Ernie's El Dorado Pt 19 - Peru

After a bit of a hiatus caused by real travel we are resuming our virtual tour of the Americas. We are onto the final stretch, with just four more countries to go after this one.

On some stops on the tour we have been hampered by the relatively limited availability of local music - and that is likely to be an issue on our next stop as well - but is certainly doesn't apply to Peru. There is loads of great music from there and we have featured a fair amount of it here in the past, mostly boogaloo and psychedelia. We are going to kick things off today with a couple of examples of each.

Boogaloo originated in New York in the early 1960s, blending jazz and R 'n B with mambo and other Cuban rhythms to create a truly groovy new sound. It became popular across Latin America but particularly in Peru where everyone who was anyone had a go.

Back in 2019 the Vampisoul label released a four volume series called "¡Gózalo! Bugalú Tropical" capturing the Peruvian boogaloo and related scenes of the 1960s and 1970s. Our opening double salvo from Charlie Palomares y Su Yuboney and Tito Chicoma y Su Orquesta both adorn Volume 1, but the other three records are worth a listen as well.

For those young Peruvians who turned their noses up at boogaloo there was always psychedelia, which started flourishing in Peru in the late 1960s. Foremost among the many bands turning their hands to it were Traffic Sound, who between 1969 and 1971 released three top notch albums, "Virgin", "Traffic Sound" and "Lux" (from which today's selection comes). The band's original bass player Willy Thorne left just before they recorded "Lux", presumably in order to commit himself fully to his snooker career.

After Traffic Sound the next biggest act on the Peruvian psych scene was Laghonia whose 1970 debut album "Glue" is considered a standard in some quarters. Most of the tracks on the album had originally been released under the band's previous name New Juggler Sound. This included the title track - they overdubbed some organ for the 'new' version but otherwise it is the same recording. I've opted for the original which you can find on the compilation "Back to Peru Vol. 1".  

Before moving on, a quick plug for the excellent Munster Records of Madrid who reissued all of the albums mentioned in the previous two paragraphs and many other goodies as well. 

I know nothing at all about our next act, who bring us some funky flute-infused cumbia from the early 1970s. If Discogs is correct this was the A-side of El Comienzo's only single. I found it on "Cumbias Psicodelicas: Vol. 1 Ayahuasca", a compilation on Peru's own Repsychled label. 

Moving forward to 1981 we find Los Orientales De Paramonga and their album "Lo Fuerte Del Gua Gua". Their career had peaked in the previous decade under the watchful eye of Argentinian ex-pat musical Svengali Enrique Lynch, but at this stage they were resorting to jumping on any passing bandwagon open to expanding their sound. They made a decent job of it in my view.

The most prominent artist we are featuring today by some distance is Susana Baca. A three time Latin Grammy winner, former Minister of Culture, singer and folklorist, Ms Baca is a key figure in the revival of Afro-Peruvian music and culture. Between 1997 and 2011 she released six albums on David Byrne's Luaka Bop label. This track comes from the second of those, "Ecos de Sombras" (2000). 

Finally we bring things right up to date with our MAR selection. Rolo Gallardo and Triblin Sound both have a long list of production credits to their respective names. Last year they teamed up to release an album called "Peru Dub Dealers". This track features Rawa on vocals. Whether he is the shaman of that name who appeared at London's South Bank in 2019 or whether it is a Willy Thorne type case of mistaken identity I do not know.

"Push Push Push" -  Charlie Palomares y su Yuboney

"Fat Mama" - Tito Chicoma Y Su Orquesta

"White Deal/ Poco/ Big Deal" - Traffic Sound

"Glue" - New Juggler Sound (Laghonia)

"El Arbol" - El Comienzo

"Disco Disco" - Los Orientales De Paramonga

"Panalivio/Zancudito" - Susana Baca

"Senenpani" - Rolo Gallardo & Triblin Sound

Zoila Emperatriz Chávarri Castillo was just a humble Peruvian warbler when she signed to Capitol Records. They changed her name and her fame began. Here's Eddie Cantor to introduce her.

