African Scream Contest - Raw & Psychedelic Afro Sounds From Benin & Togo 70s

Reviews

In the 1970s there was no 'world music'. Benin was a Marxist republic recently born out of Dahomey and Togo was in the first decade of what would turn out to be the epic dictatorship of General Gnassingbé Eyadéma. Unless you were born in one of these countries, you’d never have got to hear the voodoo funk music that was being conjured up in what must be two of the richest cultural melting pots on the planet.

Fusion is almost as abused a term as folk. But this is what it sounds like. Pick a track. Mi Kple dogbekpo, the opener, has Cuban brass, a Congolese chorus, a psychedelic riff shaped solely for shaping. On the next one, Mi Ma Kpe Dji, the spirit is blues, but moulded by James Brown and Nigerian High Life. It's A Vanity is more soul, more sex. The band on this, as well as two other tracks, is the Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, who took the Afro sound to new levels by ensuring that even while they copied Western rhythms, there was always a fiery injection of Beninese passion or, when relevant, politics. Their big hit, Gbeti Madjro – track five here – was written during a period of turmoil and stirred up its own revolution in the local music scene.

Ouidah, on Benin's Atlantic Coast, is home to a large Brazilian community – the Agoudas, descendants of slaves who returned from Brazil at the end of the 19th century. They brought back dances and proto-samba sounds, which worked their way into the mix in the 70s.

These artists also heard French chanson, Johnny Hallyday – an icon in the West African university scene – US funk, as well as local rhythms on the radio. Out of this chaos, comparable at the time to the far more widely known Brazilian coastal music scene, came great riches. Everything, somehow, gels. Why, it's harder to fathom. Few of these musicians were trained, and all had to learn how to blast their way through out-of-tune solos and off-beat drummers. Perhaps it's the screams and the psychedelic state that holds together the random elements and disparate talents. After all, Benin is the birthplace of Vodun, as in voodoo, which was all about melting pots and losing yourself in wild traditional rhythms such as Sakpata, Sato, Agbadja, Tchenkoumé, to name only a few.

Africa Scream Contest – what a title – is the third compilation to come from Analog Africa compilation. Like the others, this disc proves that music doesn't have much truck with geopolitics. When New York slicksters thought they were at the centre of the universe - Studio 54, say – these bands were taking the coolest parts of funk, soul and disco, reinventing it and, at the same time, transforming their own music and culture. A lot of the reaction to West African blues has focused on origins and a going-back-to-roots, but the groove in Benin and Togo was far deeper and far more inventive than that.

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Roger Damawuzan

After releases by Zimbabwean 70s bands the Green Arrows and Hallelujah Chicken Run Band, the Analog Africa label now delves into the amazing history of music from 1970s Benin and Togo. This compilation highlights forgotten raw and psychedelic Afro sounds, and the well-researched liner notes tell fascinating stories to accompany the mind-blowing music. The essence of Analog Africa is clear; searching in dusty warehouses for forgotten music to keep the sound alive. Label owner & vinyl collector Samy Ben Redjeb arrived in Cotonou, Benin, "without any special expectations, just hoping to lay my hands on few good records--what I found in the process cannot really be described in words".

Like most modern music in French-speaking West African countries, the music of Benin and Togo was influenced by a few main musical currents: Cuban, Congolese and local traditional music, as well as Chanson Francaise. Additionally, the geographical location of Benin and Togo--sandwiched between Ghana and Nigeria--exposed Beninese and Togolese musicians to Highlife music.

The cultural and spiritual riches of traditional Beninese music had an immense impact on the sound of Benin's modern music. Benin is the birth place of Vodun (or, as it is known in the West, Voodoo), and some of the rhythms used during traditional rituals - Sakpata, Sato, Agbadja, Tchenkoumé and many others - were fused to Soul and Latin music as early as the mid-1960s and later to Funk. In the late '60s and early '70s rock and soul music started creeping into the region. In particular, the music of James Brown and Johnny Halladay became immensely popular with university students. It was then that the music scene in Benin really started to take off. That fusion is the essence of this compilation. The CD includes a well researched 44-page booklet & rare photographs.

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Ouinsou Corneille & Black Santiagos

If the subtitle to African Scream Contest – ‘Raw and Psychedelic Sounds from Benin and Togo 70s’ – isn’t enough to engender your curiosity, maybe the story of the label and its founder, a music-driven Tunisian-German called Samy Ben Redjeb, is. In the mid-1990s, Ben Redjeb was a diving instructor working in Senegal when an accidental exposure to a Thomas Mapfumo record triggered an epiphany. Slowly he worked his way round Africa’s record shops, but it was in Benin that he struck his gold. Financing his purchases by working as a flight attendant for an airline, African Scream Contest, the third release from Analog Africa, is the result.

