later put it) of Phillip Tabane, and his two protégés, Andile Dlamini, and yours truly (well, what do you know? - yours truly). <br /><br />With their rucksacks, CDs, a variety of African locks – we used to say then, "call me 'dread' and I'll be dreadful to you" – and ebullient spirits, the three bohos from Jo'burg packed into a tiny, Battle- for-Iwo Jima-like mini-Jeep (a mini-Humvee, in fact), which belonged to the fastest-talking and funkiest of the three – Dlamini, a.k.a. "Magengx" – and hit the road. <br /><br />We are driving almost seven hours to the University of Venda, in the former Venda homeland, where Cyril Ramaphosa is the Chancellor, and this afternoon our friend, elder and object of endless intellectual intrigue, Philip "Malombo" Tabane, will be conferred an honorary PhD in Music and Cultural Anthropology by the university, a move engineered by the hip musician , musicologist and general human encyclopaedia of the international Black Music imaginary, Sello Galane. <br /><br />The Jeep roars, flies, threatens, huffs and puffs as it speeds down the notorious N1 Highway to Limpopo. Inside, we are grooving to some maskandi and reggae, a family band called either Morgan Heritage or Garnett Silk, but don't be fooled. Other than Mucheke, we are not real Rastas, and yet we skank our heads and feel irie. Still, we don't reach the place. This thing's speed is just over 100km/h. <br /><br />When we eventually arrive, we are three hours late and the man we are there to support is now no longer just a mere friend, but a Doctor of The Arts in, what's it again? Yeah, that too. The function is over and we quickly head to a recreation park in Polokwane where our guy is supposed to playing, but we don't see him. He must be with the "other Doctors" we quip, and we head off to order ciders and join the general merriment around there. <br /><br />We come back without seeing him. And I would not see him for another seven years. The next time I see him is at a memorial service for Mucheke, who has managed the good old "Doctor" for 10 years now and they are both not rich, at least not in the monetary sense. Mucheke has managed to take him all over the world, including the famed New Orleans Jazz Festival, where Tabane was once again honoured; this time around he was given the "Freedom of The City of New Orleans", one of the homes of zydeco, cajun, swampy jazz, mardi gras, funk music and, also, Mac Rebennack, better know as Dr John. <br /><br />Today, we are here to bid bye to our brother Mucheke, and Dr Malombo is not feeling well. He would go on not feeling well, four years since the untimely departure of his manager and "brother", or, as he once told me, "The angel in my life." <br /><br />At his peak, he's blessed the music-loving public – and now especially the vinyl crate-diggers – with South African classics such as Pele Pele, unh! (pronounced "ngg!"), Silent Beauty, Sangoma, The Indigenous Afro-Jazz Sounds of Philip Tabane and his Malombo Jazzman (sic), and Ke A Bereka among others, for international labels such as Elektra and Nonesuch. <br /><br />A consummate composer, he has contributed to soundtracks of films including the hit television drama, Muhvango, and the iconic 1969 film by his friend, Nana Mohomo. And for all that, all he's got to show for his life is an old (seventh year) SAMA for "Ke A Bereka"(Best Single") and a SAMA Lifetime Achievement Award. <br /><br />This is the man who remains an object of ceaseless fascination for hipsters, rockers and futurists, from the Blk Jks to house DJs and just about everyone who consider themselves leftfield. <br /><br />Also, this is a man you are most likely to find sitting alone on his stoep in Mamelodi ... most of the time he's spending awake. <br /><br />Even during Mucheke's time, the man was famously notorious for his reticence. The number of media interviews he has done since the turn of the last decade, going back to 2000, can be counted on one hand – precisely the reason why Lucas "Styles" Ledwaba, the author of the long-awaited, work-in-progress biography, With Strings Attached: The Life & Music of Philip Tabane, says: "I don't even know if it will ever happen. I am dealing with an absentee landlord, so I can't pay my rent." He mocks – half-joking, half-serious – whenever he's queried about the book. <br /><br />Since Mucheke died, part of the spirit of "Dr Malombo" went with him. Gigs have dwindled to a trickle and although his son and direct heir to the ancestral Malombo music gift, Thabang Tabane, does his best to take care of his old, sometimes ailing 79-year-ol'-man's affairs, no one has ever managed to keep this guitar god's spirits as high as Mucheke was able to. <br /><br />Nobody, but nobody – not even the two dangerously brilliant Zulu maestros, the late Mfaz' Omnyama and the late Sandile Shange, not even Shukela, Nothembi, Dan Patlanksy, or the closest competition to Tabane, the late Allen Kwela – can, would, could and have done with the guitar what Tabane has in the last 50 years. <br /><br />Through several band line-ups he has shuffled over 20 times over the half a century (the best were the first three Malombo outfits: 1962's Malombo Jazz; 1964's Malombo Jazz Members; and 1965's Malombo Jazz Makers, with his fellow township band members Julian Bahula on percussions, Abbey Cindi on flute and harmonica, and later his nephew, the inimitable Mabi Thobejane on congas and toys), Tabane has left an indelible mark on almost all sorts of genres. <br /><br />Although he is still alive, alternative types – from skate-rockers, world, Afro-rock to contemporary punks – speak of him in celestial tones, as though they are talking about The Doors' Jim Morrison, or that other "Jim" with a penchant for burning-guitar rituals. <br /><br />He does to guitar and with the guitar what only Jimi Hendrix, Ali Farka Touré, Jimmy Page and Dakar's legendary Orchestra Baobab's Barthélemy Attisso have ever done with the axe, or anyone has ever done to or with the instrument in public, with their clothes on! <br /><br />And yet, nobody seems to know his whereabouts, or what to do with him once they track him down. Generally, he has become the true, French existentialist obscure and non-participator recluse. <br /><br />But when I track him down to No 3814 Mokone Street, D1, Mamelodi West, Malombo was uncharacteristically open, frank and ready to talk. We were scheduled for only one hour. Two weeks later, we are still talking. About almost everything. <br /><br />This is an excerpt from the July 2013 issue of Rolling Stone South Africa, to read the full cover-story you <a href="mailto:subscriptions@rollingstone.co.za">can subscribe to the magazine here</a>.</div><br /> <span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.rollingstone.co.za/opinion/item/2619-philip-tabane-the-rolling-stone-interview">rollingstone.co.za</a> </b></span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Tracklist</u></b></span><br /><br />Disk 1<br /><br />01 Malombo Jazz Makers Plus 2 - Bahula Dithabeng<br />02 Malombo Jazz Men - Abie's Mood<br />03 Malombo Jazz Makers - Hleziphi<br />04 Malombo - Malombo Workshop<br />05 Malombo Jazz Makers - Matshenyogo<br />06 Malombo Jazz Makers - Bababelo<br />07 Malombo - Bird Meets Elephant<br />08 Malombo Jazz Makers - Abbey's Body<br />09 Malombo Jazz Makers Plus 2 - Away From Malombo's<br />10 Malombo Jazz Makers - Jikeleza<br />11 Malombo Jazz Makers - Sefuralong<br />12 Malombo Jazz Makers - Sibathathu<br /><br /><br />Disk 2<br /><br />01 Jabula - Sorrows (extract)<br />02 Jabula - Let Us Be Free<br />03 Jabula - Thunder Into Our Hearts<br />04 Jabula - Journey To Africa<br />05 Jabula - Mathome<br />06 Jabula - All For One<br />07 Julian Bahula's Jazz Afrika - Woza Cindi<br />08 Jabula - Siakala<br />09 Julian Bahula's Jazz Afrika - Tlhompho<br />10 Jabula Happiness<br />11 Ithumeleng Ba Mamelodi<br />12 Botlokwa<br />13 Julian Bahula - Heita Cindisomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-82606060647853882682014-09-12T04:24:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:44.989-07:00From Denmark: The KutiMangoes - Afro-Fire <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHSHa52j6f6gtNIWVLt93Sy9lX3-90v9iemtB4XR0_pXrjebbBVU37MlR9c8PuMeKjq4qFETSIAFF7f53hyphenhyphenA5OrsKIOTzz7naoWw74MuqgMvu5LmWyK8CAH47mQ9xYtBJvLuOLiMEmBLQ/s1600/band.