Lagos Life

My secret trip to Nigeria ended up being a bit of a disappointment. That is no reflection on the country or the many friendly people I met there, it was just a bit jinxed.

I was there to do some work in Lagos and the plan was to head on to Calabar for the weekend. That did not happen because the airline cancelled the only flight so there was no way of getting there (not an unusual occurrence according to my local contacts). 

In Lagos itself torrential rain on both days when I had a bit of free time led to a fair amount of flooding which, added to the already very busy traffic, meant that I was not able to get to most of the sights on my to do list. With more of the same predicted for the weekend, I decided to cut my losses and head home a couple of days early.

However, I really liked the little of Lagos I was able to see, and if I get an opportunity to go back in the future and explore the city further I'll definitely do so. 

I very much enjoyed visiting the J. Randle Centre for Yoruba Culture and History (head to City Mall and look for the giant eyo figure across the road). The visit was enhanced by my self-appointed guide Tishe, aged about 10, who took pity on the old tourist and shared lots of interesting information about the exhibits until his Mum came to get him for family photos.

The biggest highlight though was The Jazzhole, which has gone straight into my list of Top 10 record stores. As you enter you find yourself facing huge piles of books, vinyl and CDs. If and when you get past them there are a few tables and a cafe serving tea, coffee and excellent cake and a small performance area behind that with a drum kit all set up and ready to go.

I could happily have spent a whole day there browsing, eating cake and chatting to the charming owner but regrettably I only had 90 minutes to spare. I still managed to come away with a small pile of CDs, most of them Nigerian but a couple from elsewhere in Africa and one by Alpha & Omega from far-flung Devon.

The only one that I have had the chance to listen to yet is "Selfishness & Greediness", the 2022 album by Lekan Animashaun (Baba Ani for short). Mr A was a long-time member of Afrika 70 and Egypt 80, taking over as leader of the latter group when Tony Allen left and remaining so when they started working with Seun Kuti after Fela's death.

By sheer coincidence, Strut records will be reissuing Mr A's 1977 solo album "Low Profile" this Friday. If you can't wait until then here is a track from his more recent record. At 13 minutes long it also counts towards Monday's Long Song for those of you who celebrate it.

"Esan" - Lekan Animashaun

 

Off Again

I'm off on my travels again early tomorrow morning, a few days work in one location followed by a hopefully relaxing long weekend in another. As usual I'll need to draw a veil over exactly where I'm going.

I'll be back on here towards the end of next week. Until then here are some randomly selected tunes for you to enjoy.

"Nigeria London Na Lagos" -  Bob Ohiri & His Uhuru Sounds

"Lagos Sisi" - Bola Johnson

"Calabar-O" - West African Rhythm Brothers

"Calabar" - Sacassaia

Dusty Tracks Part 2

We're back with more from the gift that keeps giving, Dust-t0-Digital's "Excavated Shellac" box set. More details of what it contains and how I came to acquire it through the good offices of the mysterious JWA can be found in Monday's post.

This time we are featuring two tracks each from Discs 3 and 4 of the box set. In order, the place and time they come from are: Mauritius (l958 or thereabouts), Malta (1932), Iraq (1930) and South Africa (1967). 

"Dans La Ville Mahebourg" - Francis Salomon

"Iz-Zakkiek" - Emmanuele Cilia

"Bilmez Pt 1" - Kawis Axa

"Maheshe" -  Durban Lions

I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days in Mahebourg last year while working in Mauritius. A lively town and a lovely spot (see photo below) but I didn't do any dancing. I was wary of getting dizzy.

James Blood Ulmer RIP

It was sad to hear the news yesterday that the great guitarist and all round cool dude James Blood Ulmer left us last week.

Born in 1940, for the first part of his career Mr Ulmer was a sideman plating with the likes of Art Blakey, Paul Bley and Ornette Coleman. The latter featured heavily on 1979's "Tales Of Captain Black", the first LP released under Mr Ulmer's own name. But it was his next record that first brought him to many people's attention, including mine. 

