BADBADNOTGOOD + Flockey Ocscor
https://amf.didiermary.fr/badbadnotgood-flockey-ocscor-collaboration/
Congolese-German artist Flockey Ocscor puts words over the track “Cashmere,” from their album “IV” in 2016, in this collaboration with Canadian jazz group BADBADNOTGOOD, recounting his story of family, love, and struggle, when all is disturbed by war.
“My parents had to escape the civil war back then… the situation will be seen almost at […]
Kokoroko – Tuff Times Never Last
https://amf.didiermary.fr/kokoroko-tuff-times-never-last/
London-based octet Kokoroko announced their second studio album “Tuff Times Never Last”, a nod to nostalgia and endurance, with the release of “Sweetie” a few weeks ago, first new music since their EP “Get The Message.”
“Tuff Times Never Last” is a spirited and vibrant collection of songs serving as an optimistic reminder to tightly […]
Black Europe (pre-1927)
https://amf.didiermary.fr/black-europe-before-1927/
The first comprehensive documentation of the sounds and images of black people in Europe pre-1927, in a “44-CD Deluxe Book Set” has been reissued.
Black men and women – long present in Europe – have long been overlooked as pioneering personalities in modern mass media. From the early years of the recording industry, people of […]
Bulawayo Sweet Rhythms Band – Skokiaan (1947)
https://amf.didiermary.fr/bulawayo-sweet-rhythm-band-skokiaan-1947/
Skokiaan (the Tsaba Tsaba Dance – also known as Skokiyana, Skokian) is probably better known in the version recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1954 with the Sy Oliver orchestra, but this track was originally released in Rhodesia in 1947 by the Bulawayo Sweet Rhythm(s) Band. The tune found it’s way to the U.S. and lots […]
Club Africa
https://amf.didiermary.fr/club-africa-compilation/
Club Africa is the name of 2 compilations of “Hard African Funk, Afro-Jazz And Original Afro-Beat” released in 1999 and 2000.
Kokoroko – Something is Going On
https://amf.didiermary.fr/kokoroko-something-going-on/
The London-based jazz collective Kokoroko released in 2022 a single, from their album “Could We Be More,” exploring health crisis immobility: “Something is Going On.”
Inspired by the enforced stillness and unsettling existential crises collectively experienced through this ongoing global pandemic. The song opens with a twinkling promise of a new era, an ethereal sensation […]
Kokoroko – Could We Be More
https://amf.didiermary.fr/kokoroko-could-we-be-more/
“Could We Be More” is an expansive and ambitious album that speaks to the force of Kokoroko.
Each song possesses the energy which so naturally underpins the heartbeat of Kokoroko’s identity – deftly moving through afrobeat, highlife, soul, and funk across the album’s 15 tracks and taking inspiration from a plethora of other influences from within […]
Pops Mohamed – Election Day Serenade
https://amf.didiermary.fr/pops-mohamed-election-day-serenade/
Ismail Mohamed-Jan, aka Pops Mohamed (1949 – 2025), was a South African multi-instrumentalist, jazz musician and producer.
Pops Mohamed had started his musical journey at Dorkay House, where he studied guitar and was able to hear the rehearsals of jazz legends such as saxophonist Kippie Moeketsi. Later, it became one of his meeting and rehearsal […]
Jazz/The African Sound
https://amf.didiermary.fr/jazz-african-sound-chris-mcgregor/
“Jazz/The African Sound” by Chris McGregor & The Castle Lager Big Band, one of the most important African records of all time, a lost global jazz classic, and a true holy grail for collectors of Jazz and WorldJazz.
Christopher McGregor (1936 – 1990) was a South African Jazz pianist, bandleader and composer born in Somerset […]
#60smusic #Apartheid #BrassBand #Jazz #LiveMusic #SouthAfrica
Mike Makhalemele – Going West
https://amf.didiermary.fr/mike-makhalemele-going-west/
Mike Makhalemele (1938-2000), from Alexandra, South Africa, nicknamed “Ratau” (“lion”), played saxophone, here with Jabu Nkosi (keyboards) and Sipho Gumede (bass) in a reissue of a classic album.
[He] was a force of nature with a robust yet soulful tone and seemingly endless breath. He embraced the pop music scene as an enthusiastic collaborator and […]
@classicalmusic
George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue"
Herbie Hancock,
Gustavo Dudamel &
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Warsaw Afrobeat Orchestra
https://amf.didiermary.fr/warsaw-afrobeat-orchestra/
Warsaw Afrobeat Orchestra (WAO) push their own sound, rooted in Lagos while adding their own unique flavors.