There isn’t as much screaming as the title suggests – although Orchestre Poly-Rythmo’s ‘Gbeti Madjro’ comes close – but a cornucopia of Afro-trance music, taking its influences from indigenous sounds as much as American funk and psychedelia. It’s a little off-kilter in places – witness the detuned brass on Les Volcanos de la Capital’s ‘Oya Ka Jojo’ – but this is a minor gripe. This album embraces musical flux with wild vigour. Vincent Ahehehinnou’s ‘Ou C’est Lui ou C’est Moi’ is the 10-minute groove that, on the other side of the Atlantic, the mighty Temptations could only have dreamed of.

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If all compilers of classic African pop worked as hard as Samy Ben Redjeb, there would be fewer such compilations, but they’d be much better. In researching the 70s pop of Benin and Togo (mostly Benin), Ben Redjeb made multiple forays to West Africa, digging through market stalls, vintage record shops, and ultimately a scorpion infested vinyl warehouse in Cotonou to find the mother load of all-but-forgotten hits from which these 14 tracks were lovingly selected. Having made his choices, Ben Redjeb returned to track down the composers and artists (or their survivors) to secure rights and also detailed interviews, photographs and other memorabilia of the era. All this and more fills the pages of a 40+ page booklet that makes this compilation so much more than a fun and funky novelty release. This packate offers a complete introduction to a fascinating unsung chapter in the vast Afropop story.

The big picture is that by 1970 Lome and Cotonou were awash in pop music acts creating a fusion of Cuban, Congolese, and local indigenous styles. Those local styles included powerful religious traditions, such as Vodun, with their wealth of ancient rhythms, melodies, and folklore. Then came the overlay of James Brown funk, and its most consequential African offshoot, the Afrobeat sound of Fela Kuti. Throw all that together and you begin to grasp the quirky appeal of groups like Lokonon André & Les Volcans, or Orchestre Poly-Rythmo. Poly-Rhythmo and Orchestre Black Santiago were mainstays of the 24-track Satel studio in Cotonou, and they backed many popular singers of the day. All the names and details a true music nerd requires are supplied, but the real payoff is the music.

Les Volcans kick off with down-and-dirty 12/8 pump, featuring gnashing electric guitar and the fierce buzz saw vocal of Lokonon André. The late Gabo Brown lays down a raspy soul vocal over Poly-Rythmo’s sizzling Afrobeat groove pm “It’s a Vanity.” On “Gbeti Madjro,” Poly-Rythmo cranks into high gear with James Brown screams and punchy clean-toned guitar riffs tangling over a breathless shuffle beat. The James Brown vibe also shines through on the more chilled-out “Wait for Me,” by Roger Damawuzan of Lome, Togo. The most unique tracks are those that incorporate strong doses of local rhythm, like the jittery, bell-driven funk of “Vinon so Minsou” by Ouinsou Corneille & Black Santiago. This music will make you smile with its playful exuberance and unexpected creative flourishes. But rather than packaging history as retro-psychedelic-funk, and leaving things there, Africa Scream Contest comes through with the genuine story of the music and the musicians, and this puts the release in a class by itself.

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Tracklist

01.Lokonon André & Les Volcans - Mi kple Dogbekpo
02.Picoby Band D´Abomey - Mi Ma Kpe Dji
03.Gabo Brown & Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - It´s a Vanity
04.El Rego et ses commandos - Se Na Min
05.Napo de Mi Amor Et Ses Black Devil´s - Leki Santchi
06.Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Gbeti Madjro
07.Roger Damawuzan - Wait For Me
08.Ouinsou Corneille & Black Santiagos - Vinon so Minsou
09.Orchestre Super Jheevs des Paillotes - Ye Nan Lon An
10.Tidiani Kone - Djanfi Magni
11.Discafric Band - Houiou Djin Nan Zon Aklumon
12.Le Super Borgou de Parakou - Congolaise Benin Ye
13.Vincent Ahehehinnou - Ou c´est Lui Ou C´est Moi
14.Les Volcans de la Capital - Oya Ka Jojo

Funke Williams - Mr. Big Mouth

Babatunde 'Tunde' Williams was born in Nigeria, in 1943. Like Fela, his family was from Abeokuta, but his father was employed by the United Africa Company in the middle belt city of Makurdi, where Tunde was born in 1943. He attended primary school at Gboko Elementary School in the nearby town of Gboko, and later attended Katsina-Ala Middle School in the northern town of Katsina. Unbeknownst to most people, Tunde’s first instrument was percussion, and his earliest professional experience was as a conga, bongo, and traps player for various highlife bands in the early 1960s. By 1965 he was playing with the highlife band of Olu McFoy, and he later joined Atomic Eight, a highlife and copyright band from Aba in eastern Nigeria. It was in Atomic Eight that he befriended the bandleader Raymond Baba, a multi-instrumentalist who was proficient on both brass and woodwinds. Inspired by Baba’s example, Tunde switched from percussion to trumpet shortly thereafter, with Baba as his first teacher. He also cites Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis as formative influences on the instrument.