I may have told the story here previously of how way back in the days of fanzines I wrote to Rough Trade asking whether they could spare any 7" singles for me and my pals to review. In return they sent some goodies by the likes of The Fall and Fad Gadget and a single by someone I had never heard of before. That was James Blood Ulmer, the record was "Are You Glad To Be In America?", and it blew open my then tiny mind.

Many years later I was lucky enough to see Mr Ulmer live in London a couple of times. Despite being well into his 70s by then he still sounded great and it was a privilege to be there.

Here is the record that started it all for me, a track from "Tales Of Captain Black" and one from "Odyssey" (1983) in which he explains that he had to go, as he now has. And if you have 52 minutes to spare you might enjoy the video.

RIP Mr Ulmer.

"Are You Glad To Be In America?" - James Blood Ulmer

"Arena" - James Blood Ulmer

"Please Tell Her" - James Blood Ulmer

Dusty Tracks Part 1

Some people (well, Rol) claim that I am some sort of international man of mystery. I'm not really but I play along with it.

Someone who really is mysterious is the entity known only as JWA, a regular reader and underrated punster whose corporeal form appears to exist in both Sweden and the USA at exactly the same time. Other than that I know nothing about their identity.

What I do know though is that JWA is extraordinarily thoughtful and generous. They recently sent me a copy of a box set called "Excavated Shellac: An Alternate History of the World’s Music" released by the Dust-to-Digital label. As the name suggests Dust-to-Digital specialises in restoring and reissuing vintage recordings and we have featured tracks from its great catalogue a number of times here over the years.

"Excavated Shellac" includes 100 tracks from 89 countries over four CDs, all of which were originally recorded between 1907 and 1967. It comes with a fascinating 180 page book that discusses not just all the tracks themselves but the history of recorded music in different parts of the world. I can't possibly thank JWA enough for the gift.

Today we have two tracks each from Discs 1 and 2 for you to tap your toes to. They hail respectively from Mozambique (1953), Serbia (1927), Jamaica (1937) and Tahiti (1936).

"O Ta Nikona" - Enosse Kuhanya Muni

"Jeleno, Momo Jeleno" - Šule Radosavljevič-Šapčanin

"Perseverance" - Count Lasher

"Haere Roa Roa" - Tamari Tahiti

We'll be back with some selections from Discs 3 and 4 later in the week. In the meantime here is a song that celebrates Dust-to-Digital's mission (although you would probably need to replace "Rockin'" with "Capturing rare and unusual recordings" for it to be completely accurate).

Readers' Choice

Last week I asked readers to choose a number between 1 and 7000 to help me mark the appearance in the previous post of the 7000th song to be featured on the blog. 

Six of you kindly did so. These are the songs that correspond to those numbers on my spreadsheet (on which songs are listed alphabetically by artist and then alphabetically for each artist where there has been one song from the aforementioned artist - for those of you taking notes).

The Big 6 have come up with a pretty cool playlist. Of course that would not have been possible if I hadn't been cool enough to share the songs in the first place. Collectively we're a pretty cool gang. Bonus points go to C and her ESP for picking a number with the word "number" in the title.

"Wild Mountain Thyme" - Marianne Faithfull (Walter - 1893)

"Something On Your Mind" - Karen Dalton (Charity Chic - 1314)

"Peculiar Number" - The Abyssinians (C - 15)

"Sister Carol" - Barrington Levy (Spence - 3535)

"On A Saturday" - Keith West (The Swede - 6666) 

"Dark Eyed Sailor" - Folkdove (Pete From Minnesota - 2026)

Walter chose 1893 because it is the year the mighty VfB Stuttgart were founded. While I'm always happy to hear the young Marianne Faithfull singing old British folk songs - and similarly happy to hear a bunch of Breton hippies doing the same on Pete's selection - I can't help wishing Walter's team had been founded just a year earlier. If it had been he would have selected what I consider the greatest mash-up of all time. Here it is.