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.
We interrupt our scheduled service with some breaking news.
Until last night today's post was going to feature Country #41 on our official Ernie's African Odyssey. Then I got a message from Flag Counter that we had just received our very first visitor from the Indian Ocean islands of Mayotte.
The two islands that make up Mayotte are part of the same archipelago as the Comoros but in 1974 chose not to join their neighbours when they voted to become independent from France. Mayotte was made a region of France in 2011 and is therefore not officially classified as an African country.
It was for that reason I had not originally planned to include Mayotte in the grand tour. But now that the Mahorais are tuning in in their droves it would seem rude not to feature some of the local talent.
Fans of the African Odyssey series may well recall M'Toro Chamou, who guests the Mikidache track, from when he appeared in his own right as part of the Comoros leg 12 months and 30 countries ago.
Have you ever wondered what Adrian Sherwood producing an album of traditional songs for an English folk singer would sound like? Very likely not but play along please.
I have the answer for you. It is called "Panic Grass & Fever Few" by Ian King. It came out in 2009 and no less an authority than the great Shirley Collins called it "English folk music for the 21st century".
Mr Sherwood brought a few of his regulars along with him. Skip 'Little Axe' McDonald, Doug Wimbush and Ghetto Priest all pop up at various points and daughter Denise duets on one song. Between them and Mr King they make a pretty good job of things all told.
As good a record as it is, it doesn't topple the all-time trad. arr. reggae mash-up. Readers of long standing may recall me raving more than once about "Higher Heights", the ace 1992 collaboration between The Twinkle Brothers and the Polish family folk group Trebunie-Tutki. Imagine how delighted I was to discover an hour-long concert by them all on YouTube. You may want to set aside some time for this.
A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure and privilege of visiting some charity shops in Newcastle with Charity Chic (as the great man himself mentioned yesterday). Seeing him in action was a revelation and having observed him closely I am making some changes to my own charity shop CD scanning methods which I hope will make them more productive.
But as well as a great technique CC also possesses physical attributes that I lack which mean I will never be able to emulate his efficiency: strong but supple fingers which enable him to rifle through the racks at a rate of knots; eagle-like eyesight to identify a potential purchase in an instant; and the ability to sit on his haunches to scrutinise the bottom shelf, an opportunity that my bulky frame and bad knees deny me.
When not gasping in awe I found some time to pick out a couple of CDs myself, including the one we are featuring today - "New Roman Times", the first album of new material released by Camper Van Beethoven after they reformed in 2002. Font fans may appreciate the album title.
It is a concept album which according to the blurb "details the rise and fall of an idealistic Texan whose disenchantment following a stint with the American military redirected him towards organized terrorism". You don't need to have been through a similar experience in order to enjoy the album ("but it helps!").
The Blogger's Code states that any post about Camper Van Beethoven must include a reference to one particular song, so here it is. Always a pleasure, never a chore.
Last week I featured a couple of tracks from Disc 1 of the "Dreadlocks Coming To Dinner" compilation of Niney The Observer productions from the early 1970s. I said then that if you all behaved nicely I would share a couple from Disc 2 this week.
I can't conclusively prove that you have all been angels but I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. So here they are.
Before you ask, David Jahson is not the popular actor David Jason of 'Only Fools and Horses' and 'The Darling Buds of May' fame. Mr Jahson's real name is actually Everald Pickersgill, a name which sounds like it should belong to a character in Mr Jason's 'Open All Hours' not a reggae singer.
One of Mr Jason's best known characters did have a small impact on reggae culture though or, more accurately, on Smiley Culture. Perhaps also on Undercover Cockney, whose debut single came out last Friday.
We're back on the road and well into our journey - 40 countries down, 15 more still to go. And we are in Rwanda, the destination of choice for asylum seekers according to the recently departed UK government who managed to spend roughly £300m to send a grand total of one person there. Maybe I should have got them to subsidise this post before they lost power.
