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Soul Jazz Records’ new Nigeria Soul Fever is their first release to explore the vast wealth of Nigerian music recorded in the 1970s. The new album comes with introductory sleeve-notes by Bill Brewster (author of Last Night A DJ Saved My Life).
Packed-full with Afro-Funk, Disco and Boogie all from Nigeria, this triple album/double CD set brings together a stunning collection of diverse West African sounds. Whilst a small handful of the artists featured (Joni Haastrup, Tee Mac, Christy Essien) have seen the light of day outside Africa, this is essentially a collection of killer tracks by an array of artists completely unknown outside of Nigeria. Artists such as Don Bruce & The Angels, Akin Richards & The Executives, Angela Starr, Jimmy Sherry & The Music Agents. It’s no surprise that these records are extremely rare and expensive to buy individually so this album will save you going broke trying to find them.
These recordings were made at a time when Nigeria’s trade restrictions banned imported records. Whilst new musical trends (such as American soul, funk, disco etc) entered and influenced the country, the local music scene remained just that – local. Consequently, these recordings remain practically unknown to anyone outside of the country.

The Label: TK Records in essence represents the city of Miami when it came to Soul/R&B
and the early stages of Disco. In 1974, George McCrae gave the label its first #1 Disco
hit with Rock Your Baby. A little more than a year after McCrae's hit, the record label
struck gold with KC & The Sunshine Band with five #1 songs on the Billboard Hot 100.
Needless to say at the height of the genre’s cultural domination TK did pretty well.
Timmy Thomas: Without a doubt, he’s most famously known for the hit song Why Can’t We
Live Together. The record topped the U.S. Billboard R&B chart, made the top three in the
Billboard Hot 100 and was charted in top 10 in many countries including the UK. A staple
in the R&B scene, he had a succesful solo career until the mid 80s, later focusing on
the writing and production side of the business.

Why Can’t We Live Together: It may have been his biggest hit, but also one that keeps
resonating to this day. A response to the devastating news coming from the war in
Vietnam, its words “No more wars, we want peace in this world, and no matter what color,
you’re still my brother.” are indicative of a time marked by the horrors of war abroad,
and the racial discrimination in America. Written and Produced by Timmy Thomas himself
solely on a Lowrey organ, and an early rhythm machine, the song however was far from
simple as its emotive message continues to provide a profound context. And even though
it’s been covered over the years by many artist including Sade and Joan Osborne, Why
Can’t We Live Together has managed to come back on the charts again in 2015, as the
instrumental backing to Drake’s Hotline Bling, which has now sold over 2 Million copies
in the U.S. Alone. Once a hit, always a hit.

Africano: When it comes to this Deep Disco cut, Africano is one of those tracks that
probably never got much shine in America, but has since become a dancefloor favorite of
underground disco DJs worldwide. Curiously, years after its release, its biggest
supporters were Italian DJs like Danielle Baldelli, Mozart and Gianni Maselli who during
the 80s played Disco, African records, American R&B, and reggae to create what has been
since become known as the Afro-Cosmic scene at the height of Club culture in the
discothèques of Northern Italy.

Emotional Rescue and Jamwax end their Capo Disco series by returning to Glen Adams and his cover of Bob Marley’s classic. The early 70s Lee Perry produced original raw sound is taken to the disco reggae dancefloors of the early 80s with a bottom heavy jam, while his Capo Crew works a killer dub flipside.
“Fussing & Fighting” was originally released on the 1971’s Soul Revolution album and for many came during the pinnacle of Bob Marley & The Wailers output, before the smoothing out of their sound during the later “Island” years. Whichever, the guidance and collaboration with Perry transformed the Wailers from a successful Ska / Rocksteady group towards a visionary, conscious, crossover phenomenon.
Perry’s in-house band, The Upsetters, lent so much to this early period, the brothers Aston and Carlton Barrett creating a perfect drum and bass bedrock. With Glen Adams on organ, the original version known simply as is an incessant, rumbling message and in that light, Adams return to it over a decade later makes justified and righteous sense.
Actually released on both Capo Disco and Marley’s own Tuff Gong, Adams’ vocal marries a disco-dub and guitar groove, dropping, in the latter half, right down to tambourine into perfectly stretched Discomix.
Things get even more laid out on “Mad Blank” aka the version. Riding the desk, “Capo” lets each instrument time and space, dropping to just a kick and dubbed piano before slowly coming back with hats, guitar and then when the bass comes, the Gospel purity of dub reggae shines, all before the teasing fade calls for a rewind. Rest and rise, Glenroy “Capo” Adams.

One of the more idiosyncratic U.S. independent labels must be the Hep’ Me imprint from New Orleans run by veteran Soulman Senator Jones. Very few of Hep’ Me's numerous releases made it out of New Orleans and the ones that did, tended to go into collections and nowhere else. Las Vegas Connection's ‘Running Back To You’ surfaced some time in the mid 1970s but there were never enough copies for it to take off. Hopefully that will change with this re-release on the original label.

Also, a lovely piece of mid-tempo soul on the flip with the stunning ‘Can't Nobody Love Me Like You Do’. Original copies are few and far between and the current price benchmark for this superior slab of New Orleans vinyl is hovering around the £250 mark. As with most of our reissues this will appeal to across-the-board scenes.