Tunde joined Fela’s Koola Lobitos as a trumpeter in late 1967, and remained with Fela through 1978, when he and several other bandmembers left the group acrimoniously following the Berlin Jazz Festival in September of that year. In Afrika 70, he was the most consistent soloist, and his trumpet improvisations graced virtually of the band’s 1970s recordings. The tracks for Mr. Big Mouth had been recorded in 1975, but by the time they were released in 1977, Fela was engaged in a bitter battle with the original label, Decca Records. As a result, many of Afrika 70’s Decca releases from 1977-8 fell through the proverbial cracks, and Mr. Big Mouth was unfortunately one of them. Although it is a great album, it was given little promotion and as a result, is known only to the most committed Afrobeat aficionados, even in Nigeria.

The music on Mr. Big Mouth is similar in feel and mood to other Afrika 70 releases from this time on Decca’s Afrodisia imprint such as Fela’s No Agreement, Stalemate, and Fear Not for Man, and Tony Allen’s No Accomodation for Lagos. The title track is typical of Afrika 70’s uptempo grooves and like much of Fela’s music the lyrics are socially-critical in tone, although unlike Fela’s songs, Tunde’s lyrics are not directed at the government. Rather, he says the title track was a commentary on “…some of the indigenous contractors at that time. The government would give these contractors money to complete a job, and instead they would take the money and surround themselves with women, fancy clothes, and flashy cars, and go around the town bragging like big shots. The jobs never got done, and many of them ended up going to jail for defrauding the government. That’s what I was singing about.” Tunde’s mid-tempo instrumental “The Beginning” (so named because it was his first piece of music to be recorded) is certainly one of the most infectious tracks to come out of Fela’s organization. The laid-back Afrobeat groove is dark and suspenseful, and one can easily hear why the song was often played during Afrika 70’s warm-up sets, as it perfectly sets the tone for a late, smoky night at the Afrika Shrine. by Michael Veal

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These four sides of classic 1970s afrobeat vinyl from Nigeria recover two great albums that might well have been lost to history. Though produced by Fela with perhaps the strongest band of his three-decade-plus career, these tracks let trumpeter Tunde Williams and baritone sax man Lekan Animashaun take the microphone while the maestro assumes the role of sideman. Tunde Williams' "Mr Big Mouth" slinks in with the familiar, restless sizzle of hi-hat and feathery funk of strummed electric guitar building to a tuneful blare of horns. Williams can't match Fela's bluster at the mic, but he's got an edge of his own as he slams the corruption of Lagos contractors. The vocal is memorable, but it's the spot-on music and arranging that makes this grade-A afrobeat. William's B-Side, "The Beginning," is a slow and moody instrumental, contrasting lush brass section passages with an eloquent trumpet solo. Williams was truly one of the most talented soloists Fela ever worked with. He left Africa 70 in 1978, and this album fell victim to a dispute between Fela and his label, Decca. So we're lucky to have it.

Lekan "Baba Ani" Animashaun, Fela's baritone man to the end, is also a better instrumentalist than singer, but it is fascinating to hear his lithe, slightly nasal voice weaving through the punchy replies of the band's trademark female chorus. These two numbers--"Low Profile" and "Severe"--have a fractured history. First recorded in 1979 during the dark days following the Nigerian army raid on Fela's compound, they were not finished until 1986, and released only in 1995, to little fanfare. The songs were often played at Fela's Africa Shrine in Lagos, though, and much loved by the city's diehard afrobeat fans. "Severe" has a big, satisfying sound, and an exquisitely wailing baritone sax solo. In all, this release is an indispensable addition to the growing catalogue of historic afrobeat.

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Tracklist

01. Mr. Big Mouth
02. Beginning
03. Low Profile
04. Serere

Segun Bucknor And His Revolution - Poor Man No Get Brother

Another side of Nigerian music is revealed in this compilation of Segun Bucknor's...

This reissue of various Bucknor recordings made from 1969 - 1975 represents an interesting slice of Nigerian pop music history and culture. Much of the Nigerian music packaged for export to the West has promoted a particular musical style or point of view - hence the popularity (and availability) of recordings by the likes of juju artists King Sunny Ade and Chief Ebenezer Obey, as well as the more controversial Afro-Beat of Fela Kuti.

Bucknor, on the other hand, was one of the rank and file, a journeyman who was trying to eke out a living in Nigeria as a popular musician, and who was beholden to local record labels and the demands of the marketplace. Even over this relatively brief six year period, playing first with a group he called The Assembly, and then with The Revolution, Bucknor displays a stylistic diversity reflecting everything from pure commercial opportunism to heartfelt political and moral exhortations.

Regardless, Bucknor's individual talent almost always shines through. He's a strong, convincing vocalist in the American soul tradition, and had obviously listened closely to the likes of Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and Sam Cooke. In fact, Bucknor had a direct connection to Western pop music influences, because he studied in New York City at Columbia University in the early 60's, pursuing a liberal arts curriculum and taking courses in ethno-musicology.