I have had some logistical issues of my own with Rwanda. It has proved difficult to track down enough music to fill the post. Last time out in Nigeria I had a shortlist of 80 artists, for Rwanda the long list was nine. But fear not. While the quantity may be lacking the quality is not.
We will start with the only Rwandan CD in my collection, "Gakondo" by Mighty Popo. His Mightiness lived for several years in Canada where he recorded this album on which he revisits and reworks traditional musical styles to fine effect. I acquired the CD by revisiting traditional methods as well - I bought it off Ebay - but you can pick up a copy on Bandcamp if you feel so inclined.
At some point after releasing this album in 2011 Popo returned home to become a director of the Rwanda School of Creative Arts and Music. As far as I can tell he has not released any further albums but you can find one or two more recent videos on YouTube.
Unusually for this series that is the oldest recording you will be getting today. The Rwandan music scene seems to have escaped the attentions of the various record labels responsible for some of the many vintage reissues and compilations that I have shared with you on the journey.
Until someone plugs that gap I would point those of you hankering for a compilation in the direction of "Why Did We Stop Growing Tall?" which features recordings by Abatwa pygmies. Ranging from lullabies to a sort of rap, and often accompanied by a mbira-like instrument called the ikembe, its an interesting listen. I've opted for one of two tracks on the album by Emmanuel Hatungimana.
Probably the best known internationally of today's featured acts is Cécile Kayirebwa, who got a bit of mainstream attention as a result of releasing a few albums on European labels in the 1990s and performing at Womad in 2001. Andy Kershaw was a particular fan and included her song "Umunezero" as one of his 'Desert Island Discs'.
Today's selection comes from "Imyaka 20 Ishize", which was released in 2014. Described as "a compilation of carefully selected tracks to mark the 20th commemoration of the Rwandan Genocide", it is not entirely clear whether they were all new recordings, but Cécile was still making music as of late 2022 so it is possible they were.
Moving forward from 2014 to 2019 we have a pair of albums for you - "Rwanda You Should Be Loved" by The Good Ones and "Isoko Disangiye" by Munyakazi Deo. I'm sure we can all agree with the first sentiment, and Brexiteers apart probably also the second one if Google Translate's claim that it means "our shared market" is correct.
The Good Ones are a trio of hill farmers who also play guitar and sing (or a trio of guitarists who also farm, whichever you prefer). "Rwanda You Should Be Loved" is their third album and features guest spots from the likes of Nels Cline of Wilco, Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney and Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine. None of them appear on the track below though.
Munyakazi Deo is an inanga gun for hire (the inanga being a traditional stringed instrument from the region). He has supported local stars such as Cécile as well as the likes of Keziah Jones and Joss Stone. None of them appear anywhere on his album, the ungrateful b*****ds.
As always we bring this part of the proceedings to a close with some Mandatory African Reggae. And who better to provide it than Darius Rurangirwa, better known to his many fans as Jah Bone D. He has been recording for about 20 years now. This track was released as a single in 2021 and is available through many of the usual outlets.
Here in the UK we had a general election yesterday. It is 5am and with the majority of the votes now counted it has just been confirmed that after 14 years we have an overdue change of government. So this is my heartfelt musical message to the outgoing maladministration.
I recently bought an excellent new 2 CD compilation called "Dreadlocks Coming To Dinner". Released on the Doctor Bird label, a subsidiary of Cherry Red, it brings together 49 Niney The Observer productions from 1973 to 1975.
Niney was one of many great producers operating in Jamaica back in the golden age of the 1970s, when he emerged from an apprenticeship as an engineer for the likes of Joe Gibbs and Bunny 'Striker' Lee with the all time classic "Blood & Fire". He recorded and produced regularly well into the 1990s but for sustained superb sounds you can't beat his early period.
This compilation features his productions for the likes of Dennis Brown, Delroy Wilson, Big Youth, Horace Andy, Ken Boothe and many more as well as Niney's own recordings. Here are a couple of tracks from Disc 1. If you behave nicely you might get some from Disc 2 next week.
