Antoine Dougbé & Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou
https://amf.didiermary.fr/antoine-dougbe-poly-rythmo/
Who was Antoine Dougbé? Even the most dedicated crate-digger might go their whole life without stumbling across any of the three LPs he released in the late 1970s and early ’80s. Yet all the musicians who happened to cross paths with him remember him with a mixture of admiration and fear; for Antoine Dougbé was […]
Yehouessi Leopold & T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo: Volume 4
https://amf.didiermary.fr/yehouessi-leopold-poly-rythmo/
The T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou was formed in 1966. Their output has been extremely prolific numbering upwards of 50 LPs and a hundred 45s. Here’s an album with Yehouessi Leopold (drummer) from 1978, that was rereleased in 2021.
Douala by Night
https://amf.didiermary.fr/douala-by-night/
“Douala by Night” est un excellent AfroJazzFunk de la fin des années 70, dernière piste de l’album “J.M. Tim & Foty” de Jean Marie Tiam (aka Tim) et Maurice Foty (décédé en 2011). L’album est paru en 1977. […]
Next Stop Soweto
https://amf.didiermary.fr/next-stop-soweto-compilations/
“Next Stop Soweto” is a compilation series, to remember an era of South Africa’s musical history where such genres as Funk and Soul were being played by bands even as apartheid firmly gripped the country’s music culture.
Volume 1 explores the vibrant energy of the township jive sound, whilst Volumes 2 and 3 cover [...]
#60smusic #70smusic #80smusic #AfroFunk #Apartheid #Compilation #Jazz #Mbaqanga #SouthAfrica #AfroJazz
Journeys Into Psychedelic Africa
https://amf.didiermary.fr/journeys-psychedelic-africa-1972-1977-afro-psych/
Afro Psych (Journeys Into Psychedelic Africa 1972 – 1977) is a compilation, presenting the music style that emerged after the Biafra war and “the feelings of confusion and anger permeating Nigeria’s music, giving way to heavier, trippier sounds.”
#70smusic #Compilation #Nigeria #Psychedelic #OldAfricanMusic
Osibisa, the “Flying Elephants”
https://amf.didiermary.fr/osibisa-flying-elephants/
Osibisa is a British Afro-pop band, founded by Teddy Osei (RIP) in London in 1969 by four expatriate African (Ghana) and three Caribbean musicians. Osibisa were one of the first African bands to become widely popular, leading to claims of founding World Music.
I discovered Osibisa when I was a teen, and this band is […]
Ebo Taylor – Heaven
https://amf.didiermary.fr/ebo-taylor-heaven-ghana-soundz/
Ebo Taylor’s hypnotic track “Heaven” comprises modern jazz elements, and the song’s vocals borrow their format from a Ghanian nursery rhyme style, whereby children would repeat the final word of each sentence.
Originally released in 1977, Ebo Taylorʼs self-titled album is a rarity that truly exposes the genius of the Ghanaian producer and arranger. [...]
Soul to Soul (1971)
https://amf.didiermary.fr/soul-to-soul-ghana-1971/
Je pensais vous avoir déjà parlé de ce fameux concert Soul to Soul, mais en fait il semble bien que je l’ai omis pour l’instant…
Quelques années après cet événement, il y eut le fameux “Soul Power” à Kinshasa en 1974. Celui-ci à Accra y ressemble un peu, mais sans le contexte des boxeurs… Ce concert […]
Charlotte Dada – Don’t Let Me Down
https://amf.didiermary.fr/charlotte-dada-dont-let-me-down/
Charlotte Dada (sometimes spelled Dadah or Daddah), the “Girl with the Golden Voice,” is probably best known in the West for her soul cover of The Beatles’ song “Don’t Let Me Down” below, but she was on stage during the famous Soul to Soul concert in Ghana in 1971.
She started off her career with […]
Ngozi Family – Happy New Year!
https://amf.didiermary.fr/ngozi-family-happy-new-year/
Ngozi Family is one of the famous Zamrock bands in 70s Zambia.
Paul Ngozi (1949–1989), born Paul Dobson Nyirongo, was a Zambian musician who was prominent in the Zambian music scene in the 1970s and 1980s. He first became popular as the band leader of a top local rock group which was one of the […]
#70smusic #FullAlbum #Rock #Soundcloud #Zambia #Zamrock #HNY
Bongos Ikwue & The Groovies – Still Searching
https://amf.didiermary.fr/bongos-ikwue-groovies-still-searching/
Bongos Ikwue is a Nigerian singer and song writer born in June 1942 in Otukpo, Benue state.
He started his first band (The Cubana Boys) while in secondary school in 1962.
In 1967 he founded and headed the Groovies band, which became extremely popular in the 1970’s through to the 80’s. Many love him for […]
Pop Makossa
https://amf.didiermary.fr/pop-makossa/
Compilation “Pop Makossa – The Invasive Dance Beat of Cameroon (1976-1984)”
[…] all the tracks are a revelation. The beat that holds everything together has its origins in the rhythms of the Sawa people; Ambassey, Bolobo, Assiko and Essewé, a traditional funeral dance. But it wasn’t until these rhythms arrived in the cities of Cameroon […]
Manu Dibango – New Bell (Hard Pulsation)
https://amf.didiermary.fr/manu-dibango-new-bell-hard-pulsation-1972/
New Bell (Hard Pulsation) was released as a single in 1972 (B-side: Hibiscus), as the B-Side of an unofficial release of Soul Makossa in the US, and is of course part of the tracklist on the original Soul Makossa album.