The strongest pieces in this collection are arguably the least commercial. "Adanri Sogbasogba" is one of two songs rendered in a native dialect (presumably Yoruba), and while the lyric is not translated, the funky James Brown-inspired horn riffs and throbbing bass communicate quite nicely, and Bucknor's urgent, half-sung, half-shouted vocals would be persuasive in any language.

Also very fine is "Sorrow, Sorrow, Sorrow" a typically earnest African admonition to count ones blessings, because "there's always someone worser than you." This long piece gives the band time to stretch out, and Bucknor demonstrates his touch on the organ. The rhythm is light and graceful, almost calypsonian, and the prominence of the clave as a dominant percussion element enhances a solid Afro-Cuban groove.

The centerpiece of the CD is clearly "Son of January 15th (the date of Nigeria's first military coup). This is Bucknor's impassioned foray into social commentary, but as he relates in the liner notes, he lost his taste for political statements after a Colonel from the Northern army sent a couple of his lackeys onto the stage, and they took him aside and told him not to sing the song again.

In Nigeria, social and political commentary came to be associated almost exclusively with Fela Kuti, but Bucknor can't really be faulted for not having Kuti's unique combination of bravery and megalomania.

However, when Bucknor narrows his focus to personal relationships ("La La La," "That's the Time," "Love and Affection," "You Killing Me"), his music loses some of its conviction, and he sounds more like an American soul singer looking for a chart hit. "La La La" (which is inexplicably presented in three rather similar versions) is certainly funky enough, but it sounds like a manufactured cross between Otis Redding's "Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa (Sad Song)" and Toots Hibbert's "Funky Kingston." The band still cooks, and Bucknor is always in good voice, but these pieces lack the personal stamp of songs like "Sorrow, Sorrow, Sorrow" and "Son of January 15th."

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f anything good came of Fela's death, one thing was the attention focused not only on the music of the man, but of his country. As aficionados of Afro-beat have known for a long time, there were other bands and sounds that erupted from Lagos during the '70s. Bucknor was a contemporary of Fela, and hugely popular in the country. Of course, a lot of this sounds like the man himself -- it would be asking a lot not to be influenced by that sound. But the progression of the songs here is more rhythmic and more circular -- not a march toward the abyss, but a march around your head. The first and most important thing Bucknor wants to do is to make you dance. The lyrics are strong and mostly political, but the groove is the thing here. These tunes are drenched in sweat, played with the hard-edged precision of men who could and often did play for hours. Fans of the sound will love this. Anyone who's fond of funky music or who loves the sound of Memphis and Muscle Shoals and Detroit but hates the time limitations of the 7" groove will dig this severely. This is another great moment from a scene that is only now reaching Western ears. Stay tuned.

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Nigeria has always been known for top-notch music. But the 1970s saw an explosion of former highlife bands willing to create a unique form of Nigerian music influenced by James Brown, 60s American jazz, 50s Latin jazz, and African folk. The most famous composer to come out of that scene was, of course, Fela Kuti. Fela is the inventor, and master of Afrobeat. Thanks to music fans willing to search out and reissue lost Nigerian gems, lesser known Afrobeat bands are now being re-discovered and exposed to a larger audience, and Segun Bucknor's recordings are quite a discovery. Segun Bucknor started his career playing traditional 60s highlife. Influenced by Kuti and Brown, while taking advantage of a temporary relaxed atmosphere in Nigeria where musicians could openly record and distribute their works through Decca, Segun moved away from highlife and started experimenting more with Afrobeat and soul music. Segun, unlike Fela, stayed away from extreme forms of rebellion, and social criticism, while also embracing enough of it to push his music a little further out. As a result, half of the 12 tracks featured on this CD stay within the 3-minute mark(the time limit that music studios forced on musicians), while the other half of the tracks range between 5 to 12-minutes in length. The lyrics tend to talk about everyday Nigerian society, while mostly staying away from offensive attacks on the local government and its military. While listening to the Segun's recordings(recorded between 1969-1974), it's hard not to think about Fela. Segun, though, has a slightly different composing style. First, to my ears, the funk here is much more open than Fela's. While Fela's form of funk is majestic and dense, I found Segun's compositional style much more open, and loose. Segun equally had the talent to throw in rhythmic and melodic surprises that keep the ears constantly guessing. I found the lyrics, though, a little less interesting than Fela's, and they even remind me of Femi Kuti's lyrical style. Yet, Segun rises up a notch by throwing in 60s-soul influences into his vocal style; what Fela lacked in vocal abilities he certainly made up with charm, while Segun delivers great vocals. Overall, fans of Afro-beat's Fela Kuti, Tony Allen, and Orlando Julius should keep your eye out for this little gem.

