afrobeat, afrofunk, afrojazz, afrorock ...

Beyond Benin: Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou Interviewed in 2011

2012-02-09T10:55:00.002+01:00

As they release their first studio album for decades and prepare to play the London Scala, Luke Turner talks to Benin's Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou about their religious differences, James Brown, playing with Fela Kuti, and their remarkable return.

It's almost a miracle that, tomorrow night, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou will play the London Scala, and that just weeks ago they released their first album proper in decades, Cotonou Club. And, as we'll discover in an interview with founder member and vocalist Vincent Ahehehinnou, there's no doubt great debate within the ranks of Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou as to who is to thank for their remarkable return and ever-increasing success in the west.

Founded way back in 1966, the Orchestre's heyday saw them release over 50 albums that partnered thousands of performances in the clubs and bars of Benin, where they occasionally shared a stage with Fela Kuti. A Marxist-Leninist government and the deaths of two key members in the early 80s spelled the end. But such a remarkable and prolific group was unlikely to remain undiscovered for too long, and soon their work came to the attention of the Analog Africa label, who released a series of compilations (and this month reissue their 1973 debut LP).

Then, Elodie Maillot, a French journalist and radio presenter (and now band manager and producer) went to Benin to find out what had happened to the group. As it happens, she's translator for the Quietus' interview with Vincent Ahehehinnou, and takes up the story: "I had all the vinyl, and I wondered if they were still alive. I went over to find them, and it was a difficult time because the President had shut down all the mobile phones. They asked me if I could make one dream they had come true. They were having a hard time, with no money and instruments, only playing for weddings or Independence Day. It's very rare to see Orchestres playing in Cotonou nowadays because most of the clubs are closed and it's expensive to pay so many musicians. They said 'We see you really love the Orchestre.'

"I helped them to tour, but I said you have no record to prove that you are still good, the reissues yes, but there is nothing from now. I found people happy to produce it, but it was a big risk. I wanted to fulfil the promises I had made to them, but in today's world to prove you still can play and are still good you need a record. Then the equivalent of the Barbican in Paris wanted to book them for a festival. There was a gap between shows and we made the record. I never thought in my life I would produce a record!"

That record is Cotonou Club, the title a tribute to the clubs that closed and orchestres who can no longer play. Released last month via Strut, it is an album that proves that the surviving members of the Orchestre have lost none of their ability to create mesmerising smooth and intricate West African funk.

THE INTERVIEW

Did the Orchestra think they would ever, or even want to come to the UK?

I never thought we'd come here, we never even considered it. When we started making music we didn't want to travel, we just wanted to make music. If we had wanted to do that we would have adapted our music to be saleable to export, but we didn't want to do that, we never wanted to do something to please a European audience.

Going back to the early days, I wanted to ask about the influence of the voodoo tradition...

We were born in the voodoo music, and our children are born in the voodoo music, you can't be divided from it. The constitution of Benin has voodoo. When the President of Benin is elected, he has to be faithful to the ancestors. In 1996, when we elected the President the second time, he was very Christianised, and he didn't swear on the voodoo part of the constitution, he didn't want to be involved in voodoo any more. But he had to come back to swear properly on the voodoo constitution. You have been to Africa? You hear of Africa in the news? Benin is one of the places where there hasn't been a civil war. There has been no blood. And that is because of voodoo, it brings justice and peace.

In the days when you had a Marxist-Leninist government, were you able to perform your music, or was it suppressed?

VA: In '75 the country was officially Marxist. At that time if a club or a bar did not turn the radio on at 8 and 11 o'clock for the official news so the whole place could hear it, then the bar or the club would be closed. TV came in 1978, so at that time the President would insist on talking for two hours, and the music people were sick and tired of listening to him, so they wanted to change the station. They wanted to listen to James Brown rather than the radio, and so they were closed down. There was also a curfew at 11 o'clock, and Saturday at 3 o'clock. We were never arrested, but they would arrest the audience. Everything closed down in Cotonou, and Cotonou started to sleep at night. The only way to not get your bar closed was if you knew somebody and could bribe them.

It was impossible for them to affect the voodoo, though. In Benin there are a lot of different Christian churches, and the regime tried to suppress them, the protestant churches, and the mosques. But they never tried to touch the voodoo places, the equivalents of shrines. Christianity has come through colonialism too, but our faith is stronger because it was in the country before. Even though I am not a voodoo priest, if I wanted for bees to come and invade a church so there would be so many bees in the church that people couldn't come inside, I could do it.

Is voodoo important for all the group?

No, the bandleader is an evangelical Christian. There are many different views, and we never agree. The chief was high in the voodoo faith, but he turned to evangelism. We said OK, but you cannot force us to follow you. The difference between the God of the church and the voodoo is that the voodoo moves more efficiently and quickly, you do not have to wait to pray.

How do these divisions affect the group?

Everyone has his own inspiration, we bring our own ideas and we practice together. When we were young, we composed more selfishly, there was more ego.

When did you personally start listening to and making music, and then join the group?

I listened to music from America, from England, and from Africa too. I used to listen to my father's radio, and there was a show for young people. It was very difficult to afford to buy a radio, but today I can buy records and I listen to a lot of jazz, which is a great source of inspiration for me.

I think you can hear more jazz influence on the new record.

It has always inspired our composition, mixed with voodoo. All the voodoo traditional instruments we use we have just modernised with everything you would find in jazz.

There's that connection with New Orleans jazz too.

So many of our ancestors couldn't express their suffering, so to express their sorrow they had to use music and songs. I really want to go to New Orleans – I dream of New Orleans. I went to New York, and visited Harlem, to see the theatre where Apollo Theatre where James Brown performed. I had dreamed that once in my life I would see that, to see where black people had been able to make something from their suffering.

Can you tell us a little about playing with Fela Kuti?

He was a living legend. There is something very spiritual in his music, there is something higher than music. He had his musical success, and his political success, and he was an African! In Nigeria, there were the political men and the rich men, and he made fun of them, all his songs were politically motivated. It was a time when it was hard for us to speak politically, so he has to be a model for African musicians. We did about Afrobeat tracks and covers. When he knew we were recording in Lagos he came to the studio, and gave comments. When he came to Cotonou we played with him, and he was the first African artist I saw smoking the cannabis sativa. He was a great man, and a great man for African music.

How did you use to release music in Benin? There were so many albums you put out.

We used to have bars where we'd play, and clubs. And people would come to Cotonou to pick up our records. People loved Johnny Hallyday and Orchestre Poly-Rythmo, and they'd buy them without listening because they knew they were good. If people heard a good song in a club they would think it was Orchestre Poly-Rythmo even if it wasn't.

Now people are able to operate more freely in Benin. How have the Orchestre been affected?

Now people would rather take a record and play it in a bar than book the Orchestre to come and play. We try to speak to the government to get the land and the authorisation to build our own bar, but you still have to know the right people, there is a lot of bureaucracy and it's hard to be an entrepreneur.

There's a track on the album recorded with Franz Ferdinand. How did that work for you?

They really proved that they are great musicians. We came with the rhythm, and he [Paul Thomson] is a very good drummer. We've listened to their records, and we've played some of their songs together. We played 'Take Me Out'.

Members have left the Orchestre, and others have died, but what is the core spirit of the group?

It is the team spirit. We argue sometimes, and really shout, but we cannot hate each other. The bandleader is neutral, he never takes one side or the other. We have had bad times together, but we stick together, we are getting along. We would really love the people we lost to be with us and sharing the great joys we now have. It is too bad that they're not here.

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The interview was originally published at thequietus.com on May 4th, 2011

Written by Luke Turner

Edzayawa - Projection One

2012-02-08T08:45:00.003+01:00

This extraordinary, dark, moody and experimental offering from teenage Ghanaian afro rock outfit Edzayawa (Pronounced Ed – Zye – Ow – Ahh) is one of the more obscure and unique releases that Soundway have brought back to life over the past ten years. Arriving in Lagos from Togo in the spring of 1973 the band were taken under the wing of Fela Kuti. After a run of appearances on the bill at his Shrine club they were signed by EMI Nigeria’s visionary in-house producer Odion Iruoje. Over two days in May 1973 they recorded Projection One, which was their one and only release before disbanding two years later.

The majority of their songs were based around a 6/8 rhythm influenced by the music of the Ewe people from the South East of Ghana and Western Togo. With themes that draw heavily on traditional folklore and deep philosophy the album has a heavy feel that sets itself well apart from the much of the lighter happier highlife of the previous decade. Alongside Fela’s first few albums, Blo’s Chapter One and Mono Mono’s Give The Beggar A Chance this was one of the very earliest Afro – Rock LPs released in West Africa and has remained out of print for nearly forty years. Projection One never got a release in the band’s home country of Ghana and apparently sailed way over most peoples heads at the time. Very much like the debut Hedzoleh Soundz album that Soundway re-issued in 2010 (another Ghanaian band that were recorded in Lagos, produced by Iruoje on the recommendation of Fela Kuti) the only copies that made it back to Ghana were the few that the band took back themselves.

Soundway will release Projection One here in it’s full original format on gatefold vinyl as well as on CD for the first time: remastered and accompanied by liner notes that contain the reminiscences of band leader Nana Danso (who subsequently founded and now runs the Accra-based Pan African Orchestra).

soundwayrecords.com

Tracklist

1. Darkness
2. Gondzin
3. Edzayawa
4. Naa Korle
5. Amanehun
6. Abonsan
7. Obuebee
8. Adesa

Eric (Show Boy) Akaeze - Keep Your Promise

2012-02-07T09:20:00.002+01:00

Rare later album from the king of Ikoto Rock with 2 killer dancefloor afro-beat / Ikoto rock tracks. Hard to find afrobeat/ funk from 1979 on "Editions Namaco records", Nigeria [Catalogue No. DNLPS 008].

Tracklist

A1. Bar Beach Show
A2. Keep Your Promise
B1. God Made A Man
B2. Banga Rock

Here are some other songs of him from the amazing "Money No Be Sand - 1960's Afro-Lypso, Pidgin Highlife, Afro-Soul, Afro-Rock" - sampler:

Amouzou Hefoume - T'aimer

2012-02-03T15:55:00.004+01:00

Unfortunately, I almost cannot find any information of him.

Afro pop recorded by this Togolese singer with Ghanaian band. Some folk soul tunes, the stand out being two laid back afro psych soul tracks.

Label: Sonafric
Pressage: France
Year: 1977

Fela Kuti - Lagos Baby

2012-02-02T13:31:00.002+01:00

ela Kuti (1938-1997) was the first and brightest African super star, and a music genious of colossal dimensions, considered by many the unrivalled king of African music for more than 30 years. What Vampisoul has the inmense pleasure to offer, as part of our ongoingg African sonic exploration (Tony Allen, Orlando Julius, Highlife collection and more to come), is the musical birth of a MYTH and GIANT of world's music.

In 1970 Kuti changed his name from Fela Ransome Kuti to Fela Anikulapo Kuti ("Anikulapo" being a yoruba name meaning "he who carries death in his pouch"), and radicalized his music (inventing Afro-Beat!) and his vision of the world, joining forces with the Black Panther Party, forming the Kalakuta Republic (a commune which he declared independent from the Nigerian state), creating his own revolutionary political party "Movement Of The People", and rebelling against the military regime of Nigeria.

What we're focusing here into, though, is what Kuti did in the 60's, between 1963 and 1969, years before naming his band Africa 70 and becoming the first african music rebel. After staying in London between 1958 and 1961, where he studied at the Trinity College of Music, and prior to his first visit to the States, when he knew about the black power movement, Fela was back in his Nigeria home with his band The Koola Lobitos serenading nightclubbers with jaunty highlife jazz and afro soul music. What you can hear in this compilation is Fela Ransome Kuti (not Anikulapo) and His Koola Lobitos, doing an irresistible, torrid and infectious rhythmic mix of West Africa's Highlife music, jazz, soul and funk.

Licensed from The Fela Kuti Estate and Premier Records, this deluxe Vampisoul package, available both on double CD set and triple vinyl LP, features extensive notes by African specialist Max Reinhardt and artwork by artist Victor Aparicio. The vinyl version consist on two 12" LPs, and one special 10" LP, exact reproduction of Kuti's legendary 1966' "Afro Beat On Stage, recorded Live At the Afro Spot (PLP001)", with all the same songs, in its own jacket with original artwork, and liner notes!

Vampisoul

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There must be something in the air at the moment, because the zeitgeist certainly seems to be preoccupied with the musical output of Nigeria, and of course there are no greater stars of Nigerian music than Fela Kuti. This double CD volume accounts for Kuti's career between 1963 and 1969, drawing a line before we get to his Africa 70 days. Consequently, the compilation might be viewed as taking a less politicised approach to Kuti's career and deliberately sidestepping the music that coincided with his activism against the Nigerian military dictatorship during the '70s. the benefit of this is that it gives an insight into the man's purely musical innovations - this is afterall the musician behind what we now term as Afrobeat, and it was during this period in the sixties that his signature musical style developed from its roots in highlife, jazz and soul. This transition is compartmentalised and divided by the two discs: the first focussing on Kuti's early roots while the second unveils the definitive Afrobeat sound he was to ecome best known for. Awesome.

boomkat.com

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This double CD set covers the six years befure he changed his name from Fela-Ransome to Fela-Anikulapo (in Yoruba, “Anikulapo” means “he who carries death in his pouch”) - no wonder the Nigerian authorities felt so scared of him.

The tracks on this album are influenced by the time he spent in London (1958-1961) where he was studying music at Trinity College and before his first visit to the U.S.A. This is a time of a young trumpet player and band leader finding his musical feet. This is Fela Ransome Kuti and the Koola Lobitos in the nightclubs of Lagos in at a time when Nigeria had just become independent from colonial rule (1962) and expectations were high. Some of the tracks give us the impression he knew where he would be in a few years time (‘Ako’ recorded around the time his Afro-Spot at the Kakadu club), some show the influence of the American jazz scene (‘Amaechi’s Blues’), some are more calypso, some a little ska, some R&B (‘VC7’) but most of these tracks belong on the dancefloor of the nightclub; and boy, would you have loved to be in a club where Fela was playing in the sixties? That would be living the Highlife!

Forty years before co-creator of Afrobeat Tony Allen released Lagos No Shaking, the music of Lagos Baby ruled the niteclubs and it still sounds great.

Extensive and in depth sleeve notes from Max Reinhardt (The Shrine, Notting Hill branch) who is also in the process to writing a new biography In Search of Fela Anikulapo Kuti (with Rita Ray) is coming out next year. That’s one to definitely look forward to but in the meantime it’s Highlife Time with Fela-Ransome Kuti - it’s got the (pre-Afro)beat.

flyglobalmusic.com

Tracklist CD 1

01. Signature Tune
02. Highlife Time
03. Lagos Baby
04. Omuti
05. Olulufe
06. Araba's Delight
07. Wa Dele
08. Lai Se
09. Mi O Mo
10. Obinrin Le
11. Omo Ejo
12. Bonfu
13. Fere
14. Onifere No 2
15. Oyejo
16. Oluruka
17. Awo
18. Yese
19. Egbin
20. Orise
21. Eke

Tracklist CD 2

01. Great Kids
02. Amaechi's Blues
03. VC7
04. I Know Your Feeling
05. Onidodo
06. Alagbara
07. Ajo
08. Abiara
09. Se E Tun De
10. Waka Waka
11. My Baby Don Love Me
12. Home Cooking
13. Everyday I Got My Blues
14. Moti Gbrokan
15. Waka Waka
16. Ako
17. Ororuka
18. Lai Se

Lemi Ghariokwu - THE amazing Afrobeat artist

2012-01-31T11:26:00.003+01:00

"Anoda Sistem" by Ghariokwu Lemi

Lemi Ghariokwu is a Nigerian artist and designer who is most renowned for providing many of the original cover images for the recordings of Nigerian musician Fela Kuti.

His work involves a variety of styles, often using vibrant colours and individuated typefaces of his own design.

More than 2,000 album covers have been designed by Lemi, including covers for Bob Marley, E. T. Mensah, Osita Osadebe, Gilles Peterson and Antibalas.

Many of Ghariokwu's cover images echo and sometimes comment on the work and politics of the recordings that they accompany, serving a consciously integrated metatextual function.

Ghariokwu's approach to his work with Kuti involved listening to and digesting the music and then expressing his reaction in his paintings, design and comments which provide a high level of detail on the many album covers he delivered.

Lemi's relationship with Fela Kuti was very cordial. He gave Lemi total freedom with his work and thoughts to the level that he just did as he pleased, albeit responsibly, with how and what he wanted to express. Lemi had the rare previlege of putting his photograph and comments on some of the covers and was treated like a son, friend, adviser and comrade by the Afrobeat legend.

Wiki

Lemi Ghariokwu: Afro Art Beat from Damien Priest on Vimeo.

An amazing article can be found here!

More information can be found here:

Ghariokwu Lemi at myspace!

Ghariokwu Lemi at wordpress!

F. Kenya - The Powerhouse Vol. II (get it)

2012-01-26T20:13:00.002+01:00

Dr. F. Kenya is probably one of the greatest living highlife guitarists in Ghana. His two Powerhouse LPs, which he performed on and composed, epitomize the seriousness of the guitar band format, up to par with such luminaires as Nana Ampadu or K. Frimpong.

digging4gold

A1. Ewule Ama Mandobe
A2. Benwonyia
A3. Nzema Kotoko
A4. Aya Bomo
B1. Bodeba
B2. Mewu A Bezume
B3. Woahonl
B4. Ada Melangoa

Interview with Afro-Funk Legend Joni Haastrup

2012-01-25T11:31:00.003+01:00

Multi-instrumentalist Joni Haastrup is widely regarded as one of the major figures in post-highlife Nigerian music. Alongside his group MonoMono, Haastrup was quintessential in the innovation and development of Afro-funk in 1970s Lagos. Okayafrica sat down with the legendary musician to talk about his recordings, playing with Ginger Baker, and his close relationship with Fela Kuti.

The Interview

You grew up in a royal household in Nigeria, can you tell us a little about your family’s background and your upbringing?

When I was born, my grandfather was King Owa Ajimoko III of Ijesha land in the then Western region of Nigeria. Since I was the youngest at that time, and because of the king’s special love of my father’s family, I was always on the king’s lap in palace whenever we went there. My family is a large group and each of the king’s sons (including my dad) had their individual family houses in town or the suburbs. The king lived in the palace and our dads were given their own individual lands and houses in the town or villages away from the palace. We visited the palace to visit our grandfather on weekends or during ceremonies.

How did your interest in music begin? Any particular acts, bands or people that you remember steering you towards music?

One day in 1954 after school closed, my older brother Segun came back home and decided to introduce the penny whistle to me and he started teaching me what turned out to be my first music instrument. He was the school bandleader at that time, I naturally became his assistant being the only one he taught the penny-whistle to, as well as the only person who accompanied him during morning and end of day assemblies, parades and shows. I learned everything I know musically from, and was inspired and motivated by, my brother.

How did your relationship with Ginger Baker begin? Can you talk about your role in Ginger’s Airforce and SALT tours?

One night in 1969 when I sang with Clusters International in Lagos, Nigeria, we had just returned from a national tour of the country and I went to Kakadu night club. I was then invited to sit in with the Hykers pop group on a couple of songs — The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” and Sly Stone’s “Sing A Simple Song”. As I came off stage-left, a tall looking white guy came off his seat to congratulate and invite me to come sit at his table where he was sitting with some members of the Nigerian media. He then told introduced himself to me as Ginger Baker of Cream and Blind Faith with Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce and about this new band he just started in London called Ginger Baker’s Air Force II. He told me about the three ladies who sang back ground vocals in the band. He told me that the way he heard me sang those two songs I did with the band showed him that I could join his band in London and sing background vocals with Aliki Ashman, Diane Stewart and Jeanett Jacobs.

I never went on the Salt tour with Ginger Baker. When I left London and went back to Lagos, my next career goal was set… to start my own band in Lagos and play all original songs composed and arranged by me. That was the beginning of MONOMONO, a five-piece all original combo playing all my songs in the clubs and shows. I labeled my music genre Afro-funk. The first Afro-funk song was “Give The Beggar A Chance” which I produced in 1971, recorded and released by EMI in Lagos in 1972.

How did recording for the Give The Beggar A Chance LP start? You used Paul McCartney’s studio? Can you elaborate on the process?

When I started singing with Ginger Baker’s Air Force II in 1970, Denny Laine left the band to go play with Paul McCartney‘s Wings. I arrived back in Nigeria and started MONOMONO and then we heard that Paul MacCartney and Wings were coming to Lagos to record their debut album. I was informed by the A&R manager of EMI who also hinted that Paul was bringing a 16-track board from EMI London to use for his production.

Since EMI Nigeria only had a 2 track Akai tape deck which I and Fela used for our recordings, I started lobbying EMI for the retention of the 16-track after Wings’ production was finished and they returned to England. I convinced Fela to lobby with me, and with both Fela and myself who were then EMI’s top artists, they had little choice but to please us and keep the 16-track equipment in Lagos.

MONOMONO then became the first band to record on the first 16-track board in EMI Nigeria. Although I had been recorded in several 24-track studios in England, it was the first time I produced a record on a multi-track board. My first independent production Give The Beggar a Chance was on a 16 track gear – the same gear used by Paul MacCartney’s Wings. I squeezed every drop of juice from the board in that production and the result made that album sound as good as it did.

Was it different recording in Nigeria and London (like you did with Wake Up Your Mind)? Did you find one of those cities better for your recording process?

The first time I arrived in England and went into Trident Studios with Ginger Baker and the 10 piece Airforce II, there was definitely a nostalgic difference. This is because the studios that we used in Nigeria were all single-track studios. I really enjoy recording my tracks in Lagos because the environment is the best for Afro-funk music. Every thing is perfect, so your feelings about the music don’t get diluted. Hence, I produced all MONOMONO tracks in Lagos and for The Dawn Of Awareness, we did overdubs and mixing in London. Wake Up Your Mind was from left-over tracks from the London mixes of 1978. All I did in the US was master those tracks at Capitol studio in Hollywood.

People cite a wide range of influences, from Hugh Masekela to The Doors, when talking about your music, What are some artists you truly hold as essential to the formation of your own sound?

Creating my own sound was not patterned after anybody else but my own sounds that I heard and felt in my soul. When I hear a song in my head, my spirit picks up the melody and rhythm and I just start singing all the instrumental parts and so I get the music together first and then write the lyrics. With MONOMONO I was able to rehearse the songs with the band immediately and so everything is always fresh when the band begins to learn the songs. I spell out each instrumental part to each musician and because we were all on the same wavelength, Kenneth learns the bass first and so when I start working with the guitar player and drummers it was easier to communicate the melodic and rhythmic ideas to them.

Finally, I had to ask about you and Fela Kuti. You were both acquaintances, but some reviews name you both as rivals. What was your interaction with Fela like? Were you a fan of his music, and vice-versa, was he a fan of yours?

When Fela came back to Lagos from London where he had been studying music, I was singing rock ‘n roll covers in the early 60s. He worked as a radio producer for NBC in Lagos and performed with his band Koola Lobitos at night in the clubs and on Saturday nights.

I moved to Lagos in 1965 and immediately started going to Sunday afternoon pop shows promoted by young pop music promoters who bought British pop songs and encouraged us to copy them so that we could form pop groups in Lagos just like the English boys did in London and America.

All this time, Fela Ransome Kuti played jazz trumpet with his band Koola Lobitos. And then something happened, show promoters who had been buying rock ‘n roll discs started bringing in soul records from USA and by late 1965/66, we all started singing James Brown (“I Feel Good”, Wilson Picket (“Midnight Hour”), Otis Redding, etc. The soul music era made it possible for us young people to start enjoying recognition from the youth of Nigeria. Simultaneously, the same thing was happening in Ghana and all across West Africa.

Fela and I became friends when I went up to him one night to ask if I could sing one of his songs with his band. At first he wasn’t willing to have me sit in with his band because as he said then, I was a cover soul singer and his music was jazz based. He didn’t think I was up to it (singing his songs with his band) He told me “none of you soul and rock ‘n’ roll singers can sing my songs with my band because the music is too advanced for you all”. I told him “try me”. The next weekend he decided to try me. He announced my name to his audience and invited me to come upstage and sing one of his songs, I went upstage and performed one of his songs with his band Koola Lobitos. When I came off stage, Fela confessed to me that he never thought I could do what I did with his band and that whenever I came to his club I should expect to be called on stage to sing.

From that day Fela and I became good friends and closer than he had ever been with any local musician. I substituted for him in his band in 1969 when he had to come to the US to sign a contract for his band’s US tour. Afro beat music was born during that tour in 1970.

okayafrica.com, written by Kam

MonoMono - Dawn of Awareness

2012-01-23T12:26:00.002+01:00

Soundway Records and Tummy Touch are proud to present "Dawn of Awareness" the second album by Joni Haastrup's band MonoMono. Re-issued on CD, LP and digital, the LP comes with a bonus 12" featuring two extra tracks. Amid the OPEC oil embargo, Watergate and IRA bombs, the sound of MonoMono's follow-up record, 1974's Dawn of Awareness, took on the bluesrock grooves of Santana and Hugh Masekela but with their own unique Yoruban flavor. A deeply spiritual record, Dawn of Awareness was Haastrup's reaction to what was going on in the world around him. One hears echoes of the Allman Brothers' Revival on MonoMono's Awareness is What You Need and after listening to Plain Fighting you could easily imagine the band sharing the stage with the Doobie Brothers at an East Side San Jose street festival.

parisdjs.com

Nigerian multi-instrumentalist Joni Haastrup may not be the household name Fela Kuti is, but he is as indelible a part of Afro-beat and Nigerian music as the Black President is. Haastrup was the vocalist on O.J. Ekemode and his Modern Aces’ 1966 album, Super Afro Soul, which was one of the early, formative Afro-beat records—an album a then-unknown Kuti played trumpet on (before he picked up his famous saxophone). He also toured with Cream’s Ginger Baker in 1971, replacing some guy named Steve Winwood, and then went on to form his own band MonoMono before moving on to his own solo work.

Soundway Records has now smartly reissued the first two MonoMono records—1971’s Give the Beggar a Chance and 1974’s The Dawn of Awareness—and Haastrup’s 1978 solo album, Wake Up Your Mind. They come on the heels of their reissue of Remi Kabaka’s great Afro-jazz soundtrack Black Goddess, where Haastrup played keys, and these albums further prove that his nickname—they called him the “Number One Soul Brother”—suits him quite well.

These three albums are all brief—each clocks in under 40 minutes—but they show a heavier soul mix in Haastrup’s vision of Afro-funk and rock music. If James Brown was a huge influence on Afro-beat in general, then Haastrup is his closest musical student. These are tighter compositions than Kuti’s, but they still manage a similar dichotomy: they are dynamic and shifting and yet build tension and inertia on insistent repetition.

Give the Beggar a Chance is a sweet and soulful debut that highlights Haastrup’s voice—his honeyed vocals are a far cry from Kuti’s gruff, spare singing and keyboard work. Playing with guitarist Jimmy Adams, bass player Baba Ken Okulolo, and percussionists Candido Obajimi and Friday Jumbo, Haastrup’s work with MonoMono doesn’t always feel much like the sound of a band. His vocals are mixed way high, as are his keyboards, and his larger-than-life charm nearly overwhelms the songs. Still, if you sift through the layers, the band is a tight outfit. They shift carefully, but effectively, tone and tempo throughout the record. “The World Might Fall Over” moves from Haastrup’s keyboard vamps to a bright and sped-up group jam, before settling into a smoldering soul number. “Find Out”, one of many strident calls to action on these albums, has a similar push and pull. The shifts are subtle, but in such relatively short compositions, they catch you off guard and keep you interested.

