You can imagine how pleased I was to pick up something billed as "four Jimmy Reed albums on two CDs" as part of one of the regular '3 for £1' offers in our local Buddhist bookshop. But...
[Note to readers: please insert "da da da dum" or other blues riff as appropriate when reading the next bit, and make sure you have your harmonica ready so you can do a solo at the end].
When I woke up this morning/ and I opened up the case/ one CD was missing/ I had tears all down my face.
Now I only had two albums/ When I was expecting four/ Well I'm happy with what I got/ but I'm still left wanting more.
[Harmonica solo]
Well I took myself down to the river, as you do in these circumstances, and after staring into its murky depths for a while a dawning realisation crept over me that two Jimmy Reed albums for 33p is still a pretty good deal, especially when they contain such much-covered classics as "Big Boss Man" and "Baby What You Want Me To Do".
The albums in question are "Rockin' With Reed" (1959) and "Found Love" (1960), and here is a big boffo tune from both of them.
Last Sunday night found me at La Botanique in Brussels. It also found Les Deuxluxes there. This was not a coincidence.
Les Deuxluxes are a hard-rocking male-female duo that comprises Anna Frances Meyer on vocals, guitar and occasional flute and Etienne Barry on guitars and drums (simultaneously - M. Barry operates the drum kit with his feet, having presumably decided that was easier than trying to play the guitar that way). Between them they put on a cracking show.
To keep things nice and simple I have opted for the title tracks of their two albums to date in the audio section. They were released in 2016 and 2020 respectively and you can find them both on Bandcamp. You might want to pay Les Deuxluxes a visit there on Friday. And if they ever pay your town a visit you should go along.
I recently picked up a copy of Warren Zevon's "Learning To Flinch" for next to nothing. Despite being a fan for many years - as I know some of our regular readers are as well - for some reason this album has never previously crossed my path. So I snapped it up.
Released in 1993, "Learning To Flinch" was Mr Zevon's second live album. But unlike 1980's "Stand In The Fire" on which he and band rocked their socks off, on this album it is just the great man on his own recorded at assorted venues in the US, UK, Europe and Australia during 1992.
Among the 17 tracks were three new songs. Two of them subsequently popped up again on "Mutineer" in 1995, but the other never made it on to a studio album. So obviously that has to be the first pick.
For the other selection, how about an 11 minute version of one of the best songs ever written (recorded appropriately in Norway, home of the headless gunner himself)?
The opening track on "Learning To Flinch" is a suitably splendid version of "Splendid Isolation". Here is another one from around the same time on which Mr Z is accompanied by someone called Neil Young (no, I've no idea either). To that I've added two more clips from the same concert, including a cover version I had not expected to find.
I'm away working for a few days at the start of next week. See you on my return.
Welcome aboard, everyone, as the next leg of our odyssey takes us to South Sudan. After spending time here we will head on to its northern neighbour Sudan. The two were a single country until 2011 when 98% of he population of what is now South Sudan voted for independence.
South Sudan is the world's youngest officially recognised independent country, becoming a teenager back in July this year. Its early years have been troublesome with civil war, famine and many other challenges. Let us hope things improve for its citizens as it approaches adulthood.
When preparing this post I did some research to try to identify artists from previous generations born in Juba or the other towns and cities in South Sudan, but failed dismally. So all today's tunes date from the last 15 years or so.
We'll start with Mary Boyoi, who spent part of the 1990s in refugee camps in Ethiopia as a result of the civil war in Sudan, before returning home in the 2000s to undertake relief work and become a campaigner for independence.In 2009 she released "Election Jai" ("the elections are coming") and actually stood as a candidate herself.
Mary is still recording and judging by some of the videos on her YouTube channel has reinvented herself as a bit of a saucepot in recent years. Whether this has helped or hindered her political career I don't know.
Next up is Emmanuel Jal, probably the best known of today's artists. Like many of those featured in earlier legs of the journey his life story is quite extraordinary. He was a child soldier from the age of eight before being adopted by a British aid worker and smuggled out of the country to Kenya where he was educated.
It was in Kenya that he began his recording career in 2004 and he has gone on to enjoy a degree of global success, helped in part by being the subject of a documentary called "War Child" in 2008. Today's selection comes from an EP released in 2010 and was included on a 2012 album called "Sudan Votes Music Hopes Remixes" in 2012, which is were I found it. I can also recommend "Ceasefire", his collaboration with Adbel Gadir Salim, a renowned oud player from the north.
Ajak Kwai's biography starts in the same way as Mary and Emmanuel's, being displaced because of the civil war. She spent eight years in Egypt where she started performing before emigrating to Australia around the turn of the century. I have chosen a track from her 2008 album "Come Together". You can find that and her 2021 EP "Red Sands" on Bandcamp.
Gordon Koang is another South Sudanese who emigrated to Australia, albeit more recently. He happened to be there in 2013 putting on some shows for the local expats when renewed conflict broke out back home and he applied for refugee status. His music is based on the traditional music of the Nuer people. This song comes from his 2020 album "Unity".
