African Spirits - A Spiritual Jazz Journey Looking Back to Africa [2004]

This album consists of 10 tracks that represent a spiritual jazz journey looking back to Africa: the motherland, the roots of jazz, the birthplace of black music and the ancestral origins of the musicians themselves.
Individually the tracks - some of the best music of its type ever recorded - are in demand in their own right, with most being compiled for the first time. In the 1960's and 1970's many Afro Americans started to look back to their roots and the roots of the music for inspiration, direction and confirmation. Musicians including Yusef Lateef, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, and many of the artists on this compilation experimented with African instruments and sounds during this period. It was a time of black celebration, the 'Afro' hairstyle was a prerequisite for hipness. The drum - the most basic rhythm instrument and the foundation that almost all modern music rests on - came from Africa. Indeed, Jazz music itself can also trace its origins back to Africa; in fact scientists, historians and archaeologists have suggested that the entire human race took its first steps in Africa and evolved from there. The music contained on this album, whilst rhythmically strong is also imbued with haunting melodies and spiritually uplifting shades. A major factor behind the making of this music was a reaction against a society based on commercialism and insincerity: this is music with a message, music of substance, music that demands the listener be drawn in. It's music that you can really feel…music that moves and fulfils you, leaving you spiritually uplifted. This album is not just about selecting and bringing together a collection of in demand Jazz cuts…it's about inviting the listener on a musical journey back to Africa, back to ancient civilisation. Enjoy the ride.

Enjoy!

Le Mystère Jazz de Tombouctou - S/T [1977]

The Kunkan (Voices) label was established in 1975 by Malian Minister of Culture Youssouf Traore to capture the music of several orchestras from different regions of Mali. Technician Bouboukar Traore proved himself a master in the recording phase when he placed the four microphones and recorded the instruments, particularly the congas.
It is hard to believe that a bunch of electricians, policemen, social workers, a nurse and a bassist / customs man were capable of creating this kind of musical landmark. The messages on these recordings are obviously carried with a holy fire.
  The sound is bold and righteous, but with an other-worldly vibe too – a really haunting quality that grabs us like some of the most evocative Ethiopian sounds of the 70s! At some level, there's definitely a Mali touch going on in the music – some very tripped-out elements in the production, and a way of wrapping things together with an undercurrent of melancholy.
The result is a magnum opus that sounds hypnotic, from the first to the last note.The sound of Le Jazz  Mystère captures the listener in an incredible musical and spiritual hold.

                                                               Enjoy!

Bilongo – A Third Collection Of Modern Afro Rhythms [2000]

This is the third volume in the set that began with Racubah, continued with Oulelele, and which comes up this time with a fantastic array of rare African funk tunes from the 70s – rarer than any other set we've seen on other compilations of this sort, and sure to keep things interesting for folks who've already bought all their Fela and Manu Dibango albums. Nearly every cut on here is from the 70s – and most are from rare French sources of the type that you'd probably never find, even if you spent your Saturdays digging around flea markets in Paris . The grooves are incredible! 

                                                                Enjoy!

Geraldo Pino and The Heartbeats - Heavy Heavy Heavy [2005]

Geraldo Pino (aka Gerald Pine) is one of the hidden heroes of African popular music. A singer, guitarist and bandleader from Sierra Leone, Geraldo had a major influence on the burgeoning soul/funk/Afrobeat scene in West Africa during the 1960s and 70s. He made a huge impression on the young Fela Kuti who praised him effusively but his music has remained largely unheard for the past 30 years.
Pino's party grooves and the Funk Imperative which underlines his musical philosophy make these dance tracks sound just as vital today as they did back then.

                                                              Enjoy!

Julian Bahula's Jazz Afrika - Son of the Soil [1983]

South African-born, often UK-based percussionist, band leader, record label owner and concert promoter, Bahula has produced some lovely music over the years.
Julian Bahula, famous throughout the 60's and early 70's in South Africa because of Malombo music, came to Britain, to exile from his home, in 1973, to begin all over again. He came to Europe with the band Jo'burg Hawk at a time when the politics of Apartheid were impacting both life and music making. 
The early 80's brought about the birth of "Julian Bahula's Jazz Afrika", with Denmark's Michael Nielson and Britain's Dave Chambers on saxophones, South Africans Pianist Mervyn Africa on keyboards and Lucky Ranku on guitar, Italian bassist Roberto Bellatalla, bassists Dill Katz and Chucho Merchan, trumpeter Peter Segona and drummer Alan Jackson. The album made was called "Son of the Soil". Jazz Afrika, the name described the accent of the music rather than the ethnic composition or nationalities of the musicians; it brought together musicians from many backgrounds and countries; an exhilarating ensemble of excellence.

                                                                                                           Enjoy!