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Tracklist

01. Sorrow, Sorrow, Sorrow
02. Dye Dye
03. Adanri Sogbasogba
04. Son of January 15th
05. La La La (Hard version), Part 1
06. La La La (Hard version), Part 2
07. Smoke
08. That's the Time
09. Love and Affection
10. Who Say I Tire
11. You Killing Me
12. La La La (acoustic version)

The Afrobeat Diaries ... by allaboutjazz.com

Before I start I wanna give a very big

THANK YOU

to

Michael Ricci and Chris May from www.allaboutjazz.com

who gave me the permission to include their articles on my page.

The author



All articles are written by Chris May, Senior Editor who joined AAJ in 2004.

Chris May edited Black Music & Jazz Review (UK), and has written books on jazz, African and reggae musics.


Information about the afrobeat series

This is the first in a series of articles which will chronicle significant recordings, people and events in the story of Afrobeat, from its inception until the present day.

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The Afrobeat Diaries, Part 1

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Fela Ransome Kuti & Africa 70: Alagbon Close / Why Black Man Dey Suffer

First up, Alagbon Close by Fela Ransome Kuti (as he then was) and Africa 70 (as it then was), the 1974 album which marked a watershed in the development of the music.

Now in its 25th anniversary year, Alagbon Close is less widely celebrated than the international breakthrough albums Fela Kuti went on to make during the latter half of the 1970s—but it was, nevertheless, an important milestone. The album announced the coming of age of the genre the Nigerian songwriter, vocalist, keyboard player and saxophonist co-created with the drummer and Africa 70 band leader, Tony Allen.

The year 1974 marked a second milestone. In April, the Kalakuta compound Kuti had established for the extended Africa 70 family was raided for the first time, by police looking for weed. Kuti was held for several days, moved between Alagbon Close police station, which was situated nearby, and a military hospital, as the authorities waited (in vain) for him to produce evidence of a swallowed joint. The events were recounted, with savage humor, on 1975's Expensive Shit. Later in 1974, the police, and in early 1977, the army, mounted successively bigger and more vicious attacks on Kalakuta, which will be the focus of the second article in this series.

Wrasse Records' lovingly put together Kuti reissue series pairs Alagbon Close with an earlier release, Why Black Man Dey Suffer. Recorded in 1970, this was one of several albums Kuti made with the participation of the British drummer, Ginger Baker, who was at the time in Nigeria recharging his Cream and Blind Faith-depleted batteries.

Though preceded by the more-than-promising Gentleman and Afrodisiac in 1973, Alagbon Close, with the benefit of hindsight, marks a quantum leap for Kuti, Allen and Afrobeat. Most of the elements which make the disc so compelling can be heard on earlier albums, but on Alagbon Close Kuti and Tony Allen pull them all together to devastating effect, in the process creating the definitive Afrobeat paradigm.

Well recorded (and excellently remastered), Africa 70 plays with unprecedented fire: the four-piece horn section was never more majestic; the nagging riffs and ostinatos of the tenor and rhythm guitars never more insistent. Allen is a lithe-limbed colossus, his soon-to-be signature rhythms at times pushing the band forward with extraordinary percussive power, at others drawing it back like a coiled spring, only to unleash it again. Three conga drummers support him. Kuti's screaming multi-octave glissandos on the organ climax an incantatory solo, and the track's concluding drums and horns passage is Africa 70 at its most epic.

In what was becoming Kuti's trademark lyric writing style, the title track—sung in the Broken English he adopted to communicate beyond only Yoruba speakers—highlights a particular social injustice to make a broader point. On the title track he bravely exposes the brutality going on in the Alagbon Close police cells. "Dem no get respect for human beings," he sings. "Dem no know say you get blood like dem. Dem go send dem dog to bite bite you. Dem go point dem gun for your face. The gun wey dem take your money to buy. Dem don butt my head with dem gun. Dem go torture you and take your statement from you...." After more in the same vein, Kuti concludes with the observation: "Uniform na cloth na tailor de sew am. Na tailor de sew em like your dress. Nothing special about uniform."

Lyric writing like this, in a country beset by thuggish police and soldiers, provoked ongoing harassment of Kuti and Africa 70. In 1977, during the army's biggest and most shameful assault on Kalakuta, his elderly mother, a revered anti-colonialist, was thrown out of a first floor window by soldiers, hastening her death. Beatings and rapes of band members were common.

Alagbon Close is one of Kuti's greatest discs, establishing a benchmark for subsequent 1970s' classics like Zombie (1976), Sorrow Tears And Blood (1977) and V.I.P. Vagabonds In Power (1979). In late 1975, around the time he rebranded Africa 70 as Afrika 70, Kuti changed his middle name from Ransome to Anikulapo.

Why Black Man Dey Suffer is a more formative affair. It's one of a series of early 1970s' albums which made the transition between the highlife and jazz blend of Kuti and Allen's first band, Koola Lobitos, and the turbulent magnificence of mature Afrobeat. Trumpeter Tunde Williams, baritone saxophonist Lekan Animashaun and first conga player Henry Kofi, from later line-ups including that on Alagbon Close, are also in place. But Afrobeat's signature tenor guitar has yet to be introduced, and, crucially, Allen didn't play on the session, making way for Ginger Baker.

