SIDE TRIP: AFRICA VIA AUSTIN

While I was trying to decide whether or not I was going to post tonight, I figured I'd listen to some African music that I hadn't heard. Destination: Internet Archive. I'm blown away at the amount of music, books and other stuff over there. It's a rabbit hole of many flavors. Todays gamble certainly paid off. It's eight episodes of a radio show, "The Africa Express", from KOOP in Austin. They're good and varied. A LOT of more obscure stuff, even for those into African music. Book mark it, it's eight hour-long shows. Note: You can also download them from the the link in one the right of the page about halfway down, click on "Download Options". Click on "VBR MP3" for the mp3s. I guess I am posting.

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Listen:
The Africa Express radio show mp3 at Internet Archive Show from 3/8/24, the first three minutes is dialogue.
The Africa Express radio show - Seven more at Internet Archive
Visit:
KOOP 97.1, Austin TX

RIGHT ON AND RANDOM

I suppose it's not all that surprising that a collection of funk would have these African jams in it. Shit, the beat was born there. With a bunch of funk from Western countries readily available, I always seem to gravitate towards the African tunes. I try not to over-analyze it. It might be because I dig engaging music that I'm not fully familiar with, which Africa seems to have a shit-ton of.

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Listen:
Dele Sosimi - E Go Betta mp3 at Internet Archive
Wallias BAnd - Muziqawi Silt mp3 at Internet Archive
Mulatu Astatke - Yègellé Tezeta mp3 at Internet Archive
Ebo Taylor - Love and Death mp3 at Internet Archive
Gyedu-Blay Ambolley - Simigwa-Do mp3 at Internet Archive
Pat Thomas - Gyae Su mp3 at Internet Archive

(I'VE STILL GOT) SAND IN MY SHOES

The beach was awesome today. The surf was small but there was no wind and some doubling up of the small swells, giving them a little umph. The water was crystal clear, 70°. It was the first post-Labor Day weekend and the football season began so the beach was back to a locals only vibe. It was great. I came home and started playing random shit listening for something that would fit the mood. Ebo Taylor won.

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Listen:
Ebo Taylor - Ayesama mp3 at Bama Love Soul 
Ebo Taylor - Victory mp3 at Mixtape Riot
Ebo Taylor - Mizin mp3 at Mixtape Riot

Ebo Taylor - Twer Nyame mp3 at J-Bird

FORGET SHIT FOR THIRTY FOUR MINUTES

I started to write something about King Sunny Adé but realized that it would take more time than I was willing to spend in front of a screen on a Friday night. So you're spared. Here's three random but totally awesome jams. No idea of the exact vintage, haven't looked, too preoccupied with the beat to bother. Three songs, thirty four minutes. What the hell you waiting for? Git.

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Listen:
King Sunny Adé and His African Beats - Ja Funm mp3 at Internet Archive
King Sunny Adé - Ase mp3 at Internet Archive
King Sunny Adé and His African Beats - Ki isu to diyan mp3 at Internet Archive

WAY LATE TO THIS PARTY

It seems to me that I'd heard somewhere that Beninese singer Angelique Kidjo covered the entire Talking Heads Remain In Light album. I finally heard one of the cuts last night, "Crosseyed and Painless". Wow. It's a great take and interesting since it's from the period when Talking Heads were heavily influenced by afrobeat and Fela Kuti, both from Nigeria which is right next door to Benin.

I ran into the song on mix from an old post at Black Squirrel Amusement. The mix is only streaming but it's good, what I've heard anyway.  It also has John Lurie. Ry Cooder, Eli "Paperboy" Reed, War, Laura Nyro, John Coltrane, Bettye LaVette and a heap of others I don't know. Just enough familiar names with unfamiliar songs and complete unknowns to evaluate on musical merit alone. My kind of mix.