All of which brings us to John Frog. No relation to Kermit, Crazy or the members of Paul McCartney's chorus, he was given the nickname "aguek" (meaning frog) by his parents due to him being a breech birth baby. He burst onto the scene in 2018 with "Guondo Sakit", jumping up to the top of the charts across East Africa (you know, like what a frog would do). I can do no better than bring you the hit.
We finish, as is only right and proper, with our far-famed Mandatory African Reggae slot. Barnabus Samuel is a bit of a polymath, describing himself as an artist, songwriter, activist, author, humanitarian and entrepreneur. I can't vouch for his full range of skills but his music is pretty decent. You can find several of his records on Bandcamp. This track is on "Sambara" released in 2021.
Apologies for the appalling pun in the title. No apologies for the music though, which is excellent - some proper soul music from one of the all-time greats, Mr O.V. Wright. We have one track apiece from two of his classic 70s albums, "Memphis Unlimited" (1973) and "The Bottom Line" (1978).
As a bonus I have also chucked into the mix a selection from "Four And Twenty Elders", his gospel album with The Luckett Brothers that was released posthumously in 1981. I can think of at least one regular who will enjoy that.
There aren't many O.V. Wright videos on YouTube but this one is a bit special. It is Mr Wright with the Hi! Records band live in Japan some time in the late 1970s. The picture quality is pretty ropy; if that bothers you close your eyes and revel in the sound.
While in Belfast last week I did my usual Botanic Avenue run (Time Slip records plus six charity shops) and picked up a fair number of goodies.
Among them was "Lost In The Former West", the fifth and final album by The Fatima Mansions that came out 30 years ago. Like everything else by the late great Cathal Coughlan it is well worth a listen.
As much as I like The Fatima Mansions I have really always been more of a Microdisney man which probably explains why I have picked one of the mellower tracks for you along with their cover version of the old Walker Brothers song.
We'll hand the video slot over to J.D. Souther who left us a couple of days ago. When you got him away from The Eagles he could knock out some top tunes. RIP Mr Souther.
Our journey through Africa is taking a slight detour today to visit a country we inadvertently drove straight past - Sierra Leone.
We should have gone there directly from the Seychelles but I foolishly deleted my list of Sierra Leonean artists from the document I have been using to plan posts and by the time I noticed we were already in South Africa. Many apologies to all concerned. Better late than never, we have now arrived and I hope you will agree it was worth the wait.
We'll start in the 1970s, an era when big bands and orchestras bossed the scene all over West Africa. We have featured some of them on our earlier visits to the likes of Benin and Senegal so it seems only right that we should do the same in Sierra Leone.
The band in question is the mighty Afro National. If you buy only one greatest hits album by a Sierra Leonean band from the 1970s this week make it their "African Experimentals (1972-1979)". It includes today's track, first released in 1972 on their self-titled debut album.
One of Afro National's friendly local rivals back in the day was Muyei Power aka Orchestre Muyei. A popular live act across the region, they made very few recordings before splitting up in 1979. But somehow in 2014 Soundway Records managed to track down some sessions that the band had done while touring in California in 1976 and released them as "Sierra Leone in 1970s USA".
Next we turn to the man considered by many to be the king of palm wine music, the late great S.E. Rogie. Palm wine evolved in Liberia and Sierra Leone in the first half of the last century when local musicians fused traditional melodies with calypso rhythms learnt from visiting sailors, becoming popular in the 1950s and in turn being an influence on the development of highlife music.
Mr Rogie started recording locally in the 1960s and later in life lived first in San Francisco and then London. It was during this period that he really started getting recognised beyond Sieera Leone and neighbouring countries. This track comes from his 1991 album "The New Sounds of S. E. Rogie", recorded three years before his death. That particular album is not on Bandcamp but you can find his final album and two volumes of his 1960s recordings there.
From palm wine we move to bubu, the traditional music of the Temne people from northern Sierra Leone. Janka Nabay took it on himself to modernise the sound, and after emigrating to the US in the early 2000s to escape the civil war released a number of albums on Luaka Bop and other labels before sadly passing away in 2018. Today's selection comes from 2012's "En Yay Sah".
You often hear tales of musicians overcoming hardships before achieving success, but few have had to ensure quite as many as Sorie Kondi, as his biography explains. A blind street musician, a chance encounter with an American recording engineer gave him the chance to have his music heard by a wider audience, a chance he grabbed with both hands. This track is from his 2013 album "Thogolobea". You can also find some more recent recordings (as The Kondi Band) on Bandcamp.
Remember what I was saying about Sorie Kondi facing more hardship than most? Well since typing that I have learnt that Mash P, the man occupying the MAR slot in this post, was not just a street youth but a child soldier in the civil war. This possibly tops Mr Kondi. Either way, Mash P's experiences certainly entitle him to ask "Mr President, Wat Ar Gwan?" (featured below and the title track of his 2016 album).
I cannot confirm whether the P stands for potatoes.