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHSHa52j6f6gtNIWVLt93Sy9lX3-90v9iemtB4XR0_pXrjebbBVU37MlR9c8PuMeKjq4qFETSIAFF7f53hyphenhyphenA5OrsKIOTzz7naoWw74MuqgMvu5LmWyK8CAH47mQ9xYtBJvLuOLiMEmBLQ/s1600/band.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div><br />This may sound like an Afro-Orchestra, but for sure not like a sextet, which <strong>The KutiMangoes</strong> actually are! Compact arrangements with extremely blazing horns, especially from the baritone sax and the trombone. Nonetheless it is still not overwhelming, because everything is accompanied by a carefully counterbalanced easiness, beautifully recorded for the album <strong>Afro-Fire</strong>.<br /><br /> <strong>The KutiMangoes </strong>don't focus on being highly authentic, which might present it's difficulties, seeing as the are a union of Northern Europeans and West Africans. The sax player and band leader Michael Blicher regularly plays in a trio with the New Yorker god of groove Steve Gadd and composes for string quartets, movies and for this Band. A wonderful eclectical blend of Afro beat, Jazz, Soul and a little Blues.<br /><br /> This blend combines and contains the soul of <strong>Fela Kuti</strong>, the delusional arrangements from <strong>Charles Mingus</strong> (title "Moanin") and the uncompromising drive from <strong>Ornette Coleman</strong>'s "Body Meta" - supported by <strong>Patrick Kabre</strong> from Burkina Faso, who adds the final dose of feeling to the beats with his voice. Three brass players, two drummers and a man at the keys skillfully switch between the instruments.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.kudosrecords.co.uk/release/TRCD9032/The_KutiMangoes_Afro_Fire.html">kudosrecords.co.uk</a></b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/BDGtPaM-nRk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />The oddly named Kuti Mangoes are a mixed race sextet operating out of Germany. Their music – led by Michael Blicher's baritone sax – is a swinging mix of jazz and afro beat, typified by the album's big opener, 'Fire'. It's totally infectious and enhanced by shouts, scat and chants from Burkina Faso vocalist Patrick Kabre. There's also a crazy trombone that has the magical timbre of the late Wayne Henderson. I defy you to keep your feet still. The tune is offered again at the end in a remix version which if anything is even more of a foot tapper. There's more heat for thee feet on 'Something Yellow' and the flute-led 'Song For Fela'.<br /><br />'Feeling Good' is a great jazz groove too – but a whole lot cooler while 'Pass It On' is the set's catchiest moment, featuring an insidious little brass fill. Another highlight is a funky cover of Charles Mingus' 'Moanin' and if you're looking for a 60's style jazz ballad try 'Slowly'... totally captivating.<br /> Throughout, it's hard to accept that the Kuti Mangoes are a six piece. Their music is so big, bold and bright you'd be forgiven for thinking that there was full afro-orchestra in the studio. If afro-centric jazz does it for you, the Mangoes deserve checking out.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.soulandjazzandfunk.com/reviews/2685-the-kuti-mangoes-afro-fire-tramp-records.html">soulandjazzandfunk.com</a></b><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip6M05Kh2UpSn_TGqwLDzMO1lYOO5LOqcHyzedOxd9giY16UTaub21A7UJfTboIjUJcbgChdFwhFHf3JyV7AB0R0f6-rooS1nS1E22mytfzSjv1UDfrQ8YJwRWbigMhSSN8Ho73VPqkYs/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip6M05Kh2UpSn_TGqwLDzMO1lYOO5LOqcHyzedOxd9giY16UTaub21A7UJfTboIjUJcbgChdFwhFHf3JyV7AB0R0f6-rooS1nS1E22mytfzSjv1UDfrQ8YJwRWbigMhSSN8Ho73VPqkYs/s1600/cover.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><b>Tracklist</b><br /><br /><br /><table class="track_list track_table" id="track_table"><tbody><tr class="track_row_view linked" itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://www.schema.org/MusicRecording" rel="tracknum=1"><td class="track-number-col"><div class="track_number secondaryText"></div></td><td class="title-col"> <div class="title"><div class="track_number secondaryText">1.</div></div></td> <td class="info-col">Fire</td><td class="download-col"><br /></td></tr><tr class="track_row_view linked" itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://www.schema.org/MusicRecording" rel="tracknum=2"><td class="play-col"><br /></td><td class="track-number-col"><div class="track_number secondaryText">2.</div></td><td class="title-col"> <div class="title"> Feeling good 04:51 </div></td> <td class="info-col"><br /></td><td class="download-col"><br /></td></tr><tr class="track_row_view linked" itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://www.schema.org/MusicRecording" rel="tracknum=3"><td class="play-col"><br /></td><td class="track-number-col"><div class="track_number secondaryText">3.</div></td><td class="title-col"> <div class="title"> Something yellow 04:45 </div></td> <td class="info-col"><br /></td><td class="download-col"><br /></td></tr><tr class="track_row_view linked" itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://www.schema.org/MusicRecording" rel="tracknum=4"><td class="play-col"><br /></td><td class="track-number-col"><div class="track_number secondaryText">4.</div></td><td class="title-col"> <div class="title"> Pass it on 05:01 </div></td> <td class="info-col"><br /></td><td class="download-col"><br /></td></tr><tr class="track_row_view linked" itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://www.schema.org/MusicRecording" rel="tracknum=5"><td class="play-col"><br /></td><td class="track-number-col"><div class="track_number secondaryText">5.</div></td><td class="title-col"> <div class="title"> Song for Fela 03:21 </div></td> <td class="info-col"><br /></td><td class="download-col"><br /></td></tr><tr class="track_row_view linked" itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://www.schema.org/MusicRecording" rel="tracknum=6"><td class="play-col"><br /></td><td class="track-number-col"><div class="track_number secondaryText">6.</div></td><td class="title-col"> <div class="title"> Moanin' 03:40 </div></td> <td class="info-col"><br /></td><td class="download-col"><br /></td></tr><tr class="track_row_view linked" itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://www.schema.org/MusicRecording" rel="tracknum=7"><td class="play-col"><br /></td><td class="track-number-col"><div class="track_number secondaryText">7.</div></td><td class="title-col"> <div class="title"> Walking man 04:37 </div></td> <td class="info-col"><br /></td><td class="download-col"><br /></td></tr><tr class="track_row_view linked" itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://www.schema.org/MusicRecording" rel="tracknum=8"><td class="play-col"><br /></td><td class="track-number-col"><div class="track_number secondaryText">8.