But if that album was a confident first step for Haastrup as leader of his own band, The Dawn of Awareness is a more cohesive and resonant sound for the band as a whole. The keys mesh with Adams’s careful guitar work and leaves space for the bluesy thump of Okulolo’s bass work. It’s a moodier set—recorded in the wake of the OPEC oil embargo and scandals like Watergate—and Haastrup dials down the Brown-ian showmanship in favor of a genuine and deep anger. “Ipade Aldun”, the longest song on any of these records, is a brilliant turn, insistent in its pounding beat and powerful group singing and, driven by a great solo from Adams, it is the band at its most cut-loose and impressive. It sets up the funkier space of “Make Them Realise” and the feverish shuffle of “Awareness is Wot You Need”. This album takes Haastrup’s raw charisma and his band’s promise from the first record, balances them out and makes them both shine. It is, of these three, the finest example of Afro-funk and Afro-beat Haastrup offered, and acts as a smoother counterpoint to Kuti’s larger musical furies.

Haastrup’s solo record, 1978’s Wake Up Your Mind, is as soulful and funky as its MonoMono predecessors, and in some cases comes off as larger than them. The horn section on “Free My People” delivers expansive, bright hooks, punctuating the drawn-out sweetness of his vocals with immediate punches of sound. As the title implies, Haastrup was still fighting for awareness, trying to bring consciousness to the people to affect change, but there’s a distinctly more hopeful sound to this record. “Champions and Superstars” seems like a guileless, and even goofy, ode to football players (or soccer, if you prefer), but it’s also a very real declaration of national pride. If there’s worry all around these songs—and there is, more than the MonoMono records—Wake Up Your Mind resides in the hope of coming change and not the despair of national repression. Haastrup recorded this record in London, with what seems like more resources, and the resulting album sometimes falls prey to late ‘70s recording sheen. The airy keys and thin drums on the title track, or instance, sand down its fangs a bit. Overall, though, it’s another solid set.

Taken together, these albums represent a musician in Joni Haastrup who distinguished himself from the other greats in Afro-beat while still remaining true to the sound. With MonoMono and by himself, he succeeded on his beautiful voice and innovative keyboard work—think Ray Manzarek, only more playful and, you know, good—and used them to shake the people up. In that way, these albums work as a pretty convincing whole, moving from worry to unrest to burgeoning hope, one thumping song at a time.

popmatters.com, written by Matthew Fiander

The second release by Nigeria's MonoMono was originally released on LP in 1974. Thankfully, the folks at Tummy Touch Records revived the music of MonoMono, which features the work of Joni Haastrup and his friend, Baba Ken Okulolo. The original six songs are presented on this rerelease. The blues, rock, psychedelia, and funk elements are quite pronounced throughout. The instrumental segments are especially intriguing, as they set the stage for a perfect soundtrack to lounge around, dance, or trip-out. The down-tempo elements of 'Make Them Realise,' cnojures up comparisons to the North American group, Action Figure Party. The soul of Yoruban funk emanates from the tracks without causing boredom or sleepy episodes. The Dawn Of Awareness is a little more blues and rock-driven than the previous release. Still, MonoMono knows how to move those feet with rewarding results.

Matthew Forss

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The second album in a series of three reissues from Nigerian bandleader Joni Haastrup, Dawn of Awareness was the sophomore effort by his band MonoMono, following their very impressive debut, Give the Beggar a Chance. It's tempting to read more into the two albums' titles than one probably should: while the first album focused on relatively concrete social issues (best song title: "The World Might Fall Over"), the mood on Dawn of Awareness is a bit more introspective. Sonically, this is real Age of Aquarius stuff: the grooves are at times downright spacy (note in particular the acid-drenched "Awareness Is Wot You Need" and the only slightly less discursive "Plain Fighting"), and even by Afro-pop standards they sometimes focus a bit too much on the extended elaboration of a single two-chord idea (note in particular the jazzily pretty but eventually rather tedious "Get Yourself Together"). But those ideas and their elaborations are consistently attractive, and there are moments of genius here; "Tire Loma da Nigbehin" is very lovely, and "Ipade Aladun" surprises with its spoken word intro (a defense of the band's energetic stage presence: they may jump around on-stage as if drunk, Haastrup explains, but it's only because they love the music and want to share its energy) followed by a startlingly slow, almost deliberate groove counterposed by vigorous and heartfelt vocals. This album is more uneven than its predecessor, but very much worth hearing.

Rick Anderson

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The Dawn of Awareness sees the MonoMono Band expand on their previously set role as social commentators. Joni Haastrup looks beyond Lagos at the volatile state of the world, as did his American contemporaries at a similar time at Woodstock - war in Vietnam, the OPEC oil crises, Watergate and the IRA bombings.

The psychedelic cover bears a strong resemblance to the artwork of Marti Klarwein - who illustrated Carlos Santana’s Abraxas and Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew - and sets an appropriate tone for the blues-rock grooves of the album. Santana once again shows to have been an influential guitarist in Nigeria. The Latin percussion of Abraxas also surfaces here, imitated well by Candido Obajimi and Friday Jumbo. Their shakes, scrapes and subtle drum hits provide the perfect backdrop for Jimmy Adams to plug in his guitar and let rip, often taking over the second half of the songs with an impenetrable amount of feedback. This makes for a more established formula than on MonoMono’s previous Give The Beggar A Chance: Haastrup’s heartfelt vocals, sometimes in English, sometimes in Yoruba, sometimes a personalised mish-mash of the two, Adams on guitar, Obajimi and Jumbo workmanlike in their simple percussion style.

When you consider the political situation in Nigeria, The Dawn of Awareness is more daring than other protest albums of the 70’s. “Awareness is what you need,” warns Haastrup, clearly not one turn a blind eye in fear of the consequences of the government. “If you see a man cry and don’t ask why, you can’t look yourself inside.”

Clyde Macfarlane

Tracklist

01. Plain Fighting (Your Life Is What You Make Of It)
 02. Ipade Aladun
 03. Get Yourself Together
 04. Awareness Is Wot You Need
 05. Make Them Realise (Everybody's Gotta Be Free)
 06. Tire Loma Da Nighbehin

Vinyl Bonus Tracks

A: Water Pass Gari (Pts 1 & 2 edited together)
 B: Kenimania (7" version)

The Brighton Beat - The Brighton Beat LP (free download)

2012-01-19T13:57:00.002+01:00

Boston's new afrobeat group. Bringing together a wide range of influences and sounds, aimed to bring you joy to your ears and movement to your feet.

The Brighton Beat was formed in 2010 out of a love for afrobeat, old and new. Although it's a new project, the musicians in The Brighton Beat have been playing music together for years. Realizing their common love for jazz and afrobeat, they decided to set forth on an adventurous path, writing their own interpretation of afrobeat-funk in today's modern world. The band takes influence from many styles; everything from Fela Kuti and Antibalas to John Coltrane, and Medeski, Martin, and Wood help spark the creativity of the group. In late 2010, they recorded their first self-titled EP, which has received rave reviews in the jazz-world. Their unique approach translates into an invigorating live performance, combining tight arrangements, fresh grooves, and a very jazz-influenced sound. The Brighton Beat is sure to be a fun, interactive, and memorable show.

The Brighton Beat

1. Pinball
2. Changing Elevators
3. Giraffe
4. Capture The Flag
5. The Paradox
6. Indian Summer

The album can be officially downloaded for free here!!!

Asiko Rock Group - Asiko Rock Group (get it)

2012-01-17T16:29:00.003+01:00

Tracklist

01. Every Body Get Down
02. Let's Marry
03. Shadow Of The Boogie
04. Together Again Never To Part
05. People Talk
06. Solo, Mon, A Ndoan
07. Lagos City

Fire Tongue - Wayo Bring War

2012-01-16T14:24:00.002+01:00

Born in Cameroon in 1971, he plays the guitar, the keyboards and accordion since the age of 6. After growing up in Yaoundé where he learned jazz with his guitar teacher, Fire Tongue leaves for Nigeria where he discovers Fela Kuti, a vaster field of expression that seduces him.

He meets Rex Lossen, Etienne T-Boy, Geraldo Pino and plays the first part of Fela Kuti in 1995. Fire Tongue forms T-Boy with Etienne (Golden Album in Africa) and moves to Paris where he plays in prestigious venues such as New Morning, Divan du Monde, Flèche d’Or …

In 2002 Discograph releases their maxi vinyl “Bring Peace”. At the recording sessions the encounter with the sound engineer was very important and ended up with the sound engineer actively participating in the recording of this work, a very genuine but modern afro beat, that goes from blues to dub, from afro beat to electro the whole of it preserving an original purity in its musical conception.

Fire tongue depth and fluent music has given a new life to afro beat, Fire Tongue is a new sensation that brings together tradition and modernity.

Press release

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Tracklist

01. Aié/Commot for Road
02. Wayo Dey Bring War
03. Poéhitiky Madness
04. We Get to Do It Together
05. When Afro Meets Blues
06. Send Some Hope
07. Wayo de Bring War [Dub]
08. Aié/Commot for Road [Instrumental Version]
09. Poéhitiky Madness

Fela Kuti's Lover and Mentor Sandra Smith Talks ...

2012-01-12T20:41:00.004+01:00

At the time of his death in 1997, Fela Anikulapo Kuti was known by many names: Afrobeat pioneer, a political instigator, husband to 27 wives, just to name a few. The Nigerian musician had spread his fiery brand of African party music around the world, serving up biting social commentary sugar-coated with blasting horns, slithering Rhodes keyboards and undulating beats that ignited global dance floors. His incredible life is chronicled in the critically acclaimed Broadway musical Fela! -- opening at the Ahmanson theater this week -- which follows Fela's rise to musical prominence, acerbic political criticism and his deadly clashes with the Nigerian government. But before Fela became an international phenomenon, it was here in Los Angeles that Fela found his sound and vision.

Fela and his band came to Los Angeles in 1969 as just another international act, and left in 1970 ready for revolution. Musician and social activist Sandra Smith (now Izsadore) witnessed it all first hand. She was Fela's guide, teacher and lover while he stayed in the City of Angels. "Sandra gave me the education I wanted to know," Fela told author Micheal Veal. "She was the one who opened my eyes. For the first time I heard things I'd never heard before about Africa! Sandra was my adviser. She talked to me about politics, history. She taught me what she knew and what she knew was enough for me to start on."

LA Weekly recently caught up with Sandra to talk about Fela's L.A. days and his evolution to becoming an African icon.

The interview

Describe that first time you saw Fela Kuti.

It was [jazz musician] Juno Lewis who had insisted that I come with him to see this group form Nigeria. I was somewhat apprehensive, but Juno was so insistent that I see this group that he came and picked me up. We went to the Ambassador hotel for a NAACP event. I looked up on the stage, and Fela was looking down, and there was an immediate connection.

I was sitting at the table, enjoying the party, and Juno came over when the band had an intermission, and Juno said that someone wanted to meet me. So when I went to the bar, Fela was there. Juno was instrumental in making that happen, and might I add, my life has never been the same since.

What was that first conversation like?

It was very raw. The first thing out of his mouth was, "Do you have a car?" And I said yes, and he says, "Good, you're going with me." Just like that. We got together that day and we were together until he left.

I laughed because I was the one with the car, so I thought that he was cocky and somewhat arrogant. He was different than any of the other African student that I had met. So the curiosity set in.

Where was he staying?

Inglewood. There was this man named Morris, and he had extended his home to them. Then the situation changed, so my parents had this back house that no one lived in, so my parents said they wanted to help. So Fela and the band were housed for back there. It was August of '69 when I met him, and they were here since I think maybe March of '69. Then they had to leave because there was a disgruntled Nigerian man who brought them here from Nigeria, and all that he said he was going to do for them fell through. It was Americans who came in to the rescue. The generosity of African Americans here [was] how Fela and the band could stay here. Everyone was trying to help them stay in the country. We saw them as our brethren.

Tell us about the Citadel de Haiti and that series of shows Fela's band played there.

It was the club of Bernie Hamilton, the brother of Chico Hamilton, the jazz musician. Bernie was an actor and he had this club, The Citadel De Haiti. It was at 6666 Sunset. They don't even have that place anymore, the address itself is even gone.

It was great club, just no clientele, so he hired Fela to come in, and he paid him under the table. In a little bit of no time, that club was packed. Everybody knew that there was this great Nigerian band who was just off the chain.

What was Los Angeles like back then?

This was a time that African Americans were becoming aware of ourselves. Everyone was embracing Africa at this time. Everyone was wearing dashiki's and James Brown sang "I'm black and I'm proud, say it loud." That was all going down, so there was this positive energy. And of course, it was the dawning of the age of Aquarius. Hair was playing at a theater across the street from the Palladium, where the Nickelodean studios are today. The cast would come over and hang out at Bernie's place after they did their show. It was such a revolutionary time here in Los Angeles.

What was your relationship like with Fela?

I was in love. From the time we met, we connected on a very strong level. We were together constantly in L.A. And remember, I had a car. I was really good to make sure he made his concerts and stuff.

It was really exciting when he auditioned for Disneyland. I was like, "ooh, a free trip to Disneyland!" I was so excited, but at the end of the day, I was disappointed.

Disneyland told Fela that he wasn't playing African music. They wanted him to play in Adventureland.

They had thought he played just stereotypical African music, like what they have on the Small World ride?

They thought he was going to be something else, and they said that he wasn't playing African music at all. How do you tell an African man, playing African rhythms who had studied African music, that he is not playing African music? Crazy. So that was Disneyland.

He broke down these notions of what Africa is. He represented an urban Africa.

That's what was so impressive about him. He was the real first urban African man I met. Everyone else came from rural areas. He was different.

What were your conversations like?

He would talk about Africa and I'd tell him about America. Meeting him, I was under the impression that I was going to learn everything I needed to know about Africa. Not knowing that I would be teaching him. I didn't know at I was teaching him anything. At that time, this stuff was just common knowledge. I had been attending the Nation of Islam under Elijah Muhammad, and I had attended the Black Panther Party and SNCC [Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee] through school. Through those organizations that I [gained] different knowledge, and I shared that knowledge with Fela. He was learning from me, without me being aware that I was teaching.

At that time, I had learned about all the great African kings and all that. Because I hadn't learned it in school, I hadn't learned it in church, and my parent had hidden the ugly truth of America. When I became aware, I became very angry. I couldn't understand inequality. So I was like, we can change this.

How did this knowledge affect Fela's music?

When I heard Fela's music, after we had been spending time together. I heard them rehearse, and I liked it, but I had no idea what he was saying. So I asked him, "Fela, what are you saying?" He said he was singing about his soup. He was singing about nothing. I laughed and I said, "That doesn't make sense, you should use your music to educate. You should write songs that have meaning." I was looking for African pride, and I looked to my own African King, and he told me that there was no pride in Africa, at that time. I was shocked.

When H.B. Barnum, the music director for [original Rat Pack member] Joey Bishop's TV show, and Duke Lumumba brought him in for the 1969 sessions, Fela started writing music that had some meaning for his people. When he went back [to Nigeria], he was a changed person. It wasn't until 1976 that I learned that it was [because of] the books that I had given him and that knowledge he came into at my mother's home.

All that time I thought that Fela had taught me about the world, but he told me that I, in fact, had taught him.

What happened after Fela left Los Angeles?

It took me ten years for me to get over Fela. I wasn't about to be part of his harem. When I met him he had one wife, but when he left the planet he had 27. He married them in one day! I was very fortunate to say that I had the opportunity to live at [Fela's Nigerian compound] Kalakuta too. It was a party every day. I was there in '76, I lived there for three or four months.

Then I tried to untie myself emotionally from Fela, so then I moved to England, where I got tied up in a new kind of music. Reggae. Back then, it was just the Wailers, so I partied with Bob Marley. By the time I had gone through everything with Fela, I knew that with Bob Marley, it was time to stay back.

written by Drew Tewksbury, L.A. Weekly, December, 13th 2011

Idrissa Diop & Cheikh Tidiane Tall- Diamonoye Tiopité

2012-01-09T16:44:00.004+01:00

The newest of micro-labels rescuing early African popular music, from the "golden age" decades of the 60s and 70s, is Teranga Beat, and its first release is crucial. Diamonoye Tiopité chronicles a transformative period in Senegalese music, when mbalax arose from the shadows of the Afro-Cuban music that had dominated pop culture for many years.

The vehicle for illustrating this music history is the early career of Idrissa Diop and the band SAHEL. This CD collects three selections from Diop's first solo record, 1969's Diouba, including the immensely popular "Yaye Boye" that became essential for every Senegalese band to cover. Four songs from SAHEL's epochal Bamba recording sessions follow, including two songs that did not make the record. These tracks, taken from the rescued master tape, are the highlight of this wonderful Teranga debut. The Cuban rhythms are deep, the sound lush, and the horns bright. The organ solos and guitar of band leader Cheikh Tidiane Tall: Inspired. "Bamba" inserts sabar drums and traditional rhythms, thus innovating the first mbalax hit, with its catchy Touba Touba refrain. "Caridad" is one of the best African salsa recordings I have heard, funky and faithful at the same time.

The remaining five tracks collect two from an Orchestre Cheikh Tall & Idrissa Diop record, plus three previously unpublished recordings Idrissa Diop did with SAHEL in 1976. While the sound quality of these last tracks is more marginal, they do illustrate a completed transition to mbalax, with the tama talking drum taking its important role.

Diamonoye Tiopité is an Idrissa Diop revelation and education for me. I had only known the percussionist and singer from his later European recordings, which invariably leave me ambivalent with glossy, rock-oriented over-production. I'll post one of those albums in the next few days. This new CD of wonderfully fresh, old music gives me much more respect for Idrissa Diop and his important contribution to Senegalese music history.

rhythmconnection.blogspot.com

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Idrissa Diop [Idy] grew up in the Guelle Tappé neighborhood of Dakar and began playing music when he was just 8 years old; he formed his first band at 13 and recorded his first solo effort, ‘Dioubo’ [Peace] at 19, a subtle blend of traditional Senegalese and Latin music. Under the wing of the impresario Bass Goumbala the band Sahel was formed, a grouping of talented Senegalese musicians, which included Idy along with producer Moussa Diallo who together recorded the LP Bamba, in which Latin and Senegalese music were fused to create the first strains of Mbalax [pronounced balach], the sounds of which went on to inspire noted talents such as Youssou N’dour, Thione Seck and Omar Pene . Following this accomplishment, Idy went on to record the Orchestre Cheikh Tall & Idrissa Diope , played with the aforementioned Cheikh Tall, one of the most highly respected keys players in Senegal, and which was produced by Ibra Kasse in a further fusion of Mbalax and Latin. The first release on the Teranga Beat imprint is a compilation of tracks from the aforementioned LP's alongside an array of unreleased material recorded by the band Sahel.

Almost all the recordings are either previously unreleased, or published exclusively for the local market. This first release on Teranga Beat is a compilation of music created by one of Senegal's most important and highly respected artists, Idrissa Diop, highlighting his recordings made from 1969 thru 1976, including the last one's he made in Senegal before relocationg to France. Much of it with a great blend of Senegalese and Cuban elements! The rhythms are wonderful, spinning out in these hypnotic ways, and often encouraging a bit of descarga-like jamming from the musicians, especially on the longer tracks'.

Tracklist

01. Dioubo
02. Tioro Baye Thierno
03. Yaye Boye
04. Cintorita
05. Con El Sahel
06. Bamba
07. Caridad
08. Kaële
09. Massani Cissé
10. Fonkale Garape
11. Diamonoye Têye
12. Gueth

From Ghana: Akwasi Yeboah's Band - Obaatan (get it)

2012-01-06T12:14:00.003+01:00

Highlife from Ghana! Unfortunately I cannot find more information ...

Tracklist

01. Obaatan Pa (Good Mother)
02. Obaa Yi Ho Ye Fe (Beautiful Woman)
03. Aboa Abirekyire (The Wisbom Of A Goat)
04. Adam Nana Rekoo (Mother Nature)
05. Ade Akye Asa (The Beginning And End Of A Day)
06. Koose Part 2 (Daily Bread)

Elvis Yeboah and his Justice 7 Band - Obiara Ne Negyaade

2012-01-03T12:37:00.003+01:00

Consistent highlife lp recorded by the former City boys band member.

Tracklist

01. Obiara ne negyaade
02. E'ngu manim ase
03. Enti medofo yi awu ampa
04. Ye saa daa
05. Medofo siaah
06. Anka mewobi

From Japan: JariBu Afrobeat Arkestra - Mediacracy

2011-12-20T15:44:00.002+01:00

JariBu Afrobeat Arkestra are an instrumental band playing music based on Afrobeat. Spiritually influenced by the great Fela Kuti, "JariBu" (which means "Try" in Swahili language) have created their own "Neo Afrobeat" sound, interweaving traditional afrobeat with funk and jazz sounds.

In April 2009, they released their 1st album "Afro Sound System", which was critically acclaimed by many DJs and radio producers. The CDs sold out but the album is still available in digital format. After participating in the "FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL 09" (the biggest and best known festival in Japan) in the summer of that year, they then started to search for ways to expand and develope their afrobeat sound and began recording a new album. A 7" single, "Legend of Yoruba Part 1&2" was released in late 2010, which was very well-received, and this is one of the cuts from the new album "MEDIACRACY" to be released in October 2011.

Over the past couple of years, JariBu Afrobeat Arkestra have established themselves as one of the most exciting live bands on the Tokyo scene. They currently play three to four gigs a month, including their own popular monthly event "Natural Vibes" at "Plug" in Shibuya and are the undisputed leaders of the Japanese afrobeat scene.

JariBu Afrobeat Arkestra

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Regular readers of Tokyo Jazz Notes will most probably be familiar with the name JariBu Afrobeat Arkestra by now as I have featured a number of reviews of gigs and releases over couple of years. Through their exciting shows with highly danceable grooves and powerful horn arrangements, this 13-piece outfit have established themselves as one of the most enjoyable live acts to watch on the Tokyo circuit.

We can now welcome the long-awaited release of the band's first fully distributed album, Mediacracy, containing an hour of music including some of the mainstays of live sets over the past year or so. The already phenomenal horn section is expanded on the recordings with guest appearances from Temjin from Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro on trumpet, Hirose Takao (Jazz Collective/Masa Sextet) on trombone and Takao Watanabe (from pikaia/NICE MIDDLE with New Blue Day Horns) also on trumpet, making an even fuller and powerful sound, and Pardon Kimura at the mixing desk keeps the integrity and immediacy of the live shows in the production.

The album opens with the funky guitar hook and percussion of the title track and a typical afrobeat-style voice over with politically inflected verse before the bass and drums kick in with a highly infectious beat layered with a luscious extended key solo. The whole thing is then lifted to another level as the horn riff blasts you away. Sax and trombone solos follow but the dance rhythms never let up for a second. The pace shifts slightly for another vocal section with a sing-a-long backing vocals before the main riff picks up once again for the close. Nine minutes of absolute killer grooves that is real statement of intent and confirmation that JariBu Afrobeat Arkestra mean business.

Suffer Dey is a mid-tempo number with a shuffling beat and despite the title, the main riff together with the trumpet and flute solos and the vocal refrain of "One day, one day" give the whole tune a very positive an uplifting feeling. And this mood carries us straight into Legend Of Yoruba, previously released as a single and already something of a dancefloor classic. Driven by an amazing flute performance, this is afrobeat at its funkiest and a tune that must rank with the best of the best in the new wave of afrobeat bands from different corners of the globe.

From the percussive interlude of Mvua Dance, we then head into Afro Soul Knows, which opens with some very funky wah-wah guitar and the full horn section. As with Fela Kuti's music, the JariBu Afrobeat Arkestra tracks that feature vocals have lyrics that either carry a political message or are a tribute to the herbal muse, and Afro Soul Knows falls into the latter category, though some of the detail is lost behind the sing-a-long backing chorus, and with the focus mainly on the dance rhythms throughout, this doesn't really matter.

It's the bassline that drives Tricky Liars, another live favourite, and eleven minutes of unrelenting high tempo deep afro funk. Over the course of the song you have all of elements of the band's sound coming to the fore, whether its the heavy bass, afrobeat drums and percussion, stabbing horn riffs, funky guitar or call and response vocals, all adding up to a very heady mix.

Meneno Ya Roho is another interlude that signals a shift of pace to N.N.G., something of an epic psychedelic number that moves along to a shuffling drum beat, with Ray Manzarek-style keys leading the way before the horn section refrain comes in after a couple of minutes. The sax solo that starts at around the four minute mark is simply awesome and this portion of the track is deliciously trippy and is somewhat appropriately followed by a vocal section calling for legalisation, before more psych keys for the extended final section. The album closes with Natural Vibes, an uplifting instrumental dance tune that shares its name with the band's monthly event at Plug in Shibuya.

Mediacracy is a strong album all-round that successfully carries the energy and power of their live shows onto disc. Original and deep afrobeat grooves from the heart of Tokyo that will appeal to fans of afrobeat, funk and jazz alike, this album is highly recommended.

tokyojazznotes.blogspot.com

MEDIACRACY Sample by JariBu Afrobeat Arkestra

Tracklist

01. Mediacracy
02. Suffer Dey
03. Legend Of Yoruba
04. Mvua Dance
05. Afro Soul Knows
06. Tricky Liars
07. Maneno ya roho
08. N.N.G.
09. Natural Vibes

Thony Shorby Nyenwi And The Collection Of Stars – Tell Me What You Want

2011-12-19T15:27:00.003+01:00

Unfortunately, I cannot find any information about this album ... therefore, here's just the tracklist ...

01. Tell Me What You Want 16:16
02. Peace Is Wishdom
03. Don't Chase My Woman
04. Anyi Bu Ofu 16:32
05. Don't Lose Your Faithful One
06. Lost Love Is Back

Fela Kuti - Underground System (1992)

2011-12-16T13:41:00.003+01:00

Underground System was among the better recordings of Fela's late career, comprised of two extended tracks, the title cut and "Pansa Pansa." "Underground System" starts off with rhythms that are far faster and more urgent than those on most of Fela's characteristically lengthy tracks. If that sounds like a marginal quality upon which to judge a song as a standout, well, something like a much faster and played-as-though-we-mean-it tempo really does help to differentiate it from the singer's generally similar output of the 1980s and 1990s. The backup singers also come in quickly with infectious chants, prior to a typical Fela lyric observing the difficulty in enacting positive political change in Africa. Hearing them sing in tandem with Fela instead of doing call-response patterns, as they do during much of the 28-minute cut, also makes for a refreshing variation. "Pansa Pansa," at a mere (for Fela) 17 minutes, also gets your attention more than his average effort, with rapid propulsive beats and sprinkles of slightly dissonant jazzy piano. The 2001 CD reissue on MCA adds a half-hour song from his 1990 album, ODOO, which is considerably slower and moodier than the prior two tunes, the beginning emphasizing mournful electric keyboards and sax soloing.

Richie Unterberger

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This album contains one of Fela Kuti's most direct and suitably scathing political attacks. Backed by Egypt '80, Kuti's unrelenting cries for justice and equality are at the foreground of the A-side title track, "Underground System." The stretched-out instrumental sections contain fierce, tightly knit rhythms around which Kuti and company deliver an impassioned choral call and response during the verses. Most specifically, "Underground System" is a fable of the behind-the-scenes puppet mastery and indelible hypocrisy in African politics. The melody is trancelike in its repetition, and the driving beats allow room for Oyinade Adeniran (tenor sax) and Rilwan Fagbemi (baritone sax) to unleash a few vital blows -- which have the same impassioned intonations and open-ended improvisational skills as a Sonny Rollins or Gerry Mulligan. This track is stretched out to nearly a half hour and is notable for the occasional drop-dead pause -- which is practically startling in contrast to the continuously throbbing tribal funk. Kuti's vocals -- roughly translated in the liner notes of the 2001 reissue -- are as fervent as any of his previously overtly political statements. The same is true of his piano solos -- which are rooted in a similarly freewheeling and melodic approach as Thelonious Monk, Terry Adams, and Sun Ra. "Pansa Pansa" became one of the tunes most synonymous with the anti-establishment leanings of Kuti and his Egypt '80 band. Although Underground System/Just Like That was not issued until the early '90s, this track has roots that reach back to the mid-'70s -- when Kuti was at the height of his political and social influence. Many of his most ardent enthusiasts and supporters took "Pansa Pansa" -- which is translated as "more and more" -- to become their rallying cry. The tiresome double standard under which they lived likewise encouraged African youth to take up the gauntlet, and soon Fela became a known nuisance to the concurrently governing regime. [The 2001 CD reissue also adds the track "Confusion Break Bones (C.B.B.)" -- which had been initially issued on the ODOO (1989) long-player.]