Formed in 2012, the 10-piece band consists of musicians that have worked and collaborated with each other in different projects ranging from Rock, Jazz, Folk, Reggae and Funk in the ever-evolving and musically diverse underground music scene in […]
Tony Allen – The Source
https://amf.didiermary.fr/tony-allen-source/
Tony Allen passed away on April 30th 2020 in Paris, at the age of 79.
Born in Lagos in 1940, Tony Oladipo Allen was a hugely influential musical figure, most notably as the defining rhythmic engine of Fela Kuti’s Africa 70.
In 2017, he released 2 albums via Blue Note, a tribute EP to Art Blakey and […]
Tony Allen – Tribute to Art Blakey (Live)
https://amf.didiermary.fr/tony-allen-tribute-art-blakey-live/
Tony Allen’s EP A Tribute to Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers paid homage to the American jazz drummer, who he named as one of his earliest musical influences.
The album was released on Blue Note Records in 2017.
Recorded live in Paris with a seven-piece band, A Tribute to Art Blakey features four of the […]
Dollar Brand – Zimbabwe
https://amf.didiermary.fr/dollar-brand-zimbabwe-abdullah-ibrahim/
“Zimbabwe” is the name of a composition, on the album of the same name, released by Dollar Brand / Abdullah Ibrahim for Enja Records in 1983.
The track also appears in a shorter live version on “South Africa”, a 25th Anniversary Series album for the Enja Heritage Collection (first released in 1986), that is described […]
Amagoduka – Zim Ngqawana
https://amf.didiermary.fr/zim-ngqawana-amagoduka-migrant-workers/
The song Amagoduka, by Zim Ngqawana, tells the tale of migrant workers who’ve historically had to leave their homes in the hinterlands for big cities in search of a better day.
Zim Ngqawana (1959-2011)
South African flautist and saxophonist, composer and teacher, Zimasile Ngqawana affectionately known as ‘Zim’ (and later as ‘Zimology’) was born in […]
Abraham Mennen
https://amf.didiermary.fr/abraham-mennen/
Abraham Mennen is a South African saxophonist, improvisor and composer.
He regularly performs and records his original compositions with his quartet and released two albums in 2019, The Really Revered Whole Story and Three Improvisations.
Nigeria 70
https://amf.didiermary.fr/nigeria-70/
Originally released in 2001, the first volume of Nigeria 70 was the first compilation of its kind to explore in depth the fertile music scene in Lagos as domestic artists mixed Highlife and traditional rhythms with Soul, Funk, Rock and Jazz. Three further volumes followed, exploring the far corners of original Afrobeat, Juju, Funk and […]
#70smusic #80smusic #AfroFunk #Compilation #FullAlbum #Jazz #JùjúMusic #Nigeria
Vuma Levin’s “In Motion”
https://amf.didiermary.fr/vuma-levin-in-motion-allegories/
With "In Motion," we explore the meeting point between South African and Western European musical traditions. This album, Allegories, reimagines 16th-century madrigals through the lens of Nguni-Sotho music and Black Atlantic histories—challenging colonial narratives and building a new story—one not bound by domination and submission, but shaped by mutual recognition [...]
Easing into Sunday morning with the new Ezra Collective album.
#NowPlaying #Jazz @jazz
Guinean Jazz Big Band…
https://amf.didiermary.fr/guinean-jazz-big-band/
Bembeya Jazz National (originally known as Orchestre de Beyla) is a Guinean jazz group that gained fame in the 1960s for their infectious Afropop rhythms.They are considered one of the most significant bands in Guinean music. Many of their recordings are based on traditional folk music in the country and have been fused with jazz […]
@alisynthesis I was putting together a little list of some of my favorite jazz artists for @tootbrute when I remembered an extraordinary jazz-hop act that you should check out for something unlike anything you've ever heard (unless you happened to come across this one before):
One of the most unique records I've had the pleasure of adding to my eclectic collection of musical treasures
@bandcamp @music @hiphop @jazz
#Bandcamp #Music #Indigenous #HipHop #Jazz
Somi – The Lagos Music Salon
https://amf.didiermary.fr/lagos-music-salon-somi/
The Lagos Music Salon is the 4th studio full-length album by jazz hybrid singer and songwriter Somi.
It was released in 2014. Somi is an American Jazz and Pop singer and songwriter.
Her music is influenced by her Ugandan and Rwandan roots, and she resides between New York City and Lagos, Nigeria. […]
Ibrahim Khalil Shihab – Spring
https://amf.didiermary.fr/ibrahim-khalil-shihab-spring/
South Africa’s lost jazz history contains many an overlooked classic. But even within that hidden tradition, there are few albums that suffered such an unlucky fate as Spring, the monumental 1968 debut album by pianist Ibrahim Khalil Shihab, formerly Chris Schilder.
Though Shihab was only twenty-two when Spring was recorded, he was already a lynchpin […]