SJOB Movement - Move In The Right Direction [1974]

Heavy heady funk from the 70s Nigerian scene – a wicked little record that's unlike anything else we've heard before! SJOB is a combo made from ex-members of the group of Sonny Okosuns – all top-shelf players who've clearly got their chops down in the groove department, but are also really willing to experiment with their sound as well! There's some hip spacey elements to the music – cool keyboards that weave in and out of the guitar and tighter rhythms – creating a sense of darkness that's totally great, even when things are still pretty funky. The structure of the tunes is far from familiar Afro Funk too – pretty offbeat and jagged – familiar rhythms one minute, then fresh ones the next! 

                                                               Enjoy!

Manu Dibango - B-Sides [2002]

We had never heard Manu Dibango as melodic as this, and chances are you haven't either unless you have collected all the B-Sides from his singles and vinyl releases between '71 and '83.  Happily, Melodie has done this for us.  "No Sax Here" states the linear notes, and how true they are.  If you thought Manu Dibango was a great sax player, wait until you here him on the marimba,xylophone and vibraphone.  His mastery of melody and composition are all the more evident on the lush and varied songs provided here.  "Miango Ma Tumba (village news)" starts off mellow enough, but builds into quite an orchestration.  Standouts include "Dakar Streets," the Latin flavored "Besoka on salsa" and the solitude of "African Night Blues." 

                                                                                Enjoy!

Amadou & Mariam - Wati [2003]

If you think Mali is all about the kora or the Super Rail Band, you need to take a listen to Amadou & Mariam, a blind married couple who take Malian music in a whole different direction. They keep to the bluesy, pentatonic root that's the heart of the desert sound of Mali, but bring it toward the West, even letting guitars howl here and there and funking things up with some lovely keyboard work. Amadou & Mariam sing both separately and together (indeed, they're at their strongest together, when the two voices can work off each other on songs like "Chauffeurs"), and they're both strong writers, using rhythm as much as melody for a sound that's remarkably down-home. There's nothing complex about it -- perhaps the Bamako equivalent of a bar band, albeit a very good one. "Sarama," for example, rocks wonderfully and hypnotically, and wouldn't sound out of place in a roadhouse, getting the crowd up and dancing. Perhaps it's because they don't sound especially African in their approach to music -- allowing the roots to be just one part of the whole.

                                                                Enjoy!

Guy Warren Of Ghana - Afro-Jazz [1969]

Born in Ghana in West Africa, Guy Warren, who is also known as Kofi Ghanaba, was a jazz drumset player and player of traditional Ghanaian percussion. He also played piano, flute, would sing, and was trained in Western style composition. He was fluent in writing and arranging jazz compositions as he composed most of the pieces on his recordings. 
Warren was a big fan of American jazz and eventually made his way to England and finally the USA in 1955. He worked in Chicago and New York having befriended Charlie Parker, Max Roach, and Thelonius Monk among others.
Warren was uncompromising in the kind of music he wished to play. His idea was to combine his traditional Ghanaian percussion and rhythms with the jazz aesthetic. He incorporated the African talking drum in jazz ensembles and played both the drumset and traditional hand drums in unusual ways.
This is one of the hardest records to track down in the Lansdowne Series, the title Afro-Jazz even coined its own sub genre long before the movement arose. Not only that, the backing group is the Ian Carr-Don Rendell Quintet with Amancio D'Silva on guitar!

                                                                                Enjoy!

Fela Anikulapo Kuti - Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense [1986]

'Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense' 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 charge. 
 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. 
....This isn't democracy, says Kuti, it's "demo-crazy."

                                                                                 Enjoy!

Femi Kuti - Femi Kuti [1995]

This debut album was an extremely popular record in Africa and Europe; it introduced Kuti's cleaner, more succinct take on his father Fela Kuti's legendary Afro beat sound. Packed with contagious rhythms born of African, jazz, and funk melodies, Femi Kuti represents an important offering to world music. 

                                                                Enjoy!

Ginger Baker – Stratavarious [1972]

Stratavarious is an album by Ginger Baker, the drummer from Cream, released by Polydor in 1972. Baker had many associations with an eclectic mix of musicians brought together under numerous band titles bearing his surname. Stratavarious is the only album which was released under the name of Ginger Baker without other associated names. The lineup on Stratavarious includes Bobby Tench, vocalist and guitarist from The Jeff Beck Group, who plays guitar under the pseudonym Bobby Gass and the Nigerian pioneer of Afrobeat, Fela Ransome-Kuti who appeared at concerts with Baker at this time.Great album!

                                                                               Enjoy!

Max Roach – M’Boom [1980]

This is credited to Max Roach, who formed the M’Boom ‘re:percussion ensemble’ around 1970, but it’s very much a group work. The ensemble features a bunch of experienced drummer-percussionists – Roy Brooks, Freddie Waits, Joe Chambers, Ray Mantilla etc . Before you run away with thoughts of endless soloing, this is an album of tunes, using “more than 100 different instruments of determinate and indeterminate pitch”, which means a whole lot of marimba, vibes, xylophones, timpani, gongs, bells, and pretty much every instrument you can bang on. Banged on by men who really know how to bang on shit. This is a particularly colorful set that is easily recommended not only to jazz and percussion fans but to followers of World music.