Lindsay Planer

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The last album of newly recorded material to be released during Kuti's lifetime, 1992's Underground System is a fitting swansong. Instrumentally, the rocket-fuelled title track's spotlight is as much on piano as it is on the horns, in line with the shift in emphasis introduced on Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense. Lyrically, it is as deep as it is hard-hitting.

Kuti originally conceived the piece as a tribute to Burkina Faso's revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara. The two men knew and liked each other: Sankara admired Kuti's music as much as Kuti admired Sankara's espousal of African values and commitment to social change. But following Sankara's assassination in 1987, Kuti broadened the lyric, turning it into an attack on the "underground system" by which military and political elites throughout Africa conspired together to remove any emergent leader threatening the status quo (and the post-colonial hegemony's ability to keep its trotters in the trough). In passing, General Obasanjo and Moshood Abiola (see the I.T.T. International Thief Thief commentary) are also named and shamed.

"Pansa Pansa," also taken at a furious pace, was first performed (but not recorded) by Kuti in mid 1977, one of several brave responses to the army's destruction of Kalakuta earlier that year. Citing some of the 1970s albums which particularly angered the authorities—including Alagbon Close, Before I Jump Like Monkey Give Me Banana, Zombie and Kalakuta Show—Kuti vowed never to be muzzled. The more injustices Nigeria's rulers heaped on its people, the "pansa pansa" (literally, the "more more") he would protest against them. The final track, "Confusion Break Bones," in which Kuti turns his attention from state-sponsored brutality to government economic incompetence, was originally released on Overtake Don Overtake Overtake.

Read the full article at allaboutjazz!

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Underground System

Fela starts the song in Underground System by saying he had sang songs for great African men: Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana was for him the greatest of all. In the same breath, he had sang songs against African thieves: Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigerian President and M.K.O. Abiola; late chairman of ITT Middle East and Africa, are the biggest thieves. He went on to explain that many young folks in Africa today may not know about Kwame Nkrumah because of the diabolic conspiracy which consists in keeping Africans away from knowing who they should look up to as role models. For Fela, those who know or read about Nkrumah will agree that there are not many like him in the history of Africa, he was African personality personified. He worked throughout his adult life for black pride and African unity. Unfortunately, because of the Underground System they try to protect, whenever Africa finds a charismatic leader determined to change things on the continent, other stooges passing as leaders will conspire to destroy such a leader. Fela mentions how Nkrumah was destroyed by the Western powers who wanted to keep Africa latched to their colonial masters. Sekou Toure suffered the same fate. Ahmed Ben Bella, Patrice Lumumba, Modibo Keita, Gamel Abdu’Nasser, even Mandela—they didn’t want him to arrive as head of a free South Africa. Everywhere in the world, people look up to their role model for inspiration. Fela then brings us to the story of Thomas Sankara. Saying Africa, since the passing of the leaders mentioned above, had not seen a charismatic leader like Sankara. He was one of the few who were not afraid to speak the truth. Calling on other African heads of state to come together and unite, living a modest life compared to those who only preoccupation was to line their pockets with money stolen from their respective countries. Fela says that, despite the attempt by corrupt African leaders to protect their crimes in an Underground System, everything in the world is in turns: they can conspire to kill Sankara today, but can never kill the ideals he lived and was murdered for.

Pansa Pansa

Pansa Pansa was Fela’s most defiant statement to the Nigerian military rulers of his determination to champion the cause of Pan Africanism. Mid 1976, when Fela started to play this track live, musically he was at his zenith—extremely popular throughout Africa. Politically, his message was beginning to get across. Youths in Nigeria were beginning to identify with the Fela ideals and registering en-mass at the Africa Shrine headquarters of the new grassroots movement Fela had inaugurated and called: The Young African Pioneers. Economically, it was the peak of the oil boom. Oil was selling for a minimum of $700 US dollars a barrel. Nigeria never had it better, careering along on at least two million barrels of sulphur-low oil, pumped daily and sold on the world market. Fela has just signed a twelve album a year deal with DECCA Records. The record industry was booming—people were buying records. At government’s level, it was corruption galore including those in the highest echelon of government. Denunciations and criticism from Fela had brought him in open confrontation with the military rulers on previous occasions, some of which he had sang into songs: Alagbon Close! No Bread! Monkey Banana! Zombie! Go Slow! Kalakuta Show! The release of all these songs angered the military establishment in Nigeria and most times prompted attacks on Fela and Kalakuta republic residents. For Fela however, despite all the repression: “…as long as Africa is Suffering! No Freedom! No Justice! No Happiness!, They will never hear PANSA PANSA”(meaning they will hear more and more).

Confusion Break Bones (C.B.B.) (originally released on O.D.O.O. album)

In Confusion Break Bones(C.B.B.), Fela mentions the earlier song he wrote titled ‘CONFUSION’ where he compared the present African situation (with particular reference to Nigeria), as an example of a crossroad in the centre of town with a permanent traffic jam — “..na confusion be that oh!”. Despite this graphic picture painted in “Confusion”, some people feel optimistic that one day the Nigerian situation will improve: ‘…Nigeria go better!’, Fela felt the contrary because he did not share their optimism, he did not see why a continent as rich as Africa, with all the natural resources, will have the majority of their population existing below the poverty: ‘how country go make money and people of the country no see money’. Continuing, Fela says: ‘…I see many wrong things for Nigeria!’, citing as an example of such wrongs, the acts of economic sabotage perpetrated by people in high places, only to punish the poor for the fallout of such wrongs. Government prohibits some articles, but such articles find their way into the market despite prohibition. However government agents; i.e.: the police, army, etc., seize such articles from the poor, whose livelihood depend on the little profit they make selling such articles. Fela asked in this song why destroy such article by burning? Why not give them out to people for free? Particularly since these articles are needed by the people and because of the disorganization that is government, people profit from smuggling the prohibited articles into the country. Singing about all these problems was no new news for Fela. He had done this all his professional life — putting everything at risk. He feels it is no news(old news) to talk about all the mismanagement of African lives by various administrations: ‘If I say! Road no dey? (that is old news). ‘…No Food for the people!’ (another old news), mismanagement? That is old news (‘na old news be that!’), stealing by authority?(another old news). Inflation! Corruption! all are not new. The only solution is to have the right government in power thinking in terms of African cultural values. That is the only government that can hold in the centre-creating a power base for all parts of the continent. Fela reminds us that if we allow power to break in the centre the result is what we see in our daily lives: corruption, armed robbery, police and army brutality, anarchy, etc. Fela concludes this song by reminding us that what passes as government in Africa today, is like the crossroad at Ojuelegba in the heart of Lagos, with no traffic light and no traffic warden ‘Na Confusion Break Bones!’. Another double wahala (double problem).

Written by Mabinuori Kayode Idowu

Eric Agyemang - Wonko Menko? (get it)

2011-12-15T15:31:00.005+01:00

Top Ghanaian guitarist who started with Dr. K. Gyasi and the Noble Kings before joining the Sweet Talks. This album recorded in Togo and Ghana was release back in the 1980's and is just superb. Thomas Frempong is the lead vocalist for the last three while Agyaaku does the first and Eric and Osei Tutu provide the backing. Lovely all the way through.

Tracklist

01. Wonko Menko?
02. Nya Abotare Ma Be
03. Odo Bra
04. Men Koaa

Fela Kuti - Beasts of No Nation (1989)

2011-12-13T10:07:00.003+01:00

After helping Fela Anikulapo Kuti with Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense, Wally Badarou was back in the producer's chair for this effort, which was political in the extreme. That is to say, Kuti was in an extremely confrontational mood. The cover pictures former South African president P.W. Botha, Margaret Thatcher, and Ronald Reagan as horned vampires with blood dripping from their mouths. The music is more of the same, the grooves are typically sinuous, but the lyrics are venom-filled with Kuti referring to the aforementioned trio as "Animals wan dash our human rights." After a few so-so records in the early '80s, Beasts of No Nation was a strong (at times stunning) return to form for Kuti and signaled that his political beliefs kept him from becoming musically lazy.

John Dougan

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By time of the two half-hour tracks on this CD reissue, Kuti's lyrics were as confrontational and critical of government behavior as ever. The revolutionary aspects of his music, however, had been dulled by the repetition of his formula over many years. "Beasts of No Nation," a half-hour track from 1989, is not one of his more memorable grooves or sequences of interchanges among instruments and lead-backup vocals. The lyrics were characteristic comments on his personal situation, though. The first song he wrote in 1986 after leaving prison, it comments on the behavior of the judge (who apologized to him in a prison hospital for his conviction), and also weaves critique of the United Nations into the tune. "O.D.O.O. (Overtake Don Overtake Overtake)," from 1990, protests the negative effects of military regimes in Africa -- not a new theme for his work, though certainly one worthy of ongoing concern. Percussive prominence and variation plays a stronger role in this cut than it does in some of Fela's other work. Yet structurally, his music's navigation through numerous instrumental passages and sequencing of instrumental and vocal parts is almost as predictable as a graph of the temperature rising as water is boiled.

Richie Unterberger

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At first listen, Fela seems unfocused on Beasts of No Nation / ODOO. Extended songs are a long-standing trademark of Fela's afrobeat, but in most cases the song's length is propelled by the energetic strength of Fela's music and the conviction in his message. His seeming lack of focus makes the half-hour tracks on this recording seem overlong. However, Beasts of No Nation / ODOO were a pair of relatively late-period albums for Fela (roughly 1988), and the toll that decades of imprisonment and beatings had taken on him is well-documented. Close listening reveals that the strength of this recording lies not in his slightly diminished charisma, but by the evolution in his compositions and the realization of this evolution through his band, the Egypt 80.

Considering that Fela's performances (even on record) always had an improvisatory aspect to them, the Egypt 80 proves to be a highly flexible and responsive group. In comparison to the hard-driving Africa 70, The Egypt 80 was more attuned to the texture and subtleties that Fela was developing in his late-period work. Although the Africa 70 excelled in executing highly complex beats derived from local traditions, Beasts of No Nation / ODOO shows that Fela was experimenting beyond the boundaries his previous work. Repeated listening reveals some of his most complex arrangements and memorable melodic material, seamlessly bound into an improvisatory tapestry. It does not take too much effort to visualize Fela conducting the Egypt 80 like an orchestra in the same way that Frank Zappa conducted his bands.

However, one can't help but feel that on some level Fela is repeating himself. Despite the subtle strength of the overall composition, his direct quotation of "Zombie", "Suffering and Schmiling", "Unknown Soldier", and several other of his "greatest hits" in ODOO feels a little more like nostalgic lip service than relevant political dialouge.

The Lowdown: Listen really closely to this one. Although Fela's usual politics are present, he was channeling his energy into evolving his music towards what he considered a new "African Classicalism". One cannot help but think about where this path would have led him if he would have stayed with us for just awhile longer.

Jeff Hodges

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Beasts Of No Nation and Overtake Don Overtake Overtake are well-argued indictments of the corruption and oppression rampant in post-colonial regimes in Nigeria and throughout Africa. Beasts Of No Nation also took on the South African apartheid regime of P.W. Botha and the support given to it by Britain's Margaret Thatcher and America's Ronald Reagan. In addition to being vilified in the lyric, Botha, Thatcher and Reagan were portrayed as satanic figures on the front cover.

Kuti rarely focused on individual overseas politicians in his songs, preferring to expose the incompetence and brutality of contemporary black African rulers. And it's worth emphasizing that he didn't possess an ounce of racism or feel any animosity to individual whites (providing they weren't exploiting Africa in some way). He was sufficiently secure in himself even to find some humor in racial tensions....

In 1979, the British film maker Jeremy Marre visited Nigeria hoping to meet and film an interview with Kuti. Already made jumpy by what he'd seen on arrival in Lagos (soldiers and police beating people in the streets, corpses left to rot on the beach), he was made doubly so by the journey to Kuti's house. Driving late at night through unlit back streets, to avoid army patrols (an encounter which would at best result in the payment of a bribe), Marre's party found the building in total darkness, outside and in. Gingerly making his way inside, Marre tripped and fell headlong into a room where Kuti was relaxing with friends. Somebody turned on the light, revealing Kuti lying on a sofa, naked except for pink Speedos and smoking a massive joint, and Marre lying face-down on top of several young women. "Hey, white man," Kuti said, "what are you doing with my wives?" Marre got his interview.

Read the full article at allaboutjazz.com!

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This is a rare footage of the late great Afrobeat legend, FELA KUTI & EGYPT 80 getting down to another Underground Spiritual Game/Sound, "BEASTS OF NO NATION!"

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Beasts of No Nation

Beast of No Nation is the first song Fela wrote in 1986, after he was liberated from prison—serving two years from a five year prison sentence for trumped-up foreign currency violation charges. Everywhere he went after his release, people were asking him what he was going to sing about: ‘Fela wetin you go sing about? Them go worry me!”. People wanted to hear him sing about his prison experience, like he had done with the songs like: Alagbon Close, Kalakuta Show, and Expensive Shit. Finally, he decided to sing about the world we live in—with particular reference to Nigeria. He said when he was in prison he called it ‘Inside World’, out of prison he called it ‘Outside World’. But for him it is actually ‘Craze World’. Otherwise, what name can one give a world with: police brutality, army oppression, courts without justice, magistrates who are supposed to uphold the law, obviously seen bending the law to please some special interest. As further proof of the craze world, he sings about the judge who sent him to jail for five years on a trumped up charge, only for the same judge to visit Fela in a prison hospital two years after. The judge apologized, claiming he was under pressure from the government to convict. This could only happen in a Craze World, Fela reasons. It can only be in a craze world that people sit and watch governments shoot down protesting students with impunity, like in Soweto(South Africa), Zaria and Ife(Nigeria). Bearing in mind that Nigeria like all craze world countries, condemn the apartheid regime in South Africa, yet committing crimes against humanity in their respective countries. Turning to another aspect of craze world policy of the Nigerian government. In 1983, the Buhari/Idigabon military regime launched a public campaign dubbed ‘War Against Indiscipline’. This was the regime’s solution to corruption inherent in the Nigerian society. To justify this campaign, the Nigerian head of state, General Buhari and his deputy General Idiagbon publicly used words like: ‘…my people are useless! My people are senseless! My people are indisciplined!’ to describe Nigerian People.For Fela, only in a craze world can such remarks be made. Moreover, such statements could only have come from an ‘animal in human skin’. How could these two animals use such words to qualify a people who feed them? This being so, other leaders from other countries must either be animals themselves to associate with, or accept to co-habit under such an umbrella as the United Nations with a head of state that considers his people useless. Turning to the United Nations, Fela saw it as a majorly unhealthy organization that suffers major inadequacy in its organizational principles. It is absurd to organize the UN principle bodies; the Security Council and the General Assembly, in such an undemocratic manner as one member’s cote can veto the decision of the majority. Is this Democracy? “What is United about the UN?” Fela asked. Thatcher went to war with Argentina over Falkland—yet both counties are members of the world body. Reagan and Libya were at war. Israel versus Lebanon. Iran versus Iraq. East-West cold war. It looks more like a group of disunited nations, so how can such a body work to promote and encourage respect for human rights? For Fela, that is another kind of animal talk. How can people talk about ‘individual’ rights? No one has the right to deprive someone else of what belongs to the individual—only an animal would try to take away another person’s legitimate rights. People who hear Fela say things like this reminded him that he was sent to prison for having such opinions of government. He, in his defense, said it was not him who called members of the UN animals. It was Pik Botha, the former South Africa President at the peak of the anti-apartheid struggle, in reaction to the persistent riots against the racist regime. He came out with a statement that his regime would act more brutally if the riots did not stop: “…this uprising will bring out the beast in us”. Fela’s reminded us that President Reagan advocated: “..constructive engagement with the apartheid regime” among member nations of the UN. The same policy as Mrs. Thatcher – an indication that they were sharing the same friendship and animal characteristics as Botha. If this is so the UN can only be an assembly of Beasts of No Nation.

O.D.O.O.(Overtake Don Overtake Overtake)

In O.D.O.O., Fela sings about the effects of military usurpation of power and the destruction of African young democracy since independence- particularly young democracies, that fought and won independence after long confrontations, and sometimes wars with colonial powers. He said when they come to power, the coup plotters assume names such as: Nigerian Supreme Military Council, Ghana Redemption Council, Libyan Revolutionary, etc. Most times the coup plots were planned and financed by departing colonial powers. To those who are not aware, the arrival of the military in the political arena creates the illusion of a peaceful ‘democratic’ participation and functioning government. Particularly, since most of the daily running of government is performed by civilians who report to military bosses. For Fela, under normal circumstances, the duty of the armed forces is to defend and support the civil government; not to overthrow it or usurp the duties of any branch of government because it has no political mandate. To do the contrary- that means ‘Overtake-overtake’. Any idea of a prosperous, peaceful country with the military at the helm of power is nothing but an illusion. Persistent scandals and corruption at the highest level of power, a hallmark of each and successive regimes since independence, helps put Fela’s disillusion and distrust of the military in perspective. Pointing to the ambiguity of modeling newly independent African nation’s constitution after those of the departing colonial masters, as the root cause of our problems. Fela in his sarcastic manner calls what passes as government in Africa as: ‘…soldier go! Soldier come!’, meaning the institution that created the military structure purposefully put the army there to continue their colonial work. To paint a clear picture of the plight of Africans under such dictatorship, Fela mentions a list of songs he had written, criticizing the wrongs of the system: Kalakuta Show! Mr. Follow-Follow! Zombie! Shuffering and Shmiling!. Unfortunately, it is the poor masses who suffer most from these mismanagement and corruption in government. From an early age, Africans children are forced to learn how to survive in a system where you don’t know where your next meal is coming from—no social security, no education, etc. Despite all these setbacks, Africans still try to educate their children, the children grow up, taking steady jobs to better their lives, saving money here and cutting edges there just to survive. In the end, Overtake Don Overtake Overtake because events of the mismanagement’s from various administrations render all sacrifices and cutting edges the individual makes to better his life useless.

Written by Mabinuori Kayode Idowu

Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou - Special Festac 77 in Nigeria (get it)

2011-12-09T14:58:00.003+01:00

"Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou" does not have to be introduced here ... but

FESTAC '77 was a great art and cultural assembly of Africans and African-Americans that was held for one month in Nigeria from the 15th Jan. until the 12th Feb. 1977. It was truly a class act that brought people of all races and nationalities to Nigeria in celebration of acts and culture that has since not been surpassed.

Most of the festival took place in Lagos State - in the main, conference and cinema halls of the National Theatre, Iganmu which was built for the event; the National Stadium in Surulere; Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos; and in the Lagos City Hall; except for the Durbar, a spectacular involving over 3000 horses which took place in Kaduna State.

The Grand Patron of the event was President Olusegun Obasanjo, the current president of Nigeria, who was then a Lt. General of the Nigerian Armed Forces and the Head of the Federal Military Government. The President of the 2nd World Black and African Festival of Arts was the then Cmdr Ochegomie Promise Fingesi, who was then Nigeria's Commissioner for Special Duties.

naijapositive

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The Second Festival of Black & African Arts and Culture of 1977 was an event that could not be ignored, and practically impossible to top or even to copy given the present state of affairs in Africa. Almost 30 years have passed, and there has not been a third Festac. To its detractors, it was an exhibition of excess. However, no one can deny that it was the greatest gathering of African cultures of all time.

Thony Shorby Nyenwi – Sweet Funk Music

2011-12-08T15:02:00.004+01:00

Unfortunately, I cannot find any information about this album ... therefore, here's just the trcaklist and two songs I found on youtube ...

Tracklist

01. Call A Spade A Spade
02. Married Life
03. Forgiveness
04. No Wrong Show
05. Love Of Parents
06. People In The World

From Gambia: Guelewar - Halleli N'dakarou

2011-12-07T10:57:00.002+01:00

In Guelewar’s remastered live recording from 1982 west African blues riffs are put through a mini-MOOG synthesizer to create a sound that might be what a computer would play if it had soul and a funky groove. The album’s technology-heavy, trancelike songs, at the time, presented an entirely new take on Senegambian music. Discovered by Adamantios Kafetzis, the founder of Teranga Beat Records, the record is just one of many re-releases resulting from a project by Kafetzis in an effort to bring to light classic Senegambian recordings from the late 1960s to 80s. Lucky us.

Guelewar was founded in Banjul, The Gambia in 1970. Originally called The Alligators, they were led by musical star Bai Janha, a central figure in the Gambian musical community during the 1970s. In 1972, the band decided to incorporate more local musical styles, using the 21-stringed Kora. The group also incorporated the sabar drums, an indigenous instrument which beats out a rhythmic style known as Mbalax. This style of dance music was later internationalized by Senegalese star Youssou N’Dour. In keeping with this shift to incorporate more local influences, the group changed their name from the English ‘Alligator’ to Guelewar. In 1975, bandleader Janha left the group to join rival band Ifang Bondi. Moussa Ngom was brought in as the new lead singer, with his cousin Laye Ngom as bandleader and arranger. Moussa began his singing career as part of the melancholy circumcision rituals and celebrations traditional to the Gambian countryside. As part of Guelewar, he chose to sing in Wolof as opposed to English. This LP, taken from a live concert at the Canari Club de Kaurack in Senegal, is the last recording we have of Guelewar. The group disbanded in 1983.

Album opener, “Yaye Ramoutoulaye,” thrusts you right into a tropical electronic groove. Vocals add texture behind the dance, but the mini-MOOG dominates the sound, moving up and down scales behind a drum vamp. The song drags on with little progression beyond this original beat. Midway through the second track, “Balla Jigi,” the synthesizer cuts out allowing the strong percussion players to shine. Their complex yet loose playing is a treat, exposing the rhythmic underbelly of the ensemble which anchors those long synthesizer grooves. The percussive power comes through again midway through “Halleli N’Dakarou N’Diaye,” as the drums and one singer are isolated with band hits behind them. The sabar drums beat out an unrelenting triplet rhythm. However, the drummers are not the only talented musicians in the ensemble.

This is most evident on “Ouvareyea,” where the dexterity of the guitar player shines through, as he leads the band with a fast, playful guitar line and later shows his creative skills in improvisation. The singers also blend wonderfully at the beginning of “Cilss,” which may be their most inspired track, and also their most openly political. One singer begins with a melancholy refrain in Wolof with the feel of a religious chant, and is soon joined by other singers, then the energized drummers and finally the rest of the synthesizer and guitar. Although the lyrics are not totally clear, the phrase “Our people have lost very much” is repeated again and again. The song’s title comes from the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), an organization established in 1973 in response to horrible draughts in the region from 1968 to 70. The next song, “President Jawara – Abdul Diouf,” continues the political focus. This concert occurred only one year after an attempted coup in 1981 and so the political landscape was very hot. During the coup, Jawara called on and received military aid from Senegal. That same year, Senegalese president Abdul Diouf convinced Jawara to unite the two countries, forming the Senegambian Confederation. At the six minute mark, the song shifts from a lamentation to a lighter tone suggesting hope for the future. Unlike the dance beats of the first half of the album, the singers here push to the foreground, brashly stating their message with little emphasis on melody, speaking to us in a tone reminiscent of hip hop. Unfortunately, the lyrics are not yet available, but in the extensive liner notes by Kefatzis, their political message becomes clear.

Partly because of the nature of live recording, the songs on this release are not tight, but rather quite long, with most averaging around eight minutes. Most focus less on structural development than on relishing the groove, and end seemingly arbitrarily with one big warm chord. However, the album gains strength as it progresses; the synth dance grooves are refined, with a larger role for the singers and a political bent. The tropical, electronic vamps are still present, but are more broken up and varied, allowing the percussion section and singers to be heard. The group has an infectious, loose energy, and it is fun to hear them experimenting with the new technology of the mini-MOOG. They’re worth a listen, and if we could travel back to 1982, you can bet we would be dancing our asses off at their show.

Eli Rumpf

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The second release from the Teranga Beat label is a live mash of psychedelia and moog madness from Gambian band Guelewar. Formerly known as The Alligators, a group led by Bai Janha, a leading light on the Gambian music scene, the band became Guelewar when Janha was joined by Laye N'Gom. Guelewar fused the Bougaraboo and Saourouba sounds with soul and funk, with a nod towards Gambian traditional singer Moussa N'Gom. Guelewar was the biggest band on the Sene-Gambian music scene. This is their last recording. live at the Canari Club de Kaolack in Senegal in 1982.

deejay.de

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The moment this live Guelewar set began playing on my stereo, I stopped in my tracks. What was this?! Did some psychedelic rocker from the 70s get ahold of some West African traditional recording and sample the heck out of it? Was it one of those hybrid bands looking to break boundaries?

No, Guelewar was a short-lived, creative band from The Gambia, the tiny West African country surrounded by Senegal. The original Guelewar began life in 1970 as the Alligators, singing cover songs of U.S. soul music, but quickly began incorporating traditional percussion in one of the earliest experiments leading to mbalax. Led by Bai Janha and Laye Ngom, the group disbanded in 1975 having had made no recordings.

In the late 70s Laye Ngom reformed the band with his cousin Moussa as lead singer. They had two recording sessions that led to four records, but the band only received limited payment for the first, Sama Yaye Demna N'darr, which you can find on the net here. The second album, Tasito, is available here. Until recently band members did not even know that a fourth album was released, in Europe! Guelewar and Ifang Bondi, where Bai Janha went from Guelewar, were the two most influential bands from The Gambia, totally revolutionizing music in the country, while also having a notable impact on Senegal's pop music.

I would have loved to be at the gig when this extraordinary set was recorded! The twelve band members were in the zone, and the remarkably clean recording captures a brilliant performance. The opening track sets the pattern for the entire performance: a fierce rhythm section establishes a torrid pace as guitars and a mini-Moog synthesizer weave cyclical patterns with the vocalists. Listening through this recording, the synthesizer bores grooves on your brain. The guitars can be polite, mimicking the kora, or they can freak out in distorted psychedelic harmony with the Moog. Moussa Ngom's vocals can recall the griots, and then abruptly enter call-and-response discourse with the other vocalists as the percussion ramps up. And always, always, the synthesizer is part of the conversation.

Certainly this was experimental music. It was brilliant! This is one of the most exciting albums I have heard in a long, long time, and I am so thankful that this recording was rescued from near oblivion. Every time I listen to it, I hear new things. It occurs to me that the small labels working hard to uncover "lost," essential music, like Teranga Beat, the producer of this superb release, are moved by the same passion that motivates many of us in the blogosphere. It's a privilege for me to recommend Halleli N'Dakarou, without reservations.

rhythmconnection.blogspot.com

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Press release con be found here

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Tracklist

01. Yaye Ramoutoulaye
02. Balla Jigi
03. Tara
04. Sanehmentereng
05. Ouvaryea
06. Halleli N'Dakarou N'Diaye
07. Cilss
08. President Jawara - Abdou Diouf
09. Cheddo
10. Werr Tullali Barr

Bambara Mystic Soul - The Raw Sound of Burkina Faso 1974-1979 (by analogafrica)

2011-12-06T11:13:00.004+01:00

As more and more compilations come out celebrating African music from the ‘70s, it gets harder and harder to make each collection unique. At some point, the market has to get flooded, and we seem to be reaching—or perhaps we’re already past—that breaking point. Despite that uphill climb, there are still labels digging deep to give us new sounds from a golden age in Afro-beat and Afro-funk music. Analog Africa has, for 10 years, been at the forefront of this musical exploration and given us some of the finest compilations to date: Check their Legends of Benin if you haven’t yet.

And now they’re celebrating their 10th anniversary with another strong collection, Bambara Mystic Soul. The set is a bit more obscure than other compilations, digging into the music of Burkina Faso. This area of Africa south of the Sahara is an arid stretch of land that runs between Dakar and Djibouti, but it produced some great music after gaining independence from French occupation. It’s a sound very much in line with sounds you’ve heard from other areas—Nigeria, Benin, Dakar—but it’s got its own unique mix of influences that make Burkinabe music unique and vibrant, and this collection reveals yet another gem in the world of African music.