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Listen:
Angelique Kidjo - Crossseyed and Painless (streaming) at YouTube
Talking Heads - Crosseyed and Painless mp3 at By Way Of
The Mix:
June 2018 Mix - Knottserious at Black Squirrel Amusement

RANDOM SCORES SOUND BETTER

A few nights ago there was shit that needed to be done in my apartment. My next door neighbors were out for the night. They're cool people so I try not to blast anything too loud. But, they were gone so I had to blast something. I pulled out a compilation I snagged about twenty years ago, Africafunk. It was used and I didn't even look to see who was on it. If I had I would have seen Fela, Tony Allen and Antibalas, but it was so cheap that I didn't even bother to look. The CD turned out to be a bargain; great, great, shit, beginning to end. By far, my favorite song was by a band I'd never heard if, The Rwenzori's (hyphen placement theirs). It's the first song on the CD, "Handsome Boy (Parts 1 & 2)" and by the middle of it, I knew shit was not going to get done. Had myself undulating like someone trying to scare a sea of muddy Deadheads. Half calisthenics, all spazz. It felt great.

The song is such an oddball the extensive liner notes skip past them saying that there's no biographical information available. Granted, this was over twenty years ago. So I checked Discogs and found just three entries (they do have used 45s for sale). I'd just as soon not look further though, plenty of time for that. For now I'll retire to the living room and let the ants take control of my pants.

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Listen:
The Rwenzori's - Handsome Boy (streaming) at YouTube
Available at
The Rwenzori's - Handsome Boy (mp3) at Bandcamp
The Rwenzori's - Handsome Boy (45) at Discogs
Africafunk compilation (CD/LP) at Discogs

BASS PLAYER, STAR FEMININE BAND

Years ago I was at some show in San Francisco and somebody handed me a one page double-sided flyer about what seemed like an art collective, Bazooka Productions, with art by LouLou Picasso and Kiki Picasso. It looked cool and in the ensuing years I picked up artwork by them when I came across it, including an LP, La Perversita, bought just for the cover. That was (gulp) about forty years ago. So, two days ago, I  was looking around Super Super Sounds, a neat blog that focuses on looking through Bandcamp for good shit (there's a lot of not good shit on Bandcamp to sift through). There was a blurb about a French punk compilation on Bandcamp, and the cover looked like something by Kiki and LouLou Picasso, and as it turns out it was. So I go to the Bandcamp page and start to sift through the offerings of the label, Born Bad Records (which has a decidedly Cramps ring to it via the Born Bad compilations of songs the Cramps taught us). This was not the first place you'd expect to find a band like Star Feminine Band.


Star Feminine Band is an all girl band from Benin (Africa). Literally girls, ranging in ages from 10-17 (or thereabouts). They met at a music workshop for girls. Per The Guardian, André Balaguemon, the instructor and host of the workshop, said "Some of his proteges hadn’t ever seen keyboards or a drum kit when they signed up. Undeterred, he spent the first two weeks teaching them to clap to the beat." When you hear them you'll agree that they have come a long way. Read the thing at The Guardian, it tells the whole story. This is a movie waiting to happen.

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Listen:
Star Feminine Band at Bandcamp
Visit:
'When we play, everyone dances!' Benin girl group Star Feminine Band at The Guardian
Born Bad Records at Bandcamp

DIG IT. A MESS OF FELA. (SLIGHT RETURN)

There's a reason for this repost. I was in a Fela mood and once I started grooving that outweighed hassling with doing something from scratch. Plus, Fela. Here's the original post:

Yesterday I was talking to a friend and the conversation turned to Fela Kuti. He'd never heard of him, so a thumbnail sketch was in order. I told him that Fela was the like the James Brown of Nigeria. He had spent some time in the U.S., back in the 1969, and while he was here he was exposed to the black power movement, the Black Panthers, activism and so forth. When he went back to Nigeria, he did so recharged. That's about as thumbnail as I could muster. (Check Wikipedia or elsewhere for a more detailed or accurate profile. I'm a little lazy tonight.)

I'd planned on just sending him links to some of the past posts about Fela here, but when I went back to check them, there were quite a few dead links. The cuts below are all the links that were still working. If you come here regularly, you've heard them, but the good news is that when I went looking for some that I hadn't posted I ran into a whole mess of 'em. Seriously, over seventy Fela cuts.

The songs below are the ones that have been posted before. The mother lode is at Internet Archive, available streaming and as downloads in multiple formats. These things don't stay around long, so if you dig Fela, don't blink.