Baker does a creditable job on Why Black Man Dey Suffer, although Allen's absence means Africa 70 lacks the singular rhythms that would come to define Afrobeat a couple of years later. But the album is worth hearing, with powerful lyrics and some strong instrumental performances. A valuable snapshot of Africa 70's foetal stage.




Alagbon Close



Tracks: Alagbon Close; I No Get Eye For Back.

Personnel: Fela Ransome Kuti: tenor and alto saxophone, keyboards, vocals; Tony Allen: drums, leader; Tunde Williams: first trumpet; Ukem Stephen: second trumpet; Lekan Animashaun: baritone saxophone; Christopher Uwaifor: tenor saxophone; Tutu Shoronmu: tenor guitar; Segun Edo: rhythm guitar; Franco Aboddy: bass guitar; Henry Kofi: first conga; Daniel Korenteg: second conga; Nicholas Addo: third conga; James Abeyoni: sticks; Isaac Olaleye: maracas; uncredited vocal chorus.



Why Black Man Dey Suffer



Tracks: Why Black Man Dey Suffer; Ikoyi Mentality Versus Mushin Mentality.

Personnel: Fela Ransome Kuti: keyboards, vocals, percussion; Tunde Williams: first trumpet; Eddie Faychum: second trumpet; Igo Chiko: tenor saxophone; Lekan Animashaun: baritone saxophone; Peter Animashaun: rhythm guitar; Maurice Ekpo: bass guitar; Ginger Baker: drums; Henry Kofi: first conga; Friday Jumbo: second conga; Akwesi Korranting: third conga; Tony Abayomi: sticks; Isaac Olaleye: shekere; uncredited vocal chorus.

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Thanx again to Michael Ricci and Chris May !!!

Euforquestra - Explorations In Afrobeat

Band

Originally from Iowa City, IA, recently relocated to Fort Collins, CO, Eufórquestra has been touring more than ever and is continuing to take its cutting edge music in different directions. Their self-proclaimed “Afro-Caribbean-Barnyard-Funk” brings a rhythmic wall of sound, integrating such genres as Afrobeat, Reggae, Afro-Cuban, Samba, Soca, Funk, Salsa, and Dub. This is music that ignites dance floors across the country with a sound that “explodes, dances and melts in your ear with sheer bliss” (Chris M. Slawecki; www.allaboutjazz.com).

With two full-length albums to their name and a relentless tour schedule (over 300 shows in the last two and a half years), the 7-piece band has become one of the hottest bands on Colorado’s live music circuit and has created a national presence with performances all over the U.S. at clubs, concert halls, community events, and festivals, including Wakarusa (Lawrence, KS and Ozark, AR), moe. Summer Camp (Chillicothe, IL), 80/35 (Des Moines, IA), Sweet Pea Festival (Bozeman, MT), NedFest (Nederland, CO), Groovefest (Cedar City, UT), Montana Beer Festival (Bozeman, MT), and the Iowa City Jazz Festival.

In July 2006, an original Eufórquestra song , “Ochun,” from the group’s second studio album Explorations In Afrobeat, was selected for Global Rhythm Magazine’s monthly compilation disc. In early 2008, Eufórquestra was asked to collaborate with an all-star lineup including Page McConnell (Phish), Russell Batiste (Funky Meters, PBS), Reed Mathis (Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Teal Leaf Green) and Papa Mali at the Big Easy Blowout, a three-day tour of shows across Colorado’s Front Range, benefiting the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic and the Tipitina’s Foundation.

With great expectations, 2009 promises to be an exciting year for Eufórquestra, as the group prepares to release a highly anticipated third studio album (recorded at Backbone Studios in Loveland, CO, www.backbonestudio.com). This project brings Eufórquestra’s sound to soaring new heights with a collection of songs that captures a band in peak performance in terms of songwriting, arranging and energy.

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Reviews

::World Music Central::
Think hard... when was the last time you heard a bunch of guys from the midwestern US combine Fela Kuti-style Afrobeat with chants in praise of the Yoruba pantheon of dieties honored in the Afro-Cuban Lucumi religion? If it's been longer than you're comfortable with, get ahold of this offering from Iowa-based Euforquestra.

Taking a cue from both the long, tight, funky structures of Afrobeat and deeply traditional Cuban ensembles like Los Munequitos de Mantanzas, they've come up with a very good best-of-both-worlds. The instrumental arrangements sport that familiar combination of African rhythm and James Brown funk that Fela Kuti pioneered and American bands like Antibalas continue to champion, but instead of lyrics ridiculing government incompetence or urging you to shake it on the dance floor, praises are chanted to the Orishas (spiritual beings) who represent and oversee humans and nature.

