This film is dedicated to the African culture in Colombia. Traditional rhythms bring us back to the past, to the ancestors and the bonds with Africa. Modern music played by young people brings us back to the present. On the Colombian Caribbean coast, African drums have played out since the time of the colonies. Initially there was Cumbia and Bullerengue, African rhythms brought back by the slaves and then there was music from Cuba which arrived in Colombia during the 1920s.

Images: Lucas SILVA
Sound : Cesar Salazar
Editing: Katia Martin / Frederick Beraud
Mixing: José Baptista – Creason

Afro rock – PRI's The World

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PRI’s The World is a one-hour, weekday radio news magazine offering a mix of news,
features, interviews, and music from around the globe.

The forgotten beat of 70s Africa
by Sean O’Hagan
Originally published in The Observer

The World Ends, according to Soundway, “represents a forgotten chapter in Nigeria’s musical history”. That period coincided with the Biafran war, which started in 1967, just as America and Britain were celebrating the so-called summer of love. For young, hip Nigerians, the electric guitar was the symbol of all things new and vibrant, and the psychedelic sounds filtering out from San Francisco and London were the template for a hybrid sound that spoke only of the future. It has taken four decades for those sounds to be excavated, re-pressed from the vinyl, and marketed to a new audience….

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‘Champeta Criolla’ Compilation Rides Colombia’s Wild Afrobeat Wave
by Steve Hochman
Originally published in The Spinner

Never mind the British Invasion. In the early ’70s, Colombia was host to an Afrobeat Invasion. DJs were spinning whatever highlife, juju and soukous records they could get their hands on via their colorful picos sound systems in the poorer neighborhoods of Barranquilla and Cartegena and just as garage bands throughout North America in the previous decade were churning out enthusiastic – if rough – versions of “Day Tripper” and “Satisfaction,” Colombian combos of varying quality were playing competing interpretations of Nigerian icon Fela Anakulapo Kuti’s ‘Shakara’ and ‘Zombie’ by the handful…..

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LPs

Panama! 2 Latin Sounds, Cumbia Tropical & Calypso Funk on the Isthmus 1967-77 and Panama! 3 Calypso Panameño, Guajira Jazz & Cumbia Típica on the Isthmus 1960–75 are back in stock on LP along with Tumbélé! Biguine, afro & latin sounds from the French Caribbean, 1963-74. There is also a limited number of the Panama! 3 7″ (Little Francisco Greaves) available.

CDs

Colombia The Golden Age of Discos Fuentes – The Powerhouse of Colombian Music 1960-76 and both Nigeria Disco Funk Special The Sound of the Underground Lagos Dancefloor 1974-79 and Nigeria Rock Special Pyschedelic Afro-Rock & Jazz Funk in 1970s Nigeria are now available again CD.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE SOUNDWAY ONLINE STORE

‘Los Pelaos’ at the table in a café in Panama discussing which Soundway releases they have missing from their collection

In the early 1970s, many Ghanaian musicians found themselves at a crossroads. With the pervading influence of American soul music – spearheaded by James Brown – and the cross-over success of London-based Afro-pop sensations Osibisa, who were founded by three Ghanaians, the idea of emulating such sounds from abroad must have seemed like an obvious and lucrative route for young aspiring bands to follow. Besides, many young people in Ghana by then saw highlife as music of the past.

However, Sweet Talks succeeded by taking highlife back to its roots, consciously featuring local influences in their music. This was most obvious in their signature style, the ‘Kusum’ beat (‘native’ or ‘from Ghana’), which drew on rhythms from the country’s Upper, Central and Western regions.

The band were founded on December 15, 1973, by Jonathan Abraham, the proprietor of Talk Of The Town, a lively hotel in the port town of Tema. Under the joint leadership of guitarist Smart Nkansah and singer Crentsil, Sweet Talks alternated with the other resident band The Talkatives. They kept the punters grooving every Wednesday, Friday, Saturday night, and on Sunday evenings, when a lower cover charge made family entertainment the focus.

By 1975, they had released their first album Adam and Eve. The title track was the first example of the biblical themes Crentsil would subsequently explore on the likes of Satan Go, The Lord’s Prayer and Moses. This mirrored the huge increase in the number of churches appearing in every Ghanaian neighbourhood, an inevitable consequence of the steady economic decline that would eventually have serious consequences for the band.

In 1976, Nkansah left to form his own group The Black Hustlers (and later Sunsum), which left Sweet Talks with guitarist Eric Agyeman, and Crentsil on vocals/guitar, plus brass and percussion sections. They recorded the albums Spiritual Ghana, Mbesiafo Nto Nsa and The Kusum Beat that year. The influence of the arrival of disco can be heard on the Hollywood Highlife Party album from 1978, which they recorded in California, while on an American tour.

However, on their return, it became increasingly difficult to keep a 12-man band afloat. By then, Ghana’s ailing economy had been struggling under military leaders for more than a decade, and the music industry was in terminal decline. On top of this, a curfew from sundown onwards meant many big bands had to call it a day, and Sweet Talks were one of them. But the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back in 1979 was a dispute with the band’s proprieter, Mr Abrahams:

“He signed a contract on our behalf, which is never done, which is improper,” recalls Crentsil. “Because composing fees and things like that have to be strictly something between the composer and the recording company. Composers fees are not to be paid to any third party. They have to go to the composer himself, direct, but our proprietor chose to collect these monies on our behalf and the whole thing became an argument. We said: ‘No we can’t tolerate that’ …[so] we broke up.”