I am back in the saddle after a very enjoyable break on the Antrim coast. I would recommend it as a place to visit. In the unlikely event that anyone is interested my holiday snaps are on Flickr.
I have also managed to fit in a couple of gigs since I was last here. On Friday just gone we were up in London's fashionable Walthamstow to see the mighty Sahra Halgan backed by three fuzzed-up funky Frenchmen.
I did a feature on Ms Halgan a month back so won't repeat all that now. Suffice to say that she and the band put on an excellent show and if you haven't already bought her current album "Hiddo Dhawr" then you really should. Only the willfully perverse would not enjoy it.
The Friday before found me in the back room of the House of McDonnell public house in Ballycastle (Wee Tom's to the locals) enjoying Eleanor Dunsdon and Gregor Black's slightly skew-whiff take on the traditional music of Scotland and Ireland.
As you can see they use the conventional folk instrumentation of harp and drums but do some interesting things with it. Think Pentangle with a harp replacing the guitars and double bass and you will be on the right sort of lines.
Eleanor and Gregor are based in Glasgow where they no doubt hang out with Charity Chic and all the other cool kids. Gregor is from Northern Ireland and his parents, who I had a nice chat to, have been acting as roadies for their first Irish tour.
Eleanor and Gregor currently have an EP out which I would encourage you to investigate. It is called "Let No Man" and I have added a sample below along with one from Sahra Halgan's album.
So it turns out I completely missed out a country on our African odyssey (apologies to the good folks of Sierra Leone, it will be put right). It is one of a number of signs recently that I could probably do with a break.
It is fortunate then that I am off on holiday tomorrow. I will be spending a week or so wending my way along the Antrim coast and then a night in a neat little town they call Belfast before heading home.
Among the places I am planning to visit are Giant's Causeway - hence the Taj Mahal song - and Rathlin Island. It was from Rathlin that Marconi and pals sent the world's first commercial wireless telegraphy message in 1898, so a track from Thomas Dolby's "Golden Age Of Wireless" album seems apt.
It is also apt because we went to see Mr Dolby in action the weekend before last. It was one of three gigs I have been to in the last fortnight, all very different but all very good. The others were by Lola Kirke and leading purveyors of souped up traditional Indonesian songs Nusantara Beat, so I have added a number from both of them as well.
To reach Rathlin you the ferry from Ballycastle and I will be spending a couple of nights there. If I had been in Ballycastle last week I would have been able to join the fun at the annual Ould Lammas Fair. I missed that but will buy some dulse and yellowman if there is any left. No, not that Yellowman.
That's it for now. I'll be back here towards the end of next week. Stay groovy until then.
In belated recognition of Sir Elvis Costello's 70th birthday earlier in the week here are a couple of tracks from his 1986 album "King Of America". It is one of my favourite albums of his and a fine reminder of when he went by the name of Mr Show.
It also gives us the excuse to lead off the videos with what is not just the best cover version of a song from "King Of America" but one of the best covers of anything ever in the whole world.
If you are expecting the usual rigorously researched and meticulously mixed playlist today you are out of luck. It is not because I don't care about the music of South Africa, but because I care too much.
By way of background, my family emigrated to South Africa in the early 1970s. I moved back to the UK in 1979 and have been here ever since but a lot of my family are still over there and I visit them at least once a year. As a result I have acquired a huge amount of South African music over the last 50 years or so.
I set off with the intention of trying to bring some order to the chaos, but even after rigorous cutting and hiving off the stars of Tsonga Disco into a separate post I was left with a 'shortlist' of around 100 artists. So then I gave up and just picked 12 songs I like. I make no claims that my selection is remotely representative of the South African music scene. It isn't.
Today's tracks are mostly from the last century (but then so am I). There is more pop, soul and jazz than traditional music. Only Hugh Masekela and Brenda Fassie have any sort of international profile, while some of the others are barely known even in their own homes. And for the MAR slot I have ignored the late great Lucky Dube and gone for a poet and the Kalahari Surfers.
Where the artist in question has music on Bandcamp I have added a link under their name. Other than that you are on your own.
The videos are a bit more orderly. We start with what I believe is still the biggest-selling South African single in Europe and follow that with what I personally consider to be two of the best pop records ever made (watch out for the birds in the Mahotella Queens video). Then we have someone I went to school with, and finally Lucky Dube because I felt bad about denying him the MAR slot.
Later in the week we will reach the 45th stop in our African odyssey and it is a big one. I probably have more music from South Africa that from anywhere else other than the UK and US and we will not have the time to travel down many of the byways and even some of the highways.
Long-standing readers may recall that one of the reasons I started this blog way back in the mists of time was to promote one particular style of South African music, Tsonga Disco. So I thought I should do a separate post dedicated to the stars of that scene rather than risk missing them en route. I will leave it to CC to decide whether this forms part of the official canon or not.
The Tsonga or Shangaan ethnic group are found mostly in the Limpopo province in north-east South Africa and southern Mozambique, although as with the other ethnic groups in South Africa many in the current and earlier generations moved to Johannesburg in search of work.