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Listen:
Fela Kuti - Water No Get Enemy mp3 at Miss Trade
Fela Kuti - Shakara mp3 at Essentially Eclectic
Fela Kuti - Mistake mp3 at Soul Donuts
Fela Kuti - Lady mp3 at Tumblr
Fela Kuti & Africa 70 Organization - Colonial Mentality (1977) mp3 at Soul Safari
Fela Kuti & Africa 70 Organization - Monkey Banana (1976) mp3 at Soul Safari
Fela Kuti & Africa 70 Organization - Yellow Fever (1976) mp3 at Soul Safari
The big bag:
Fela Kuti - Saluting the Black President at Internet Archive 78 songs. NOTE: Once there, scroll down the page. In the right column, under "Download options" click on "VBR MP3 Files".

THE EVER EXPANDING GENRE OF WHAT?

You know you got it bad when you see the band name Hallelujah Chicken Run Band and it seems familiar. I don't know where I saw it before but I don't think it was the hosting site. I knew they were African, but that's about it. After hearing this song I did remember that my first impression, whenever it was, was that they didn't fit into any distinct African sub-category, Cool.

The hosting blog says it's an "exciting form of afrorock called chimurenga." Another blog says "Fusing traditional Shona music with Congolese rumba and Zimbabwean rock." Huh? I guess I ain't got it that bad.

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Listen:
Hallelujah Chicken Run Band - Tamba Zimba Navashe mp3 at For the Sake of the Song

THE BAND FROZE, AWED BY JULIUS

There are two African musicians that I search for periodically and never seem to find anything that I haven't run into before. Ebo Taylor and Orlando Julius. Last night I was jazzed, I ran into two from Orlando Julius with The Heliocentrics, from a fairly recent LP (2014). It's good stuff. I gotta hand it to the Heliocentrics, they're good students. I've heard stuff they did with Mulatu Astatke and it was pretty damn good as well.

Tonight I ran into a Ebo Taylor cut that I hadn't heard and that kind of sealed the deal. So, here's a couple from Julius and three from Taylor (two have been posted before). Do check out the video below, Julius with the Heliocentrics live in 2013, a spry seventy year old blowin' face. You know who I'd really dig being? That woman dancing. Imagine not just being there but being in the middle of it and having the freedom to shake it, and do it barefoot. Shit. Fucking YouTube. Now the perfect fantasy day will have to be edited. Again.

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Listen:
Orlando Julius with The Heliocentrics - Love Thy Neighbor mp3 at Soul Donuts
Orlando Julius with The Heliocentrics - Jaiyede Afro mp3 at Soul Donuts
Ebo Taylor - Ayesama mp3 at Bama Love Soul
Ebo Taylor - Victory mp3 at Mixtape Riot
Ebo Taylor - Mizin mp3 at Mixtape Riot

THE GHANA CONNECTION

Guy Warren. I knew that name from somewhere. That's what I thought when I first shuffled through the used LPs that my younger brother gave me for Christmas. He knows the evolution of my taste and can pretty much guess where it's headed since the last time we saw each other. We still compare notes. So only one selection was familiar to me, a Cal Tjader, mid-sixties vintage. The Guy Warren LP stuck out to me though. Not only was the name familiar, but the album cover was striking. In particular, the juxtaposition of the cheesy "Living Stereo" banner up top, seen on the top of all manners of vinyl cheese of that era, and the photo of a shirtless man, mouth wide open, beating on an African drum with a big ol' savage fire raging behind him. It looked like any number of savage looking LP covers of that time (1959). Les Baxter comes to mind, but there were others, many others.

My brother shot an email to me yesterday asking if I'd listened to any of the albums yet, and I was kind of embarrassed to have to cop to having only listened to the Tjader LP. (I was on a Cal Tjader kick.) So last night I picked up the others and was trying to decide what to listen to next. Let's listen to this Guy Warren, what the hell. I flip the cover over to check the liner notes to see if the guy had any cred. There it was, "Blood Brothers". Ho-ly shit. That's where I'd heard the name before! He was the guy that did "Blood Brothers" with Ginger Baker on Baker's Strativarious LP. The one on this LP was every bit as wild as the one on the Baker LP, but with African drums. I've posted the Baker version many times, but I'd never even looked into the Guy Warren name, so I didn't know his version existed. This answered one question. Which is, how did someone named Guy Warren end up on Baker's LP for the one song, when the rest of the album was done with a bunch of Fela's mob (including drummer Tony Allen if I remember correctly)? Now I kinda see what happened.