-Tom Orr


::Star Pulse::
Fusing the sounds of Nigerian Afrobeat music with the rich traditional sounds of Cuba in a musical interplay that connects these two branches of a vast multicultural tree, Iowa City, IA's Euforquestra has been offering up the best of the current Afrobeat craze to the Midwest and beyond since 2004; But don't let their youth fool you-there is a virility and an "inclusive, 'everyone get in here' sense of humor, (Jim Musser, music critic)" to their music and stage presence, not to mention a massive respect for their elders (check out their liner notes for a brief history of Fela Kuti's life in music), that has primed this 7-piece ensemble to become one of the most prolific and exciting Afrobeat sound machines on the scene-in fact, Euforquestra have already been hosting their own "Camp Euforia," an annual celebration of community and music, for three years.

Explorations in Afrobeat, the band's latest release, is a synthesis of West African and Cuban music rooted in the Yoruba tradition (The Yoruba are the largest single ethno-linguistic group in Nigeria and the second largest in Africa). Euforquestra also boasts two members who have studied traditional music in Cuba, the influence of which plunges the band deep into a full-bodied tradition of Cuban Rhythms, with the added elements of Afro-Cuban, Samba, Soca, Funk, Reggae and at times, even a bit of Bluegrass.

Listening to Explorations in Afrobeat is a wonderful journey through a rich multicultural past, a roots-anchored present and a global,integrated future. You will hear the familiar as well as the new, truly illustrating the Euforquestra's mission statement.


::Sea of Tranquility::
Euforquestra: Explorations in Afrobeat
Explorations in Afrobeat, the second album from Iowa's Euforquestra, is a synthesis of West African and Cuban music rooted in the Yoruba tradition (The Yoruba are the largest single ethno-linguistic group in Nigeria and the second largest in Africa). Two of the band members have studied traditional Cuban music, which helps give the music of Euforquestra their varied sound, combining Afro-Cuban elements with Samba, Soca, Funk, Jazz, Reggae, and of course rock. Think Santana meets Osibisa meets Bob Marley and you have some idea of the musical concoction here. The band gets a rich sound by using tenor and alto sax, guitar, keyboards, bass, vibes, drums, percussion, and vocals. Much of the lyrical content is based on the Lucumi religion and its spiritual beings called the Orisha, which represents different elements of nature and the human condition such as fire, water, mental disease, motherhood, wisdom, lightning, etc. Quite a bit of information on this culture is given in the CD booklet, and it's an interesting read for those who are new to the subject. All seven members of the band have a love for Afro-Cuban music and culture, and it really shows through the music.

Half the songs here are of epic length and surpass the nine-minute mark, which allows for plenty of fiery and groove laden jams featuring soaring sax, gritty guitar, tight percussion, and lofty keyboard sounds. Eric Quiner lays down some fat electric piano tones on the scorching "Obatala", a rumbling jazz-funk-rocker with kick ass rhythms and plenty of hot sax and guitar interplay. Again, think Osibisa meets Santana with a healthy dose of jazz and reggae thrown in for good measure. Other hot tracks include the driving funk beats of "Ogun", the sophisticated grooves of "Elegua", and the heavily jazzed-up
"Chango", which features some wonderful sax work from Ryan Jeter and Austin Zaletel. I dare anyone to not get up on their feet and start dancing to the upbeat sounds of "Ochun", a song with a strong Latin feel thanks to the vibes, percussion, and sax work.

This CD was a complete surprise, and will easily appeal to those who have an interest in African or Cuban music, jazz, World, prog rock, or any of the bands mentioned above.

Source




Tracklist

01. Elegua
02. Ogun
03. Obatala
04. Intro to Chango
05. Chango
06. Intro to Ochun
07. Ochun (Click song to hear a sample)
08. Elegua Outro

Aphrodesia - Precious Commodity

Information

It's been quite a ride for Aphrodesia since their birth in 2003: a pilgrimage to the legendary Shrine nightclub in Lagos, Nigeria in 2006, a cross-country voter-registration tour in a vegetable oil-powered bus in 2004 and accolades everywhere from National Public Radio to USA Today. Through it all the San Francisco-based 11-piece ensemble has won audiences over with an eclectic, unique sound- a blend of rich, female lead vocals and slamming horn-laden polyrhythmic funk that Global Rhythm Magazine called “a Pan-African mash-up.”

While the members of Aphrodesia are admirers of West African styles like afrobeat and Highlife- enough so that the group spent a month performing and living in Ghana in 2006, in the process journeying through Togo and Benin to Nigeria to perform at the Shrine with Femi Kuti- the group's sound has always included touches of funk, dub, Zimbabwean trance, hip-hop and global pop. The band's third studio album- “Lagos By Bus” released in November of 2007 and packed with songs written during and about their month in Africa- further solidified their diverse sound, with Global Rhythm Magazine calling it "their most patient and incisive effort to date." The new "Precious Commodity"- unquestionably the band's hardest-hitting and most diverse record yet, with the now-trademark thight rhythm section and dual lead vocals of Lara Maykovich and Maya Dorn augmented by squealing guitars and distorted thumb pianos (the latter perhaps a nod to Konono no. 1, whom Aphrodesia shared a bill with in 2008).

