Roger-itis

One of the job lot of West African CDs I picked up in Paris in May is titled "Black Roger's Haute Dimension". At first I assumed this was the name of the band and that Roger had put his name on the front to distinguish it from other, bootleg versions of Haute Dimension - a bit like Brian Connolly's Sweet, for example.

But it turns out that "Haute Dimension" is the name of the album, and the man responsible is not Black Roger but Black Roger's. I cannot explain the extraneous apostrophe. As well as Roger's himself the sleeve notes list all the other musicians etc, but not one of them turns up on Google so apart from the fact that it was made in Cameroon I can tell you nothing more about it.

The album is mostly a mixture of zouk and makossa and, while nothing special, it is pleasant enough. One track that stands out stylistically is "Danser Avec Toi", which sounds as if it could have been recorded in Louisiana. Here it is with one of the zouk numbers.

"Danser Avec Toi" - Black Roger's

"Onana Embole" - Black Roger's

Here are a couple of bonus Rogers:

"New Tide" - Roger Wootton (1974)

"American Girl" - Roger McGuinn (1977)

And we finish with the greatest Roger of them all.