</div></td><td class="title-col"> <div class="title"> Slowly 05:42 </div></td> <td class="info-col"><br /></td><td class="download-col"><br /></td></tr><tr class="track_row_view linked" itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://www.schema.org/MusicRecording" rel="tracknum=9"><td class="play-col"><br /></td><td class="track-number-col"><div class="track_number secondaryText">9.</div></td><td class="title-col"> <div class="title"> Desert moon 05:57 </div></td> <td class="info-col"><br /></td><td class="download-col"><br /></td></tr><tr class="track_row_view linked" itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://www.schema.org/MusicRecording" rel="tracknum=10"><td class="play-col"><br /></td><td class="track-number-col"><div class="track_number secondaryText">10.</div></td><td class="title-col"> <div class="title"> Song for Fela (Remix) 04:11 </div></td> <td class="info-col"><br /></td><td class="download-col"><br /></td></tr><tr class="track_row_view linked" itemprop="tracks" itemscope="" itemtype="http://www.schema.org/MusicRecording" rel="tracknum=11"><td class="play-col"><br /></td><td class="track-number-col"><div class="track_number secondaryText">11.</div></td><td class="title-col"> <div class="title"> Fire (Rmx) </div></td></tr></tbody></table>somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-72916951398354616912014-09-11T00:58:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:44.999-07:00Orlando Julius with The Heliocentrics - Jaiyede Afro (Pt. II)<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJeFhCyCMhTisKnDouJMbzcSEnFmOdSRbeYIu1UybLoEe-fD0Gu2tzBanwC-lfOVNyDNP_G62DNaLMjPzE6jdsLE-ooK-ph-ytOIWVRMUQJPZmsQ1YQOdGSBQ73CVZEG3YnYhyxVFuca4/s1600/back.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ3G-OvMpDkoMW_O7BAQlguq0KzL8XlbhL_1KRQUzYT8oYLEbmEY7X3d1xofrgi48nb4MtWPLGhG_aLXh-cvRaioR-cwJwiyTcOK3-Fq-aqXMRSsKG1Un5Dd0u14EO_aGylpK3T2wov5k/s1600/orlando-julius-2014.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ3G-OvMpDkoMW_O7BAQlguq0KzL8XlbhL_1KRQUzYT8oYLEbmEY7X3d1xofrgi48nb4MtWPLGhG_aLXh-cvRaioR-cwJwiyTcOK3-Fq-aqXMRSsKG1Un5Dd0u14EO_aGylpK3T2wov5k/s1600/orlando-julius-2014.jpg" height="245" width="400" /></a></div><br /><b>A Great Album From a Master</b><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span id="aptureStartContent"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Orlando Julius has been making a joyful noise for a long time now, and his latest full-length, <i>Jaiyede Afro</i>, brings the gladdest of tidings: the man is still Afro-rocking with as much intensity and verve as ever. A contemporary of the great Fela Kuti, Orlando plows a similar furrow, with a good deal less emphasis on horns but plenty of guitars, organ, and uptempo percussion to keep things moving. Especially notable are the band’s fluid and irresistible basslines, which propels the whole band effortlessly and provides a sinewy backbone for the rest of the band to build upon. The result is a meaty, high-energy gumbo that is compulsively danceable, but also complex to immerse oneself in and simply listen to. Great for road trips too.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In case it’s not clear: <i>Jaiyede Afro</i> is a tremendous album.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The good times start right away, with joyous album opener “Buje Buje”. Over layers of skronking horns, sweet guitar trills and thrumming bass ‘n’ drums, Julius’s voice exhorts the listener with vocals that are passionate but never strident. The hypnotic groove rolls on, engulfing the listener, and encompassing enough shifts in dynamic and rhythm to ensure that things never grow stale despite the lengthy running time. Follow-up tune “Love Thy Neighbor” is shorter, peppier, and instrumental, but every bit as engaging. The band is masterful at establishing an irresistible groove within just a few beats, and uses a wide array of sounds both organic and electronic to snare the listener’s attention.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Julius is smart enough to allow these grooves, once established, to stretch out and breathe. The result is that many of these songs top the five-minute mark, with opener “Buje Buje” stretching past eight and epic “Be Counted” stretching well past 11. Another band might lose the plot with such extended workouts, but that is never the case here: With the rhythm section as reliable as it is, providing a rock-solid backbone that is never rigid or constricting, the rest of the instrumentalists and vocalists can soar. “Be Counted” features some freak-out sax howling and times calls to mind the more frenzied moments of the Stooges <i>Fun House</i>, but it never goes off the rails entirely due to the solidity of the rhythm section.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With such a consistently compelling set it’s tough to pick a standout track, but “Sangodele” might be a contender, with its reverb-heavy wah-wah guitar line and propulsive bass. Another instrumental tune, it suffers not one bit from the lack of vocals. It’s unfair to single out just one song, though, as there are so many here that are so effortless (that word again) in their elastic, booty-shaking groove. “Love Thy Neighbor” in particular benefits from some nice organ flourishes, which add a crispness and sparkle to the sonic palette, while “In the Middle” utilizes many of the same elements, with a good amount of brass introduced into the mix, allowing Julius’s always-expressive saxophone to enjoy some company.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Listeners seeking a rock-solid album of Afro-funk – or maybe a solidly rocking album of Afro-funk – need look no further than here. Orlando Julius has put decades of experience into this record, and it shows.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.popmatters.com/review/185107-orlando-julius-jaiyede-afro/">popmatters.com</a>, by David Maine</b> </span></div><br />---<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Orlando Julius is one of the heroes of Nigerian music. A saxophonist, singer and songwriter, he began fusing African influences with American R&B and soul in the 60s, and was a major influence on Fela Kuti and Afrobeat. He's still in rousing form on this new set, recorded with London's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Heliocentrics/159461737458324" title="">the Heliocentrics</a>, whose previous African excursions have included work with Mulatu Astatke. Julius is a master of the simple, stomping riff, as he proves with the opening Buje Buje, in which he hammers home a hypnotic R&B theme for more than five minutes against a wash of keyboard effects, before breaking away for a solo. Elsewhere, he moves from the funky Love Thy Neighbour to the breezy title track and to Be Counted, a rumbling, chanting Afrobeat work-out, written in the US in the 70s. I look forward to the live shows next year. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/sep/04/orlando-julius-with-the-heliocentrics-jaiyede-afro-review">theguardian.com</a></b></div><br />---<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">As Nigerian musicians go, Orlando Julius might not be as recognizable a name as Fela Kuti, but that has less to do with the quality of his output than the scarcity of it. He had an important hand in shaping the emerging fusion of Nigerian highlife and American R&B in the mid ’60s, followed by an unofficial status as an ambassador of that sound — now called Afrobeat — during an extended American tenure in ’70s. But the sax maestro and bandleader put out only a handful of albums that made it to international collectors’ circles, and left many of his rousing live-show standards unrecorded. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thankfully <em>Jaiyede Afro</em>, Julius’s teamup with Malcolm Catto’s super-session psych-soul-funk-jazz group the Heliocentrics, does more than its share to make up for that. It stirs up long-brewing sounds from its deep-grooved yet soothing title cut — developed out of childhood memories of music his mother would play — to the resoundingly funky 11-minute vamp “Be Counted,” an Africa-to-America black pride anthem that still inspires long after its writing in 1976. Following their gigs backing up Ethio-jazz forefather Mulatu Astatke and scholar of Middle Eastern music Lloyd Miller, the Heliocentrics’ analog-studio sound stays faithful to Julius’s vintage Afrobeat precedent. They keep their wigged-out psychedelic tendencies in the margins, opting to stay smoothly in a pocket of James Brown/Africa 70 steadiness — though closer “Alafia” gives Julius’s exclamatory sax a welcome shot at careening through space. It’s not just a good (re)introduction to an underrated pioneer, but a fine recreation of everything that made his earlier, scarcer recordings so worth seeking out.</div><br /><b><a href="http://www.wonderingsound.com/review/orlando-julius-heliocentrics-jaiyede-afro/">wonderingsound.com</a> </b><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx6qgquLFbwqjSI4qB4_YitV3FYy5baOyOzsF1-XQV9hXuJGS7LSBAKUZxfi5POGbIPuVKel1SudDN5l1peqkcgY3l6Wd0sNytrUDdxx9CP7bBVX98o5bd-HT0QNO_F-Zbd94A9MI0EVs/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx6qgquLFbwqjSI4qB4_YitV3FYy5baOyOzsF1-XQV9hXuJGS7LSBAKUZxfi5POGbIPuVKel1SudDN5l1peqkcgY3l6Wd0sNytrUDdxx9CP7bBVX98o5bd-HT0QNO_F-Zbd94A9MI0EVs/s1600/cover.jpg" height="395" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ3G-OvMpDkoMW_O7BAQlguq0KzL8XlbhL_1KRQUzYT8oYLEbmEY7X3d1xofrgi48nb4MtWPLGhG_aLXh-cvRaioR-cwJwiyTcOK3-Fq-aqXMRSsKG1Un5Dd0u14EO_aGylpK3T2wov5k/s1600/orlando-julius-2014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJeFhCyCMhTisKnDouJMbzcSEnFmOdSRbeYIu1UybLoEe-fD0Gu2tzBanwC-lfOVNyDNP_G62DNaLMjPzE6jdsLE-ooK-ph-ytOIWVRMUQJPZmsQ1YQOdGSBQ73CVZEG3YnYhyxVFuca4/s1600/back.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJeFhCyCMhTisKnDouJMbzcSEnFmOdSRbeYIu1UybLoEe-fD0Gu2tzBanwC-lfOVNyDNP_G62DNaLMjPzE6jdsLE-ooK-ph-ytOIWVRMUQJPZmsQ1YQOdGSBQ73CVZEG3YnYhyxVFuca4/s1600/back.jpg" height="400" width="391" /></a> </div>somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-40794876864286393462014-09-10T04:28:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:45.009-07:00Soki Ohale's Uzzi - Chicken Fled<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="http://collectorsfrenzy.com/gallery/140718824557.jpg" class="decoded" height="252" src="http://collectorsfrenzy.com/gallery/140718824557.jpg" width="400" /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">A track from the latest in the always brilliant Nigeria 70 series from the great Strut Records. There could have been five or six selections from this latest compilation, Nigeria 70 – Sweet Times: Afro-Funk, Highlife & Juju from 1970s Lagos, but the aching cry of ‘Bisi’s Beat’s chorus won out in the end.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/6LtZ3GybYqQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-60288806767993840922014-09-09T01:30:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:45.020-07:00 From Japan: JariBu Afrobeat Arkestra - JariBu<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhChRVACWwNmloBldqOhgTaZk25osUFBCbQH8mSlfe6zO_vu9CD_Q0tCsd5NlNKUXvh1eox55ErPuSLb9sZLPAVPy5Ku79JHf1njStTskBB-QrqFY9BUxWy_3yyhVhyphenhyphenE9JJVAGNRrss5Sc/s1600/band.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhChRVACWwNmloBldqOhgTaZk25osUFBCbQH8mSlfe6zO_vu9CD_Q0tCsd5NlNKUXvh1eox55ErPuSLb9sZLPAVPy5Ku79JHf1njStTskBB-QrqFY9BUxWy_3yyhVhyphenhyphenE9JJVAGNRrss5Sc/s1600/band.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">This guitar player definitely wears acoustic blinders. Single note lines and riffs similar to early James Brown recordings, executed with amazing perfection – one can’t imagine a more stoic performance, especially considering what’s happening at the same time: Blazing horns in unison and a slightly awry choir come together, work in opposite directions, completing a true rhythmically woven carpet with the tight rhythm section’s network: multi-layered, close-knitted and nearly impenetrable. You can’t escape from those tunes! Arms, legs and hips have to follow the pulse: one moment light-footed, the next heavy and uncompromising, fitting the distinct messages, criticizing worldwide “social absurdities” (JariBu). </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The eight Japanese Musicians led by Masamichi Ishikawa play more Funk and Jazz than the Nigerian Afrobeat originals Fela Kuti and Tony Allen did: a swift flute, a blazing trumpet playing and extensive solos from the very beginning – just check out the opener, it runs more than nine minutes! Occasionally there’s a nasty fuzz guitar which reminds one of the 1970ies, accompanied by tape hiss and amp noise. You’ve gotta love it!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since 2009 there have been four long players by JariBu Afrobeat Arkestra. However the new “JariBu” is, similar to “Mediacracy” (Tramp Records 2012) the Tokyoites’ second Record, distributed internationally. But they have been more than well received in the past few years – the Japanese Afrobeat word has been spread in the past and will be spread even more in the future! (words by Martin Buerkl – Basement Jazz Radio Show, Munich)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“A wonderful LP, from the beginning to the end!” – The Flying Carpet radio show, Spain</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Another piece of eclectic Afro tunage from JariBu Afrobeat Arkestra well worth the wait people!” – Anthony “Aja” Allsop</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieXu4a05055eDUX4l-BlGp7oiMENSSN7t5dSSPBNMHpb3eMt35fCNb79LuzGOzvmVriSAGt53vMrANlt-MT8lSFIgi_yfSBy4uxLeVDxnFraMnj-z2Ma97HycEIcdHdtHd_NPxB2XogC4/s1600/back.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><b> <a href="http://www.grooveattack.com/2014/06/20/the-jaribu-afrobeat-arkestra-returns-with-another-beautiful-piece-of-eclectic-afro-tunage/">grooveattack.com</a></b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhChRVACWwNmloBldqOhgTaZk25osUFBCbQH8mSlfe6zO_vu9CD_Q0tCsd5NlNKUXvh1eox55ErPuSLb9sZLPAVPy5Ku79JHf1njStTskBB-QrqFY9BUxWy_3yyhVhyphenhyphenE9JJVAGNRrss5Sc/s1600/band.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkBPqQ2EO4PZJPuWNtnMEgL5awNpN3X7l29XCfpz5WH9BOckhckvRVT6j8sM5E3TkIx4CJ16gKfqf-JoOi1psQEIhcylWSirhKQnbIwzM5I3l0dt_B5eSqL8WJY4NrGLW1tZc4ElV-KG0/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkBPqQ2EO4PZJPuWNtnMEgL5awNpN3X7l29XCfpz5WH9BOckhckvRVT6j8sM5E3TkIx4CJ16gKfqf-JoOi1psQEIhcylWSirhKQnbIwzM5I3l0dt_B5eSqL8WJY4NrGLW1tZc4ElV-KG0/s1600/cover.jpg" height="400" width="393" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieXu4a05055eDUX4l-BlGp7oiMENSSN7t5dSSPBNMHpb3eMt35fCNb79LuzGOzvmVriSAGt53vMrANlt-MT8lSFIgi_yfSBy4uxLeVDxnFraMnj-z2Ma97HycEIcdHdtHd_NPxB2XogC4/s1600/back.