The strength of this music actually came out in competition. Despite post-independence political instability, an urban middle class grew in Burkina Faso from which a glut of singers and musicians blossomed. Most importantly, perhaps, emerged two competing labels—Volta Discobel and Club Voltaique Du (CVD)—and in battling for the modern music in the region, they challenged good bands to become great. Judging from the collection here, the ones that were up to the task thrived, as did both labels.

The sounds here are pulled from a variety of influences outside of Burkinabe music. It distinguishes itself from Nigerian Afro-beat, for example, by sanding down the hard edge of that sound. Instead, there is an undercurrent of Afro-Latin sound, brought over from Cuba, that smoothes out many of these songs. They can go from lean, as on Amadou Ballake’s guitar-driven opener “Bar Konou Mousso”, to the rattling jams of longer tracks like “Mangue Konde Et Les Super Monde’s “Kabendo”, where the shuffling percussion shows the Latin influence most clearly. Other tracks, like Mamo Lagbema’s “Love, Music, and Dance”, show the ever-present influence of Western soul on the Afro-beat sound. Meanwhile, Afro Soul System’s “Tink Tank” shows a wholly unique and murky take on all of these sounds. The guitars here are downright psychedelic and off-kilter and excellent, and the rhythm section digs in and trudges forward with a scowling force. Even if you’ve heard 100 African music compilations in the past few years, Afro Soul System’s work will catch you off guard in the best way.

In the end, though, Bambara Soul Mystic belongs mostly to one man: Amadou Ballake. Of the 16 tracks here, Ballake is featured on six, and with good reason. He’s a national icon, and hearing his music here, you can see why. Ballake, working with different groups, shows a variety of talents that represents well the different sounds that make up Burkinabe music. The trickling melodies and rhythm of “Sali” owe as much to Asian and Islamic influences as they do to African music. “Johnny” uses more straightforward rock ‘n’ roll percussion, opening up holes for the wobbling guitars to ripple into. “Oye Ke Bara Kignan”, recorded with l’Orchestre Super Volta, merges the swaying Afro-Latin vibe with the hard-edged guitar sounds of Mali and Nigeria to brilliant effect. Through each of these sounds, Ballake also proves himself a soulful and charming singer, one that possesses as much impressive range as he does deep emotion.

While Ballake gets the most space here, proving his status as the most important figure in Burkinabe music, he also anchors what is a pretty impressive and diverse set of songs from a previously untapped resource. Bambara Soul Mystic achieves the consistency of some of the best Afro-beat comps out there—from Analog Africa and others—but what makes it great is that it also makes its own unique mark. It only takes one listen to see the new ground this music covers that like compilations don’t, and subsequent listens after only reveal more wonderful, tuneful surprises.

Matthew Fiander

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This latest collection from nugget unearthing specialists Analog Africa comes from deep in North Western Africa and features 16 tracks covering the golden age of Burkinabè music. The compilation follows the label's similar overviews from inspired times in Benin, Togo and Angola, amongst others. Bambara Mystic Soul: The Raw Sound of Burkina Faso 1974-1979 represents perhaps the label's most underexposed region to date. Burkina Faso has produced very little exported popular music compared to its neighbors or African musical giants like Nigeria and the Ivory Coast. And records that have appeared on Western labels, such as Nonesuch's Savannah Rhythms and Rhythms of the Grasslands covered more traditional percussive forms, reflecting the music played in the rural landscape. Although those were recorded around the same period in the early 70s, the musicians on the tracks on Bambara Mystic Soul had travelled beyond the arid Sahel desert. Having absorbed a wide range of influences from across Africa, the sounds they crafted displayed a more cosmopolitan feel.

The record documents a time prior to the military coups in the former French colony that eventually led to the then Republic of Upper Volta, or Haute Volta, being renamed Burkina Faso (“the land of incorruptible/upright men”) in 1984. The groups showcased here were influenced by sounds coming from neighbouring countries like Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria, during the height of the Afrobeat revolution.

The impact of the music is immediate, and the sound timeless, as Amadou Ballaké et l'Orchestre Super Volta kick in with 'Bar Konou Mousso', laced with jazzy saxophone breaks and loose but punctual guitar lines. The lyrics reflecting on Ballaké's experiences as a musician playing in bars every night: “If you're musician, you're no one, my house is not paid, at the Independence Hotel, with the white man, It's 5,000 Francs". A prominent figure during this period, now regarded as a national icon, vocalist Ballaké led several pioneering orchestras from the capital Ouagadougou, and features on six tracks, variously accompanied here by Les 5 Consuls and l'Orchestre Super Volta. His career had begun outside Burkina Faso in the 60s in the night clubs of Bamako, Mali, as, like many other Burkinabè musicians, he sought better gig opportunities. This in turn led to the incorporation of wider and distinctive musical influences, like the guitar techniques and Mandingue melodies from Mali and Guinea, just one example of the wide breadth of ideas picked up from other African countries that helped inspire this rich blend of soul.

Existing in the dry savannah plains in hot Sahel climes, regularly facing drought, Voltaics would head to the neighbouring Ivory Coast to seek employment. Similarly, the country did not host adequate studio facilities, and many of these recordings were made outside of Burkina Faso. While visiting these studios the musicians made good use of their neighbours' studio knowledge. The musicians were also aided by the post-independence urban middle class, who were willing to invest in the Burkinabè arts, which included releasing the music. Labels emerged like Volta Discobel and Club Voltaique du Disque (CVD) to document the sounds for people at home, originally releasing many of the tracks included here. The recordings have a warm sound, and include a combination of traditional Islamic rhythms, as on Orchestre CVD's 'Rog Mik Africa', and a hint of Afro-Latin sounds introduced by visiting Cuban groups, featured on Mangue Konde et Le Super Mandé's 'Kabendo'. And where there is perhaps a bit of tape wobble, on Amadou Ballaké et Les 5 Consuls' 'Renouveau', and certain l'Orchestre Super Volta tracks, it adds a fitting haunting quality to the 35-year-old sounds.

Taking the soul blueprint of Ballaké's music, his younger contemporaries at this time followed with the additional influence of 70s Afropop and funk. Abdoulaye Cissé's 'Kodjougou' begins on a stomping riff like a more energised take on Bob Marley's 1973 'Get Up, Stand Up', with added psyche fuzz guitar soloing, rapid-fire trap work and menacingly urgent vocals, while the playful wah-funk of Compaoré Issouf's 'Dambakale', oozes a loose sensual swing, as the gently strained lead vocal is backed by a group of female singers on the knee-tremblingly seductive chorus. Mamo Lagbema's 'Love, Music and Dance' revels in a fun Zappa-like wildness. And an undeniably James Brown-styled wail leads into the shoulder shaking shimmy of Afro Soul System's 'Tink Tank', like Fela Kuti, using Pidgin English so the message could be understood by a wider multilingual audience, as the music builds up layer upon layer of polyrhythmic interplay to the endless heavy groove.

The re-discovery of these timeless “raw sounds” offers a tantalising glimpse into this vibrant scene, and a wider exploration into the back catalogues of the artists on Bambara Mystic Soul would certainly be welcome. It will be interesting to see what treats Analog Africa has in store next. For now, surrendering to the magic of this potent African mix as it casts a spell on the soul is just fine.

Richie Troughton

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Check it out here:

Renouveau - Amadou Balaké et Les 5 consuls

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Bambara Mystic Soul takes the search for rare 1970s groove music into rough territory. The landlocked West African nation of Burkina Faso, which was known until 1984 as Upper Volta, doesn’t top any lists besides the ones you don’t want to be on, like child mortality and the percentage of the population suffering from malnutrition. The country didn’t have civilian radio until 1939, and in the ’50s it took music from the U.S. a year to reach Voltan ears. But it’s not totally isolated. In the ’70s, when the music on this record was made, a large part of the population migrated to neighboring countries to do agricultural work. More recently despite the encroachment of the growing Sahara and collateral economic damage from civil conflicts in neighboring Mali, Niger and Ivory Coast, people survive and thrive.

Since 2006, the Frankfurt-based DJ has split his time between searching for vinyl in Africa and Latin American and fashioning compilations like this one that skim the best dance-floor fillers and soul-touchers from his collection. Your typical Analog Africa release not only serves up a world of new but approachable music, it takes you on a journey. Bambara Mystic Soul comes with a 44-page booklet that chronicles Redjeb’s record searches, as well as the smells and sights and illnesses he encountered whilst searching in Burkina Faso and other African countries for these records. It also introduces you, via recent interviews, to the people who made these records more than 30 years ago, and dishes dirt like the story about a government official who put paid to efforts to build a pressing plant in the capital city, Ouagadougou. If you’re inclined to geek out over stories embedded with trivia, Analog Africa has your back.

But records are for playing, not reading, and AA is on your side there, too. Redjeb is a DJ as well as a collector, and he has good sequencing instincts. His selections on Bambara Mystic Soul adhere to criteria similar to the ones he applied when assembling Legends Of Benin, Angola Soundtrack, and Afro-Beat Airways. He bypasses folkloric material in favor of music that reflects the influence of Latin American rhythms, U.S. soul music, and the burgeoning popular music industries of neighboring countries.

You can hear Congolese traces in the loping beat and fleet guitar figures of Orchestre CVD’s “Rog Mik Africa,” James Brown in Jean Claude Bamongo’s tonsil-inflaming screams on Afro Soul System’s organ-heavy “Tink Tank,” straight-up disco bass on Mamo Lagbema’s libidinous “Love, Music And Dance” (the only song in English), and a late-night Cuban swoon in Amadou Ballaké’s “Baden Djougou.” What you won’t hear is something that defines this music as essentially Voltan. Unless you have an ear that can distinguish the various Mosse, Fula and Mande languages or local French accents sung here, what stands out is the way these songs sound like a mix of Ivorian, Congolese, Beninese and Malian, as well as non-African influences. But you’ll also hear some mighty swell tunes full of liquid guitar licks, spidery organ runs, and singers who know how to make you pay attention even if you don’t know what they’re saying. Even in the best of times, living in Burkina Faso isn’t easy; if you’re surviving, you’ve got something to celebrate, and that’s the spirit this collection exudes.

Bill Meyer

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It's official; the so-called developed world is drowning in DJ-curated repackagings of 35 to 40 year old Latin and funk-influenced West-African grooves. Many of these collections suggest scenes that may have never really existed, or their editors cherry pick particularly rare stylistic examples of sounds the bands themselves only dabbled in. In this way, they often decide what matters based on what a Westerner may truly be able to get with, due to a familiarity many us really ought to get past. Yet compilations and original LP reissues by the likes of the above label, Soundway, Mississippi, Vampi Soul, Strut and a growing host of others are also shining a spotlight on what was no doubt a fertile period in the region’s musical development, a post-colonial, pre-corruption-fueled fallout that, for a brief moment, allowed the arts to flower.

Perhaps Ghana and Nigeria documented this period most extensively, but then there was Benin, and especially the massive output of the country’s best-known band, Poly Ritmo (an ensemble who have been heavily, but hardly exhaustively compiled on Analog Africa, Soundway and Sterns Africa). Yet, it’s only natural that the interest would spill over into Ghana and Benin’s shared northern neighbor, Burkina Faso. And positioned as it is due east of southern Mali as well, its 70s-era pop sounds no doubt bear the stamp of that Sahelian musical powerhouse.

Yet this isn’t the first compilation of such artists as Sandwidi Pierre, Amadou Ballake and others to appear recently. There’s Savannahphone’s Ouaga Affair from 2 years ago (a compilation which has a number of track overlaps with this set), as well as a 3-year old Ballake reissue on Oriki. In fact, the discerning sharity blog surveyor will unearth hours of treasures from this landlocked African Nation. However, what sets this comp apart, is the massive attention to track choice label owner Sammy Ben Redjeb brings to any project, not to mention the exhaustive booklet with his own story of tracking this stuff down, artists’ telling their own bios and, in this case, a bit of Burkina music history courtesy of Ouaga Affair’s own Craig Taylor.

Like most of the other AA releases, Redjeb, who is also a DJ, has his finger on the dance-floor pulse, and, aside from one weak track, Mamo Lagbema’s “Love, Music and Dance,” this is compilation full of aggressively raw funk, proto-soukous and tracks brimming over with gorgeous Malian-style Cuban-influenced depth. Ballake’s “Sie Koumgolo” percolates with bottomless guitar-shimmer while the Afro Sound System’s “Tink Tank” is a definitive take on lo-fi funk nastiness so intense it seemingly defied normal recording standards. If there’s any real complaint about the set, it has less to do with the contents and more to do with this review’s opening statement. Nothing on this disc will be necessarily revelatory to the already initiated, but then that’s not the point. There is still a tremendous amount of this music rarely heard outside the country, including the sounds made by Bobo-Dioulasso’s state-sponsored orchestras. While we’re now hearing like bands from Guinea and Mali, there’s still a treasure trove to come from the former Upper Volta. Perhaps, Bambara Mystic Soul will help unlock some of what’s still presently obscure in this musically bountiful country.

Bruce Miller

Tracklist

01. Amado Ballake Et L'Orchestre Super Volta - Bar Konou Mousso
02. Abdoulaye Cisse - Kodjougou
03. Compaore Issouf - Dambakale
04. Amadou Ballake Et Les 5 Consuls - Renouveau
05. Traore Seydou Richard Et Les Vadou Du Flamboyant - Katougou
06. Mamo Lagbema - Love, Music And Dance
07. Amadou Ballake Et L'Orchestre Super Volta - Johnny
08. Coulibaly Tidiani - Sie Koumgolo
09. Amadou Ballake Et Les 5 Consuls - Baden Djougou
10. Afro Soul System - Tink Tank
11. Mangue Konde Et Le Super Mande - Kabendo
12. Orchestre CVD - Rog Mik Africa
13. Amadou Ballake Et L'Orchestre Super Volta - Sali
14. Mamo Lagbema - Zambo Zambo
15. Amadou Ballake Et L'Orchestre Super Volta - Oye Ka Bara Kignan
16. Sandwidi Pierre Et L'Orchestre Harmonie Voltaique - Tond Yabramba

Gnonnas Pedro & His Dadjes Band - The Band Of Africa Vol. 3 (get it)

2011-12-02T14:42:00.003+01:00

Sixteen LPs, ten 45s, five CDs, all titles are as much loved as hummed throughout Africa. The rich musical heritage from Gnonnas Pedro contiues to live 6 years after his disappearance. Hometown Lokossa in the department of Mono, Gnonnas Pedro comes from a musical family with a father responsible for choir and two brothers, one bassist and one saxophonist. This family environment an the training he received from Do Rego Theophilius aka El Rego open him very quickly the way of great musical career.

With a captivating voice, talented guitarist, will lead Gnonnas Pedro's orchestra "Los Panchos", later renamed the "Dadje Band". Found off traditional Agbadja rhythm , he will make his music stand while providing modern touches. Early on, his repertoire is enriched with new sounds, local and Afro Caribbean, quickly adopted by the public.

"Dedje Vignin", "La musique en verité", or "Dagamassi", "Combinacion", have make dance all over Africa. It also retains the title "Von Von O No" which will adopted as theanthem of the national football team of Togo. He began a second career in 1996 when he joined Africando formation. With this band, Gnonnas Pedro will record a total of four albums crowned by a global success.

Always with Africando, Gnonnas reveal the magnitude of his talent in the world that adopts it. Polyglot into his songs, his covers topics are, women, love, slave trade. Most importantly, Gnonnas Pedro is a humble artist with enormous talent. He is an artist who will be performing a few weeks before his death. "Dadji" national, hello! Successes of the past and always!

Arnaud Adikpeto

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Anonymous said...

Nicknamed the "Baobab Beninese music" Gnonnas Pedro started his career by being out in the Night Clubs Cotonou for his dancing skills. Spotted by a pattern of establishment which offers tools to take advantage of his group, he began exploring music with some of his friends deserted permanently to school.

Inspired by El Rego and Ignacio Do Souza , he made his debut in the Los Panchos Cotonou , overlooking his immense talent the scene Afro-Latin Benin until his death in 2004. He was accompanied during the 1970s by the Dadji Band with whom he recorded one of his most famous tracks, " Von O Von Non Dadji "(The first version of the classic music of Benin was published on the label Riviera of Gilles Sala 1965). Gnonnas Perdo Agbadja popularized the style, named after a famous drum he associates with his Afro-Cuban influences, which will become the basic rhythm of his music, called Agbadja beat.

In 1972, the officer Kerekou took power: in 1974 he adopted scientific socialism guided by Marxism-Leninism as the official ideology of Dahomey, and in 1975, renamed the country the People's Republic of Benin. Gnonnas Pedro like other artists Benin must support the movement and began the production of patriotic songs, " Yesterday Dahomey, Benin today, I am proud of you, that's why I stayed ". One of his pieces, Sodabi (meaning alcohol in the Fon language), however, was prohibited by the president as praising the benefits of beer drinking as the best in the country.

The 70s were extremely productive Gnonnas Pedro becomes an accomplished composer and connects a series of hits, some of which are printed on the label Nigerian African Song (known to have released some of the best records of King Sunny Ade). It runs in the entire region and his passion for salsa was rewarded in 1995 when he became one of the singers of Africando , the Afro-Cuban big project of the producer Ibrahim Sylla .

Gnonnas Pedro was diagnosed with cancer in 2003. But because of the high cost of treatment, he decided to ignore the disease and continue to tour with Africando. Her treatment will begin a year later in May 2004. In August Gnonnas asked to return home to end his days. The plane landed at Cotonou on August 11 at 9:30, and Pedro Gnonnas off the next morning at the age of 61.

Tracklist

01. Dadje von von von
02. Ngbahanov O.
03. Ennemi toton
04. Agbadja moderne no.2
05. Hommage aux dovaniers
06. Adigbedoto
07. Fini les pave's

Fela Kuti - Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense (1980)

2011-11-30T17:12:00.004+01:00

During the latter half of the 1980s, Fela Anikulapo Kuti's international star waned a little, as Congolese rumba and Malian desert blues became the new world music flavors of the moment. And in 2010, even a portion of the Afrobeat audience tends to underestimate Kuti's later work. But 1986's Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense, along with albums such as Beasts Of No Nation (Kalakuta, 1989) and Underground System (Kalakuta, 1992), demonstrates that Kuti's genius never left him, and that Egypt 80 was as limber and hard-hitting a band as its predecessor, Afrika 70.

Kuti only infrequently employed outside producers on his albums. Sometimes the results were good: British dub master Dennis Bovell's Live In Amsterdam (Polygram, 1983) and the ex-Cream drummer, Ginger Baker's psychedelia tinged He Miss Road (EMI, 1975). On another occasion it was spectacularly bad: Bill Laswell's extensive remix and overdubbing of Army Arrangement (Celluloid, 1985), done while Kuti was in jail in 1984 on trumped up currency smuggling charges. Listening to it was "worse than being in prison," Kuti said.

Best of them all was Wally Badarou's Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense. It adopted a markedly different aesthetic to the one Kuti typically used, and it was a triumph. The album was recorded shortly after Kuti had been released from jail, where he'd served 20 months on the smuggling charges (son Femi had kept Egypt 80 rehearsed during the incarceration).

Badarou's production is richer and more burnished than was the norm for Kuti. Indeed, it's almost orchestral. The sound is smoother, the beat more chilled, and the arrangement denser, with layers of keyboards, a serpentine horn chart, and the backup choir placed well forward in the mix. In the lyric for the title track, Kuti tells the oyinbos (white men) to stop foisting sham versions of democracy on Africa, allowing "democratic" rulers to line their own pockets at the expense of the people, just so long as foreign-owned multi-nationals are permitted to strip the continent of its natural resources for a pittance. This isn't democracy, says Kuti, it's "demo-crazy." Give us back our traditional rulers, he says, they are infinitely preferable.

Ironically—and probably unknown to Kuti at the time this album was recorded—Badarou was during the mid 1980s sometimes engaged as a keyboard player on Laswell's productions (saxophonist Manu Dibango's 1985 Celluloid album, Electric Africa, was outstanding). But Badarou's modus operandi was eons away from Laswell's heavy handed approach. Years later, explaining how to produce Kuti, he said, "You don't. You keep the tape running, you have a second machine standing by, you make him feel comfortable, and you are wholly transparent throughout the process. Fela knew very little of me—I can't recall ever being formally introduced—and I clearly felt his reluctance to the having a 'producer' on board....But Fela loved the sound." Indeed, Kuti told Badarou, "You know how to mix my music, man"—a real compliment from an artist who always knew exactly how he wanted his music to be presented on disc.

Read the full article at allaboutjazz.com!

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I saw Fela Kuti live. It was in 1989, toward the end of his career (his final studio album, Underground System, was released in 1992, and he died in 1997), at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles. The show was astonishing. Obviously, it was over 20 years ago, so my memories are blurry and impressionistic at this point, but I remember a staggering number of musicians and dancers on the stage, all being conducted by this one shirtless, made-up, strutting man, who barked out lyrics and occasionally played long, honking saxophone solos. The music poured out and into the night sky, flowing and seemingly endless. Fela was known for never playing a “greatest hits” set; his songs tended to be nearly a half-hour long anyhow, but he never played anything he’d already recorded. When you saw him live, you were guaranteed to hear something you couldn’t get on an album, at least not yet. Once he laid something to tape, it was retired.

I wasn’t at all familiar with his music at the time I saw the show. I knew he had dozens of albums, but they weren’t available on CD, and I’d only heard one—this one. I’d bought it after reading a review of one of his New York concerts in Rolling Stone, and even though I knew about the lengthy live jams, I was still somewhat astonished to see that the cassette only had one song per side. I played it over and over that summer and for a couple of years after, though eventually it got purged, along with most of my other cassettes. Now it’s been reissued, along with all of Fela’s other albums, on CD and MP3.

I’ve heard almost all of Fela’s discography at this point—not just the albums, each one monumental in its own way, albeit with some clear masterpieces (“Zombie,” “Gentleman,” “Roforofo Fight”) standing out from the pack—but also early singles and shorter tracks that crop up on all the compilations of Nigerian music that have been released in recent years. Most of his albums have a raw, rattletrap quality, the intricate polyrhythms and strutting horn charts recorded under relatively primitive conditions, the arrangements loose and choosing immediacy over sterile perfection. Calling Fela “the James Brown of Africa” is not only reductive, it’s actually kind of insulting to both men, glossing over each one’s individual strengths. That said, a lot of Fela’s studio albums from the 1970s all the way up to the early 1980s remind me of the work Brown did with the JBs on albums like Sex Machine and Hot Pants in 1969 and 1970, and the 1971 live album Love Power Peace. The aggression is the same, the determination to get the message out no matter what, to lecture the audience directly and let the driving funk carry it home.

This album, though, was made in 1986, and had a real producer—Wally Badarou, an Island Records-affiliated keyboardist and composer from Benin who played on Grace Jones‘s Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing and Living My Life albums when she recorded at Compass Point Studios in Jamaica, in addition to working with Talking Heads (on Speaking in Tongues and Naked), Robert Palmer and the Power Station, and many, many others. Badarou brings a polish to the music and the arrangements that vaults Fela’s music into a higher tax bracket, sonically speaking. The guitars and bass are rich and full; the drums, while sounding mechanistic at times, are slippery and hypnotic; the horns punch at the air. Fela himself sounds at ease, like he’s recording in a real studio instead of a tin-roofed shack with military police battering at the door, and yet his call-and-response exchanges with his female backup singers have a vibrancy that’s utterly infectious, especially during the passage midway through the title track where he commands them to sing back the phrases he plays on the saxophone.

The second track, “Look and Laugh,” is slower to get rolling, setting up a jazz-funk groove that almost has the lilting feel of Nigeria’s other primary musical export, juju, and letting it simmer. Hot trumpets blare atop the keyboards, and the rhythm gradually picks up speed and gathers force until Fela launches a biting tenor saxophone solo (it starts in Dexter Gordon territory, but heads Archie Shepp-ward before it’s over) at around the eight-minute mark, with the other horns commenting behind him. There’s a Herbie Hancock-esque keyboard solo after that, then more sax, and only then, about 13 minutes in, does the vocal section of the song begin. The track continues to simmer as Fela talks about how long it’s been since he wrote a new song, but eventually he begins to comment about how, as the track title indicates, he just watches the way people act and laughs. The track ends with Fela and the whole band laughing loud and long.

This reissue contains a bonus track, the 22-minute, politically engaged “Just Like That.” It’s as polished as the original album cuts, but nowhere nearly as relaxed, lyrically speaking (Fela talks about his memories of Nigeria’s civil war, and much more), and it’s a great addition to the disc. Almost the entire Fela catalog is worth hearing, but this album has special resonance for me, as it was my entry point.

Phil Freeman

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With production help from Wally Badarou, Fela Anikulapo Kuti offers up an interesting mix of songs (well, two to be exact) in both vocal and instrumental versions. Most compelling is the track "Look and Laugh," which details the attack by Nigerian soldiers on his Kalakuta compound. With simple lyrics, Fela runs down the horror of that attack in a detached, almost journalistic manner: "Till dem come/burn my house/burn my house/all my property/burn burn dem/beat beat me/kill my mama." Badarou's production help gives Fela his most full-bodied sound; the horn section is much hotter and brassier than ever before. The problem with this record is that with following an instrumental track with a vocal version of the same song, there's a certain lack of drama that blunts the impact of songs as powerful as "Look and Laugh." That said, this is very good mid-'80s Fela. The 2001 reissue on MCA adds a 22-minute bonus track, "Just Like That," which was originally released on 1989's Beast of No Nation album.

John Dougan

Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense (1980)

Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense
Fela explains the role of the teacher in any society with the concept that: all the things we consider as problems, and all the good things we accept from life as good, begin with what we are taught. The individual teaching begins with when we are children – our mother is our teacher. When we come of school age, our teacher is the school-teacher. At the university, the lecturers and professors are our teachers. After university—when we start to work, government becomes the individual’s teacher. When then is government’s teacher? ‘Culture and Tradition’ says Fela. This is the order of things everywhere in the world. However, it is the problem side of teacher and student that interests Fela in this song. Because every country in this world except in Africa, it is the respective culture and tradition of that country that guides the government on how to rule their people. Going for specifics, Fela mentions France, Germany, England, Korea, Japan, Syria, Jordan, Iran, Etc., it is the culture of these countries that shapes and guides their respective government’s decisions. The culture and traditions of these countries serve as a teacher to their respective governments. Turing his attention to Africa and her problems. Problems which he had sang about: corruption, inflation, mismanagement, authority stealing, electoral fraud, the latest addition which even makes him laugh is –austerity. Fela says if you ask him why ‘austerity makes him laugh? The answer is that it is beyond crying. The government steals money from the country, the same government is introducing austerity measures—forcing the poor people to pay for their own greed and calling it ‘austerity measures’. How funny if to say the least. Who taught African ‘leaders’ to rule the way they do today? ‘Na the oyinbo’ (meaning in Yoruba language: ‘it is them white folks’) referring to ex-colonial ruler of each country. Take electoral fraud, which is a true test of our democracy. Many African leaders rig elections with impunity and their respective ex-colonial rulers say nothing against this form of ‘democracy’. While the same ‘white folks’ are quick to claim credit for Africa’s ‘civilization’—which Fela disputes in this song. Is this democracy? , he asks. Turning to other problems like the ever-growing gap between the rich and the poor. Particularly, since the rich are the rules, and also the people stealing the country into poverty. Is this democracy? Or dem-all-crazy? In conclusion, as an African personality, Fela says he is not in the same league as those who believe in dem-all-crazy, so he calls on the Western powers who claim to be Africa’s teachers not to teach him nonsense—Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense.