So this is all one big fat ass bonus night. I realize the Warren/Baker connection. I dig on the Warren LP. I get to research Warren. And there appears to be a lot written about him. This is just sort of a "Hey, check this!" and now you're on your own.

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Listen:
Guy Warren - Blood Brothers mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Ginger Baker with Guy Warren - Blood Brothers mp3 at Likembe
Guy Warren - Love, The Mystery of mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Art Blakey - Love, The Mystery of (streaming) at YouTube Cover of Warren's original
The full LP:
The Guy Warren Sounds - Themes For African Drums at Beware of the Blog All eight songs in individual mp3s
Visit:
Guy Warren - Themes for African Drums at Night of the Living Vinyl Excellent review and profile.

SPEAR SAVES THE DAY

Burning Spear dragged me right out of a funk tonight. Not that his music is all that uplifting. What was uplifting was hearing this extended version of an early Studio One recording of "Rocking Time", reminded of how much I loved Burning Spear, how much I love music in general. That's all it took. Kicked the funk right on it's ass. The Zara Moussa cut was the very next song I listened to and made for a perfect chaser.

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Listen:
Burning Spear - Rocking Time mp3 at Pixie Radio 1974
Zara Moussa - Soyeya mp3 at Awesome Tapes From Africa

TOGO PARTY

This is one that will last all of thirty seconds for many of you. A few will end up losing a couple hours. Hey, it's good and chances are you haven't heard it. I heard for the first time a couple days ago and I still haven't looked further, so have at it. Lazy week. I'll just bookmark something.

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Listen:
Orchestre Abass - Shamarin Banza mp3 at For the Sake of the Song

HOWDY FROM THE HELL AWAY FROM HERE

Okay, first off, you've no doubt noticed that fantastic album cover above. Simple, no over-designed nonsense. Inoffensive font, nice color contrast with a beautiful woman to boot. Hell yes I clicked.

Akova Akoussah's "I Tcho Tchass" is awesome. Dreamy, smokey, like a torch singer. The vocals are in a language I don't understand which only adds to the song being beyond a song, or really maybe the whole point of song. This thing, this ethereal blob.

After that, a completely different band, Les Ambassadeurs Du Motel De Bamako (above), every bit as evening changing. After listening to it their "M’bouram Mousso", I kept playing it, three times in a row, to try and figure out why I liked music like theirs. Yes, it's remotely like Fela, African music that jams and has an unusual assortment of instruments, but why do I like Fela? It's because music like that takes me out of here, away from all sorts of toxic American shit, away from work, bills, cleaning the toilet. When I listen to music like that, I'm in some sort of place-less orb. Ain't nothing wrong with that.

The hosting site, Aquarium Drunkard posted these two songs, and a handful of others. They discourage direct linking to the mp3s, but if you go there, you can click on the song titles to get them. The post is about Akoussah and Sonafric Records and it is a worthy exit.

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Listen:
Akova Akoussah - Sonafric Records at Aquarium Drunkard Eight assorted songs from the Sonafric Records label. Go there to get them. Don't forget the Les Ambassadeurs Du Motel De Bamako cut.

GOOD SHIT MAYNARD

A band called the Flaming Souls. I don't care what they look like, what their record covers look like, where they're from or anything at all about the band. I will click, on the merit of their band name. It got my attention, just as they had hoped for five decades ago. The click paid off. It is South African soul jazz. I don't really like the term soul jazz, but that's what, I guess, this stuff is. It is good stuff, just weird enough production to let you know what the budget was and were it wasn't recorded. Think Booker T, only stoned.

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Listen:
The Flaming Souls - Souly Mama mp3 at Soul Safari
The Flaming Souls - Soul Again mp3 at Soul Safari
The Flaming Souls - Two more at Soul Safari

THE MOST FAMOUS TAASUKAT IN DAKAR

This sucker may have opened up an entirely new can of worms. This I know: the music is from Senegal, is highly rhythmic and very intense. To quote the poster at Awesome Tapes From Africa (who also happens to have reissued the LP), the first song, "Dieuleul Dieuleul", is "completely insane". True, it is. He/She also described "an aggressive verbal flow thought to presage rap". I was thinking just that. Really.