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieXu4a05055eDUX4l-BlGp7oiMENSSN7t5dSSPBNMHpb3eMt35fCNb79LuzGOzvmVriSAGt53vMrANlt-MT8lSFIgi_yfSBy4uxLeVDxnFraMnj-z2Ma97HycEIcdHdtHd_NPxB2XogC4/s1600/back.jpg" height="342" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><b>Tracklist</b><br /><br />1. Devil (Pt.1&2)<br />2. One by One<br />3. KEW<br />4. Wild Pansy<br />5. Afro Rodeo<br />6. Witness<br />7. Unrevealed Truth<br />8. Yellow Joint<br />9. Dancers in the Darkness<br />10. BOMBsomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-5523323948243575832014-09-07T12:46:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:45.029-07:00From South Africa: Spokes Mashiyane - King Kwela <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD9V7E2zMLUIrAejRXwYr711VtEmavH9qFqNEHs8HtjwEEgp0bwij9jCFOL6_i26gfRZjUG650ySN54r6SXkfNk0CcCUR2AOJ9puSVx1Pz3PJBX-xQnfVghcRIK6LUVbD9XwTYUdaPDzc/s1600/Imagen1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD9V7E2zMLUIrAejRXwYr711VtEmavH9qFqNEHs8HtjwEEgp0bwij9jCFOL6_i26gfRZjUG650ySN54r6SXkfNk0CcCUR2AOJ9puSVx1Pz3PJBX-xQnfVghcRIK6LUVbD9XwTYUdaPDzc/s1600/Imagen1.jpg" height="400" width="365" /></a></div><br /><b>Johannes "Spokes" Mashiyane</b> (born Vlakfontein (Mamelodi), Pretoria 20 January 1933; died at Baragwanath Hospital of cirrhosis of liver 9 February 1972.) was regarded as one of the greatest pennywhistle artists who graced the South African kwela music scene from the 1950s to (approximately) the 1970s.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spokes_Mashiyane#cite_note-1"><span> </span><span></span></a></sup>Arriving on the pennywhistle band scene as a juvenile domestic servant from the northern Sotho communities in the Transvaal alongside contemporaries of Alexandra boys such as Lemmy Mabaso, Barney Rachabane, Elias and Jack Lerole.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spokes_Mashiyane#cite_note-2"><span></span><span></span></a></sup> He stated that the pennywhistle's simplicity allowed for greater freedom to bend and blend notes. The success in it meant the revenue from his recordings proved significant to Gallo Record Company,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3"><span> </span><span></span></sup>which he had switched to in 1958.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spokes_Mashiyane#cite_note-4"><span> </span><span></span></a></sup>His success gained international notice by the 1960s, he played with Bud Shank among others during their visit to South Africa, and in July 1965 was invited to the Newport Folk Festival.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spokes_Mashiyane#cite_note-5"><span></span><span></span></a></sup> This was festival famous for the Electric Dylan controversy, but Spokes performance at the festival did receive notice and praise from Robert Shelton.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spokes_Mashiyane#cite_note-6"><span> </span><span></span></a></sup>Spokes's work also had an influence on the Music of Zimbabwe.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7"><span> </span><span></span></sup>He claimed that the inspiration for his songs were from his dreams. He played with other kwela greats of his time and his music is enjoyed by many to this day. He was married in 1964, and leaves widow, Mary, and sons, Federick and Eugene.<br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/YpflJCWBpMU?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class=" watch-small " id="player"> <div id="player-mole-container"> <div class="player-width player-height off-screen-target player-api" id="player-api" style="overflow: hidden;"> </div></div></div><span itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"> </span> <span itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"> </span> <span itemprop="thumbnail" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject"> </span> <div class="clearfix" id="watch7-headline"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjApR-5rzMAFcPbUTqI1jiPnj-AyGcICoXJMuGkSwIRoWtPk8zudYNMMqGH5ghLbQMizG0jTzQYXZKEBPPeiLEly1eGRCgUEaWQnnCJ_ESqXfYoTHAzYQtEUwsxlGcTp0oCmQNr0AJTndM/s1600/SM+-+KK+f.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjApR-5rzMAFcPbUTqI1jiPnj-AyGcICoXJMuGkSwIRoWtPk8zudYNMMqGH5ghLbQMizG0jTzQYXZKEBPPeiLEly1eGRCgUEaWQnnCJ_ESqXfYoTHAzYQtEUwsxlGcTp0oCmQNr0AJTndM/s1600/SM+-+KK+f.jpeg" height="400" width="393" /></a></div><h1 class="yt" id="watch-headline-title"> </h1></div><br /><b>Tracklist</b> <br /><br /><table class="playlist" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicGroup"><tbody><tr class="first tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"><td class="tracklist_track_pos">1</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Meva</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">2</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Kwela Spokes</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">3</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Ace Blues</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">4</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Chobolo</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">5</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Kwela Claude</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">6</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Chicago Blues</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">7</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Dolos</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">8</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Ndinovalo</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">9</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Sheshisa</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">10</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">New Year Eve Blues</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">11</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Jika Spokes</span></td> <td class="tracklist_track_duration" width="25"> <span></span> </td> </tr><tr class=" tracklist_track track" itemprop="track" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/MusicRecording"> <td class="tracklist_track_pos">12</td> <td class="track tracklist_track_title "><span class="tracklist_track_title" itemprop="name">Sono Sam</span></td></tr></tbody></table>somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-40054840952703215742014-09-06T12:51:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:45.039-07:00From Zambia: Ngozi Family - Day Of Judgement<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMnQOHXskUQSL0I-wykZgNjibI9g9M4xJZWCInlqNpDwZ4_Z1sXsL3rtT5J3Suwdyz-G9PbhVz6DoK-9sa6GlUVsjohaft_x02hK799WdeE0n0GzfZU3UbOaIIMxzcl2HZOzueSE_o8rM/s1600/cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMnQOHXskUQSL0I-wykZgNjibI9g9M4xJZWCInlqNpDwZ4_Z1sXsL3rtT5J3Suwdyz-G9PbhVz6DoK-9sa6GlUVsjohaft_x02hK799WdeE0n0GzfZU3UbOaIIMxzcl2HZOzueSE_o8rM/s1600/cover.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><b>Coming this summer – proto-punk and garage Zamrock! The celebrated guitarist Paul Ngozi’s essential debut album. Featuring Chrissy Zebby Tembo.</b><br /><br />We’ve been talking about an <a href="http://www.nowagainrecords.com/ngozi-family-anthology-update/">anthology centered around Zambian guitarist/vocalist Paul Ngozi </a>for a while now. And – while we’re not there just yet, we’re announcing the issue of his masterwork. His debut album – issued under the name Ngozi Family – is important record: not just in the Zamrock genre, but in the global rock canon. <i>Day of Judgement </i>is an introduction to the most intense, raw and inimitable golden era Zamrock recorded, as it paved the way for a dozen Paul Ngozi and Ngozi Family releases (the most famous being drummer Chrissy Zebby Tembo’s <i>My Ancestors</i>) that straddled the line between funk and punk, of driving hard rock and Zambian folk melodies and rhythms.<br /><br /><i>Day of Judgement</i> was released in 1976, the same year as other, now famous, Zamrock albums, from WITCH’s <i>Lazy Bones!!