Look and Laugh
By 1981 when Fela wrote and started to perform live the song Look And Laugh, he was living a life that could be described as a recluse. Fela, who loved to go out in public places, clubs, etc. Suddenly, was always found sleeping or playing sax at home with women around him, or performing at the Africa Shrine. His old attitude of keeping abreast of events, giving lectures at universities and institutions of higher learning stopped. He rarely gave press conferences or press releases, like he used to do. Finally he wrote the song to explain what was going-on with him. He sang: ‘…many of you go dey wonder why your man never write new song! wetin I dey do be say…I dey look and laugh.’ Meaning: …many of you must have been wondering why, your man has not written new songs!…what I am doing is just look and laugh! Fela went on to explain his contributions and sacrifices for the cause of black emancipation, the countless beatings and arrests from the Nigerian police and army, his trials and tribulations, his ultimate sacrifice being the burning down of Kalakuta by the Nigeria army. But despite his sacrifices and sufferings like millions of other Africans, it was obvious that things were not getting better for the average man on the street. There is still injustice everywhere, no freedom, no happiness. All these made him feel disillusioned and all he could do about the situation is to Look and Laugh.

Just Like That
This song is a call to arms from Fela to all Africans to rise up and do something about the political, economic, social and cultural retrogression that has plagued Africa since independence. For more than three decades of independence, there is glaring mismanagement of people’s lives, corruption in the highest echelon of government—all these carried out with impunity—‘Just Like That’ he sings. Using the Nigerian experience as an example of the ‘lack of maintenance culture’, in Africa’s present day neo-colonial administrations, he says: ‘White man ruled us for many years, we had electricity constantly, our leaders take over! No electricity in town—Just like that!’ Fela explains that the attempt to transplant ‘Western style democracy’ in an African society is the cause of all the problems. Despite calls for African Unity from leaders like Kwame Nkrumah, who said: ‘..Until all foreign institutions and culture are removed from the African land, that is when the African genius will be born and African personality will find its fulfillment..’. Instead of heeding Nkrumah’s call, Nigeria’s political founding fathers, like most African leaders at independence, chose the option of fashioning the constitutions of their respective countries after those of the departing colonial ‘masters’—Just Like That. The ambiguity of such decisions can be seen in the poor imitation we make of our attempt at ‘Western style democracy’. Persistent political gangsterism, military coups, and sometimes wars, are means used to enforce the already compromised constitutions. As another example of enforcing a fragile constitution, Fela stresses the face that in 1966, Nigeria for a civil war to keep the country ONE. General Gowon, the military head of state, divided Nigeria into twelve administrative regions, subsequent administrations divided the regions into more—Just Like That. He adds that if the idea of the civil war was to keep the country ONE, sub-dividing Nigeria into more regions would separate rather than unite the country. Turning to the position of traditional rulers in the mess called government, Fela sings: ‘…nothing good for town to give the youths good examples, how our traditional ruler they do, them come make youths look-up to Europe and USA, in those places them don lose them common sense, na the number of Nuclear weapons you get, na him give you power pass! Right now! Fight now! Suffer must stop! Just Like That”. Therefore, calling on the people to fight now for a better society.

Written by Mabinuori Kayode Idowu

Tracklist

1. Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense
2. Look and Laugh
3. Just Like That

Super Negro Bantous – Untitled (GET IT!!!)

2011-11-28T14:06:00.002+01:00

Together with Nico Mbarga, Ikenga Super Stars, Oriental Brothers and African
System Orchestra, to call a few, these guys belong to the cream of
the crop of the highlife scene.

Tracklist

01. People No Fit Understand
02. Proudness
03. One Day Suffer Go Finish

African System Orchestra (GET IT!)

2011-11-25T20:38:00.004+01:00

Four songs of sweet Highlife, what a great band, check it out!!!

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Ndongo Pecos and presumably the rest of African System Orchestra are apparently Cameroonian, living in Nigeria when this album was recorded.

But these tracks certainly don’t sound like your average 70s Nigerian highlife. I guess by 1981 much of Nigeria was in the throws of Afrobeat and disco, which must have rubbed-off on the Igbo highlife bands too.

http://bennloxo.com/archives/2007/12/06/dance-me-igbo/

Tracklist

01. Bad Friend
02. Bikoko
03. Good Night My Girl
04. Inyanga No Good

Compaoré Issouf And The Noble Kings - Kadiogo

2011-11-25T13:32:00.002+01:00

Total hypnosis... you ride on a Camel...sand on your skin... your bones heated up... desert as far as your can see...lost sens of orientation… the Harmattan blows on your cheeks. Your sight becomes blurred… encens plumes … the snake charmer… the dancer's belly…misleading glows…the buried oasis…1001 nights… hallucination ? No, Kadiago is probably not a mirage… you certainly are where you think you are. Compare Issouf brought you there. And he will take you there as often as you wish.

A must have !!!!!

groovecollector.com

Tracklist

01. Kadiogo
02. Saagha
03. J'Ai Vingt Ans
04. Mariam
05. Dis Lui Que Je L'Attends

Kelenkye Band - Moving World

2011-11-24T06:26:00.002+01:00

Accra band about which little is known, but they flutter through almost as many styles as there are tracks on the record. There's definitely some blistering fuzzed-out afrobeat, but also straight up reggae, organ funk vamps, and a little happy highlife. Guitar isn't at the front of the mix, with some awesomely distorited organ taking the spotlight, especially on the spicier cuts.

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Legendary, hard-grooving, mid-seventies Afro-funk and disco from Ghana, with the underground-boogie shark-attack Jungle Music. Presented impeccably in fine, rigid sleeves made in Japan, and well-pressed. Killer!

Tracklist

01. Moving World
02. Dracula Dance
03. Brotherhood Of Man
04. No One Is Born To Suffer
05. Groovy Love
06. Jungle Music
07. Wale Tobite
08. Kelenkye

From Burkina Faso: Compaoré Issouf - Tanga Sega

2011-11-21T06:22:00.002+01:00

One of Compaore's few lp's w/ a solid floor afrofunk hustle tune & organ solo.

Burkina Faso legend with the funky tune 'dambakale':

Tracklist

01. Tanga Sega
02. Ritoum Ye
03. Quedraogo
04. Petite Fille
05. Dambakale
06. Je Ne Peux Pas Decider

Osayomore Joseph & The Creative 7 – Ulele Power Sound Step 3

2011-11-18T10:10:00.002+01:00

oseph Osayomore comes from the Edo State, a region in Nigeria between the Yoruba land and the Niger delta which we have already encountered thanks to Paul Ede and Victor Uwaifo, where during the past centuries the glorious Benin Empire developed. He was born at the end of the forties in a village not far from Benin City. When he was very young he decided to follow an artistic path which led him, during the seventies, to become one of the biggest stars of his land.

Joseph Osayomore is someone who fed the ethnic proudness of the Bini and those people can be proud of this. But outside Nigeria nobody knows much about him, this is also to be considered the normal condition for the majority of the African art and culture. Osayomore appears to be one of those who has all the characteristics to stimulate curiosity within a more vast public.

Strongly tied to his own tradition and also proud of this, Joseph Osayomore has always avoided following ethnical and cultural ideals; those of the European colonizers, as opposed to many Nigerian musicians, he never showed any interest in the Christian religion nor Muslim religion. Osayomore is a follower of the Benin pantheon spirits, a true "animist" and also the name of his group - the Ulele Power Sound - refers to his religious convictions. In the tradition of his village, the Ulele power comes from the spirits of who serves them and respects them.

Thanks to his courage to speak openly against injustice and the false Nigerian democracy, Joseph Osayomore is considered a sort of successor of Fela Kuti. Unfortunately the message risks being confined in the area of his own ethnic group due to the Edo language utilized by him in his songs. It is a fact that he was brought to court and imprisoned more than once - also during the Obasnjo government, historical enemy of Fela - because of the iconoclasm of his lyrics and for to conceited critics to the local and national authorities, starting from the proud and the respect for his ancestors culture. It is perhaps due to this that the musical scene is inundated with the various chief, commander, prince and king that Joseph Osayomore chose the title of ambassador.

The icon of the cheeky and irreverent musician who uses his own art as a scene and pretext to laugh about and to criticize the authorities - to say the truth without any fear, says the tradition - is not alien to the cultural Yoruba and Bini context within which both Fela and Osayomore move.

"Osayomore Joseph is the best thing ever released from the Bini land. Thanks to him I am sure we will gain freedom". "OJ always tells the truth. Amongst the over 60 records released one of his most famous songs is Army of Freedom. Another one is Efewedo, richness I say goodbye to you, a song against envy for wealth and for respect earned honestly. In Efewedo and in many songs Osayomre thanks his mother, an important woman who always supported him in public also in front of the authorities' persecutions or in front of the mean gossips about his immorality - mostly sexual - which accompanied him for years. Also this is a trace that associates him to Fela.

Musically speaking Osayomore is certainly less eclectic than Victor Uwaifo also if the course of his long carrier has gone through with much originality, some of the most popular musical genres in the country, amongst which highlife and afro beat. The main characteristic of his Bini-sound is the power of groove. The Ulelele Power Sound are made up of drums, congas, bass, two guitars, winds and voices, all the instruments are used for rhythm. The result is a powerful plaid of squeaky harmonies, over which what predominates is the declaimed singing of Osayomore accompanied by an obsessive reply from the chorus.

His music is a tremendous invitation to dance. With its multiple repartitions of traditional Bini rhythms, representing the vertebral column of the songs, an exciting news with African notes nuances and Caribbean, to which it will be quite difficult to resist moving.

Here we propose two entire CDs bought in a bazaar in the roman banlieu called Tor Pignattara, they are the first and second albums released for the Emotan Records of Benin City at the end of the seventies beginning eighties. The third album was released for the Emotan and is called Waka Waka which can be found on the Snap Cracle & Pop blog. The first is Ulele in Transit - Efewedo (EMOLP001) while the seoond is Over the Bar I Beg You (EMOLP002).

It is about music made not for our ears, but for the festive masses of the warm african metropolis. Our home bred capability of listening to it and our home bred tastes are not taken into consideration, also if it would be enough maybe a little touch up on the arrangements to take away some oddity which makes it a little difficult to swallow. If you want to listen to it find in on Youtube.
And now ... shake!

tpafrica-eng.blogspot.com

Tracklist

01. Orhiomwon Bo
02. Aibalegbe
03. Ebe
04. Omonoyan
05. Osaruese

Christiana Essien – Freedom

2011-11-17T13:37:00.002+01:00

With the death of Mrs Christiana Essien-Igbokwe, the Nigerian entertainment world lost a first class performer and arguably one of the most accomplished artistes of her generation. She was also a role model who achieved professional success at a relatively young age yet lived a scandal-free life as a devoted wife and mother.

Fame, it can be said, found Essien-Igbokwe early in life. Having lost her mother at the age of 12, a family friend who became her guardian encouraged and subsequently nurtured her interest in singing. That was to thrust her on the path of a musical career as she became a regular feature on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Channel 6, Aba musical and entertainment programmes like Ukonu’s Club and Now Sound. When the then running popular sit-com, The Masquerade, was shopping for a suitable actress for the role of the wife of a make-believe garrulous Yoruba man, she effortlessly stepped into the part.

With that, Essien-Igbokwe became better known by her screen name, Apena, the cantankerous wife of Jegede Sokoya (real name, Claude Eke). She retained the role even when The Masquerade morphed into The New Masquerade in the 1980s. But her talent was to shine brighter in music where she became a trailblazer.

At age 16 in 1976, Essien-Igbokwe released her first album, Freedom. Other albums – Patience and Time Waits for No One – would follow two years later. Then came One Understanding in 1979, the year she tied the nuptials with Mr Edwin Igbokwe, then General Manager at Punch newspaper, and became Christiana Essien-Igbokwe.

Her better known albums, Give Me a Chance and Ever Liked My Person hit the airwaves in 1980 and 1981. The latter was released under the London-based label EMI International Records and was adjudged her best LP till date.

Essien-Igbokwe’s most acclaimed songs were ironically neither in her native Ibibio nor in her husband’s Igbo language. Arguably, her most celebrated song was in Yoruba and was titled “Seun Rere”. The song, with others in the Hausa and Igbo, made her the quintessential pan-Nigerian singer. She, however, never forgot her roots as her song in Ibibio, titled “Akwa-Ibom Mmi” (My Akwa-Ibom), virtually became the anthem of her home state, Akwa Ibom (carved out of the old Cross Rivers state), the creation of which she played a very prominent role in 1987.

Essien-Igbokwe also played critical roles in the politics of her chosen profession. Her renown in the local music scene had indeed put her in good stead to vie for the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN) presidency, which she won and became the body’s first female president. Through her obvious talent and diligence, Essien-Igbokwe earned herself many laurels some of which were: International Special Achievement Award Mexico (1983), Africa Music Mother Award (1984), World Song Festival Award, Association of Theatre Arts Practitioners Lagos (1996) and in 2002, she bagged the National Honours Award of the Member of the Federal Republic (MFR). She also unofficially became acknowledged as Nigeria’s Lady of Songs.

Incidentally, for this incredibly talented actress, besides featuring in two early Nollywood movies Flesh and Blood and Sacred of Womanhood, nothing much was heard of her acting career as her music blossomed. She, however, remained a role model for many actresses nonetheless. But away from the limelight, she ran a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), called Essential Child Care Foundation, involved in child welfare needs and rights and participated in two concerts in 2009. The first was to Inspire Africa Benefit Concert in January while the other was the MTN Musical Festival, a musical show of old and new-breed musicians. Essien-Igbokwe, who would have turned 51 on November 11, is survived by her husband, Edwin and children, one of whom is also a musician.

She may not have lived a long life, the glowing tributes that trailed last week’s announcement of her death attest to her achievements as encomiums came from eminent Nigerians, including President Goodluck Jonathan. The outpouring of grief is indeed a testimony to the fact that the late Essien-Igbokwe not only sang her pan-Nigerianess but also lived it. Adieu, the irrepressible Nigerian Lady of Songs.

thisdaylive.com

Tracklist

01. Freedom
02. Feel So Good Sometime
03. If I Can Be Free From Darkness
04. Mr. Boom Boom Boom
05. My Kind Of Man
06. Unsteady Love
07. I'm No More Your Little Fool
08. Let's Face Our Problems

From Burkina Faso: Cissé Abdoulaye & Les Vautours (download)

2011-11-16T13:20:00.003+01:00

An interview

"Vultures," "Mother Henriette," "Man on the guitar," "Girls Kologha-Naba 'and we forget, this is some of the rich repertoire of songs from this that the Music lovers were quick to nickname "Man on the guitar."

Abdoulaye Cisse in the registry, it could have high school if his penchant for music had not taken over the benches. Discover or made better acquainted with this almost sexagenarian who does not look her age.

You are an artist well-known musician, tell us how you came into the music.

Abdoulaye Cisse

(Laughter). I feel it's more the music that came to me. I was very young when I started music. When I went to the normal course of Koudougou in 1962-1963, I had a guitar that had 'been given by my uncle, he had found that I was passionate about music, but that does not bother my studies. I offered it as a gift after I passed my entry into the sixth.

I hummed songs of great singers of the time. I loved seeing the shows of the great artists of Africa. My father was a Republican Guard and I had the opportunity to see many groups. I Dafing. Our ethnicity is a stickler on certain principles especially in regard to caste. I'm not a griot and I'm not allowed to sing. I was the only one with a penchant for music and my family I finally understood.

What is your discography right now?

I admit it is difficult for me to answer such a question. My very first record in 1974. Between 1974 and 1976, I made four 45 laps and then a 33 rpm. The 45 and 33, are from LPs, vinyl side supports A and B. The 33 towers is wider. I have done in Benin in 1981.

After the tapes were introduced. Between 1986 and 1992, I could make five albums. The last date of 1993. It's an album that I made entirely in Sweden with my friend Seydou Traoré Richard, CEO of Seydoni Production and is at the head of a major company and he invited me to Sweden with my band, percussion Djamana . The tour resulted in the production of an album. After that, there were only small, ad hoc interventions and the FESPACO Burkina Compil and C 98.

Many are those who remember songs like "Girls Kologie-Naaba" in what spirit did you write this song?

I sang the title, but it's not me who wrote it. The author called Yago Kumasi. In 1968, when I entered the band Super Volta, this young man had just left. It was he who sang. This is a song of the 50 Congolese group Rock-a-Mambo, which had been adapted. When I came to the orchestra, I was back the entire directory and later my own songs.

You have been a teacher, what motivated you to abandon this profession for radio?

I was trained for teaching. I came out of the ordinary course teacher in 1968 and did 12 years on. Ground in the bush as they say. I used to Zawara (Koudougou) at Kantchari (Niger border) to Tiou (Mali border) to Silmougou to Kaya and Bassinko. It was a compelling business from my vocation is music. I liked the music, above all, that's what made me happy. The job of a teacher, I do not exercise it by vocation. It was my basic training and in addition, my father wanted me to do career in this business. But after 12 years, I finished the ten-year commitment to serve ment in rural areas. So I could go and asked for a detachment. I was then seconded to the radio as a result of a test that I passed in 1978. In 1979 I took office as program host on Radio Ouaga.

One of your songs, "Vultures", won a Prix RFI. What benefits have you benefited with such a price?

No. Rather, "Toumangari Djembe" is a song of inspiration that I drew traditional folklore Dafing. "Vultures" has traveled to Africa. It's a song that has a revolutionary content and is enjoyed in countries such as Benin, Guinea and Cameroon. Under the August 1983 Revolution in Burkina Faso, it was considered a song mobilization and awareness of youth compared to the situation in Africa. I pulled up to sales.

But it has not been successful in Western countries like France because it was a song highly critical opinions of the colonizers. By cons, "Tomangari Djembe", which took the Prix RFI discovery 83, gave me an opening to the world. This is in Mauritius that I was to receive my prize. I had the opportunity to do many tours and participated also, Bourges festival with this award. For two or three years I have had the promotion on the part of RFI.

Abdoulaye Cisse said "The man with the guitar." Why that name?

The man with the guitar was taken from one of my songs that was much appreciated at the time the youth was a text more or less romantic than some teachers have learned to their students.

It seems that on your guitar, ill was written "Mom Henriettu"

(Laughter). No, it's a legend I do not like to show myself. I think I would have never done. I had my guitar before "Mother Henriette" This is my first wife and I can not take the name of another person to stick it on my guitar. "Mother Henriette" is the title of a song that was made a year after "the man with the guitar."

But who is "Mother Henriette?"

. This is the person with whom I lived, the mother of my son Kader. I did this song at the time to pay tribute.

What becomes of it, "Mother Henriette?"

(Laughter). But I do not know!

They say you are an intelligent man and you were a student who occupied the first rank in class. The music she was right in your studies?

Indeed, at school I was not stupid. But the music took my head. When my friends saw life in graduate school, I was thinking about music, but unfortunately there was no industry in this area. Yes, the music was right in my studies. (Laughter). That although it was right in my studies because that's what I wanted to do. I could go to the military academy in Dakar or Bingerville like many of my colleagues. But I always refused these competitions.

Can you cite some gains made in music?

What I wanted in music, it is not quantifiable achievements in terms of material wealth. No, what I wanted, I did not have. I wanted the consecration of the world. Living my music full touring to express myself is what I missed. Otherwise I was very happy. The little that I had allowed me to continue to make music.

And your troubles?

I have not experienced setbacks in the music. In all, there are ups and downs. I could get a band, I have a full orchestra that allows me to perform. The only disappointment for an artist, when it has not made an album or run a touring program. I did not make the prison. I may have had a good education in terms of organizing my life, I do not see what has destabilized my life. I am attached to my freedom and I always managed to avoid disturbing others.

Abdoulaye Cisse composed in rhyme as Kaboré Oger. Can we say that you're both artists poets?

A priori, Oger, I and all of the generation of 67-68 years, so we ordered first was romanticism. Like it or not, we had to make poetry. It was inconceivable at the time we do a song that means nothing.

We know that you are also a trainer. To date how many bands or artists have you trained?

I have not decided to be a trainer, but many young people had to rub me. At any given time, I was director of music school. In the days of "Little Singers" and "Doves" is actually made up of young people. On this side, we can consider me as a trainer, but I've never been full professor, a graduate to teach music. You are dealing with a self-taught, someone who has trained himself when he was in the normal course. Once the courts were normal as seminars, where music is required.

My basic training helped me understand the music. I trained as youth Djamana percussion, I grew i been for fifteen years formed Super Volta. I was also trained in theater. With Djamana, I felt that I was responsible for something unlike Boys Choir and the Dove, which was a revolutionary movement. I can not tell you how many young people have been in contact since my only issue ever to graduate. It is mainly young people who are well situated to tell.

What happens to the group Djamana percussion?

The group is still there, on paper, since we have the receipts, but in practice it n: there are more such as we had originally designed. That was before in the form of traditional music, a mix of modern traditional music. Today, it took the form of a modern orchestra. It is a label that has preserved and that we use.

Sami Rama Is one of your products?

Yes, we can say since we did many things together. With me it started when it was operating within "Boys Choir with raised fists." To stop this project, when it came for her to pursue a solo career, c is from this point that its development started with me.

What is your marital status?

I am married and the one you just saw (note: he presents a young girl named Afissatou) is my daughter who is in college. I have other older children I am like everyone else and my wife is private secretary to the cabinet of the Minister of Economy and Development. You can see there the day you'll be passing through. It is with this that I live since 1979.

Much water has flowed under the bridge after your separation from Sami Rama, CEAA is that you failed in your duty as a husband?

You know, this area, I do not like the deal. This is a debate very intimate and personal. Even if one is an artist and we have a public life, we were wise enough to keep our secret garden not to talk about in the press.

How do you separate that?

I do not want to deal with it

Are we may hope one day closer?

You make your assumptions and ask questions. While looking at the answers yourself. I tell you that I will not answer (laughs).

Do you continue to work as an artist?

In this respect, I do not mind. We are still artists. In addition, we have a long history of art together, so it should not be a problem. In our business, we have this chance to grow musically together whatever the disagreements. You know the number of artists with whom I do not get or do not agree with me but with whom I play? One bump, we smile, we're happy and you pass.

To see you, you seem young when you're a little older, what's your secret?

I do not think that 56 years or 57 years, or older. But I do not dispute what you said so far if you think I'm young for my age. However, I know artists who are older than me and are still active, so I do not see why I hang up. I can quote George Ouedraogo, Jean-Claude said Bamogo Man which are certainly of my generation, but who are my elders. My problem is that I made music as a kid and because of this, there are adults who have discovered at this age. What makes people feel that I do not age. And it identifies me as the generation of adults then who remember some of my tracks when I am not of this generation.

But everything has a connection with the spirit of man, because at 40 years old so it may seem that someone else may have 60 to give the impression of being young. If you love your life, if you are well organized, you stay young in your mind and your body, especially when making music, which quickens and regenerates when you're in bad shape. Music is smile, give you a warm happy despite the problems that you hang out with you.

Since Burkina Band and 98 C, no more so you can see on the stage, what's going on?

Burkina Compil, if you will, was a project back in the saddle for some hit songs that were forgotten. Unfortunately, the experiment did not continue even if it was really a great initiative. Since the C 98, I do not know what to say because there is not a time when there was a break in my career. If. We want to talk in terms of breaking it may be on the terms of releases. Indeed, it is also an artist when we see his works on the market, television, radio, in print. In fact, the media are instrumental in the career of an artist. In this regard, I find that I more or less removed from the scene because my last work goes way back. But I do not mean finished because with my group, I do a lot scene, the "live".

In addition, for a long time, I took care of others, what made that I have not had time to take care of myself. These are the reasons that give the impression that I retired so that it is not, I'm still here. You have older children as Kader Cisse is rather oriented business, how do you assess his choice?

I do not appreciate is his life and destiny. I think it's good. If against all odds, I made the music and my parents have not stopped me, I do not see why I would come the idea to make judgments about their choice. I told you I like my freedom, so much so that I do not want to disturb the others. If one of my children, some had the aim of making music, I'd also be leaving without any trial.

Abdoulaye Cisse is attracted by what kind of woman?

I'm not attracted to women. Let me explain because people tend to mix things up by saying that artists are draggers. This is a big mistake because I think the artist is someone who works a lot on the cerebral, not physical. It's a sentimental, that's why you see the love life of artists is sometimes trouble .. It is a brain work because you can not get back to love, and love ten thousand women at once, it is not possible. Those who accost every woman who passes are sick and I'm not one of them.

I'm not saying I do not like beautiful women, but it is not enough to get me.

What are the best moments of your career that you have earned a good financial health?

I do not remember but my financial health has always been a checkered with ups and downs. I've never had a big surprise in the sense of becoming a millionaire one day but I've always been consistent in this area. Our income as an artist is what? This is the BBDA (Burkina Faso Office of Copyrights); income products on the market, entertainment and others. For now, I have not had the chance to have a big blow as they say.

And my lean times?

Not so much because I've always been a civil servant. As an artist, it is difficult to live by his art in Burkina Faso while currently products such as cassettes, albums, work very hard for some artists. But in time, there were times when we do not sell anything because it n 'there was no tape duplication plant, there were no producers. When you did your music, you did out of love or passion because there was no audience to buy your work. If I had only artist that I was counting on it to live, perhaps I would have been low. Until then, I have not had the opportunity to dive into a black hole.

With so many years of musical career, are you filled in the social? '

In this regard, I am really overwhelmed because the music I got to know many people, having many friends. And being popular, it's also something, it's that one is like no other. Even if among all these people there are those who love you, admire you and those who also may hate you. I am satisfied and I have no problems with anyone.

What do you think of music in Burkina Faso now?

OK, she is doing very well compared to what it was some ten or fifteen years. Today, we do not need too much to break the head to make money over time because what is harvested from the work done is by no means the same thing today . Burkinabe music, despite its shape even when subjected musical styles from all sides, but fortunately there are artists that really make the music and do not come in to trade, but because of a vocation, With these, you can save and protect something.

What matters to me is the music of Burkina Faso, something you can in 20 or 30 years, after looking back bring the words: "Here! These productions can be among the great works of Burkina Faso. " But should not the music that will leave our children in 20 to 30 years can not be identified, let alone music called Burkina Faso. This is my fear and my struggle has always been to advocate for the protection of our background music.

What is the musician of your generation that you hung the most. ?

Instead, I was impressed with those before. Coulibaly Tidiane as a musician has always been a role model for me. At school, wherever it was, I was there to see his shows, is the only one I considered, it was somewhere for me to counsel, is not impressed by someone one that can be a model, remained closely tied to his death recently.

And that of the current generation?

Many impresses me, there's youth group and Smarty Yelen Mandow because they have an inexhaustible talent, Mandow example is very good. There is also Wend Yack and Alif Naaba that are talented at first glance, you feel qu'Alif Naaba has an artistic soul as Bil Aka Kara They are true musicians, they did not come to show off.

Your password on the Kunda 2005 ..

(Laughter). I could not follow. I was not there, but the Kunda is simply a good thing, It can be a barometer to assess, judge the music, its impact. the actors. But I wish they would lose sight of the Kunda. This is the Kunda is to say, focus on the excellence of the music of Burkina Faso. But here in Burkina Faso, if one does not involve the outside, it is not too confident. Or to force too involve the outside, you end up losing the original meaning of the operation. In Mali, the Tamani, Guinea, the Djembe gold, but they are not too extroverted.

What do you do besides music?

Apart from music, I'm just the music.

What are your plans?

My immediate plans, c'ost to market an album that is in the works for 3 or 4 years, is an album of 12 tracks with titles and new titles a few times.

lefaso.net, July 2005

Tracklist

01. Les Vautours
02. Tieba Lou Tounouna
03. Anga Wan M'passo Side
04. Mamadou
05. Aw'ye Douba Ke

From Burkina Faso: Sandwidi Pierre & Orchestre Harmonie Voltaïque

2011-11-15T13:35:00.003+01:00

Let’s start with L’Harmonie Voltaique, the group that was founded by Antoine Ouedraogo in 1948. They were the first group created to play ‘modern music’ in what was then the French West African colony of Upper-Volta. In early 1948 Antoine Ouedraogo was working for the French colonial administration in Mali (which at the time was called the French Sudan). That spring he returned to Upper-Volta and, tired of having to bring groups from the Cote D’Ivoire whenever he wanted to organize a ‘soiree-dansante’, Antoine decided to create the colony’s first modern orchestra. The group was officially born, with the approval of the Colonial Governor of Upper-Volta, on April 8, 1948. Their early repertoire consisted of French Songs (especially the ballads of French crooner Tino Rossi), and Latin rhythms (for e.g. the Cha-Cha, and Bolero). The repertoire started to change in 1964 when the multi-instrumentalist Maurice Sempore (tenor sax, flute) became the bandleader. It was under his leadership that the group started to perform songs in ‘Moore‘ (the language of the Mossi people).