It is generally agreed that the founding father of modern Tsonga music is the late General M.D. Shirinda, who was the first to merge traditional Tsonga call and response singing and rhythms with modern instruments in the 1970s and who together with his backing singers the Gaza Sisters can be heard on Paul Simon's "Graceland".
Two camps then developed, the traditionalists who more or less stuck with the General's formula and those who headed in more of a poppier direction (Tsonga Disco). The undisputed king of the traditional wing is Thomas Chauke who is still going strong at 72 with roughly 40 albums under his belt.
On the Tsonga Disco side the official lineage is: Paul Ndlovu, who shone brightly but briefly in the mid 1980s before he died in a car crash in 1986; Peta Teanet (1988-96), who also died prematurely when he was shot by a policeman; Penny Penny (1994 to date) and General Muzka (2007 to date).
Papa Penny and General M has both dodged the curse of the disco kings to date, and Muzka has stayed active. Penny had more or less taken up politics full time until the 2013 reissue of his debut album "Shaka Bundu" on Awesome Tapes From Africa led to a revival of interest in his music. He is now dabbling and occasionally performing again.
But perhaps the most important figure in the development of Tsonga Disco in the last 30 years is Joe Shirimani, who is to Tsonga Disco what Giorgio Moroder is to disco.
As well as making great records in his own right Mr Shirimani discovered Penny Penny and co-wrote and produced most of his early records, then did the same for General Muzka and other major artists such as Esta M and Benny Mayengani (who arguably has a claim to be the current king but whose tendency to fall out with and bad mouth everyone he works with including Mr Shirimani makes him hard to praise).
Here is a video from each of them apart from General Shirinda. Astute viewers may spot a passing resemblance between Penny Penny and my own handsome profile in the top corner. Its a coincidence.
I may have mentioned before that I have been a subscriber to eMusic for many years. I wouldn't join now as the current monthly rate is £17 for 40 tracks and all the main indie labels have long since left the platform, but on my historical deal I only pay a third of that and I mostly use it to experiment with some of the considerable amount of African, Asian and Brazilian music on the site.
It was in that spirit of exploration that I invested in a few tracks from "Konkani Songs - Music From Goa Made In Bombay", a compilation on the Trikont label which contains Goan pop songs from the 1950s and 1960s. Some of the artists like Mohammed Rafi were also active in Bollywood, hence the reference to Bombay I assume.
The blurb that goes with the album is very misleading. For example, it claims that konkani is a single musical style whereas it is actually the local language. Wikipedia lists multiple different styles sung in konkani.
It is then claimed that this fictitious single style has its roots in liturgical music introduced to the region in the Portuguese colonial era. Unless they got mariachi bands to accompany the liturgy that doesn't explain Bab Peter.
Best just to revel in the mystery and enjoy the groovy sounds.
I happened to visit Epping at the far end of London's glamorous Central Line one day last week and took the opportunity to pop into some of the local charity shops. One had a small selection of CDs going for 20p each so I took a punt on an album by a 1990s band whose very existence had completely passed me by at the time.
I'm talkin' 'bout Prolapse (to quote a line from the famous 1970s public service announcement featuring the music of Kool & The Gang when they were still kool). They came out of Leicester, although the male singer's accent suggests he hailed originally from fair Caledonia, and released three albums before splitting in 2000.
I bought the third and final album, 1999's "Ghosts Of Dead Aeroplanes". I wasn't too sure on first listen but second time round I found it growing on me. See what you think. If you like what you hear you can find most of Prolapse's back catalogue, including a couple of Peel sessions, over on their Bandcamp page.
Note to our Spanish readers: The views expressed in "Government Of Spain" should not be assumed to represent the views of 27 Leggies.
I have been waist-deep in African sounds in recent months. As a result I have rather neglected my Single Song Sunday duties. But that Charity Chic fellow did a post last Sunday that has prompted me to get back to work. Thank you for the nudge CC.
The song I have chosen to relaunch the series is the Eddie Cooley and Otis Blackwell standard "Fever". There are many versions out there and we have selected ten corkers for you today.
Of course for every corker there is an equal and opposite clunker, such as Madonna's monstrosity from 1993 to which no decent person should be subjected. Modern Romance are almost as bad. You won't find any of that sort of stuff here.
We start with the original, and in my personal opinion probably still the best. Little Willie John took "Fever" right to the top of the R&B charts in 1956 with his version which sold over a million copies in the US alone.
Hopping ahead to 1958 we have the great Ms Peggy Lee with what many consider to be the definitive version of the song. It's certainly the one that has spawned the most imitators, almost all of the pale variety.
Fortunately for us there were plenty of artists who realised that copying Peggy was a fool's errand and decided to give the song their own spin. Like the two Latin acts that come next - Mexico's leading garage band Los Johnny Jets with their take from 1966, and Cuba's La Lupe whose vocals in her 1968 version defy description.