</i> to Rikki Ililonga’s <i>Zambia</i> to Musi-O-Tunya’s <i>Give Love To Your Children</i>, all reissued on Now-Again. But <i>Day of Judgement</i> sounds like none of its counterparts. Part of that stems from its frenzied primitivism, the Ngozi Family’s attempt to overcome a lack of musical acumen with sheer force of will.<br /><br />That will allowed Paul Ngozi to overcome a humble upbringing to become the most unlikely combination: Zamrock’s most beloved star in its brief but now-well chronicled arc; the only musician to maintain his fame and recording prowess in the dark ages of the ’80s; an inspiration to not only aging but young Zambians — and now others, beyond Zambia’s borders.<br /><br />But one cannot imagine Paul Ngozi without this album, a full-on aural assault that sounds as wild nearly forty years after its release as it must have sounded in the developing Zamrock landscape from which it emerged. We listen to this anachronistic yet prescient album now as a wholly original, completely unpredictable album in line with those from mavericks from across the world – from the Ramones to the Sex Pistols to Death. And, though it’s been over two decades since Paul Ngozi’s passing, his voice and vision still seem exciting, powerful, unique, unvarnished, new.<br /><br /><i>Day of Judgement</i> will see release as a hardbound casebook CD and in LP form. A limited deluxe edition of the LP will contain a bonus disc which collects four songs from rare Ngozi Family 7″ singles, issued contemporaneously with <i>Day of Judgement</i>.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.nowagainrecords.com/announcing-ngozi-family-day-of-judgement/">nowagainrecords.com</a> </b></span><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Liner Notes:</b><br /><br /><b>Paul Nyirongo alias “Ngozi” was born in Lundazi, Eastern Province Zambia 26 years ago. He made his musical debut in 1970, with the “Scorpions” and later the “3 Years Before”, a group playing in Livingstone. </b><br /><b><br /></b><br />After 1½ years in Livingstone, the group moved to Kabwe where they performed for two years. During the Kabwe era the group faced some hardships which led to its disbanding in 1974. <br /><br />In 1975, Paul, nicknamed “Ngozi” (which simply means “Danger”) by his fans for wild stage gimmicks with his guitar, joined the “Crossbones” of Lusaka. Two months later, he left the “Crossbones” after catching the keen eye of Brian Chengala, Drummer of the “MOSI-O-TUNYA”, a Zambian band currently based in Kenya, East Africa. The two later left Zambia and thus “Ngozi” became the lead guitarist of the Zambian musical exports, the M.O.T. He played lead and backed vocals in the famous M.O.T.’s recorded single, ‘Tshegulani’.<br /><br />The wizard “Ngozi” called it quits with the M.O.T. six months later and was seen with his lovely fans in December, 1975. Now once again he has revived the “3 Years Before” and later renamed the group “Ngozi Family”. We at Z.M.P.L. wish the Ngozi Family all the best and a successful first long play. <br /><br />- Billie D. Nyati (Z.M.P.L.:P.R.O.)</div><b> </b> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGkqQE8v9zdc5ZW1sUL8e9sJmsu2ZWj5sAa5zqVuwECRI7h7F9Cnp6XPQ_U6-mNj0dlos0CVxE42kMS8A6hH7G3DqLa2tAM67cH5mK7A2b1_YxXZ6qVDeCPEK5PpYLqSP5t3AhPjY_DS0/s1600/back.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGkqQE8v9zdc5ZW1sUL8e9sJmsu2ZWj5sAa5zqVuwECRI7h7F9Cnp6XPQ_U6-mNj0dlos0CVxE42kMS8A6hH7G3DqLa2tAM67cH5mK7A2b1_YxXZ6qVDeCPEK5PpYLqSP5t3AhPjY_DS0/s1600/back.jpg" height="353" width="400" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMnQOHXskUQSL0I-wykZgNjibI9g9M4xJZWCInlqNpDwZ4_Z1sXsL3rtT5J3Suwdyz-G9PbhVz6DoK-9sa6GlUVsjohaft_x02hK799WdeE0n0GzfZU3UbOaIIMxzcl2HZOzueSE_o8rM/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-34721452618905170612014-08-29T00:04:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:45.049-07:00Tony Allen Announces New Album "Film of life"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQZ5oir5kd9BzoTv3y_D8cvokVsoPF9mywo_prCxMiO71kPn1s0nQ2Wm9AmjaKGzDieS8c8QkPECjPCWGrnta8z793bjjOAVEDw7fcdm7qlRcYqarJD-fZv5vlA6q89S5o08C8STeGkVk/s1600/tony+allen.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQZ5oir5kd9BzoTv3y_D8cvokVsoPF9mywo_prCxMiO71kPn1s0nQ2Wm9AmjaKGzDieS8c8QkPECjPCWGrnta8z793bjjOAVEDw7fcdm7qlRcYqarJD-fZv5vlA6q89S5o08C8STeGkVk/s1600/tony+allen.png" height="266" width="400" /></a></div><br /><b><a href="http://exclaim.ca/News/tony_allen_grabs_damon_albarn_for_new_film_of_life_lp"><span class="author">By <span>Gregory Adams</span></span><span class="bodytext"> </span></a></b><br /><br /><span class="bodytext">Though the details are slim, it's been confirmed that prolific Afrobeat master drummer <a href="http://www.tonyallenafrobeat.com/" target="_blank">Tony Allen</a> is set to issue his first solo effort in five years, <i>Film of Life</i>. While an exact due date has yet to be delivered, the album arrives sometime in October via <a href="http://www.jazzvillagemusic.com/" target="_blank">Jazz Village</a>.<br /><br /> The LP marks his first proper solo venture since 2009's <i>Secret Agent</i> and has him teaming up again with longtime collaborator Damon Albarn. The album's first preview is "Go Back," a bubbling, bass-bouncing ballad was co-written with the Blur leader, who adds vocals and keyboard work to the track. According to press materials, the song is an "homage to the African refugees who ended up on the Italian island of Lampedusa." <br /><br />You'll find a radio edit of the song, as well as a quick trailer teasing even more funky material, down below.<br /><br />Prior to <i>Film of Life</i>, Albarn had appeared on Allen's 2002 LP <i>HomeCooking</i>, while the pair also played together in the Good, the Bad and the Queen, as well as Rocket Juice and the Moon, among other projects.</span><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/YhWohF5efGA?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/AZ0xRiRLbbc?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-79406218776732632972014-08-09T16:43:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:45.058-07:00South African Jazz: The Jazz Ministers - Zandile (get it)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi38z8UVWB_vuEZA7tf8zQKi9cYkYSsJabypKcRsWCMcz3WZmXT75AMvbXH-18GidQTpbGy2wu6SgQzGWod8CUtnVZcswoLLbv7a058K8trUOxA3eSNk495JRHLNFZOqsROHeCIXxQFik/s1600/The+Jazz+Ministers+jazz+minister+newport+front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi38z8UVWB_vuEZA7tf8zQKi9cYkYSsJabypKcRsWCMcz3WZmXT75AMvbXH-18GidQTpbGy2wu6SgQzGWod8CUtnVZcswoLLbv7a058K8trUOxA3eSNk495JRHLNFZOqsROHeCIXxQFik/s1600/The+Jazz+Ministers+jazz+minister+newport+front.jpg" height="292" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><strong>Victor Ndlazilwana</strong> began his career singing with the male quartette, the <strong>Woody Woodpeckers</strong>, in 1951. In 1959 he played the role of "The Journalist" in the hit show <em>King Kong</em> and continued with the cast when the show was taken to London in 1961. Both Ndlazilwane and <strong>Boy Ngwenya</strong> performed with the Woody Woodpeckers at the classic 1962 Cold Castle Jazz Festival in Moroka Jabavu. View this LP <a href="http://www.flatinternational.org/template_volume.php?volume_id=119">here</a>.<br /><br />In 1970, Ndlazilwana formed the group the <strong>Jazz Ministers</strong> and recorded a number of albums including <em>Nomvula's Jazz Dance</em> which can be viewed <a href="http://electricjive.blogspot.com/2009/08/journey-from-fanagalo-to-african-jazz.html">here</a> at Electric Jive.