Niney's birth name is Winston Holness. He is not related in any way to the former Countdown presenter and radio James Bond Bob Holness, but there is an unsubstantiated rumour that he played the sax on this 2023 MRV take on "Baker Street".
We are onto the 39th leg of the grand tour and it is one of the big ones - Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa and sixth most populous in the world.
It occupies a similar position in my record collection, with South Africa being the only country on the continent from which I have more music. Even after getting Fela Kuti out of the way last month and leaving out personal favourites who have popped up here frequently over the years like Orlando Julius and Sir Vixtor Uwaifo I still found myself left with a 'shortlist' of 80 tracks for this post, each by a different artist.
After several days writing and rewriting the perfect selection to the point where it was adversely affecting my work and personal hygiene I decided just to pick ten and get on with it. This is it. They are all top notch tracks in my opinion but with one exception, maybe two, it would probably be a completely different list if I did this again tomorrow.
The two exceptions are both African standards that were very popular well beyond the borders of Nigeria. The first of them is "Papa's Land" by Sonny Okosun.
While many countries were independent by the time it was released in 1977 the song really resonated down in the south where the Portuguese had only recently left Angola and Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe were still officially South West Africa and Rhodesia respectively and the end of apartheid in South Africa was a long way off.
There is another version of the song from 1980 made with Eddy Grant at the controls that has featured here before. That is excellent in its own right but you can't beat the original.
The second standard is "Sawale" by self-anointed Cardinal Rex Lawson. I don't think I am giving away any secrets when I say the tune is nicked from the old Cuban classic "El Manisero", which separately reappeared in the US as "The Peanut Vendor" and in the UK in old adverts for Golden Wonder peanuts. So we will dedicate this to a Portuguese peanut farmer of our acquaintance.
"Sawale" has in turn been adapted and adopted many times by various African musicians since it was first a hit in the late 1960s. If you go back to the Ethiopian leg of the journey you'll find it in the videos there, and Flavour's remade and renamed 2011 hit version kicks off today's visual stimulation.
Having dawdled at length over the first two tracks I am going to rattle through the other eight otherwise we will all have fallen asleep before we get to the music. We kick off with Bola Johnson who, like Cardinal Rex, was big back in the high-life era, although he later became better known as a journalist and radio personality. This track from 1973 is on a compilation of his work called "Man No Die".
The early 1970s was also when the local mutant Afro-rock scene started to emerge, and Soundway Records excellent 2008 "Nigeria Rock Special" compilation picks out many of the highlights. I have gone with Tabukah 'X' about whom I can tell you nothing at all apart from the date of the track (1975). Soundway seem to have stopped selling the album but it is available through some other outlets.
We skip forward to the early 1980s for the next few selections. First up is trombonist and singer Fred Fisher Atalobhor with a song originally released on his 1981 album "No Way" but now more easily found on his "African Carnival" compilation. Next is Akaba Man from Benin City, one of the pioneers of what was known locally as Edo funk. You can find several of his tunes on "Edo Funk Explosion Vol. 1" along with the great Sir Victor Uwaifo and others.
Julie Coker's career was sort of the reverse of Bola Johnson's. Nigeria's first ever TV presenter, she was already a star of the small screen by the time she decided to turn her hand to music in the mid 1970s. "A Life In The Limelight" brings together some of her best bits, including this disco smash from 1981.
I am sure the gossipers and scandalmongers Julie rightly castigates do not include any Igbo lady socialites as they are all paragons. If they were not why would Onyeoma Tochukwu Nnamani pay them such fulsome tribute. I can tell you no more about Mr Nnamani other than that this is from his 2019 album "Nnamdi Kanu Nno Ije". I found it on EMusic but if you are not a subscriber the tax dodgers seem to be your best bet.
For our penultimate tune we pop back briefly to the 1980s to catch up with juju giant Sir Shina Peters. This track comes from his 1986 album "Sewele". And we round things off, as we always do, with the Mandatory African Reggae slot. It comes courtesy of the late great Ras Kimono and I have selected the title track from his 1994 album "Lone Ranger".
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