In 1971 Zimbabwean blues-rockers Otis Waygood decided to give "Fever" a go. George may wish to note the presence of extensive jazz flute on this version. Whether George will be as impressed by the even more extensive vibraphone solos by Roy Ayers he will no doubt tell us in due course.
Roy's rendition was released in 1979, which seems to have been a big year for "Fever" fans. It was in the same year that old Link Wray took a bash at it and naughty Lizzy Mercier Descloux thought it would be big and clever to swap "fever" for "tumour". Turns out she was right. Slightly late to the party were The Cramps, who included this fine take on the tune on their 1980 debut album "Songs The Lord Taught Us".
As you would expect there were several candidates for the Mandatory Reggae Version. Grant Phabao & Lone Ranger nearly took the coveted spot but in the end I plumped for Susan Cadogan and her 1976 release produced by The Upsetter himself.
Peggy Lee's version may be the definitive version but it was not the most successful in chart terms in the US. That honour belongs to The McCoys of "Hang On Sloopy" fame. They took the song to #7 in 1965 (Peggy only made it to #8).
So here they are to lead out the cavalcade of cool videos. But we've saved to best until last.
From Somaliland to Somalia. Or from one part of Somalia to another part of Somalia if you don't recognise Somaliland as an independent state.
Before we get started can I once again express my gratitude to the good folks at the Ostinato and Analog Africa labels for the great work they do bringing the vintage sounds of the Horn of Africa (and other parts of the continent) to a new audience. Each provided two of today's selections.
I have described in several earlier posts in the series how civil wars and regime changes have brought golden ages of the local music scene to a crashing halt, and such was the case in Somalia in 1991. Fortunately a few radio stations and recording studios were able to preserve some great music from the 1970s and particularly the 1980s.
We are going to give the first half of today's set to the three big bands of that era, starting with Dur-Dur Band who glittered more brilliantly than most on the Mogadishu disco scene in the 1980s.
The band broke up and its members dispersed during the civil war but for the last ten years a UK based lineup featuring many of the original members have been performing and recording on and off. They will be playing at the Barbican in London in December. I have my ticket, you should get yours.
There are a number of original Dur-Dur Band albums available on the Awesome Tapes From Africa and the Analog Africa labels. Today's track comes from the latter's "Volumes 1 and 2" reissue. The reformed lineup last year released an album featuring some sessions they recorded in Berlin in 2019 which is well worth nabbing as well.
Next up we have Iftin Band, formed by the Ministry of Education in the mid-1970s with the expectation that they would play an educational and political role as well as a cultural one (again something we have seen in some of the other African countries we have visited). I can't comment on their educational efforts but the music was top of the class.
Today's selection comes from "Mogadishu's Finest", a compilation of their mid-1980s recordings released by Ostinato. By this time the band were no longer state-sponsored and were playing regularly at the hot spot that was the Al-Uruba hotel where these sessions were also recorded.
From another Ostinato compilation ("Sweet As Broken Dates") we bring you our third and final band. Waaberi Band started in the 1960s as the government-appointed house band of the National Theatre of Somalia, but like Iftlin Band had been privatised by the time they recorded this swinging instrumental in the 1980s. Dig that groovy organ!
Like the other two bands the original Waaberi Band broke up as a result of the civil war, but a rebuilt lineup featuring their latter day lead singer Maryam Mursal released an album called "New Dawn" on Peter Gabriel's Real World in 1997.
Ms Mursal released a solo album called "The Journey" the following year which recounts her escape from Somalia with her children via Djibouti and a refugee camp in Denmark where she was rediscovered. This track is taken from that album.
Back to the 1980s now and also back to Analog Africa with their superbly titled "Mogadisco" compilation. This mighty 1988 cracker from Shimaali & Killer is just one of the many highlights. Shimaali is Shimaali Axmed Shimaali who had a stint in Dur-Dur Band and is one of three singers featured on "Volumes 1 and 2". I have no further information on Killer.
You may have detected a slight hint of reggae on "Hoobeya". Technically it is actually dhaanto, a traditional music associated with the Ogaden clan. There are strong similarities between the two styles, notably that both accentuate the second and fourth beats in the bar.
I strongly suspect that Dalmar Yare is really a dhaanto singer but at the risk of upsetting any MAR purists out there I am putting him in that slot. He describes his music as reggae and that is good enough for me. Today's track is from his 2018 self-titled album.
The next official stop in our African Odyssey is Somalia, but first we are making an unofficial stop in the Republic of Somaliland, a self-declared independent state occupying the northern part of Somalia.
I did not include Somaliland as a stop in the tour as it is not on the UN's list of recognised countries. But neither is Western Sahara and that is going to be part of the tour, so I have arguably been a bit inconsistent. The main difference between them though is that while there are 40-50 countries that recognise Western Sahara as an independent state, none have ever recognised Somaliland.
I won't get into the politics of why that is, because I don't understand them, but in practice Somaliland has been functionally independent since the early 1990s when the Somali civil war led to the collapse of any recognisable form of government down in Mogadishu. Since then the powers that be there seem to have been largely content to leave the good folks of Somaliland to their own devices.