Although recorded in 1970, these next two tracks give some idea of their earlier repertoire. The first track ‘Killa Naa Naa Ye Killa’ is an instrumental, composed by Maurice Sempore. The group categorizes this song as ‘Jazz’. The title refers to an onomatopoeic phrase in Moore that is taught to children to help them with their pronunciation- the equivalent of ‘sally sells seashells by the seashore’. The B-side of the 45 is a Bolero-Cha-Cha that was also composed by Maurice Sempore. It is the story of Therese Baba, a young woman whose parents were very strict. They did all they could to prevent Therese from going out at night to dance, but even though she never left the house, they could not prevent her from getting pregnant.

The liner notes from one of there covers:

Songhoï Records, young African firm, is pleased and proud to present L’Harmonie Voltaïque the orchestra No. 1 of the Republic of Upper Volta.

This popular group that won in 1969 and 1970, twice in succession, the first prize of C. A. L. A. H. V. (Cercle d‘Activités Littéraires et Artistiques de Haute-Volta) is headed by Maurice Sempore.

A versatile musician Maurice Sempore sings, plays tenor saxophone, the guitar, the Cuban flute, trumpet, guitar bass etc. … and his favorite instrument is the tenor sax which he handles with great ease. He is the first composer of modern African music in Upper Volta.

radiodiffusion.wordpress.com

Tracklist

01. Songh man tum kuili
02. Tond yabramba

From Brazil: Bixiga 70 (free download)

2011-11-14T09:05:00.003+01:00

BIXIGA70 LAUNCHES debut

With co-production of Victor Rice, Big Band originated in the traditional district of São Paulo brings together ten members from different backgrounds and presents copyright instrumental compositions with elements of Brazilian music, Latin and African dance and inspired themes in

The Bixiga70 big band released their first album, titled, with co-production of Victor Rice in concert, on November 1 (Tuesday), one of the most representative streets of the neighborhood in which the project was born. The night also marks the debut of the festival "Dance of the Bixiga70" to be held monthly in the street space Thirteen May and integrates action to revitalize the neighborhood of Bixiga, led by the band. "Bixiga70" will be available in its entirety for download on the band and have versions with careful art, vinyl and CD, released by the label ÁguaForte, Thiago Cury, specializing in special projects. The song "Malaika di Theme" and its dub version, produced by Victor Rice, were released in limited edition vinyl 7 compact. "

With the signed cover MZK DJ and artist, the album, recorded in the studio rattletrap, brings ten instrumental tracks, all songs copyright except "Desengano the Vista", the cult music composer and percussionist Brazilian Pedro Santos. The choice of a version of Sorong (also known as Santos), who followed in the 60's names like Baden Powell, Elis Regina, Milton Nascimento, Mandolin Jacob and Clara Nunes, illustrates the proposal to rescue the band sounds in contemporary arrangements and tropical. Copan mixed in the studio by Victor Rice, the album was mastered at Red Traxx Music by Philip Tichauer.

The project was born from the joining of ten well-known musicians of the scene in Sao Paulo that have in common rattletrap work done in the studio, located at 70th Street Thirteen of May, in the heart of the bohemian center of Sao Paulo. The members of Bixiga70 collaborate with various bands and artists such as Junio Barreto, Rockers Control, Anelis Assumption, Project Fine Thing, ProjetoNave, Gafieira National Pipo Pegoraro, Cavalcanti and Otis Leo Trio. Gathered explore elements of Brazilian music, Latin and African dances to create themes and inspired.

Considered by many the birthplace of samba São Paulo, the neighborhood also hosts the Bixiga and feeds the imagination of ten musicians who seek closer ties between past and future through music reading a cosmopolitan countries like Ghana and Nigeria, the drums and the terraces samba, music and Malinké an unpretentious attitude and without limits for improvisation and dance.

The versatility of Bixiga70 has swung the guitar riffs Scabello Cris, who for more than a decade dedicated to dub, psychedelic keyboards Maurice Fleury, who researches and explores the Latin sounds electronic territory, African drum rhythms of Decius 7, and improvisational quartet of metals immersed in the world of jazz and funk. In addition to being the core of the project, Decius, and Fleury Scabello divide disc production with Rice. Rounding out the team, Marcelo Dworecki (bass), Romulus Nardi (percussion), Gustavo De Cecco (percussion), Cuca Ferreira (baritone sax and piccolo), Daniel Nogueira (tenor sax), Ali Douglas (trombone) and Daniel Crow (trumpet).

With only one year on the road and all luggage brought by these ten musicians, Bixiga70 was considered one of the best shows of 2010 by the specialized press and filled the Teatro SESC Pompeii in historical presentation on the project's Silver House.

bixiga70.com

Tracklist

01. Grito de Paz
02. Luz Vermelha
03. Tema di Malaika
04. Mancaleone
05. Zambo Beat
06. Balboa da Silva – homenagem a Nilson Garrido
07. Desengano da Vista
08. Balboa Dub
09. Dub di Malaika
10. Dub Vermelho

To download, check here and press "baixar":

traquitana.org

Assa Cica & Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou (download)

2011-11-11T08:14:00.005+01:00

Assa Cica is called the "nightingale" because of his high-pitched voice. He is a poet who can be compared with Sagbohan Danialou. They hace somewhat the same style of music but Cica is certainly more romantic, with compositions more languorous.

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Assa Cica is special. He is a poet, close to Sagbohan Danialou in his lyrics as well as his music style. I really don't know when this album was released, i think between 1976 and 1978. Lohento Eskill is singing on all tracks except on "Ananu Dogon Nu" and "Gnon Nu Fomin Lin" where Assa make us discover his beautiful voice.

All information provided by the amazing OROGOD.

ASSA CICA & POLY-RYTHMO "Yokpo Wa Non Kpo Ha Mi" by Z j A k

Tracklist

01. J'ai raison d'etre amoureux
02. Agamagnon Nu Hede
03. Yokpo Wa Non Kpo Hami
04. Ananu Dokon Nu
05. Fofo n'do Gbesiso
06. Gnonnu Tome Lin

Black Children Sledge Funk Group – Love Is Fair (download)

2011-11-10T13:48:00.004+01:00

I don't have much to say about Black Children (a.k.a. Black Children Sledge Funk Band) except that they were an offshoot of The Strangers.

Info provided by amazing combandrazor

Tracklist

A1. Satisfaction
A2. Feelings I've Got
A3. Mr. Who
A4. Love Is Fair
B1. Funky Child
B2. Hard Life
B3. Another Girl
B4. Sledge Afro Funk

From Japan: Kingdom Afrocks – Fanfare

2011-11-09T16:24:00.004+01:00

Biography

The members met in September, 2006 and immediately hit the studio for sessions and recordings. Two months after, they performed their first live show and sold out copies of their recordings.

The core of their music lies Afro-beat, followed by jazz, Brazilian and latin beats, rock...you name it and such exuberance and energy of their live music caught the hearts of many & the word of mouth spread at the speed of light to music lovers, prestigious labels and event hosts.

The band line up starts with a Senegal returnee "Keiichi Tanaka (Dr) aka Ablaye Ndiaye", "IZPON (Per)" returned from 5 years of percussion training in Cuba, born-and-raised in Brazil is "Leo Nanjo (Ba)", humorous singer song writer "NAOITO (Per&Vo)". This four members drive the beats section, explosive melody produced by "SumiLady (key)", respected score writer from New Orleans "Daisuke Nomoto (Gt)", and finally representing is "Kids Hashimoto (B.Sax)", original dancer "YUSSY (cho/dance)". Eight very unique internatinoal members.

As they established their presence at major events and widely increased recognition in 2007, July became their biggest month as they rocked the crowds on the stage at FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL, an only a beginning to the many great stages that followed: TOKYO JAZZ CIRCUIT'07, U.F.O presents JAZZIN', and Giles Peterson presents WORLDWIDE SHOWCASE 2008.

KA celebrated their long awaited live recording album "LIVE IN AFRO CITY" in June of 2008. In August of the same year, KA shared the stage with the legendary drummer Tony Allen, who lead the Afro-beat scene with Fela Kuti. Sharing the stage with Tony helped KA to be recognaized as the leader of the Afro-beat scene in Japan.

In 2009, they released long waited first studio recording vinyl "ICHIKABACHIKAANO" which is recognized as one of the club hit this year. Now in 2011, they released 1st full studio recording album'FANFARE'.

kingdomafrocks.com

KINGDOM AFROCKS / FANFARE (Album Digest) by PLANETGROOVE

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Wind back three or four years and Kingdom★Afrocks seemed like a band on the verge of a major breakthrough. Having appeared at the Fuji Rock Festival the year before, 2008 saw them enjoying appearances at the Gilles Peterson Worldwide Showcase in Tokyo and various other events and in the summer they secured the support slot for the legendary Tony Allen at a memorable gig at 月見ル君想フ in Aoyama. The band also released their first album, unusually for a debut this was a live album, Live In Afro City, which was testimony to the power of their live shows. After that everything went quiet. There were sporadic live appearances and then the news that the nine-piece outfit had slimmed to a seven-piece, with trumpeter Shinpei Ruike and baritone sax player Gosekki stepping down from full-time activity in the band due to other musical commitments.

Then, just a few weeks ago, there was some new activity on the band's website that had lain fairly dormant for some time, and it was announced that the band's first debut album was going to be released in June. Fanfare has now hit the stores with an iPhone app to help promote it, and the buzz has started once again.

The album opens with the title tune, Fanfare (pronounced "fan-far-ay"), with vocalist Naoito leading the way in a great afrobeat groove complete with a voiceover from the father of afrobeat drumming himself, Tony Allen. This is followed by イチカバチカーノ (Ichikabachikano), a new version of a track released as a vinyl-only single about eighteen months ago. This new version is beefed up with a bigger horn section and regardless of whether you speak Japanese or not, it's hard not find yourself trying to sing along.

Typhoon is a punchy uptempo instrumental where the horn section really steals the show. Quite literally a stormin' tune. The tempo drops with Untitled, which opens with a baritone sax solo with the rhythm section kicking in with a sultry groove. The sax then makes way for a trumpet solo from guest Shinpei Ruike, and in turn he makes way for a spacey keyboard solo from Sumilady. After almost five minutes of instrumental bliss, vocalist Naoito then enters with lyrics asking if people are ready to fight for the life they deserve, which eventually leads into a lengthy coda with a "laaa-la-la-laa-laa-la-la-la-la-la-la" chorus. Long part of the band's live show, this track is a mid-tempo afrobeat classic.

Escucha, with Izpon singing in Spanish is a fine slice of afrobeat meets Latin funk, with a refrain of "Era dios de la musica". Things are well and truly back on an afro tip with Anti-Violence, a feel-good uptempo number that powers along with a great drum and bass line, the horn section leading with a refrain followed by a couple of solos, until they take it down to the just the percussion for the start of the call and response vocals, building up to a powerful crescendo.

Voodoo Grease has a bluesy feel to it, with afro grooves mixing with juju spirits from the deep south to produce a raw and dirty groove. The album then closes with Will To Live, another mid-tempo afrobeat groover with its politicised lyrics imploring the listener to be more pro-active ("Is your mind dead?/Be broad-minded/ Show your will/Show your will to live").

It was a long time coming, but Fanfare is a truly outstanding studio debut that has to be one of the year's essential purchases. Kingdom★Afrocks' new album confirms the view that, along with JariBu Afrobeat Arkestra, Japan has two major players in the latest generation of afrobeat influenced bands.

tokyojazznotes.blogspot.com

Tracklist

1. Fanfare
2. イチカバチカーノ
3. Typhoon
4. Untitled
5. Baila y Goza
6. Escucha
7. Anti Violence
8. Voodoo Greace
9. Will to Live

Dr. Adolf Ahanotu – Odejimjim

2011-11-09T10:04:00.003+01:00

No information at all, just that he's from Nigeria and the album was released by Mirabel Records (MIRLP 001) in 1985 concerning to discogs.com.

Tracklist

01. Odejimjim
02. Osuru
03. Ndidi Amaka
04. Ijere
05. Emeremnini

The track "Ijere" was re-released on "Nigeria Disco Funk Special: The Sound of the Underground Lagos Dancefloor 1974-79".

Bob Pinodo – Show Master Of Africa

2011-11-08T16:21:00.003+01:00

No information at all, just that he's from Ghana and the album was released by Essiebons 1978.

Tracklist

01. Peep To See
02. Love Is Love
03. Africa
04. The Girl With Guitar Shape
05. Disco Dance
06. Yesu Ne M'agyenkwa
07. Come Back Love
08. Darling

Zambian fuzz rock: The Witch (Pt. II)

2011-11-08T10:53:00.002+01:00

African rock band The Witch was born out of the small-but-scrappy Zambian music scene of the early 1970s. Led by singer Emanyeo "Jagari" Chanda, Witch (whose name was actually an acronym for "We Intend to Cause Havoc") was formed by former members of more pop-oriented Zambian bands, like the Boyfriends and Kingston Market, but by the time of their 1973 debut album, Introduction, they had worked up a fierce and forceful sound. There's really nothing overtly African-sounding at all about Introduction; other than Chanda's accent on the English-language vocals, there's nothing that even hints at the fact that Witch is from Africa at all, let alone Zambia. The influence of the garage rock and psychedelia coming out of the U.S. in the ‘60s seems to have played a major part in the Witch sound. While contemporaries like Nigeria's Tirogo incorporated Afro-beat grooves into their psych-inspired sounds, the songs on Introduction mostly sound like they could have come off of some Nuggets-esque compilation of rare ‘60s garage rock singles from the American Midwest. Chanda's raw, bluesy vocals have a kind of Stonesy swagger, as filtered through the more low-rent likes of, say, the Shadows of Knight or the Chocolate Watchband. Chris Mbewe's fiery guitar work follows suit, alternating between basic, visceral, blues-based riffs and fuzzed-out, unabashedly psychedelic-sounding licks that make you think you're hearing a product of the late ‘60s rather than the mid-‘70s. With the Zambian scene being much smaller than that of Nigeria, Witch didn't have access to particularly top-shelf studios, so there's a rough-edged, D.I.Y. sound to Introduction that suits the band's approach here perfectly, though their later, more musically sophisticated outings would noticeably suffer from their lack of sonic clarity.

James Allen

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Witch was a psych-rock music group from Zambia. Their songs from the first record in 1973 are released here. The psychedelic-driven songs contain equal parts of funk, blues, and folk. However, Introduction is a window into the Zambian rock music movement of the 1970's. The classic tunes are sung in English, but the underground tone is purely African. The tongue-and-cheek title track that introduces the band members and instruments with a guitar-fuzz rhythm and English vocals. "Feeling High" is a languid tune with a familiar blues rhythm. The bass-heavy "No Time" is a funky, guitar-driven song with an upbeat tempo and classic vocals. Nine tracks in all 'introduce' listeners to rare gems of Zambian rock music. Fans of funkadelic, Afro-rock music on dusty LP's from the 1970's will find Witch to be a perfect accompaniment in a fine music collection. Don't let the name scare you from enjoying the best re-issued Afro-psych-funk to come out of Zambia. ~

Matthew Forss

01. Introduction
02. Home Town
03. You Better Know
04. Feeling High
05. Like A Chicken
06. See Your Mama
07. That's What I Want
08. Try Me
09. No Time

Gnonnas Pedro & His Dadjes Band - The Band Of Africa Vol. 1 (download)

2011-11-04T22:24:00.006+01:00

Introducing you ... --> Gnonnas Pedro & His Dadjes Band

by combandrazor.blogspot.com:

For some reason, when I was younger, every time I saw a "Gnonnas Pedro & his Dadjes" on a record sleeve, I read it as "Gnonnas Pedro & his Dandies." Looking back on it now, it seems somewhat appropriate. Dig: Yesterday I was reading The Painter of Modern Life, Charles Baudelaire's collection of essays explicating, among other things, the worldview of the dandy. This passage leapt out at me:

In this context, pray interpret the word 'artist' in a very narrow sense, and the expression 'man of the world' in a very broad one. By 'man of the world', I mean a man of the whole world, a man who understands the world and the mysterious and legitimate reasons behind all its customs; by 'artist', I mean a specialist, a man tied to his palette like a serf to the soil. M. G. does not like being called an artist. Is he not justified to a small extent? He takes an interest in everything the world over, he wants to know, understand, assess everything that happens on the surface of our globe.

Well, damn, I thought. That kinda describes Gnonnas Pedro, doesn't it?

Beninois singer, dancer, bandleader, guitarist, trumpeter and saxophionist Gnonnas Pedro was not an "artist" in the sense of being a specialist in one any one discipline, and if he was anything, it was certainly a man of the world. A dazzling showman who hewed to the old school entertainment ethos of giving the people want they want. You wanted to hear a bolero in Spanish? Gnonnas Pedro would sing it for you. French chanson? He was up to the task. American soul? Congolese rumba? Nigerian-style highlife? Your favorite country ballad? No matter the song or the style, you could count on Gnonnas Pedro to give it the old college try. At the peak of his popularity, Pedro's Dadjes were known as "the African band that speaks every language." His forte, however, remained crackling Afro-Cuban grooves as well as agbadja, a modernized form of Fon folkloric music.

The Republic of Benin never made a major impact on African or world music (or World Music™) culture. Perhaps due to being a tiny Francophone state wedged between the two Anglophone giants, Nigeria and Ghana, the nation was never able to produce and forcefully project anything like juju, soukous, benga or mbalax--a unique, homegrown style that changed the way the world listened to music and put its country of origin on the musical map.* What Benin did have in spades, though, was a slew of industrious, fanatically committed orchestras that mined borrowed styles like highlife, funk, jerk, jive and jazz for every drop of sweat, swing and soul they could wring out of them. Thanks to the tireless archaeological efforts of Soundway and Frank (not to mention Samy at Analog Africa), Cotonou is becoming a musical mecca for groove cognoscenti and the numerous works of Beninois bands like TP Orchestre Poly-Rythmo and Rego et Ses Commandos are now not only well known, but also keenly coveted.

It wasn't always like that, though. But while most of the Beninois bands toiled in obscurity, Gnonnas Pedro's stylistic versatility and affable stage presence earned him popularity across West Africa. His Yoruba highlife tune "Feso Jaiye" even became a standard among Nigerian musicians.

Gnonnas Pedro finally got to shine on a larger stage in the mid-90s, when he was recruited to replace recently-deceased singer Pape Seck in the Afro-Nuyorican salsa supergroup Africando, recording and touring with the band until he succumbed to colon cancer in 2004 at the age of 61.

This album here is a collection of covers that offers a sampling of his musical polymathy, with Pedro taking on everything from Merle Travis's "Dark as a Dungeon" to the cabaret of Charles Aznavour. Pedro was a great admirer of the French crooner (which whom he was privileged to record a single with in 1964) and there is a certain poignancy to his renditions of "À ma fille" and especially "Les comédiens" (here listed as "Les Commedies").

The lyrics of the latter song seem to describe Pedro's own metier to a degree: "Come see the actors, the musicians, the magicians..." On stage, Gnonnas Pedro was a musician and a magician, but perhaps beyond all that, an actor. His style-switching constituted more than just the essay of genres, but a deliberate reinvention of the self. When Pedro declares "Ladies and gentlemen... Now Gnonnas Pedro is gonna be James Brown!" before launching into a charmingly awkward phonetic reading of "I Got You," he dresses himself up in a constructed identity through music much as the dandy does through sartorial artifice.

And so, walking or quickening his pace, he goes his way, for ever in search. In search of what? We may rest assured that this man, such as I have described him, this solitary mortal endowed with an active imagination, always roaming the great desert of men, has a nobler aim than that of the pure idler, a more general aim, other than the fleeting pleasure of circumstance. He is looking for that indefinable something we may be allowed to call modernity...

Check out and read the full article at combandrazor.blogspot.com!!! Thanx ...

Tracklist

01. Kou Akon 'Ka
02. Azo N'Kplon Doun Nde
03. Mo Ngbadun Re
04. Feso Jaiye
05. Ati Mawuin Dagamasi
06. J'ai Aime

Fela, My Hero

2011-11-04T05:43:00.002+01:00

As already said, the October edition of travel magazine ‘Waka-About’ published by Pelu Awofeso, winner CNN/Multichoice African Journalist Awards (Tourism) is dedicated to Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

The contributors include veteran entertainment journalist, Azuka Jebose Molokwu who met Fela in the 80s as a young reporter with PUNCH. Fela later developed a liking for the reporter now based in the US that he made a surprise appearance at his 25th birthday in August 1986.

Here's his story:

Days of innocence

One early morning, during the harmattan period of January 1967, I rode in the company of a tall and beautiful lady from Onicha Ugbo, my home town, to Lagos; it was an eight hour drive that changed my life and my humanity in a way I could not have imagined or planned.

Some weeks after I settled to a new life in Lagos (our family had lived in Kano and was forced to relocate to the Mid West as the civil war raged in Northern Nigeria), my step mother enrolled me at Jehovah Jireh primary school, Idi Oro. Across the street from the school was the home of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the most profound creative artiste of our century; the base of third-world sermon, a sermon that inspired us to challenge our self-serving leaders. To this day I remain eternally grateful to Jehovah for my early exposure to the Fela brand of music.

The atmosphere of the house was overwhelming: walking to school from Caxton (later Kadiri) Street, off Ojuelegba, proved a perfect foundation for the future relationship I would have with Fela, my fella. Fela’s home became a widely known temple, where frustrated Nigerians gathered to be sanctified and sanitized. They had listened to his yarns on vinyl on the radio and at parties. They heard about his fearless challenge of the ruling military governments. Much more than that, however, they wanted to confirm the rumours about his bohemian lifestyle.

I spent some of my holidays standing with other fans of Fela in front of his Kalakuta Republic, straining to have a glimpse of him, his women, who were more often than not sensually dressed. Those moments felt like being on a pilgrimage. Through their fashion and bodily decorations, Fela’s women were rebelling against our indigenous cultures in a way that also showed that they appreciated the best of our cultural values.

A hustler’s life
Kalakuta was where you could walk with your head upside down and no one would care, and the occasional confrontation with the armed forces made the Kalakuta lifestyle the more intriguing, even intoxicating. For whatever reason, I simply wanted to live and die inside this Republic. Who was this man, blessed with followers that believed so much in him? To us, Fela was a cult leader of sorts, the voice of Nigerians long cowed into silence and submission. He was our hero, beaten and battered countless times, smeared in his own blood and left to die. Yet, we still loved him, because he encouraged us to be brave and not zombies, suffering and smiling while the military guys thoughtlessly frittered our lives away.

My step mother’s brother, Barbwire (as he was fondly called) would later deepen my attraction for Fela. Barbwire was a gifted guitarist and a frequent visitor to Kalakuta Republic. From him I learnt about the hustling that was a regular feature of the Republic. And later, from my own regular visits, I was introduced to the carefree lifestyles of a people inspired by its leading light, Fela. Barbwire was the typical Kalakuta hustler and he dealt in marijuana. He would come home on weekends and sit me through lessons in how to roll the weed. He also taught me how to pick the acoustic guitar strings.

A sham trial
In 1984, the federal Military Government under the leaderships of Muhammadu Buhari and Tunde Idiagbon arrested Fela for violations of the foreign exchange decree. He was allegedly found with $1200 in his possession. The government needed to make a statement in pursuit of its war against indiscipline and Fela was readily a poster child for such nuisance. I was then a young and restless reporter with The Punch, aggressively seeking anything newsworthy. I was also seriously flirting with entertainment desk at the Onipetesi newsroom office.

As fate would have it, I was seconded to the Marina office of The Punch during the closing days of Fela’s trial by an army tribunal. City Editor Feyi Smith encouraged me to come early to the court house so as to get a better place to view Fela whenever he was on the dock. There was chaos that September mid-morning when he was declared guilty and sentenced to five years in jail.

As he stepped into the Black Maria, he turned around and gave his trademark ‘black power’ salute, clenched fist in defiance and as a special appreciation to the legions of fans that gathered to support his journey to prison. I captured the mood and reactions of that moment: the next day, Punch published my story as one of the front-page leads: “SORROWS, TEARS, MINUS BLOOD…”

Very Important Prisoner
One Friday evening Jerry Agbeyegbe (late) dashed to the entertainment desk to tell me that he had spotted Fela at the Presidential Wing of the local section of the Lagos airport. He had been told that Fela was ill and was being transferred to Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) for treatment. Fela was a high-value prisoner and the powers that be did all they could to shield his movement from the press.

The security scene at LUTH admissions centre suggested that a Very Important Prisoner of the federal government was on admission. As I walked down the alley, I spotted Feyintola and one of the queens walking out from the building. She had Seun strapped to her back. She it was who told me where to go. I walked swiftly past the three stern-faced military police personnel, each armed with an AK 47 rifle.

Fela wore his prison uniform and he sat on his bed; some members of the Egypt 80 band were also present. Femi Foto, Fela’s media relations man, stood to leave the partitioned room when I opened the curtain and walked in. “I beg no forget to bring the sponge tomorrow,” I heard Fela tell Femi as I waved salutations.

He motioned for me to seat beside him on the bed. I sat there as he played with Funmilayo, his daughter, briefly. When the room was less crowded I asked after his health and what was wrong with him. “My brother, dem give me this kind food for prison wey just balloon my bele. I don dey shit for days,” he said.
“Fela, would you mind if I put you on record?” He gave me the same cynical smile Beko beamed at me that morning. “Hmmm, Azuka, I beg no interviews today till am well, I beg, I beg…”
“Okay what message do you wish to send to your fans?”
He hesitated for a few seconds and uttered a headliner: “Don’t forget am a prisoner…”

The Homecoming
While Fela was in jail, I became a regular at Femi’s house in Bariga. The family quickly adored and adopted me. Femi’s mom, Remi, would seat on the couch, smoking cigarette and offer me tea. The family had this black mean looking German shepherd that disliked my regular visits. Remi had promised that I was going to write her biography whenever she was comfortable and ready to tell all about her love and marriage to Fela. I never got that priceless chance to work with her.

Sundays were a must visit because we would all catch a cab to the Afrika Shrine for Sunday Jump. So it was no surprise that Femi had to drive all the way to the Punch office one day to confirm from me if truly Fela had been released from prison, 18 months after he was sentenced. He told me he heard on the FRCN (Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria) 4 p.m. news.

“Yes,” I told him. “Baba is coming home.” Later that day, he drove to Benin City to bring his father home. Little did he know that the nation was in jubilation, anticipating Fela’s arrival. It was a magnanimous celebration for the return of the peoples’ voice. A convoy of jubilant supporters, fans and family led Fela into town mid-morning.

Babangida had ordered Fela’s release when Newswatch exclusively reported that Justice Okoro Idogwu, the head of the tribunal that tried and sentenced the afrobeat King to jail, secretly visited him in prison and begged for forgiveness: an embarrassed and disgraced leadership had no choice but to release a man wrongfully accused and sentenced.

I rushed to Beko’s home where the first reception was to be held. By a turn of fate, I sat next to Fela, the second time in my life I would be sitting next to an iconoclast! The smell of fresh marijuana mingled with God’s fresh air. It was hard not to inhale that afternoon at both Beko’s house and The Shrine, where the reception ended.

The article was originally published by 'Waka About' and written by Azuka Jebose Molokwu

The Savers - Love To Love

2011-11-03T13:39:00.002+01:00

South African Funk.

No more information, if someone has some information, pls feel free to contact me and unfortunately nothing to find about them ....

LP was published 1977 on Pathe Records.