The following year, Crentsil reformed the band as Super Sweet Talks, a smaller unit. With ‘International’ added to their name, they recorded the classic album Adjoa – a.k.a. The Lord’s Prayer – in 1981, and Tantie Alaba (1984). Crentsil also pursued a solo career, starting with the album Moses (1982) and continuing – usually backed by his Ahenfo Band – right up to the present. After Sweet talks broke up, Eric Agyeman went on to lead his own Kokoroko band and have a successful solo career, as did Tony Mensah and other former members.

Jon Lusk

‘Welcome To Lagos’ is a three-part observational documentary series exploring life in one of the most extreme urban environments on the planet – Lagos, Nigeria.

Considered by some to be an apocalyptic vision of the urban future, Lagos is the fastest growing megacity in the world. These films reveal a different side to life there, focusing on the humanity, resourcefulness and compassion of the people who live and work in some of the roughest parts of town.

Three tracks taken from Soundway’s album Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-76 are set to feature on the three part documentary.

The track featured on the title sequence of all three of the programmes is Ayamma by The Anambra Beats. Listen to it below.

Title Sequence Track: Ayamma
Artist: The Anambra Beats
Album: Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-76

Track 2: Onwu ama dike
Artist: St. Augustine & His Rovers Dance Band
Album: Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-76

Track 3: Onwu Ama Dike
Artist: St Augustine & His Rovers Dance Band
Album: Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-76

Welcome to Lagos will be shown on BBC 2 at 9pm on 15, 22 and 29 April

WATCH THE FIRST EPISODE HERE ON BBC iPLAYER (UK viewers only)

Produced for BBC 2 by KEO FILMS

Click here to read an article on the program on The Guardian’s site

Compiled by Soundway’s Miles Cleret, Afro Tropical Soundz Vol. 1 features eleven of his favourite tracks, all taken from various albums he’s compiled, co-compiled and released since the label began in 2002. A must for fans and new comers alike, it’s a superb overview of the label that has been dedicated to re-releasing lost and forgotten recordings from the world’s most vibrant musical cultures for nearly ten years now.

*Pre order-coming next week.

London Party

Date: 24/04/10
Venue: Notting Hill Arts Club, London
Time: 8pm-2am
Tickets: Free before 8pm, then £6 til 11pm, £8 after

www.nottinghillartsclub.com

Written by Ross Pounds

In recent years, world music has become less, well, worldly. The creeping influence of the sounds of the Sahara have found their way to America’s West Coast, and to California in particular, scattered out over the underground landscape like seeds falling and floating off a particularly beautiful, and enviably fertile, flower. The burgeoning African hip-hop scene, too, has gone full circle: the bubbling flows and garish styles its impressionable, youthful rappers learnt from MTV imports, and then melded with their own instruments to create something wonderfully unique, are now impacting on the next generation of rappers and producers in America and Europe……..

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING THE REVIEW ON THE QUIETUS WEBSITE

Fela Kuti

Artist: Twins Seven Seven (Born Prince Taiwo Olaniyi Oyewale-Toyeje Oyelale Osuntoki)

Born: 1941

Band: Twins Seven-Seven and His Golden Cabretas

Country: Nigeria

Soundway Albums featured on: Nigeria Special vol 2 – Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-6

Tracks featured: Totobiroko (Ogbele)

Extract from the liner notes for Nigeria Special vol 2 written by Miles Cleret

“Twins Seven Seven is the sole survivor in a line of seven sets of twins from the Oshogbo royal family – this part of Nigeria is renowned for producing a larger than usual number of twin sets. As well as being a painter, Taiwo Olaiyi Salau (his real name) is well known as a musician, actor, poet and writer. Always easily recognisable, Twins is a very flamboyant character who featured in Ginger Baker’s ill-fated film (Ginger Baker In Africa) from 1972, always wearing his trademark, pink, flared, collared suit, huge sunglasses and braided hair. His music (as is his art) is heavily rooted in Yoruba culture and mythology. His xylophone lines over traditional rhythms sound ethereal and quite unlike anything else form the time. Twins continued to make groundbreaking music throughout the 1970s, and he has continued right up until the present day. Also, his art now sells worldwide. One particular musical highlight is his 1974 LP for the New York label Makossa, entitled Oshun, a two-part 30-minute experimental suite.”

Below is a video taken featuring Ginger Baker in 1971 with Yorubu Drummers. The video features a performance with Twins Seven Seven.(About 4.40 minutes in)

Artist: Fela Kuti

Born: 15 October 1938

Band: Fela Ransome Kuti & The Africa 70

Country: Nigeria

Soundway Albums featured on: Nigeria Afrobeat Special: The New Explosive Sounds of 1970s Nigeria

Tracks featured ‘Who’re You’ (Original 45 version)






Extract from Nigeria Afrobeat Special liner notes on Fela Kuti, written by Miles Cleret.

“In 1969 a thirty-one-year-old Fela Ransome Kuti was leaving Nigeria for the USA with his Koola Lobitos highlife jazz band, which, after eight years of persistence, had failed to make major inroads into the Nigerian recording scene. When he returned home in early 1970, the sound that had left as a slightly hesitant, breezy, light concoction had returned with a new impetus and power that had not until this time been witnessed in the recording studios of Lagos and Nigeria. Fela had recorded for Philips and EMI but neither had enjoyed much commercial success with him. Along with his newly named Nigeria 70 band he had made some recordings in Los Angeles that reflected his new, far more energetic approach to music but as yet they had not been released. ”

Radio Interview

Below is a very rare radio interview with Fela Kuti, recorded at the beginning of the 1970s in London, not long after he had returned from the USA. The track featured in the original interview is ‘Who’re You’ and the original 45 version is available on Nigeria Afrobeat Special: The New Explosive Sounds of 1970s Nigeria

Fela In Performance

The video below shows rare early footage of Fela in performance in 1971, shortly after the Nigerian civil war.