I probably would have just let all of that pass us by and headed straight to Somalia if it weren't for the great Sahra Halgan. A singer and activist who served as a nurse in the war of independence, she would be greatly insulted to be described as a representative of Somalia. But she is far too good not to feature in our African odyssey.
Hence this Sahra/ Somaliland Special. The audio tracks are both from her 2019 album "Waa Dardaaran", and the video is the lead single from "Hiddo Dhawr" which came out a few months ago. Buy them both, you won't be disappointed.
And if you live in or near Norwich, Stroud, Guildford, Manchester, York, Totnes or London, go along and see her when she plays in your town in September. I have my ticket already.
On Saturday evening we popped along for a bit of the free Turning Tides music festival in London's glamorous North Greenwich.
In some respects I wish I had not bothered. The people responsible for the change over between sets were ridiculously slow, taking up to an hour every time. As a result each set was reduced to little more than 30 minutes rather than the scheduled 60.
Then after the gig the tube was temporarily suspended for some reason, which meant we had to queue for ages with the handful of people who had been to see Peter Kay at the O2 before starting the journey home.
On the plus side, I very much enjoyed the truncated performances by Ibibio Sound Machine and our old favourites Girl Ray, so on balance I'm glad I went.
To mark the event here are some songs about tides that don't require you to wait an hour before listening to each one or to submit yourselves to the tender mercies of Transport for London.
I was listening to Victoria Williams' "Loose" album the other day and was shocked to discover that it is 30 years old. Where has the time gone?
"Loose" was Queen Vic's third album and the first after the MS diagnosis that has increasingly limited her ability to record and tour in the years since (although she is still active and was well enough to play a few gigs last year).
I fell in love with "Loose" on first hearing and I am still smitten with it now. Unfortunately not many other people felt the same way at the same time and commercially it did absolutely nothing. Maybe like the Century Plant its time to bloom has yet to come.
If you could only pick one track from the album it would probably have to be "Crazy Mary". Here's the Great Lady performing it live while trying to ignore the strange man in a loud green jacket mumbling away next to her.
After being spoilt for choice last time out in Senegal, I always suspected it would be more difficult to compile a set list for the Seychelles - after all it is the smallest and least populated country in Africa. But I did not think it would be this hard.
I have searched far and wide but only found two sources of Seychellois music online - the always reliable Les Disques Bongo Joe for oldies and a Seychellois label called Noufans for the new stuff.
Those of you who joined us on our trip to Mauritius a few months ago may remember that we mentioned a Bongo Joe compilation called "Soul Sega Sa! Indian Ocean Segas From The 70s". Most tracks on that album are from Mauritius or Reunion but there are two from the Seychelles and they are our first two selections. The other three are from the Noufans catalogue which stretches all the way back to... 2021.
So basically there is a 40 year gap I have not been able to fill. Which is a shame because I am sure the islands must have produced plenty of fine music during that time, including by the 13 singers whose stars hang on the Seychelles' Wall of Fame in the capital Victoria.
I have only been able to find songs by three of the 13 artists and only one of them has made the cut. That is Joseph Louise from the island of Praslin who released his first record in 1976 and had a recording career that lasted over 35 years. He leads things off.
I have not been able to find out anything about the other bad boy from Bongo Joe, Jocelyn Perreau. But he is one of the veteran Seychellois artists whose songs are covered by current hotshot Clive Camille on his album "Gramophone Vol. 01" which came out last year - who knows, it might even be this one.
Our fourth selection topped the Seychelles chart for Molo last year and cemented his comeback after a period away from the music industry (or so it says here).
Also riding high at the moment is the MAR master Gatto who will be headlining at the swanky new Music Stadium in Victoria on 7 September. If you happen to be in the area why not pop along. Claims that Gatto can trace his lineage back to the Black Forest are yet to be verified.
We kick off the videos with the fifth biggest selling song in France in 2005. It spent five weeks at #2 but was unable to displace Crazy Frog's "Axel F" which had a 13 week run at #1. Crazy French! The other videos all feature Wall of Famers.
I have said it before and I'll say it again. One of the biggest bargains on Bandcamp is the Hominis Canidae page.
Every month they issue a compilation of new independent Brazilian music and invite you to name your price. Inevitably they are a bit of curate's cup of tea, but there are always a few things that appeal.
Here is a track from each of the albums released from January through to May (they celebrated their 15th anniversary in June and marked it with a retrospective rather than new stuff). If I remember I will cover their July to December editions at the end of the year. But don't wait until then - go and spend, spend, spend!
Some 1970s southern soul sides from Memphis for you today, courtesy of The Ovations. Both were released in 1972, hidden away as B-sides, and both were written and produced by that fine stalwart Dan Greer. So you know they are going to be good.
The Ovations had two lives and two line-ups, the first releasing a series of singles on Goldwax between 1964 and 1969, the second on the Sounds of Memphis label from 1971 to 1973. The only constant was the golden-throated lead singer Louis Williams Jr.