<br /><br />After Ndlazilwana's death in 1978 trumpeter, <strong>Johnny Mekoa</strong>, assumed leadership of the group. Mekoa would later perform the title track <em>Zandile</em> as a tribute to Ndlazilwana with the <strong>Jazzanians,</strong> the first nationally recognised group to emerge from the University of Natal's seminal jazz courses. The track can be found on the album <em>We have waited too long</em>, recorded in 1988.<br /><br /><em>Zandile</em> was first issued by Gallo in 1975 as BL 51.<br />In 1981 the LP was reissued with a different cover and catalogue number: GSL 54<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flatinternational.org/template_volume.php?volume_id=154">flatinternational.org</a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcyyEcRmtmsgBtB6sGlPpu7YmU7XbDhVo9ws7rLMk3BBq9hVAIn9uDcxHJyvaDXkCh1GmxvrbKeDUVhQxrbA9V5kTKRt7AWvpdGdHIhxccdK7pLI4zjjbz5NeWXXSHL_GUuLixDBgDxXI/s1600/cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcyyEcRmtmsgBtB6sGlPpu7YmU7XbDhVo9ws7rLMk3BBq9hVAIn9uDcxHJyvaDXkCh1GmxvrbKeDUVhQxrbA9V5kTKRt7AWvpdGdHIhxccdK7pLI4zjjbz5NeWXXSHL_GUuLixDBgDxXI/s1600/cover.jpg" height="400" width="400" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Tracklist</b> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 295px;"><tbody><tr><td class="tdTextTopTrk">1.1</td><td class="gap5"><em>Zandile</em></td></tr><tr><td class="tdTextTopTrk">2.2</td><td class="gap5"><em>Sekumaxa</em></td></tr><tr><td class="tdTextTopTrk">2.3</td><td class="gap5"><em>Vala Madoda</em></td></tr><tr><td class="tdTextTopTrk">2.4</td><td class="gap5"><em>Take Me to Brazil</em></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?0bnmq3efwe2omhp">GET IT!!!</a></b></span> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Thanx to <a href="http://electricjive.blogspot.de/2011/09/jazz-ministers-zandile.html">electricjive</a> for this amazing album!!!</b></span> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <object width="320" height="266" class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/_cqFSSkxL6I/0.jpg"><param name="movie" value="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/_cqFSSkxL6I&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/_cqFSSkxL6I&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-72187235527040863072014-08-08T03:24:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:45.066-07:00"Finding Fela" movie<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLWHu44w-e_CqKBGf5bS6FuBZN8oiHNRTfy4SbcvDy_1k03OzW-yhXIqwQwa_qmcItvQ7vnOuV5vL-UyhqIjmjvUNvJa7lbB-N2HFO30PS_u-bPv2A7wzUKfyYW0wTqsYLrjsAxaRBdDo/s1600/Fela-Kuti.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLWHu44w-e_CqKBGf5bS6FuBZN8oiHNRTfy4SbcvDy_1k03OzW-yhXIqwQwa_qmcItvQ7vnOuV5vL-UyhqIjmjvUNvJa7lbB-N2HFO30PS_u-bPv2A7wzUKfyYW0wTqsYLrjsAxaRBdDo/s1600/Fela-Kuti.jpg" height="315" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div itemprop="reviewBody"><div style="text-align: justify;">Documentarian Alex Gibney's "Finding Fela," about the legendary African pop star and political activist, feels like a rough draft for a very good movie. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Parts of it are stirring because the subject matter is inherently noble. Fela Ransome Kuti, who died in 1997 at age 58, was multi-disciplinary songwriter, singer, bandleader and activist who invented Afrobeat music, hooked up with the Black Panther Party during a U.S. tour, then went home and mocked the dictatorial Nigerian government throughout the 1970s. He also formed a commune, Kalakuta Republic, that he declared a sovereign nation; started a nightclub called the Afro-Spot in the Empire Hotel in Lagos, and embraced the Yoruba faith, becoming a spiritual leader and even officiating at weddings. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Most of all, he was a great pop protester, working in a country where being that kind of performer required real sacrifice. Kuti was arrested or detained by police over 200 times during his career, and often the police actions were purely retaliatory harassment. Kuti's music was compositionally bold but also danceable; commentator Questlove as being in the spirit of Bob Marley's but requiring a "more sophisticated ear." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But more than that, it was a vehicle for messages of pride and defiance against Nigeria's repressive government, particularly its brutal police. Kuti teased them in songs such as "Zombie," "The Mosquito Song" and "Go Slow" (about the horrendous traffic jams in the Nigerian capital of Lagos, which cops tried to speed up by beating any drivers who didn't move quickly enough). The movie never attempts even a speculative answer to the question of why a notoriously thin-skinned and violent government allowed Kuti to mock them openly over so many years. And yet if you don't know every detail of the story, this vagueness works in the movie's favor; you worry that just around the next bend lurks the moment when the government finally gets fed up. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A life this packed with so much incident can't help but be fascinating, especially when some of the incidents are personally harrowing. Kuti's mother, the pioneering feminist and anti-colonialist activist Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, was thrown out of a window when police raided her son's compound, then lapsed into a coma and died. Kuti also faced internal resentment and rebellion after his cousin emptied his bank account and his once-loyal bandmembers became increasingly disgruntled at having to play without being paid. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Was there enough existing film footage and still photography to fill out a feature-length documentary about Kuti without bringing in extensive backstage footage of "Fela!", the Broadway music about him? Given the film's two-hour running time, which wouldn't be so onerous if the pacing weren't so lumpy, I have to wonder. Gibney and his crew jump between a relatively straightforward documentary with talking heads and archival imagery and a backstage, "making-of" type documentary, about artists (including the show's director-choreographer Bill T. Jones) analyzing Kuti's motivations and mindset, the better to guide a show's musicians and dancers. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The film barely settles into one groove before it's unceremoniously torn out of it. Both documentaries are good (though the straightforward one, about the man himself, is rawer and more urgent than the backstage one, which too often feels like an extended ad for the still-touring musical); but you do often feel as though you're watching different takes on the same subject glommed together. As a portrait of a great artist and activist, "Finding Fela" is worth a look, but it's Gibney's weakest work as a filmmaker.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/finding-fela-2014">rogerebert.com</a></b> </div></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/937SQ8-6RV4?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">There are at least two Felas in the documentary “Finding Fela.” One is the actual Fela Kuti, the late Nigerian singer, musician and pioneer of the Afrobeat musical style, who died of complications from AIDS in 1997. The other is the title character in “Fela!,” the wildly popular off-Broadway musical which jumped to Broadway in 2009, garnering 11 Tony nominations and three wins. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The captivating and meticulous new film by Alex Gibney (“The Armstrong Lie”) is both a standard biography and a making-of movie, blending concert and interview footage of Fela, as he was universally known (even to his children), with scenes from rehearsals and performances of “Fela!”</div><div style="text-align: justify;">At times, early in the movie, you might wonder whether you’re watching the real guy or the actor who played him onstage, Sahr Ngaujah. But the real Fela had many more faces. Was he a politically progressive thorn in the side of Nigeria’s military government (which jailed and beat him) or a piggish sexist, who believed that women should be subservient to men and who married 27 “queens” in a single 1978 ceremony? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Was he a thoughtful and outspoken critic of corruption or a party-hearty pothead, more interested in sparking giant spliffs than revolution? A skeptical, Western-educated thinker or a naive dupe, known for traveling around the country with his personal spiritual adviser, a Ghanaian magician named Professor Hindu? A clear-eyed truth-teller or a man in denial, who would insist, even when he started developing skin lesions from Kaposi’s sarcoma near the end of his life, that he was simply “shedding” his old skin?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The answer is that he was probably all of these things, including the one, unequivocal characterization: a musical genius. The film contains plenty of snippets of his infectiously danceable, politically charged songs — which commonly run on for 20 minutes or more, in sometimes incomprehensible pidgin English — along with interviews with those singing his praises. Paul McCartney and Roots bandleader Questlove are among those who testify to Fela’s brilliance. But the man’s music, which was influenced by Christian hymns, classical music, jazz, the soul music of James Brown, Yoruba chant and horn- and guitar-heavy “highlife,” speaks loudest of all.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is for these reasons that Gibney’s film is called “Finding Fela.” Gibney goes looking for him, guided by Bill T. Jones, who directed “Fela!” On camera, Jones acts as a sort of safari leader, hacking away at the thicket of thorny contradictions that surrounded Fela, in the hopes of shaping a coherent yet honest portrait of the man.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Eventually, over the course of two hours, that portrait emerges, not by cutting away the weeds, but by allowing them to grow back.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Like Fela’s complex, long-winded music, such a portrait requires time. One of Fela’s colleagues reminisces about a conversation with a record-label rep, who asked him, absurdly, exactly which “three-minute section” of a half-hour Fela opus should be played on the radio. In order to find Fela, you have to take in the whole picture. As “Fela!” costume designer Marina Draghici puts it, that entails both a saint and a crazy man. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/finding-fela-movie-review-the-man-and-the-myth-behind-the-music/2014/08/07/c89275e8-199c-11e4-9e3b-7f2f110c6265_story.html">washingtonpost.com</a></b> </div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/PTobuy10GlE?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9TmZ_qDsBjaG9r9r7XLpELapv_kGs4ITwRWNx8Fg4PurXnz2y7tt5JuqeOgShEVFFparrbEjAhyphenhyphenG2kdKTn-q6goj40S1G4UUDCmtJ0GTeUypnfEPx57D4UXl-ZlHueNaR1JekLIt3fQI/s1600/Finding-Fela-Original-Motion-Picture-Soundtrack-Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9TmZ_qDsBjaG9r9r7XLpELapv_kGs4ITwRWNx8Fg4PurXnz2y7tt5JuqeOgShEVFFparrbEjAhyphenhyphenG2kdKTn-q6goj40S1G4UUDCmtJ0GTeUypnfEPx57D4UXl-ZlHueNaR1JekLIt3fQI/s1600/Finding-Fela-Original-Motion-Picture-Soundtrack-Cover.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div><br /><b>Tracklist Soundtrack</b><br /><br />01. Jeun Ko Ku (Chop ‘n Quench)<br />02. Opposite People (edit)<br />03. Highlife Time<br />04. Lover<br />05. Viva Nigeria<br />06. Upside Down (edit)<br />07. Egbe Mi O (Carry Me I Want To Die)<br />08. Johnny Just Drop (edit)<br />09. VIP (Part 2 Live In Berlin)<br />10. Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense (edit)<br />11. Go Slow (edit)<br />12. Zombie<br />13. Power Show (edit)<br />14. Beasts of No Nation (edit)<br />15. Shuffering and Shmiling (edit)<br />16. Colonial Mentality (Live at the New Afrika Shrine)somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182160183375452569.post-88927753029712366902014-08-05T23:41:00.000-07:002014-10-13T08:09:45.075-07:00From Benin/ Togo: Vaudou Game - Apiafo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS9g0_ARu1Ua9W8ehRRfcDjbJYEKFRSXcrMnjBpUCU7aZ8m8fD3blY1DsSYU8GYPSnBBa1Tkg90H4hsu8xQO3N6P3m4L4Lb4jQIPvogxcXLc6OpDMJtmmMz234LpVy_dK7UPSOMSqrwds/s1600/band.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS9g0_ARu1Ua9W8ehRRfcDjbJYEKFRSXcrMnjBpUCU7aZ8m8fD3blY1DsSYU8GYPSnBBa1Tkg90H4hsu8xQO3N6P3m4L4Lb4jQIPvogxcXLc6OpDMJtmmMz234LpVy_dK7UPSOMSqrwds/s1600/band.jpg" height="316" width="400" /></a></div><br />Vaudou Game is a contemporary live band playing an authentic Togolese funk based on voodoo chants scales. The band is led by Peter Solo, singer and composer born in Aného-Glidji (Togo), birthplace of the “Guin” tribe and place of the voodoo culture. He was raised with those traditional values of human and environment respect. VG present Togolese funk, born in the post-colonial era but that never before explored its ancient roots so deeply and proudly. Album release in september 24th on Hot Casa Records.<br /><br />Peter Solo invited his uncle, Roger Damawuzan, famous pioneer of the 70’s soul scene in Togo, to sing on “Pas Contente”. The result of their collaboration is without a doubt a pretty amazing future dancefloor classic!<br /><br /><br />---<br /><br /><br />Among the fruits of the convergence between African and Afro-American musicians, there is one lesser-known genre that hails from the cradle of vaudou culture in Togo, Benin, and whose key figures, Poly-Rythmo of Cotonou, Dama Damawuzan, or El Rego, have, since the 1970's, had their popularity confined to afro-groove fans.<br /><br />Specific to this region of Africa is the use, during vaudou rituals, of cha<span class="text_exposed_show">racteristic lines that differ from everything one may hear in neighbouring cultures.<br /> <br /> The idea of integrating these haunting lines, sung in honor of the Divinities, to an energetic 70's Afro-funk was an obvious extension in Peter Solo's mind of the analogy he found between this vaudou tradition and trance inducers such as Blues, Funk, as well as the Rythm'n Blues of James Brown, Otis Redding and Wilson Picket.<br /> <br /> Peter Solo heard this new sound coming through him and named it Vaudou Game.</span><br /><br /><b><span class="text_exposed_show"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/vaudougame/info">Vaudou Game</a> </span></b><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='266' height='320' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/q8K8BQfpHW4?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIelszLWCoYri7BjvhLEsmH1OkDflACokwiAqjJ2Nu2Tp86GAFyfhctlRSc_H-QZ8JwzUF-vlyt-MIXogh-jdscW4Dtys3SUDxxZ5wyQCKc1D4W9Dy_Q8NSMYOz9NME2EP4BDQmdKBl9s/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIelszLWCoYri7BjvhLEsmH1OkDflACokwiAqjJ2Nu2Tp86GAFyfhctlRSc_H-QZ8JwzUF-vlyt-MIXogh-jdscW4Dtys3SUDxxZ5wyQCKc1D4W9Dy_Q8NSMYOz9NME2EP4BDQmdKBl9s/s1600/cover.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>somehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08651187318615103220noreply@blogger.com0