                                                                                 Enjoy!

The Funkees - Now I'm a man [1976]

This band was one of the best rock groups to come out of Nigeria in the 70s, during that country’s post-Civil War musical explosion.
They formed in the eastern university and oil town of Warri, in Delta State, and the members were veterans of the Biafran Army; their connections to people who traveled abroad often gave them access to a lot of British and American records that competing bands couldn’t hear.
After a series of singles, the band upped stakes and moved to London, where they quickly established a fierce reputation on the live circuit  and recorded two LPs. 
before they disbanded in 1977.
This is their second album,a fantastic combination of funk and rock mixed with african elements.

                                            Super!

                                                                                 Enjoy!

Exile One - Beaucoup D'gaz A Bo, Lotsa Music Onboard [1975]

Fantastic Creole Dope Funk with long instrumental section led by singer Gordon Henderson and some cool english vocals. 7 tracks including: Ico Vole; Tout' Jeu Cé Jeu; You Have Lost The Battle; On N'Homm' Tomber; Vive Les Vacances Aux Antilles; Dem Higher; Instant Funk. 

                                                                                Enjoy!

Ouelele - Another collection of modern afro rhythms [1999]

It's unclear what is supposed to unite the tracks on Ouelele, an eclectic anthology of African and African-derived music, aside from the announcement in the too-sparse liner notes that all the tracks are "rare" and "obscure." But there is a theme here, intentional or not: All these songs -- from 12 different artists from the late '60s to the late '90s -- fuse Africa's native music with the jazz and funk devised by the descendants of Africans living in the West. And so we have South African Letta M'Bulu's "What's Wrong With Groovin'," which swings as much as it grooves; Henri Guéon's "Volcano," which marries Antillean drums to American brass; and "World War IV" by Antibalas, a band that plays hardcore Afrobeat -- in New York City. By the time Smahila and the S.B.'s concluded the nearly 19-minute "African Movement," it wasn't clear just who was being channeled, Fela Kuti or James Brown. There are no weak tracks on this album, but the best is "Unity" by Philip Cohran and the African Heritage Ensemble. From a droning, hypnotic violin line, Cohran builds a piece that would sound equally at home a million years in the past and a million years in the future.

                                                                              Enjoy!

Har-You Percussion Group - Har-You Percussion Group [1969]

   A legendary bit of Latin from the New York scene of the 60s – recorded by a host of youthful players working under the direction of percussionist Montego Joe! The group's name is a contraction of "Harlem Youth" – a program in which all players participated, as part of an effort to get kids involved in music uptown – spearheaded by Montego Joe, whose guidance in the set is greatly appreciated! There's a strong Latin Soul vibe running through the set – but one that's different than Joe's other work, a bit more rootsy at times, given all the percussion in the lineup – but warmed up nicely with bits of guitar, trumpet, and alto sax. The album's filled with great groovers – including the classic "Welcome To The Party", and the amazing "Oua-Train" jazz cut, which has a slightly spiritual feel. Other tracks include "Feed Me Good", "Barrets Bag", "Tico", "Ngoma", and "Santa Cruz".

                                                                Enjoy!

Ice - Afro Agban (The Afro-Instrumental) [1973]

The group was formed in Long Island, NY as the Bobby Boyd Congress; deciding America was already overloaded with funk acts, in 1971 they relocated to France, but when frontman Bobby Boyd returned stateside the remaining members renamed themselves Ice and became the house session band at producer Pierre Jaubert's Parisound studio.

Regularly performing live in Paris' Barbesse district — an area made up primarily of African immigrants — Ice's driving funk became increasingly influenced by African rhythms and textures, and in the wake of their 1973 debut LP 'Each Man Makes His Own Destiny', Jaubert changed the group's name to the Lafayette Afro Rock Band.

Enjoy! 

The Souljazz Orchestra - Rising Sun [2010]

Rising Sun is the Souljazz Orchestra's first all-acoustic afro-jazz album. Playing over thirty different instruments, the group creates a rich soundscape of otherwordly jazz, driven by heavy African rhythms and soulful grooves. The esoteric arrangements and fiery improvisations make it one of the Souljazz Orchestra's most unique offerings.

Enjoy!

Lumumba - Lumumba [1974]

I don't know the story behind Lumumba. All the musicians except for two are credited as coming from Ghana (the two non-Africans, West Indies and Los Angeles). Though the group is named after the singer Lumumba, it seems as though a fellow named Rim Kwaku Obeng is the leader of the band. Obeng has records under his own name and they are sought after by Afrobeat collectors. The record was recorded in Los Angeles, which is rare for an Afrobeat record. How is the album? Spotty and sometimes suspect. I am not sure if the musicians were cobbled together by A&M looking to break Afrobeat or if some American producer stumbled upon them in Africa, brought them to the States and put them in a fancy studio. Many of the songs are over produced and some sound very studio musicianish.Highly recomended.

 "Stop talking about peace; make peace. Stop talking about love: make love."

Enjoy!