The Ovations had a few minor hits, hitting the top ten in the Billboard R&B charts with their version of Sam Cooke's "Having A Party" in 1973, but like so many of the great southern soul acts of the era they never had the success their talent deserved.
Here are Louis and the lads with a A-side of "Don't Break Your Promise". How did this only get to #104 in the charts? Its a travesty.
In unrelated news, I saw Nana Benz do Togo live in a local beer garden last night. Their debut album "AGO" was one of my favourite records of last year so I had been really looking forward to the gig and they did not disappoint.
They make quite a sound. Three powerful female singers, one of whom doubles up on synth, and two men on home-made percussion. They mix Togolese rhythms and harmonies with some early 1980s synth-pop and some late 1980s Italian house (at different points I was convinced that I heard "Just Can't Get Enough" and "Ride On Time"). Best of all, you can watch a man whack big pieces of plastic tubing with a pair of flip-flops.
I will feature them properly when the African Odyssey rolls into Togo in a couple of months but here is a clip to tide you over, And if you get the chance to go and see them, do it!
Our jeep full of jive trundles into country number 42, and it is one of the biggest and best in musical terms - Senegal. Some of the artists who did not make the cut like Ismaël Lô, Laba Sosseh and the great Youssou N'Dour would grace any playlist.
Our opener is a surprise package. Literally. A couple of weeks ago I bought a CD on eBay. When the package arrived last week it contained not just the CD I was expecting but another one that I had never even heard of let alone ordered. When I saw it was by a Senegalese band I took it as a sign.
So with thanks to our mystery benefactor we kick things off with a track from "Debbo Hande", the 2002 album by Suuf - a one off collaboration between brothers Djiby and Aliou Guissé from Les Frères Guissé, singers Hady Guissé (no relation) and Biram Seck and assorted Senegalese and British musicians including Justin Adams. Very good it is too.
Djiby and Aliou and the first of three sets of brothers whose music we are dishing up for you today. The next ones are Ismaïla and Sixu Tidiane Touré, or Touré Kunda as they were known to the many fans that they acquired over their 40+ year career, brought to an end by Ismaila's death last year. Today's selection harks back to their early days, coming as it does from their 1983 album "Amadou Tilo".
Djanbutu Thiossane was founded in the late 1990s by the three N'Diaye brothers who have the unfortunate first names Ass, Mass and Pap. Maybe their parents thought it would toughen them up in a "Boy Named Sue" style. Whatever the intent, they seem to have a sunny disposition. This song from their 2002 album "Fass" is utterly charming and guaranteed to put a smile on my face. If you aren't smiling too by the time they finish paying tribute to fish and chips then I worry for you.
That's enough of the brothers, it is time for a Senegalese sister. I have not been able to find out anything about Soumboulou Siby but I picked up a copy of her album "Ido Tixu N'daga" about ten years ago from one of the many now vanished 'informal' African record shops that used to be dotted around the Barbès district of Paris. I have been grooving to this track ever since and I'm sure you will too.
Much better known are Orchestra Baobab, one of the biggest bands ever to emerge from West Africa. Originally a splinter group of the equally storied Star Band, they ruled the Dakar dance scene from 1970 until they split up in the late 1980s. Fortunately for all of us they got back together again in the early 2000s and they continue to tour and occasionally record to this day.
I have been lucky enough to see them twice (in 2012 and 2017) and enjoyed both gigs immensely. Today's selection dates from 1975 but pretty much anything from their back catalogue is worth listening to, including the post-comeback albums "Specialist In All Styles" (2002) and "Made In Dakar" (2013).
Another Senegalese artist I have seen live is the rapper Didier Awadi. By chance I happened to be in Brussels in 2010 when he was performing his new album "Presidents D'Afrique" and I popped in on the off chance that it might be interesting. It was. For a longer and more boring review of the gig I refer you to the post I did at the time.
"Presidents D'Afrique" is a sort of tribute album to the African liberation leaders who led their countries to independence on which he samples their speeches and collaborates with musical guests from across the continent. This track features the voice of Thomas Sankara, the first president of Burkina Faso, and the vocals and kora playing of Awadi's fellow Senegalese Noumoucounda Cissoko.
Another collaboration now, and one which will ease us into the MAR slot rather than having the usual juddering change of gears. I am sure many of you will know of the mighty Baaba Maal, who has been bestriding the Senegalese scene like a colossus for over 30 years and who was always going to feature in one form or another.
Way back in 1992 when Baaba Maal recorded his album "Lam Toro" on Island's subsidiary label Mango, Island brought in their in-house reggae producer Godwin Logie (Steel Pulse, Gregory Isaacs, Burning Spear etc etc) to do some remixes. One of them was this version of the lead single on which Macka B expounds on the historical and cultural links between Senegal and Jamaica.
Which brings us neatly to the MAR slot itself. There was no shortage of high quality contenders but after much deliberation I plumped for Omar Pene frontingthe fabulous Super Diamono, another one of the great bands to emerge in Senegal in the 1970s. This track is from their 1993 album "Fari".