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Listen:
Aby Ngana Diop — Dieuleul Dieuleul (streaming) at YouTube
Visit:
Aby Ngana Diop - Short profile at Awesome Tapes From Africa
More African music in the old posts

THE BEAT BEHIND AFROBEAT

Check it, Tony Allen, just chillin' in his flip flops and bunhuggers with the ol' lady, with that guy that's always lurking around in the background. Dude never goes home. Allen was the drummer that played behind Fela Kuti for years. To celebrate that chill shot above, here's three cuts. At the bottom is a link to a thing he did for Red Bull Academy about his early years, from first picking up the sticks to discovering Art Blakey's music, developing his own sound, and quitting his day job to go full time with Fela. The power of bunhuggers.

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Listen:
Tony Allen - Elewon Po (Too Many Prisoners) mp3 at Le Chic (?) Radio Edit
Tony Allen - Secret Agent mp3 at Honorama
Tony Allen - Jealousy mp3 at Dub Lab
Visit:
When Tony Allen Met Fela Kuti at Red Bull Academy

DUDE, THOSE PANTS DON'T MATCH.

Never thought I'd see the day when Fela would be comfort music, but somehow he got in there, on that list of artists that I can always return to, the ones with so much recorded output that as much as I like them, I know full well that there will always be stuff of theirs that I haven't heard. James Brown, Howlin' Wolf, Jerry Lee Lewis, Aretha, all the jazz guys, surf, garage,...shit, the list just goes on and on.

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Listen:
Fela Kuti - Water No Get Enemy mp3 at Miss Trade
Fela Kuti - Shakara mp3 at Essentially Eclectic
Fela Kuti - Mistake mp3 at Soul Donuts
Fela Kuti - Lady mp3 at ATumblr (?)
More Fela in past posts (scroll down)

DIG THIS DETOUR

I'm all over the place tonight. After hearing Franco's "Tika Kondima Na Zolo", I got lost, and before I get real lost I thought I'd hep you to this song and some other stuff. First, who's Franco? No idea. New to me, as of an hour ago. But I'm about to find out. If you want to find out too, and dig on some other Congolese coolness, dig these.

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Listen:

Franco - Tika Kondima Na Zolo at Cocoringo's Circadian Sounds
A mix:
Congolese Cool - Mix by World Service at Podomatic Hour long mix, 13 songs, one by Franco and OK Jazz. Click on "Downlod Episode" to save.

More mixes by World Service Not Congolese, but still cool
Visit:
On Sort OK - Article about three early OK Jazz EPs at World Sevice

Franco and OK Jazz - Profile at Retro Africa

SAME PUBLICIST AS JANDEK, I SWEAR.

It's not often that you go looking for a back story of an artist and realize that there is so little information available that it almost seems like the story is being repressed. Mention William Onyeabor around anyone that knows Nigerian music, even the experts, and you'll see head scratching. No one knows much about him other than what is in his music. His albums have been reissued but record labels, journalists, collectors and musicologists trying to fill in the gaps find themselves practically skunked. Even the few that have traveled to Nigeria, tracked him down and actually talked to him, come away with more questions than answers. It is inconceivable to most people that someone would make music, purposefully keep the lowest of low profiles, and not grant interviews, shunning parties, press and publicity altogether. I have my own theory why but I'm keeping my trap shut. I have to see if there's anything out there that disproves it, and with what little info there is and how seldom a new angle comes out, it could take years.

Watch the video linked below and read what little there is online. See if you can figure it out. Let's just say that involves studies in Russia, a return to Nigeria, a failed film business, an unlikely career change, an arsenal of synthesizers, keyboards, and studio equipment rarely seen in Nigeria, and an unknown source of funding. Sounds like some sort of heavy duty caper to me.

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Listen:
William Onyeabor - Body and Soul mp3 at Beardo Disco (?)
William Onyeabor - When the Going is Smooth mp3 at 360 Nobs (?)
William Onyeabor - Love Is Blind mp3 at Glitz and Armour (?)
Video:
Fantastic Man - A Film About William Onyeabor at YouTube 31 minutes
Visit:
William Onyeabor at Wikipedia
An Elusive Mystery Man of Music at New York Times
William Onyeabor at Luaka Bop