Afrobeat 414 Items

This time the Polyversal Souls come along with the Bolga All-Stars, named after their hometone Bolgatanga up in the north of Ghana. The Bolga All-Stars are a choir consisting of the leading local Kologo and Frafra-Gospel artists: Guy One, Alogte Oho, Florence Adooni, Bola Anafo, Amodoo, Ana'abugre and Lizzy Amaliyenga.
This is Bolga! is a hymn of praise about the very vital music scene coming out of Bolgatanga. After an instrumental introduction with solos by Barou Kouyate on the Ngoni and Christian Magnusson on the trumpet, radio Dj Messy from Bolgatanga's leading station World FM is shouting out all names of the singers, before the choir finally comes in and take lead. Carried on by a heavily rocking rhythm section the piece reaches its peak throughout the eloquent solo of saxophone viking Søren Jagtkylling.

This is part three and the last of the collaboration series between Ethopia's legendary soul singer Alemayehu Eshete and the Philophon house band The Polyversal Souls.
On the A-side you hear Alemayehu's classic song Addis Abeba Bete in an intimate live performance. This recording happend during a cultural exchange programm organized by Galerie Listros, Berlin's finest gallery for Ethopian art, with support from the Bundeskulturstiftung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland.
The flip side is the complimentary portrait to the recently released Portrait of Alemayehu (Daytime) - now, on Portrait of Alemayehu (Night-time), you get an idea of the masters fiery stage persona as it is documentated on the A-side. It's night-time now - booooooom!

Afro7 is back and this time we’ve dug deep in the CBS Kenya vaults and found four fantastic soulful reggae tracks of early 80’s origin! First song is the bouncy ‘FIRE’ by Kenyan Black Savage Band (played out on the Worldwide show by Gilles Peterson back in the start of Summer 2018) Track two on the first side is Nigerian Sheila and Desmond Majek’s laidback soulful ‘GOT THE FEELIN’ and flip it for two fantastic tracks by the Kenya coastal outfit Ovid, check out the synth drum machine laden KARIBUNI and the party number OPERATOR. Mastered by Frank The Carvery. EP comes in super deluxe cardboard jacket made in Thailand with silk screened coastal-inspired artwork made by California resident Steve Roden. Limited to 500 copies, one copy per customer.

Dexter Story is an artistic spirit in the truest sense of the phrase. From his work as a multi-instrumentalist for acts like the Sa-Ra Creative Partners, to his management role with Snoop Dogg and his turn producing Daymé Arocena’s 2017 album Cubafonia, Story understands the business from every conceivable angle.
Initially inspired by the music and cultures pervasive throughout the Horn of Africa, Story translated his experiences there into his previous album Wondem, followed closely by the single Wejene Aola featuring jazz luminary Kamasi Washington, both on Soundway Records. If Wondem was a brief glance into Story’s new creative vision, Bahir is a pinpoint refinement of that purpose, the fine-tuning and expanding of the world he created on his Soundway debut.
On Bahir, Story steps in front of those influences and melds his world into the one he fell in love with so strongly while in Africa. One way in which he’s done so is by incorporating musicians from both sides of this coin. LA luminaries are featured throughout, as are African contemporaries he encountered throughout his travels. Sudan Archives gives a show-stealing vocal performance on “Gold”, while the Ethiopian producer Endeguena Mulu adds impenetrable and psychedelic texture to the album’s title track.
So Bahir finds the polymath musician not stuck between two worlds, but as a member of both. We get Ethiopian jazz tonalities, Tuareg grooves, ekista dance rhythms, Afro-funk, Somalian soul and forays into more contemporary jazz rhythms, too. Angelenos like Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Josef Leimberg give the record its backbone, while African artists like the Ethiopian singer Hamelmal Abate give Bahir its glimmer and shine.

Mar & Sol presents the new album of the legendary band África Negra,"Alia cu Omali". New songs and some popular classics recorded between Lisbon and S.Tomé.
This album Its a reflection of the old rumba and soukous music that this epic band of São Tomé e Príncipe got us used to. They are an icon and one of the main bands of this island, representing in their music the authenticity and culture of the former Portuguese colony on the equatorial meridian.
It is our mission to expand this culture and here it is the testimony in our series of Luso Afro music which could best represent São Tomé.

Guadeloupe 1986. The football World Cup has all the Islanders' eyes riveted to their TV sets. At every half time breaks, local TV channel RFO broadcasts a music video on repeat: ‘’Tou’t Jou Pa Min’m". Max Rambhojan, the local singer responsible for this monster tune, has arrived.
In the video, he effortlessly sings and kickstarts a joyous street party with his band, Show Man, his dancers, kids, friends, family and what seems like the whole neighbourhood. The song will gain cult status from then on, cementing the power of the 'Zouk Chiré' sound, a high tempo version of Zouk, highly influenced by Guadeloupe's Carnival mass drum bands. Max self-releases his first solo album on vinyl in 1985, enrolling some of the best musicians the scene has to offer: his band leader King Klero, Guy Jacquet of les Vikings de la Guadeloupe fame on production duties, Ramon Pyrmée on synths, Claude Vamur, Meliza… In 1992 a new solo album follows. By then the artists have familiarized themselves with computers and the sound has gone full-on digital. In that album Max records an updated version of his “Tou’t Jou Pa Min’m” anthem to great effect.
Reducing Max Rambhojan to a zouk artist would be a mistake. He’s first and foremost a master of Gwo-Ka, a musical practice born during the transatlantic slave trade and performed by all ethnic and religious groups of Guadeloupe. It has never ceased to exist and has become a major part of the Island folk music culture. Max Rambhojan was schooled as a kid by Gwo-Ka pioneer Guy Conquette, and quickly joined the backing band of another legend, Ti-Sélès. That sound is the root of his particular style, especially vibrant on two tracks in his repertoire: “Cecilia” and “On Jou Matin”, both featured on this release's b-side. A touch of Spiritual Jazz is also palpable, allowing a magical vibe to spread, giving birth to some of the deepest music from this era.
In 2019, Max still performs Gwo-Ka every week-end in Guadeloupe and also hosts a show on local radio Media Tropical, 88.1FM. Secousse and Hot Mule are proud to present those 4 lost gems on wax and digital, carefully restored and remastered.

Cover has tiny wear, stuffed corners. Vinyl has some scuffs and light scratches, vinyl is close to VG+. US reissue from 2011. Limited edition. Handnumbered copy #849.

Senegalese kora master Sourakata Koite began music from pretty much day one. "All the Koite are musicians!," he says. Indeed he is a member of a family of djeli (or griot in french), the hereditary caste of musician-storyteller-historians in West Africa. After moving to Paris in the late 70s he began to play in different bands and for musicians like Manu Dibango, Toure Kounda, Mangala, Mah Damba and more. During a festival in Holland, a music producer form Plexus Records heard him and asked to make a recording. In 1984 in an old chicken coop near Delft, Koite recorded the entire album in one take, including overdubs. The rich sonics and deep sound beautifully presents Koite's virtuosic and entrancing renditions of traditional and original tunes. With the reissue of en Hollande, Awesome Tapes
From Africa continues its mission of bringing tapes posted on the ATFA website over the years, including this one, to music fans all over the world.