Kabaka International Guitar Band
https://amf.didiermary.fr/kabaka-international-guitar-band/
Kabaka International Guitar Band, lead by G. Kabaka Opara, who was part of the legendary Oriental Brothers Band International, but walked out of the group in 1977, to set up his own band. […]
Batsumi (1974)
https://amf.didiermary.fr/batsumi-apartheid/
Many years after the fall of Apartheid, Batsumi remains sublime… and transformative, and its resonance hasn’t faded at all over the years.
During the brutal era in South African history known as Apartheid, the minority-white ruling party forcibly moved millions of black South Africans from their homes to segregated areas, stripping them of their citizenship […]
#70smusic #Apartheid #FullAlbum #SouthAfrica #AfroJazz #Jazz
Balla et ses Balladins
https://amf.didiermary.fr/syliphone-balla-balladins/
Si vous avez découvert Balla et ses Balladins via le sampling de Paulette par J. Cole en 2011, et que vous souhaitez en écouter plus de cet orchestre “monument de Guinée”, écoutez la compilation “Syliphone Years” (28 titres en tout, plus de 2h de musique). […]
Matadi – Dance My Love
https://amf.didiermary.fr/matadi-dance-my-love/
Matadi était un groupe de musiciens “mercenaires” africains basés à Paris et réunis pour un album unique afro-disco-funk en 1978 avec le célèbre bassiste et arrangeur camerounais Haladji Touré.
5 titres de cet album ont été utilisés pour la BOF du film et comédie musicale “Dance my love” (Danse mon amour) réalisé par Alphonse Beni, sorti […]
Ignace de Souza & The Melody Aces – Asaw Fofor
https://amf.didiermary.fr/ignace-de-souza-the-melody-aces-asaw-fofor/
Born in 1937 in Cotonou, Ignace de Souza got involved in music at a young age, playing during the 1950’s in the country’s first professional dance band, Alfa Jazz. Zeal Onyia, a Nigerian trumpeter, encouraged him to drop the saxophone and play the trumpet instead.
In 1955 he moved to Accra and joined Spike Anyankor’s Rhythm […]
Le Grand Kalle
https://amf.didiermary.fr/le-grand-kalle/
Le Grand Kalle: His Life His Music was a 2013 compilation (2-CD plus 104-page book) that brought together for the first time the breadth of Kalle’s recording career spanning over 3 decades including tracks taken from shellac and vinyl that had been unavailable for many years. In the turbulent and euphoric times that surrounded Congo’s […]
Buffet Hotel de la Gare, Bamako
https://amf.didiermary.fr/rail-band-buffet-hotel-gare-bamako/
Buffet Hotel de la Gare Bamako, Mali, 1973: Rail Band, the official orchestra of the Malian state railway, drops their self-titled LP. It’s a relentlessly soulful and hypnotic blend of American funk, jazz horns, and Afro-Cuban music, reflected through centuries-old Mandé tradition and blasted at top volume by some of the continent’s greatest artists. […]
Psychedelic Classics 3: Love’s a Real Thing
https://amf.didiermary.fr/psychedelic-classics-3-loves-a-real-thing/
World Psychedelic Classics, Vol. 3: Love’s A Real Thing – The Funky Fuzzy Sounds of West Africa
These twelve astonishing tracks are drawn from a broad spectrum of early 70s West African psychedelic [...]
#70smusic #Compilation #ManuDibango #Psychedelic #OldAfricanMusic
Toto Guillaume – Françoise (1977)
https://amf.didiermary.fr/toto-guillaume-francoise-1977/
Born in August 1955, Toto Guillaume (Guillaume Toto Bessawa Nkaké) is a Cameroonian guitarist, songwriter, arranger, and producer, also known as the “captain of the national Makossa team,” a group of young Cameroonian and Caribbean musicians who played on the majority of Cameroonian songs recorded in France from the late 1970s to the late 1980s. […]
Orlando Julius – The Story of “Going Back To My Roots”
https://amf.didiermary.fr/orlando-julius-story-going-back-to-my-roots/
Nigerian Afro soul pioneer Orlando Julius tells the story of the complex birth of Lamont Dozier‘s classic “Going Back To My Roots,” tracing its origins to Orlando’s composition “Ashiko,” touring with Hugh Masekela, working with producer Stewart Levine in L.A. and hearing Odyssey’s disco cover of the tune [...]
N’Guessan Santa – Manny Nia
https://amf.didiermary.fr/santa-nguessan-manny-nia/
N’Guessan Santa (N’Guessan Kouakou Hugues, born in December 1951 in Bouaké and nicknamed the “studio shark”), below in “Manny Nia” from a 7″ vinyl, was a songwriter, arranger, guitarist, bassist, drummer and Afrofunk/Afropop singer. In the 70s, he was part of bands such as Les Fétiches, Les Super Fétiches, and New System Pop. […]