Tracklist

A1. I'm Sorry
A2. I Need Your Love
A3. Come With Me Girl
A4. Answer My Question
A5. Kenny's Feeling
A6. Check It Out
B1. Love To Love
B2. I Am In Trouble
B3. Tell Me Baby
B4. Keep On Searching
B5. Keep Them All
B6. Come Back, Come Back Girl

collectorsfrenzy.com gives a price: 76 USD / old ebay auction ...

"Waka About" presents "Fela ... Genuis For All Times"

2011-11-02T16:29:00.003+01:00

The October edition of travel magazine ‘Waka-About’ published by Pelu Awofeso, winner CNN/Multichoice African Journalist Awards (Tourism) is dedicated to Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

Commissioned articles by people close to the late artist whose posthumous birthday will be marked with FELABRATION on October 15 at the New Afrika Shrine, Agidingbi, Lagos, are featured in the special collector’s issue.

The contributors include veteran entertainment journalist, Azuka Jebose Molokwu who met Fela in the 80s as a young reporter with PUNCH. Fela later developed a liking for the reporter now based in the US that he made a surprise appearance at his 25th birthday in August 1986.

Fela’s personal assistant (shrine), Majemite Jaboro also relives his time back in the day with the Afrobeat legend at the Afrika Shrine where Fela was both preacher and priest. Musician, art curator and producer Lekan Babalola gives readers a glimpse into what life was like inside Fela’s Kalakuta.

“It’s taken a whole year of waiting and visualising to package a souvenir issue in honour of a man who has been described as Nigeria’s best ‘cultural ambassador’, Awofeso disclosed in a statement.

Though the edition is dedicated to the icon, Awofeso noted that, “Still, there are many stories yet to be written about Fela. Reason: Fela was no ordinary person: he lived a purposeful and colourful life, and one marked by several milestones. Fourteen years after his death, his music remains with us while his fame has spread even farther from his country of birth. For a man who “worked on his music, at least eight to 10 hours in a day...strict with his band’, he deserves no less; and we at ‘waka-about’ are pleased to have produced this commemorative edition in his honour.”

234next.com

Benson Idonije, 75, crossed paths with Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, the Nigerian creator of Afrobeat (who died on 2 August 1997, aged 58), in 1963 inside the studios of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC).

“On the day of our meeting,” the Jazz aficionado recalls, “he [Fela] came with an album of Jazz which he had recorded in London; I played it on my Jazz programme and from then on we became friends.” Shortly after that episode, the Fela Ransome Kuti United, a Jazz band, was formed with Idonije managing the ensemble. Several collaborations followed, and the bond between the two men grew even stronger, to the point of them having a shared pet name, Oyejo.

Says Idonije: “Fela was a great musician who, like Bob Marley, endeared himself to the youth…he lived the life of a genius; he was true to himself, bold, fearless.”

On October 16 (2010), a day after Fela Anukulapo-Kuti’s posthumous 72nd birthday, book and music merchants Glendora and Jazzhole in Lagos hosted a discussion session among personalities who are believed to have exclusive insights into the Fela phenomenon. Idonije was one of them.

And there was also Dr. Sola Olorunyomi, author of Fela: Africa and the Re-Imagined Continent, who teaches at the University of Ibadan’s Institute of African Studies, where there is an ongoing effort to document all of Fela’s imprints on the world’s consciousness. Olorunyomi appears to be the arrow-head of these efforts, which has seen him traverse three continents in his search for all things Fela.

“I have been doing much documentation than writing, that’s the point,” he tells the audience in a room walled around with books and music CDs, “I went across Europe, to private homes, anybody who had anything. Every country I’ve been I try to find out whoever did anything with Fela. It’s not about me; it’s about the heritage.”

Possibly one of the few unsung experts of Fela, Olorunyomi began his probe before the artiste’s death of complications arising from HIV/AIDS in 1997. But he didn’t have a smooth sail. As he himself recalls, there were times Fela was so pissed he threatened to have the scholar thrown out of his Lagos home. Then even after Fela’s passing, associates and contemporaries would not venture any information on the musician to someone they considered too young to take up the challenge.

“Not to be able to write about something I didn’t experience is not a problem,” Olorunyomi says, displeased at being denied information he believes should be documented for posterity. “But let’s face it, people are still writing about Shakespeare. If my child wakes up one day and says: ‘I want to write about Fela,’ so be it. It will be her own experience of Fela.”

Idonije, who currently writes a music column in The Guardian of Nigeria, has already written a book on his friend, scheduled for release on 18 February 2011, the day in 1977 when Kuti’s commune Kalakuta Republic was raided by soldiers and sacked. Titled This Fela Sef, the book explores many aspects of Fela’s musical life not previously tackled by earlier authors.

“I am one of the people who think that most of the books written about Fela have portrayed him mainly as a fighter, as a turbulent person and all of that,” says Idonije, after reading the book’s first chapter. “The core of Fela was his brilliant musicianship. And so people are selling their books based on all those terrible aspects of him. Mainly, the man was a brilliant musician, and this is one of things I have succeeded in doing in my own book.”

There are a whole chapters, he says, devoted to Fela’s early years as an upstart; Fela at work (rehearsals); Fela’s stints with other local musical groups; his evolution from Jazz player to Highlife-Jazz and eventually to Afrobeat (the name Fela coined for his type of music inside a clubhouse in Accra, the Ghanaian capital in 1967); his inspirations and dealings with recording companies and so on.

“His most brilliant era was in the sixties,” says Idonije, “that was when he played brilliant music. But it was when he started to play popular, watered down music that people knew him.”

No one contests that Fela was famous within and outside his home country of Nigeria while he was alive or that he was popular with the masses. At the height of his fame, the message in his songs reverberated around Africa and across the world. “It was so organic, like it grew out of the ground or something,” says South African playwright and poet Lesego Rampolokeng, who first heard Fela’s music (Lady, Shakara) in the 1970s as a seven-year-old growing up in Soweto. “We could absorb it run with it or match down the street with it. So it was not surprising that few years later Soweto exploded in the June 1960 riots.”

And it appears that a whole 13 years after he passed on, his legend continues to add more dimensions, aided in large part by Felabration, the weeklong annual concert organised by his two eldest children (Yeni and Femi) and held every October in their father’s memory.

Felabration this year [2010] was bigger and better than it had ever been, attendance and all. “If there’s one cultural ambassador Nigeria has produced, it is certainly Fela Anikulapo-Kuti,” says Human Rights lawyer and activist Femi Falana, at the ‘Fela Debates’, which looked at the subject of ‘Music As A Weapon’ (October 11).

Typically, the Nigerian government didn’t associate with the programme. That was no surprise, really, because in his lifetime, Fela was always anti-ruling class (but pro-masses).

That’s no cause for worry, says Falana: “At the appropriate time, he will be duly honoured.”

wakaabout.wordpress.com, written by Pelu Awofeso

Miki Jaga & His Dance Band (download)

2011-11-01T15:02:00.004+01:00

This one is crazy hot! Wild & loose Nigerian funk with freaky synth tendencies. Super dancing sounds. Miki Jaga & His Dance Band is incredibly great and fairly unknown. Nigerian pressed. A total must.

Unfortunately, I cannot find any more information, not at all!

Side A

1. Ukpovbegbanen
2. Kpalamule

Side B

1. Vbenosawenmwighaye
2. Ivba Ni Kalo

Fela Kuti - Army Arrangement (1984)

2011-10-31T09:21:00.002+01:00

In November 1984, Kuti was sentenced to two concurrent five-year prison sentences on a charge of attempting to smuggle some £1,500 out of Nigeria on a flight to New York. The charge was blatantly concocted (among other abuses of process, the currency declaration form Kuti had completed at Lagos airport was "lost" by the police), and a year later he was declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. He was released after serving 20 months.

When Kuti was jailed, Army Arrangement was awaiting release by Paris-based Celluloid Records, who had made a deal to rerelease some of his back catalogue along with the new album. Believing, misguidedly, that the tapes needed invasive attention, Celluloid first asked Dennis Bovell to do a remix. Because Bovell was unavailable immediately, Celluloid house producer Bill Laswell was drafted in. Laswell was dismissive of the album, scrubbed all Kuti's solos, added synthesized percussion, speeded it up and brought in Bernie Worrell and Sly Dunbar to overdub new keyboard and drum parts. Friends smuggled a tape of the Celluloid album into jail for Kuti to hear. "Listening to it was worse than being in prison," he said later.

Fortunately, the original version of Army Arrangement survived, and that's the one presented here. The lyric is astonishingly brave, even by Kuti's standards, accusing Nigeria's recently retired president, General Obasanjo, still an extremely powerful man (he later returned as president), of complicity in the disappearance of millions of US dollars generated by the export of oil.

Read the full article at allaboutjazz!

---

Army Arrangement, originally released in 1985, was comprised entirely of a half-hour track of the same name. Just because it's twice as long as Fela's usual songs doesn't mean it's twice as good. It's an average Fela recording, though the chanting chorus vocals come in earlier than they do on most of his pieces. The lyrics are among his most critical of the Nigerian military and government, focusing on the troubled period when the country returned to civilian rule at the end of the 1970s. Note that the MCA reissue of Army Arrangement is different from other releases with the same title, consisting of two tracks: a half-hour version of "Army Arrangement" and the previously unreleased, half-hour original version of "Government Chicken Boy." Musically, "Government Chicken Boy" is a little more interesting than "Army Arrangement," with ominous teams of horns and wordless chants leading into the usual trades of solos, and then a characteristic Fela lyric about obedient followers of authority.

Richie Unterberger

---

For collectors like me, it is great to finally have the original version of "Army Arrangement" available on CD. The early 80s release of "Army Arrangement" was re-mixed by Bill Laswell in the hope of finally getting Fela some cross-over success. What they got instead was a syrupy, poppy, disco-y, keyboard infused piece of garbage that Fela fans hated and the un-indoctrinated ignored. Here we finally get the full 30-minute "Army Arrangement" jam in its original glory, along with a five-times longer account of "Government Chicken Boy" (29:15 here but only 5:47 on the original Celluloid release!). Despite this much improved mix, most of Fela's material with Egypt 80 is still too keyboard driven for my tastes, and the biggest reason for my withholding a fifth star. Of course, all of the Fela reissues are really indispensable, and you should get them while you can.

Michael B. Richman

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Army arrangement is the most funkiest African song that I have ever listened to, it's so funky that it could strip off the paint on your bedroom wall!

Fela was a musical legend, an innovator, a pan-africanist at heart & above all a government critique. Fela did not engage in praise music unlike other Nigerian musicians, social commentary was his forte.

At the time of release of this album, Fela was serving a prison sentence on a trumped-up currency charge. On the cover of this album Fela engages in his famous power salute with the caption "But sha, I still dey, there shall be no compromise", an indication that he would not buckle under any pressure whatsoever.

Army arrangement & Power show rank as my two favourite Fela songs, the rhythm & horn input on Army arrangement are both very heavy & hypnotic. It was one of the tunes used to open Fela's show at his most famous shrine in Lagos.

Government chicken boy is a more restrained track, although it is not the highlight on this album, it complements a few beers & some pepper stew, if you catch my drift (Nigerians would mostly understand this).

I urge you to buy this album & enjoy this true masterpiece! Definitely worth the 5 stars! Very special indeed...

Michael

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Army Arrangement (1984)

Army Arrangement

Army Arrangement is about Nigeria’s attempt at ‘democracy’ in 1979 after more than a decade of military rule. In 1970, Nigeria emerged from a three-year Biafra civil war with the largest standing army in black Africa, no financial debts – careering along on at least two million barrels of sulphur-low oil, pumped daily into the world market. With such revenue invested prudently in the Nigerian economy, there should be no reason for any Nigerian to live below the poverty line. However, with persistent scandals of corruption as the standard in every administration since independence, the army has lost all credibility to effect any change in the system. Especially since the arrival of the military in the political arena created the illusion of a peaceful ‘democratic’ participation in government. With the daily running of government carried out by civilians who reported to military bosses, Fela, I this song, calls on the people to be bold enough to criticize the government, because fear of the man with the gun would not put an end to the sufferings of the masses, who eventually pay for government mismanagement. He points to the foreign exchange scandal that prompted the military regime to arrest highly placed Nigerians. Most of them were tried and sentenced to jail terms ranging from five to fifteen years. But with the change from military to civil rule, most of the jailed socialites were released by the new administrations – a preview organized by the departing military regime that Fela accuses. Turning to the election issue and how the military manipulated the country by eliminating young political movements like The Movement Of The People (MOP) calling for a change in the system. Fela points to the fact that the military handed power to the same elite politicians who prompted the army to seize power earlier. He concludes that it is an arrangement dating from the ex-colonial rulers, who put the military in place to do their dirty work, and calls the whole political maneuver Army Arrangement

Government Chicken Boy

Government chicken boy are what you could call ‘establishment boys’- believers of the establishment and the system. Fela compares them with the chicken, crowing at dawn like an alarm clock, waking people for the day’s job ahead. He sings: ‘…su! su! we dey chase chicken him dey run! Him go try to fly! Him go land with him mouth! Him mouth go dey drag for ground! Gerere! Gerere….!’. Government Chicken boy, like the chicken, could be chased away from the grain at will an recalled back to share the same grain again. Like tools of the system, they can be dispensed with at will. Fela says if you ask him where to find ‘government chicken boy’ – the answer is in government ministries and establishments, civil servants, police, army, commissioner, minister, and the president. The news media he also calls ‘government chicken boys’ because of the way they depend on Western sources of information. He also criticizes their organization structures and ethic – which he regards as not just a carbon copy of Western news media, but a poor imitation of them. Finally, Fela says that among these ‘government chicken boys’, you find some good people and bad people. For the good people, it is a big fight ‘na wahala’ for them to stay up-right and give good advice, but for the bad people have a disease called ‘shaky-shaky’. They are always trying to please the master even if they know he is doing the wrong thing – like chicken, they shake and say yes to everything.

Written by Mabinuori Kayode Idowu

Vis-A-Vis - Odo Gu Ahoroo (download)

2011-10-27T15:20:00.005+02:00

Vis-a-Vis band is composed by the finest ghanaian musicians: Isaac Yeboha, the lead-singer, bassist Slim Yaw, Kunh Fu Kwaku drummer and Sam Crooper guitarist.

Amazing Oro God

The hard touring West African stalwarts Vis-A-Vis helped propel K. Frimpong to fame as one of Ghana's most popular stars of the 1970s. On Frimpong's records they were usually known as the Cubano Fiestas, but Vis-A-Vis recorded a number of albums under their own name. Led by vocalist Isaac "Superstar" Yeboah and featuring top players like Sammy Cropper on guitar, Slim Manu on bass and Gybson "Shaolin Kung-Fu" Papra on drums, Vis-A-Vis were both a popular live act and in-demand studio musicians, becoming the de facto house band at Ghanaian independent label Ofo Brothers Records.

Secret Stash Records

Tracklist

01. Odo gu ahoroo (medley)
- Maye pentoa
- Ohianiwa
- Osu a ono nkoaa
02. Sunsum me gu mu
03. Odo fever
04. Abofra ketewa
05. Ebeto dabi

Another great album found on the Global Groove blog.

Eric (Show Boy) Akaeze - Umu Ani Oma

2011-10-26T17:09:00.003+02:00

Lost in the shadows of third rate night clubs and dancing restaurants on the Apapa axis, Eric "Show Boy" Akaeze struggled to re-enact the hit songs that fetched him relative fame in the highly competitive and crowded Nigerian Highlife music scene of the 70s before he took ill and died in Lagos this month.

When I visited him last month at his Ijeshatedo, Lagos residence, he was down, but not out. Though emaciated and weak, he exhibited those stubborn traits of an artiste whose robust sense of living would not inspire to sing his swan song yet. He spoke with great effort but expressed hope that the debilitating illness would not kill him. Above all, he had turned to God for deliverance. Heroic even in illness, he had returned to the stage after his initial discharge from the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), believing that he had triumphed over the illness. Maxwell Hotel, his favourite haunt on Olodi-Apapa where he played every Sunday, welcomed him back. His fans, many of whom were too young when in the 70s he composed such hit singles as Salute Mama, Salute Papa, We Dey Find Money, Ije Nwane Me Nwanne , Adanma, Akalaka and Ayolo, were glad to have him entertain them again. But he was already retreating, and suggested as much when he fainted on stage during a session. He could no longer withstand the rigours of stage performance. He had cut off his appearances at Taged Bar and Restaurant on Kofo Abayomi Street, Apapa, but he had managed to rehearse occasionally at Olatuga Jolly Hotel. And as he had revealed, he had even recorded some songs, most of them with Christian lyrics. He was working on a duet with his younger brother, George Akaeze who he described as a saxophonist.

Read the full article at allafrica.com

Tracklist

01. Umu Ani Oma
02. Ebe Oji Si Tentite
03. Akpulu Nwa Obi
04. Kelelele

Fela Kuti - Live In Amsterdam (1984)

2011-10-25T14:59:00.003+02:00

I remember walking around the city of Amsterdam as a 13 year old boy. There were flyers hanging all over town advertising the concert in Paradiso of a musician I had never heard of before. For some reason the image of the muscular torso, the saxophone and the look in his eyes stayed with me. I later read a review in the newspaper of the concert that the flyers advertised and several months later the album "Live in Amsterdam" was in my possession. Now, nearly 25 years later, I own the remastered version of the concert and it's still one of my favourite Fela Kuti albums.

"Movement of the People Political Statement Number One" is one of Fela's longest and most interesting compositions. The original LP version had to be cut in half, as it didn't fit on one side! After Tony Allen left his band, Fela's music became more keyboard oriented. This song starts out with a militaristic rhythm from Fela's organ. In due time, bass, drums, guitar, horns and finally vocals are added. Though very long the song contains fabulous saxophone solo's form Fela and his son Femi (who was still playing with his father's band) swirling in, out and between the replies of the horns section. The subject of the song is Africa's colonial history and the traditional African `call and answer' with Fela's wives, who acted as back-up singers, gives the song the power of an anthem. Fela incorporates his "underground spiritual game" in the form of a traditional African song into this composition. And it swings like hell!

"Gimme **** I give you ****" takes a trip towards the jazzy side of Afrobeat. Fela's rare use of the piano and comical satirical lyrics make in another highlight in the Egypt 80 collection.

"Custom Check Point", a song about the division of countries in Africa, is an unusual song for Fela. A very intense pace, danceable to the extreme and an oriental sounding keyboard solo towards the end of the song make it another unique gem.

My conclusion: This album is a must for any fan of Fela Kuti. A crystal clear remastering of his most comprehensive set of live songs. There's a little booklet with the CD with a sketch of Fela's life and explanations of the songs. It might take some time to get used to if you're new to Afrobeat's long compositions. If you enjoy this album I would also recommend Army Arrangement and Teacher don't Teach me Nonsense.

Julio Punch

--

Recorded by British dub specialist Dennis Bovell at Amsterdam's Paradiso on 28 November, 1983, Live In Amsterdam has also been available as Musik Is The Weapon. It was first released as a double LP: the first track alone, "M.O.P. Movement Of The People (Political Statement Number 1)," its title taken from the name of Kuti's political party, clocks in at over 37 minutes. The three tracks deal with the debilitating legacy of colonialism, and the post-colonial mindsets of governing elites, in Nigeria and throughout Africa,

The Egypt 80 lineup is rocking and powerful, tightly arranged and includes some fine soloists. The horn section, expanded to seven players, is anchored by two baritone saxophonists (Kola Oni joined Lekan Animashaun, who'd been with Kuti since 1965) and also includes Kuti's son, Femi, on alto. Fela himself is heard on soprano, the instrument he'd been obliged to take up in place of the heavier tenor following the beating referenced on Original Sufferhead. There are also two keyboard players: Kuti, mostly heard on organ, is accompanied by rhythm pianist Dele Sosimi. Drummer Ola Ijagun (mistakenly identified as a conga player on some previous editions of the album) is a more than competent replacement for Afrika 70's Tony Allen, who was with Kuti from 1964-79, from whose trademark rhythms he rarely strays.

Live In Amsterdam was mixed by Kuti and Bovell in London. The sound is excellent and Bovell's presence assured plenty of bottom.

Read the full article at allaboutjazz.

--

"Live in Amsterdam" is one of Fela's best albums with Egypt 80. Unlike most titles in the MCA reissue series, this one is not two albums on one CD, but is instead three songs and nearly 80 minutes of music from a November 28, 1983 concert in Amsterdam. While some of Fela's material with Egypt 80 can be too keyboard driven for my tastes, here the band grooves like classic Afrika 70 -- multi-layered percussion, funky rhythms and intricate horn play. This is not only one of Fela's best live albums (I prefer it easily to "VIP" -- see my review), but I would rank it along with "Original Sufferhead" and "Beasts of No Nation" as his best efforts from the 1980s. Of course, all of the Fela reissues are really indispensable, and you should get them while you can.

Michael B. Richman

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Live In Amsterdam (1984)

M.O.P(Movement Of The People) Political Statement Number 1

Despite the diabolic manner in which the military regime, in their transition to civil rule programme, eliminated young political movements from contesting the 1979 general elections in Nigeria, Fela continued the struggle in the name of his unregistered party—the Movement Of The People (MOP). He made political statements critical of the military and their civilian successors. Movement Of The People Political Statement 1 is one such stated opinion. In his habitual sarcastic manner, Fela starts the song saying: “Before they turn us into monkey with tail Let us hear some important things! That our governments is hiding from us—we will expose them” Delving into some history, he says: “..we have to talk about long time ago”, referring to the history of Eko (Lagos), before the arrival of the British colonial administration. How the British used their ‘divide and rule’ tactics to gain a foot-hold in the coastal regions, thus paving the way for their eventual colonization of the entire country. Thus came the so-called ‘trading’ companies: United Trading Company(UAC), John Holt Company, etc., whose sole interest were to exploit the African people and their natural resources. To ensure their absolute control, the British like all other colonialist, started to recruit some of the natives into their forces. Thus began the military and police institutions, who were trained to brutalize and suppress all forms of decent and oppositions. Unlike the United States, where the military institution provides poor families the possibility of an education, those who took up military careers in colonial times England were mostly ‘never do wells’, students whose school grades were below the average mark. These are the quality of me that made up the colonial forces. Fela reminds his listener that before the arrival of colonial administration, there were no police and army institutions in the African society. Whenever there was war, all the able bodied men and sometimes women volunteered to defend the nation while the wars lasts. As soon as the war is over, the warring men and women, went back to their respective jobs. This is unlike the institutions created by the colonial administration – with soldiers and police gallivanting around, doing the dirty works of their employers. The colonial administration started the police college and army schools to brainwash their new recruits, condemning the authentic traditions of the people, as savage and encouraging them to look up to the culture of the colonizers as superior. Fela says we should ask ourselves what is government? For him, government and the governed should have a father-son relationship, with mutual love and concern for the welfare of both parties, as their main focus. However, in Africa, there is no father-son relationship between the government and the governed. Instead what we have, are men who like to lord it over the masses. Hence, when such government officials appear in public places, they are surrounded by their police and army. For Fela, this is an alienation. In conclusion, he says if those in government think first of the welfare of their c citizens, they won’t need all that security to move around among their own people.

You Give Me Shit I Give You Shit

In this song Fela is addressing Africans and the Diaspora to stop playing ‘the second fiddle in life’. Using a discussion between him and a European businessman to make his point he says: ‘hear the discussion between European and myself..!’ saying the European is attempting to show how important and well connected his is in Africa, and talks of having so many companies with a lot of black people working for him. How this European claims to be a friend of all African heads of state, how he was at a dinner last night with the president of Nigeria. To make the European tell more, Fela says he offered the man the last ‘joint’ marijuana in his pocket, which further let-loose the European’s tongue. After his long narrative, Fela decides to ask if in Europe and America, any black man could have the same opportunity as he does in Africa: ‘If black people own companies in Europe like he does in Africa? If black people can easily be invited to dinner with any European leader—just like that? He points to ‘negritude’ and colonial mentality as the cause of African inferiority complex. For Fela, there is a problem of leadership in Africa as Africans don’t like to do things for their own folks. He says he feels vexed that Africans in the twentieth century are still slaves of the system. For him it is time to stand firm: ‘anybody that gives us shit will get shit’.

Custom Check Point

In 1884-1885, colonial powers met in Berlin to divide and share Africa among themselves. With this Balkanization, artificial borders were created to separate African people. With independence, most of the nations still respect and adhere to the frontiers created from colonial times. Custom Check Point is Fela’s criticism of the system that still respects these artificial boundaries separating African people. Tracing the cultural, linguistic and traditional unity of Africa people to an origin of one motherhood. Fela describes the men of customs and excise as human who have been put in place to do the dirty works of those who want to keep Africans apart. He advises them to pack-up and allow our people to travel freely among sister nations. Cut down the barriers! Custom she kia kia kia! He asks them to hurry-up and get out of the way.

Written by Mabinuori Kayode Idowu

Smahila & The S.B.'s (download)

2011-10-22T20:23:00.005+02:00

Information on Smahila and the S.B.’s is D.B. Cooper-scarce. Save for a few entries on Discogs.com, and a paragraph or two gleaned elsewhere, my knowledge about the group is essentially limited to: they’re a Nigerian afro-beat band with a Fela Kuti fixation, who released the sublime African Movement/Natural Points in 1977, on British imprint, RAS (Rogers All Stars (Nigeria) Ltd.).

Few groups managed to appropriate Fela with such funk or fidelity–this might be the best 18-minutes of movement ever.

Tracklist

01. African Movement 18:50
02. Natural Points 17:59

From Chile: Newen Afrobeat

2011-10-21T11:50:00.003+02:00

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by Tomás Pavez, a member of the Chilean Afrobeat ensemble "Newen Afrobeat" who interestingly mentioned his interest in Afrobeat in general and especially in South America. Moreover, gave me some information about his own Afrobeat band.

"Newen" is a mapudungun - the Mapuche language is a language isolate spoken in south-central Chile and west central Argentina by the Mapuche people - word from the Mapuches that means "Strength", the Mapuches are the originary tribe before this land was colonized into a country by Spain.

To introduce you to his band, here are a couple of songs to listen:

For further information and to get in contact, check out their facebook profile here.

From Ghana: De Frank Professionals

2011-10-20T13:24:00.003+02:00

There is no doubt though that De Frank was the one who marked the era, and above all, created a new trend. Born De Frank Kakrah in 1953 in Lomé, a border town between Togo and Ghana, he started out in music as a percussionist, but later moved on to drums and eventually became a singer. Difficulties in keeping a consistent line-up together meant that De Frank passed from one group to another until in 1976 he formed The Professionals. At that time all the kids in Ghana were influenced by Fela Kuti, Wilson Pickett, Willie Bobo and the musicians who had played at the memorable Soul to Soul. De Frank followed suit, but added more of a disco style to his sound and his attire, which, with his kung fu shoes and number-52 flares, turned him into a west-African version of Simon El Africano. Endorsed by the DJs of Accra, who saw him as just right for the time, he had several hits, especially his album Psychedelic Man.

analogafrica.blogspot.com

Tracklist

01. Afe Ato Yen Bio
02. Yare Ye Ya
03. Sometimes We Love
04. We Can Take Time
05. Onipa Be Yee Bi
06. Medley

The Actions a.k.a. Aktion - Groove the funk (download)

2011-10-18T16:36:00.004+02:00

Aktion (sometimes known amongst fans as "The Actions") was an Eastern band based in Warri. Lemmy Faith was the group's leader and other members included Renny Pearl, Essien Akpabio and respected drummer Ben Alaka (who, curiously, is credited as a "guest" on this album).

An earlier incarnation of the band--under the name Action 13--released two singles in 1973: "Active Action" and "More Bread To The People".

Like you mentioned, Aktion, Action and Aktion 13 as known in some cases was a Warri-based band that played gigs all around the Eastside. Originally, the band was initiated in Calabar by the duo of Essien Akpabio and Lemmy Faith.

The band was resident at then famous spot in Warri called Lido Night Club and Restaurant where they entertained civil servants and off duty officers during happy hours known as "Afternoon Jump." During the festivities (Christmas and New Year holidays), the group embarked on a road trip playing gigs at college campuses, community centers and local villages to entertain Eastside students who were home for the holidays.