Birthed in 2003 in the backyard shack of bassist Ezra Gale, Aphrodesia quickly recorded “Shackrobeat Vol. 1”, a disc heavily influenced by singer Lara Maykovich's experience living in Ghana and Zimbabwe which was picked as a top record of 2003 by the East Bay Express. The following year the politically outspoken group launched the “Just Vote Tour”, a cross-country swing-state voter registration tour undertaken in the group's vegetable oil-powered bus that landed in New York City during the Republican National Convention. The group's second album, “Front Lines”, was recorded soon after and featured the layered lead vocals of Maykovich and Maya Dorn, several bold originals penned by the group and eclectic guest performers ranging from Tom Waits sideman Ralph Carney to former Sierra Club president Adam Werbach. Featured on National Public Radio, the album was also ecstatically reviewed by outlets from Global Rhythm Magazine to the Village Voice.

Meanwhile, the group's reputation as a show-stopping live act continued to spread. With a lineup that includes singers Mayokovich and Dorn, bassist Gale, guitarists David Sartore and Chris Mulhauser, the horns section of Henry Hung, Liz Larson, Mitch Marcus and Sylvain Carton, percussionist Paul Sonnabend and powerhouse drummer Jason Slota, Aphrodesia delivered stunning, high energy sets at the 2004 and 2005 High Sierra Music Festivals, the 2005 Earthdance Festival, the 2005 and 2006 Aspen Jazz Festival, the 2006 and 2007 Harmony Festival and many more. The group's near-constant touring saw them build a fan base all over the U.S., playing venues from San Francisco's Fillmore to New York City's S.O.B.'s, while opening slots for Maceo Parker, Steel Pulse, the String Cheese Incident, the Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars, Konono no. 1 and several others broadened their reach even further.

Aphrodesia’s music carries with it a strong sense of social justice, and the band’s commitment to social change extends offstage as well. Having headlined numerous benefits for causes ranging from AIDS prevention to Tsunami Relief to anti-Iraq War organizations, the group has also made a point of traveling on alternative fuels like biodiesel and recycled vegetable oil. It may be a small start, but the group believes that its actions, like its music, can have a huge effect.

Source




Tracklist

01. November 5 (Part I)
02. Special Girl
03. Make Up Your Mind
04. Think/Suffer
05. Friday Night
06. Say What
07. Ayala
08. By The Iron
09. Merit Badge
10. Caminando
11. November 5 (Part II)

The Daktaris - Soul Explosion

Band

The Daktaris were an Afro-beat group on the New York-based funk revival label Desco, recording compact, Fela Kuti-style grooves that sounded as though they'd come straight out of 1970s Nigeria. At first, Desco did nothing to discourage that perception, packaging their 1998 album Soul Explosion to look like an authentically African collector's dream, and even giving some of the band members Nigerian aliases. But in reality, the Daktaris were Brooklyn-based studio musicians, many of them white, many of whom had already been assembled by Desco heads Gabriel Roth and Phillipe Lehman as the label's house band, the Soul Providers. Besieged by inquiries about the music's origins and demand for a Daktaris tour, Roth and Lehman soon acknowledged the hoax, but given the quality of the album, the backlash wasn't enormously great. There was no follow-up to the Daktaris' initial session, but some of the members formed a new Afro-beat revivalist group called Antibalas in the spring of 1998. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide

Source

The Daktaris are actually several alumni from Fela Kuti's band, and as expected, Soul Explosion contains massive chunks of throbbing Afrobeat, the style perfected by the late Nigerian performer. Part Nigerian and part American funk à la James Brown, these 10 mostly instrumental tracks are hardcore, juju-headed time bombs from the dance floor of the motherland, with a baritone sax-fronted horn section riding earthshaking rhythms, thundering bass lines, and occasional wah-wah guitar. Except for classic workouts on Fela's "Upside Down," James Brown's "Give It Up, Turn It Loose," and the rare "Musicawa Silt" from Ethiopia's Wallias Band, these are all original tunes from a 15-strong ensemble that charges straight at you like a herd of elephants, absolutely unstoppable. Hopefully, any future release from this outfit will extend the group's monumental grooves beyond a five-minute format, which most of these Lagos-produced tracks fit into.

Source






Tracklist

01. Musicawi Silt
02. Musicawi Silt, Pt. 2
03. Quiet Man Is Deam Man
04. Modern Technology
05. Super Afro-Beat
06. Give It Up Turnit Loose
07. Eltsuhg Ibal Lasiti
08. Daktari Walk
09. Voodoo Soul Stew
10. Upside Down