Some of the cool kids like Spence and Charity Chic have been banging on about Squirrel Flower recently, and rightly so. But what they, and you, may not know is that she has two equally talented siblings who are also active in the music scene - Doom and Tomato.
Sceptics might say the 'facts' show that Doom and Tomato Flower are female-fronted bands from Chicago and Baltimore respectively and not Squirrel's sisters. But we know better than to fall for that.
The sisters seem to alternate their recording schedules, Doom having released albums in 2021 and 2023, Tomato in 2022 and this year. Perhaps they are taking turns to care for elderly members of the Flower family. Whatever the reason, here are a couple of tunes from each of them in chronological order.
It was very sad to hear that the last of the Four Tops, Duke Fakir, left us yesterday at the age of 88, just a couple of days after announcing that he was retiring from the touring version of the group.
I have been a devoted fan of the Four Tops for as long as I can recall, and long before Billy Bragg gave indie kids permission to admire them. Obviously Levi Stubbs was the main man, but he could not have made magic without Duke, Obie Benson and Lawrence Payton there beside him for over 40 years.
RIP Duke. They're the same old songs, but there's a different meaning now you're all gone.
"Do you know the way to São Tomé? I've been away so long, I may go wrong and lose my way".
That is the rhetorical question asked by members of the São Toméan diaspora when pining for their islands. They know the literal answer of course. You head for Gabon, hop on a boat and you'll find them about 150 miles into the Atlantic.
But if that option isn't available then the music from back home can help them travel there in their minds. As you yourselves will be able to do while listening to the songs in today's post.
There is no better place to start that musical journey than "Léve-Léve", a compilation of 1970s and 1980s recordings from São Tome and Principe released by the always estimable Bongo Joe label in 2020.
There are a lot of great tunes on the album and I have opted for this one by Os Úntués. One of the stalwarts of the music scene in the years leading up to independence in 1975, they fused the local socopé rhythm with soukous and a little hint of samba to great effect. This track was first released in 1971 on an EP in Angola, an Angolan release being "the litmus test of success for any of the islands’ groups" (or so the blurb in the booklet says).
The next two artists also feature on "Léve-Léve" but not with these particular songs. First up we have Africa Negra, considered by many to be the best band ever to emerge from the islands. Formed in the early 1970s, their golden period was the 1980s when they bestrode Lusophone Africa like a colossus. The classic line-up split in 1989, but they have continued in one form or another ever since and in 2019 released their first album in over 20 years, "Alia Cu Omalí".
Today's selection was originally released on their 1986 album "San Lema" but you can find it more easily on "Antologia Vol.1", a compilation of their work put together by the boys at Bongo Joe. "Is there a Vol. 2?" I hear you ask. There will be next month and you can pre-order it here.
Africa Negra's main rivals for domestic superiority were Os Leonenses, pioneers of the puxa sound that swept the dancefloors of Santo António back in the day. Their lead singer, Pedro Lima, also had a successful parallel solo career which sadly came to an end (as did the band) when he died in 2019. His public funeral was one of the largest the islands had ever seen, and evidently "he was buried with his wireless microphone, so his powerful voice would always be heard".
A very good compilation of Mr Lima's solo material called "Recordar É Viver : Antologia Vol.1" came out in 2022. That is where you can find today's track, originally released on his debut solo album in 1981.
Like Mr Lima, I believe Amorim Diogo started his career as the lead singer of a band that features on "Léve-Léve", in his case Sangazuza. My limited evidence for asserting this is a 1986 album called "Cooperação" credited to Sangazuza and Africa Negra. He is the featured vocalist on half the tracks. As the other half are sung by João Seria, the vocalist with Africa Negra, by a process of deduction Mr Diogo must have bought Sangazuza to the party.
All of which is neither here nor there really as today's top tune wasn't released until 2015. I found it on a compilation called "Super Collection Sao Tomé e Principe" and you can as well (although you may need to set your ethics aside if you want to download it).
We will get to the Mandatory African Reggae in a minute but first some Optional African Rap. I have listened to loads of rap in compiling this series so far but most of it fairly standard stuff with nothing to indicate it is from Africa let alone the specific country the post was about.
However, every now and then I will come across something a bit more distinctive, as was the case with this catchy little piece by one Tigre T. It dates from 2017 and if you go onto YouTube so can find a few more from him in a similar style. Mr T has some sort of affiliation with local rap collective Os Vibrados Júnior, but based on what I've heard I would pass unless his name is on the label.
After all that enormous build up it is MAR time, courtesy of Ja Yi' Son (Jaylson Graça to his Mum). He comes from São Tomé. He may now be living in Almada in Portugal. This track came out in 2021. That's all I've got.
When it comes to song titles involving disco many people seem drawn to alliteration. Here are six samples of such songs to show you.
"Disco Disco" is really repetition not alliteration (or possibly both?) but I did not dare deprive you of the groovy Peruvians (assonance) and their Stars on 45 style tribute to the hits that filled discotheque dancefloors from Cusco to Chiclayo back in the day.
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