And of course, Ben Alaka who was the best drummer of that era was an in-session man but played more for Aktion when they were resident at Lido for the "Afternoon Jump" jam sessions. The band's early years between 1976 and 1978 was a blast which catapulted the group to the top during the 70s hippie era.

However, the band's success was shortlived when music of the era crossed over and the inability of band leader Lemmy Faith to compete with bands from the West resulting to music fans relocating to the West in search for better lives, and in some cases, academic pursuits elsewhere.

Ben Alaka still lives in Warri while Essien Akpabio relocated to his home base of Calabar. Lemmy Faith, I think, and as of the last time I heard about him was still producing.

Information found on the amazing blog combandrazor.blogspot.com ... thanx!!

Tracklist

SIDE 1
1. Groove the Funk
2. Sugar Daddy
3. I Don't Have to Cry
4. My Baby

SIDE 2
1. I've Got To Hope For Tomorrow
2. Masquerade
3. I'm in Love
4. Tell Me Baby
5. Play With Me

The album was published as part of the world wide record day 2010 as part of the collection of record diggers publishing rare and obscure music at the forum of amazing record label soulstrut!!!

Original Wings - Change This World

2011-10-18T09:59:00.003+02:00

The Wings were the preeminent band in early 70s southeastern Nigeria, a devastated and demoralized region whose short stint as the sovereign Republic of Biafra had recently been brought to an abrupt halt by the events of the Nigerian civil war (which we will not get into here). Out of this bleak climate a plethora of rock bands emerged, mostly for the purpose of entertaining the occupying federal Nigerian troops, who were just about the only people who had money to spend on recreation.

The Wings, however, had a much farther-reaching appeal, thanks largely to the enormous charisma of heartthrob frontman Spud Nathan (nee Jonathan Udensi), who led the group through such romantic hits as "Kissing You So Hard," "Gone With the Sun" and "Single Boy" and the song featured here, "If You Don't Love Me Girl."

The Wings story took a tragic turn in 1974 when Nathan - while riding to a gig in a car driven by guitarist Manford Best - was killed in an accident on the infamous Njaba Bridge in Imo State. (A decade later, another car crash on that same bridge would claim the life of ex-Funkees and Osibisa guitarist Jake Sollo.)

Nathan's death catapulted The Wings into a tailspin. Most of the band (and their fans) blamed Best for the accident since he had been behind the wheel. Also, he had allegedly had sex with a groupie in the brand new car before it had the chance to be properly "blessed," which was considered to be some bad, bad juju. To add insult to injury, while the rest of the band wanted to go on a yearlong hiatus to mourn Spud, Best insisted that The Wings resume activity immediately with him in the lead singer spot. Eventually, the band went on hiatus for two years while Best broke away and formed Super Wings to relatively little success, due to fan resentment over his role in Spud's death.

After two years of absence, the surviving Wings returned as Original Wings (a.k.a. Wings Original) with the smash hit Tribute to Spud Nathan album. (Inspired by this success, Super Wings immediately released their own Spud Nathan tribute album, and were greeted mostly with groans.) The Spud Nathan dedication featured here, however, is taken from the album Change This World.

Information found on the amazing blog combandrazor.blogspot.com ... thanx!!

Tracklist

01. Help Me Mama
02. Ballad Of A Late Hero
03. Your Obedient Child
04. Loving You
05. Live In Peace
06. Igba Alusi
07. Call You Back Again
08. Change This World

The Lijadu Sisters - Danger

2011-10-14T12:37:00.003+02:00

In 1970s Nigeria, only a tiny handful of female artists broke through the backing singer/dancer ceiling to become stars in their own right, particularly if they wrote their own material -- And Fela cousins The Lijadu sisters did just that. Their repertoire ranged from love songs and dance anthems to philosophy and political/social commentary. “The music business was hard for women in Nigeria,” says Taiwo Lijadu. “Back then, they didn’t think women had brains.”

Twins Taiwo and Kehinde were born in Jos, in northern Nigeria, on October 22, 1948. They enjoyed singing from an early age, encouraged by their mother, who bought them records by a wide range local and overseas of artists. Kehinde and Taiwo remember with special fondness discs by Aretha Franklin, Miriam Makeba, Ray Charles and, later, Fela Kuti (who, like the Nobel Prize winning writer and political activist Wole Soyinka, was their second cousin).

The Lijadu Sisters began working as session singers, but solid-gold talent and determination – and, no doubt, the twins’ extraordinary physical beauty - soon led to their first own-name release, “Iya Mi Jowo” (“mother please”), which came out on Nigerian Decca in 1968. The song was written by Taiwo in 1965 and the story behind it is included in the notes for the album Mother Africa, for which the sisters rerecorded it.

In 1971, the sisters met the British drummer Ginger Baker (Cream, Blind Faith, Airplane), who in the first half of the 1970s was a frequent visitor to Nigeria, where he recorded and performed with Kuti and his band, Africa 70. In 1972, the Lijadu Sisters performed with Baker’s band at the cultural festival accompanying the Munich Olympics in Germany. For a while, Taiwo and Baker were an item. Another fortuitous male encounter was with the multi-instrumentalist Biddy Wright. Wright’s mother was a close friend of the sisters’ mother, through whom the three met. Sadly no longer with us, Wright co-arranged and played on all four of the classic 1970s Lijadu Sisters albums released on Decca’s Afrodisia imprint, which are now being re-released by Knitting Factory Records – Danger (1976), Mother Africa (1977), Sunshine (1978) and Horizon Unlimited (1979).

In 1988, they visited the US with Sunny Ade, and performed under their own name with Ade’s band, winning an enthusiastic review in The New York Times. By the end of the decade, things were looking good for the Lijadu Sisters in the US, and after the Ade concerts they stayed in the country while their green card applications went through.

Then disaster struck. Kehinde suffered dreadful spinal injuries in a fall in the hallway of the twins’ Brooklyn apartment building (they lived on the first floor). “The first doctor who saw me gave me six months to live,” says Kehinde. “Then they said I would never walk again. But I said to myself, ‘I will be strong, I will not give up, I owe it to my family.’” The accident threatened to finish the Lijadu Sisters’ career, and it kept them out of the public eye until 2011, when Knitting Factory’s reissue program began. While Kehinde was recovering, the twins withdrew completely from the limelight. Inevitably, rumors about their wellbeing and whereabouts abounded. Some people thought they had died, others that they had married rich Americans and retired into lives of luxurious obscurity. There were several other tales. Everyone missed them terribly. Kehinde eventually overcame her injuries, but it took many years, and she still suffers its effects. “I am walking, even dancing again now,” she says. “But I cannot sit down for more than two hours at a time, and I cannot fly any distance at all.” During Kehinde’s recovery, the sisters’ were sustained by their embrace of the traditional Yoruba belief system Ifa (which has a divination strand of arcane complexity and infinite nuance), and their study of the use of herbs in healing. “Our mother taught us that unless we had something to promote, it was best not to do interviews,” says Taiwo. “Save it for when you have something to talk about. And we have not spoken for a long time. But the Knitting Factory program means we have something to talk about once more. We are back, and we are going to perform again.” Adds Kehinde,“It is decades since we have performed publicly, but now we are ready - and the music will be of today! We thank our fans for remembering us, and we want them to know why we have been silent. We love them very much.”

In 2011, Kehinde and Taiwo, inseparable since birth, share an apartment in Harlem, NYC. It is wonderful to have them back.

felaonbroadway.com

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The Lijadu Sisters’ Afrodisia debut, 1976’s Danger, is as funky and mellifluous as it gets, the twins’ gorgeous harmonies underpinned by a solid Afro-rock beat and framed by Wright’s funky organ and guitar work. Danger has a vibe of uplifting positivity which would be a feature of all four of the Lijadu Sisters’ Afrodisia albums.

Lyrically, most of the songs address social and political issues, sometimes directly, sometimes through metaphor and allusion. The uptempo opener, “Danger,” is on one level about a “dangerous lover.” But in the wider context of the times – with the police and army’s abuses of power running rampant and otherwise unchecked (Fela Kuti’s eviscerating Zombie was also released in 1976) – it captures life on the edge in contemporary Nigeria.

“Danger” has a bridge which is almost identical to the one used by Jamaican artists Althea & Donna on “Uptown Top Ranking” and Trinity on “Three Piece Suit.” Intriguingly, both these records were released a year after “Danger.” Kehinde and Taiwo put it down to something that was in the air at the time. That said, it remains a remarkable coincidence.

In Yoruba, “Amebo,” which follows, literally means “someone who gossips.” The twins here extend the word to mean they are watching the powers that be – “your office of power” and “the work you have done” – and will not be afraid to speak up about wrongdoing and incompetence.

They do just that on “Cashing In,” which addresses the complacency and corruption of the Nigerian ruling elite in general, and in particular the then-recent revelation that government ministers were flying prostitutes into the country at the tax payers’ expense. Such people are cashing in, sing Taiwo and Kehinde in the refrain, while “poverty’s a common sight.”

The slow and mournful “Lord Have Mercy,” which closes the album, returns, heartbreakingly, to the idea of poverty amidst national economic wealth. It tells the story of a boy the twins saw “dying on the street…children starving; mama’s dead, poppa’s gone; life is wasted; Lord, have mercy; Lord, hear me crying.” In fact, this particular child was taken in by a concerned passer by – but the lyric doesn’t reveal that, because Kehinde and Taiwo realised a happy ending would let listeners off the hook.

The remaining tracks, “Life’s Gone Down” and “Bobby,” are respectively an example of the Lijadu Sisters’ signature positivity (“it’s not too late, if we hurry; people get together, life’s gonna get good”), and a rock-steady infused love song.

knittingfactoryrecords.com

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Knitting Factory Records - home to all things Fela Kuti, natch - is set to re-release of four long out-of-print albums by Nigerian twins the Lijadu Sisters, Taiwo and Kehinde. The sisters, cousins of Fela, were a rarity in Nigeria. Not only were they female in an industry dominated by male artists but they wrote their own material, which was often political and always topical. Recorded at the famed Decca studios in Lagos, Nigeria, the hotbed of the Nigerian music scene at that time, the albums combine Afrobeat, Western and UK pop music and reggae, with the sisters singing in both English and Yoruba.

The releases are as follows:

Danger (1976) - November 8, 2011
Mother Africa (1977) - 1st quarter 2012
Sunshine (1978) - 2nd quarter 2012
Horizon Unlimited (1979) - 3rd quarter 2012

Long out of print and prized by collectors, these albums have never before been available on CD or digitally; they'll also be available on vinyl and all formats will include the original artwork. Remastered from recordings taken off the original vinyl LPs (the tapes have long been lost), these recordings sound as urgent and timely today as they did set against the turbulent scene of Nigeria in the '70s.

The series will kick off with Danger on November 8, 2011; the Lijadu Sisters' first release on the Afrodisia label. Danger is as funky and mellifluous as it gets, with the twins' gorgeous harmonies underpinned by a solid Afro-rock beat and framed by multi-instrumentalist Biddy Wright's funky organ and guitar work. Danger has a vibe of uplifting positivity which would be a feature of all four of the Lijadu Sisters' Afrodisia albums.

Lyrically, most of the songs address social and political issues, sometimes directly, sometimes through metaphor and allusion. "Danger," the uptempo opener and title track, is on one level about a "dangerous lover." But in the wider context of the times - with the police and army's abuses of power running rampant and otherwise unchecked (Fela Kuti's eviscerating Zombie was also released in 1976) - it serves as a glimpse of life on the edge in Nigeria during those turbulent political years.

The reason the Lijadu Sisters aren't well known today, except by collectors, is that Kehinde, while the duo was touring North America with King Sunny Ade in 1980, suffered a severe spinal injury that has kept them out of the public eye until now. They're living in NYC and have been very hands on with the project, working with Knitting Factory Records to make these albums available again. The sisters are also planning select shows timed around these releases; stay tuned for updates.

The Lijadu Sisters were featured in Konkombé, British director Jeremy Marre's 1979 film on the Nigerian pop scene and were a hit in the '80s on the UK television show, The Tube. Check out this clip of The Lijadu Sisters at Decca Studio in Lagos in the '70s:

blurt-online.com

Tracklist

01. Danger
02. Amebo
03. Life’s Gone Down Low
04. Cashing In
05. Bobby
06. Lord Have Mercy

Classica Orchestra Afrobeat - Shrine On You

2011-10-13T14:40:00.004+02:00

Fela Kuti used to call his afrobeat “african classical music”. The earthy funky black sound of the african political rebel is now also heard in the voice of european classical instruments. As in a mirror, the black and the white fuse opposites and shine anew. Shrine on you, Fela!

"Shrine on you" is a beloved hommage to Fela Kuti, the greatest african musical genius and political rebel of recent history, played by a chamber orchestra, formed by 11 classical and jazz musicians. Afrobeat, the politically revolutionary music Fela created, from the late '60's, blending western-african polyrhythms and chants with american funk and jazz, is alligning now to european classical music. Baroque resonances and the original arrangments by the Orchestra don't miss out the powerful and hypnotic boost of percussions and a good taste of improvisation, thanks to some extraordinary soloists. As in a round-trip travel, the syncretic cultures exchange gain a sense of redemption and joyful ceremony. While Afrobeat fever spreads worldwide, also through the Broadway musical FELA!, the countless happenings all over the continents and the many efforts to restore the pioneristic work of the nigerian genius, italian answer to the call couldn't be other than the Classica Orchestra Afrobeat.

Classica Orchestra Afrobeat

Tracklist

1. No Agreement
2. Mr. Follow Follow (feat. Kologbo)
3. Shenshema
4. Go Slow
5. Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am
6. Zombie (feat. Seun Kuti)
7. Tocata Per B Quadro
8. Observation Is No Crime
9. Water No Get Enemy

No Agreement by classicafrobeat

Zambian fuzz rock: The Witch - Lazy Bones

2011-10-12T11:02:00.002+02:00

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.

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.

The European and North American compilers that had, say, fallen in love with the wonders of Nigeria’s 70s scene via an introduction by Afro-Beat maestro Fela Kuti and decided to journey to Lagos to investigate further never even bothered to visit Zambia. Perhaps this is because even the largest of the 70s Zambian recording artists made any impact on the global scale. (Prior to reading this, had you heard of Paul Ngozi or his innovative Kalindua, Zambia’s equivalent of Afro-Beat?) Before 2000 – and infrequently since then – few Europeans or North Americans outside of university-funded ethnomusicologists more interested in the country’s folk musics than its pop culture even journeyed to this country in search of a the progenitors of the Zam Rock scene. And, when they did, the markers were few. Only a small number of the original Zam Rock godfathers that remained in the country survived through the late 90s, when the music recorded in Zambia became the next frontier for those global-psychedelic rock junkies searching for the next fix.

Now-Again, in conjunction with Zam Rock pioneer Rikki Ililonga, has licensed the WITCH repertoire from the ensemble’s last surviving member, Emmanuel Jagari Canda, and the Amanaz Africa album from the band’s Keith Kabwe and Issac Mpofu. Vinyl issues of WITCH’s Introduction and Lazy Bones and Amanaz’s Africa are out on Shadoks; CD issues licensed from Now-Again are planned for early 2010. In early 2010, Now-Again will present a Rikki Ililonga anthology. Plans are in the works for a proper WITCH anthology and a Zam Rock compilation.

Now Again Records

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Lazy Bones!! is the recently reissued third album by the Zambian psych-funk quintet WITCH (“We Intend To Cause Havoc”), and it may be best described as marginal, in dual senses of the word. At times, the record just passes the threshold of technical competence. But to call Lazy Bones!! marginal is not to denigrate it. It’s not lack of quality so much as the collection’s position on the periphery of several styles — and of a 70s “Zam-rock” scene that itself occupies a small corner of the niche African record collectors’ market — that ultimately makes “marginal” such a tidy, if reductionist, summation.

WITCH’s sound bears strong influences of both funk and Anglophilic psychedelic rock, but it doesn’t sit comfortably in either style. Seldom do WITCH’s songs — often grooves, really — approximate the sunshine pop- or blues-appropriation of the Sonics or early Beefheart. Instead, they occupy some wah-wah nether-region between Jimi Hendrix’s rock stomps and the J.B.’s’ syncopated loops. Yet with a combination of fuzz guitar, Emmanuel Jagari Chanda’s often stilted, English-language vocals, and thin-sounding, lo-fi guitar and drums, WITCH often achieve an aural effect that does hearken to Nuggets-style psych-tinged garage rock.

Somewhat ironically, given the likely source material for the reissue and technical constraints of recording in 1970s Zambia (where any such capacity was a luxury), much that’s appealing about WITCH is actually surface level — primarily, Chris Mbewe’s searing leads and the gritty marriage of fuzz with off-kilter bass and drums. WITCH are at their best on such tracks as “Strange Dream” — with its wah-wah backdrop and slinky, crisp acoustic guitar-driven groove — and the rhythmically agile “Black Tears,” which begins as eerie, plodding psych-folk but quickly kick-starts into a blistering assault of knees-on-stage guitar soloing. It’s when the group veers closer to pop and straight-ahead funk material — as on “Look Out,” “Off Ma Boots” and the title track — that deeper, nagging deficiencies emerge. The melodies are forgettable if not slightly grating, and they get little help from lead singer Chanda, whose nasal delivery doesn’t have enough gravel or swagger to match his band (when it isn’t overwhelming him) but does have occasional problems with pitch.

It’s hard to argue with crate-digger DJ and reissues extraordinaire Egon — who helped coordinate the CD release of Lazy Bones!! and wrote its new liner notes — when he says these are good times for new old African funk releases. Still, few recordings from Zambia’s first full decade of independence from British colonial rule have managed to surface among western collectors (or on their obscurantist music blogs). Fortunately, there are now at least enough such time capsules to give Lazy Bones!! a whiff of context. Those looking for something like Afro-beat in Zambia should look to Paul Ngozi, and a more compelling introduction to Zam-rock can be found in the bass-heavy trances of Amanaz or the blissed-out, almost southern-American roots rock of the Peace.

dustedmagazine.com, written by Benjamin Ewing

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When I first saw that Witch had a new album out, I was pretty stoked. Witch is the stoner metal off-shoot of Dinosaur Jr., and I’m a sucker for both stoner metal and Dinosaur Jr. What I discovered is that Witch is ALSO a Zambian rock quintet from the ‘70s. So, instead of the outsized retro-riffing of J Mascis’s band, I got something that sounded truly retro: bare-bones psych-rock with a slight Afrikaans inflection, mastered so flatly that you’ll be fiddling with the volume seconds into the first track.

It was a nice surprise, to say the least. Lazy Bones!! is the sound of five talented Africans playing their own Woodstock in someone’s cramped basement. Whereas Witch’s Western counterparts paid professional to smooth over their rough spots, though, it’s exactly these rough spots that make Witch special (their name is, according to the press notes, an acronym of “We Intend to Cause Havoc”). The mic often blows out, as if the limited recording equipment could barely contain the performance. It lends even funk cracklers like “Look Out” some proto-punk urgency while enhancing the making the melancholic “Black Tears” resonate like a warfront diary entry. This scruffiness notwithstanding, though, Lazy Bones!! is still perhaps too subdued and reverent to stand outside of time. But it’s hardly a mere curiosity either, and as a fun wah-wah-and-fuzz-guitar trip, it’s solid gold.

popmatters.com, written by Benjamin Aspray

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WITCH were a Zam Rock band active in the mid-Seventies, when the troubled Republic of Zambia saw a thriving rock scene that included Musi-O-Tunya, Amanaz, and Peace. Their records were originally released on a small label, and had been out of print and incredibly rare for decades. In 2007, Stones Throw general manager and Now Again Records owner Egon came across a Myspace page by Zam Rock pioneer Rikki Ililonga. Egon and Ililonga began corresponding, which led to Ililonga getting Egon in touch with WITCH vocalist Emmanuel Jaguri Chanda. Chanda was more than happy to see his records in print again, and the result was a reissue of WITCH's "Introduction" and "Lazy Bones!!"

"Lazy Bones!!" doesn't get off to a promising start. The sound quality isn't great. The record seems to be mastered from a scratchy vinyl copy, and the sound is muddy and full of imperfections. Lead track "Black Tears" is a clumsy, lumbering song. It begins with a turgid opening, and when the band starts to cook at the minute-thirty mark it just serves to highlight Chanda's amateurish vocals. At their worst, like on "Black Tears," WITCH sound like a high school garage band playing a facsimile of rock music with more enthusiasm than talent. After listening to "Black Tears" I was almost ready to write WITCH off.

I kept with the album, though, and happily discovered that "Black Tears" is a misleading false start, the weakest track on the album. Things immediately pick up on "Motherless Child." The band coalesces into a strong groove. Drummer Boidi Sinkala hammers his set like Black Sabbath's Bill Ward or Jimi Hendrix drummer Mitch Mitchell. Bassist Gedeon Mulenga completes the rock solid rhythm section, while guitarist John Muma lays on the fuzz guitar and wawa, complimented by Chris Mbewe's lead. All the musicians are excellent, and provide some wicked if occasionally sloppy grooves. Even Chanda's thin voice sounds better on the rest of the album, his earnestness compensating for his lack of polish.

Musically, WITCH combine the heaviness of Black Sabbath and Cream with the playful psychedelic elements of early Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, or the Creation. "Motherless Child" and "Off Ma Boots" sound like Southern rock, while "Tooth Factory" and "Havoc" are heavy acid rock. "Little Clown" and "Lazy Bones" could have been recorded by a San Francisco band in 1967.

While the horns, polyrythms, and indigenous instruments typical of African music aren't present, WITCH do add a slight African twist to Western rock. It's subtle, but like Chanda's South African accent, definitely present. This is especially true with the lyrics. On the surface, they tackle standard sixties material like psychedelic trips ("Strange Dream," "Off Ma Boots"), or calls for peace and understanding ("Havoc"). However, its all informed by their experience living in the Republic of Zambia during an uncertain time. The turmoil they were describing were very close and real for the members of WITCH. As a result, "Lazy Bones!!" feels realer and rawer than most of the Western rock from the same era.

Despite the dodgy recording, muddy sound, and Chanda's iffy singing voice, "Lazy Bones!!" is an incredible album. It's trippy, it's rocking, and it has moments of fierceness matched with moments of beauty. There are hooks galore, and the lyrics go a shade deeper than most acid rock I've come across. "Lazy Bones!!" is highly recommended for anyone who wants to explore a side of African music not often heard, or who just wants to rock out. This album is an uncovered gem, and a ray of warm sunshine during this cold winter.

Patrick Taylor

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Tracklist

1. Black Tears
2. Motherless Child
3. Tooth Factory
4. Strange Dream
5. Look Out
6. Havoc
7. October Night
8. Off Ma Boots
9. Lazy Bones
10. Little Clown

Pidgin Band - The Breaks

2011-10-11T14:32:00.007+02:00

Pidgin band is an nine-membered wall of sound hailing from the thriving music scene on norman ok. Showcasing literacy in genres such as afrobeat, fuzz funk, and psychedelia. They collage these influences along with others into their very own sonic pidgin language. Coming out of the norman festival and an ep release with a head full of steam, the year old band's rowers show no signs of slowing and only they know where they are going.

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Pidgin is defined as a mixing of two languages. In Hawaii they have a mixed language that they speak, as well as in New Orleans (creole). Nigeria uses a form of english that is known as "Pidgin English" or "Broken English". When the group first started playing together, the variety of styles was immediately present. Try as they might to stick to traditional afrobeat styles, they soon 'let go of the reigns' and let Pidgin Band explore the unknown. So with this mixture of styles rooted in afrobeat, Pidgin Band was able to hit the streets.

After a plethora of shows, a small tour, and a live video shoot, the band has settled into a unique sounding group with its roots in afrobeat but carrying on much further. You can expect madness at a Pidgin Band show, a rhythm section that chugs like a speeding locomotive, and a guitar section that is able to switch from cog in the machine to psychedelic bliss in a heartbeat. Horns that rip through, and a low end that will shake your precious whiskey & coke.

PidginBand

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Pidgin Band @ Soundcloud:

Orange Line After 9 by Pidgin Band

Doja by Pidgin Band

Pidgin Band @ mySpace

Pidgin Band @ Facebook

Pidgin Band Homepage

Tracklist

1. Company Man
2. St. Pterodacyl
3. Doja
4. Orange Line After 9
5. The Ballad of Gus
6. The Itis
7. The Ugly

The disc is available at cdbaby.com!

Big John Oaikhena – Segregation

2011-10-10T17:15:00.003+02:00

Unfortunately, I cannot find any information of this album. If anyone has any information or knowledge where to buy this album, pls contact me.

The song "Soul Generation" was published on the amazing the vinyl version of "The World Ends:Afro Rock & Psychedelia in 1970s Nigeria".

Tracklist

01. Segregation
02. Sweet Rose
03. Agbon Nakore
04. Amede Oyakhe
05. Maen Gbe Maen Mun
06. Ogienoba

From Benin: Orchestre Renova Band d'Abomey - Dada Segbo (download)

2011-10-07T10:02:00.006+02:00

Renova-Band (or Renova Band, depending on the release) were part of the 60s scene in Dahomey, a country that became independent in 1960 and changed its name to Benin in 1975. Together with Super Star de Ouidah and Orchestre Picoby-Band among others, Renova-Band formed the first generation of modern music bands in Dahomey, mixing new genres like rumba, cha-cha-cha, salsa and jerk with traditional/local elements.

One of the peculiarities of the band was their female vocalist. Born in 1938, Sophie Aguidigbadja, better known as Edia Sophie, decided she would be a singer around 1965 after hearing a song by Renova-Band. She liked the song so much that she got in touch with one of their members, Nestor Hountondji. After some discussions between the musicians, Sophie joined the band and became the first modern female singer in the area, entering a world which till then was pretty much closed to female artists.

As Fortuné Sossa recently put it in La Nouvelle Tribune:

The beginnings of Edia Sophie in music goes back [sic] in 1965. She was barely 25 years old and living in Abomey. Marked by a piece of the orchestra Renova Band, performed by Nestor Hountondji, she decided to sing. She approaches him and confided in him. Most group members feel that accepting a woman in their midst, the orchestra may shatter. For memory of Dahomey (now Benin), the woman has never deigned to modern music. It is a job reserved exclusively for men. Therefore impossible to accept that a woman will cause trouble in the natural order established. But she does not lose courage. She is determined, committed as driven by a supernatural force. Two things were arming its determination. She knew she was capable of exercising the profession. She was already married with families.

With Dansi Zindjo, percussionist Renova Band, Sophie Aguidigbadja met the head of the orchestra, William Basil Cakpo. Although surprised, it repeatedly asks him the question: "Do you really sing?" The "Yes" the woman does not suffer the slightest stutter or mess. The genius of the art has bewitched his whole body. It now runs in its empty like the sap in the tree. Then the head of the Renova Band is testing. No comment! The result is obvious. Sophie Aguidigbadja can sing!

"We're going to criticize you too," warns William Basil still Cakpo by signing the official entry of the Renova Sophie Aguidigbadja Band. And the critics are not made to wait. It was indeed a curiosity. She seemed dishonorable in the eyes of public opinion. But at the same time his talent became reassuring. Far from a disgrace, it immediately brought a revolution to a system daunting.

m-u-s-i-c-c-i-t-y.blogspot.com

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Renova Band was featured post at OROGOD but the singer Edia Sophie had not been mentioned. Sophie Aguidigbadja aka Edia Sophie is the oldest modern Beninese woman singer but also the first with a modern orchestra. She decides to sing in 1965, after hearing a song sung by Nestor Hountondji with Renova Band. She met him and expressed her desire to sing. At the time, it was frowned upon for women to sing in a modern orchestra. With Dansi Zindjo, Renova's percussionist, sophie met the leader, William Basile Cakpo who intergrayes her just after hearing her distinctive voice. Sophie Edia brought a revolution in music system quite daunting because it was difficult to tell the difference between bands like Super Stars de Ouidah, Sunny Black Band or others playing all the same afro-cuban musical style. Sophie later founded her own band, Caméléon Sonore, and recorded famous "Gahounga".

orogod.blogspot.com

Thanx for the information!!!