June 18th, 2009
Information on Smahila and the S.B.’s is D.B. Cooper-scarce. Save for a few entries on Discogs.com, and a paragraph or two gleaned elsewhere, my knowledge about the group is essentially limited to: they’re a Nigerian afro-beat band with a Fela Kuti fixation, who released the sublime African Movement/Natural Points in 1977, on British imprint, RAS (Rogers All Stars (Nigeria) Ltd.).
Few groups managed to appropriate Fela with such funk or fidelity–this might be the best 18-minutes of movement ever to not involve Ya Kid K.
Download:
MP3: Smahila & The S.B.’s-”African Movement” (Left-Click)
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May 20th, 2009
Somewhere in a dazed diatribe, I recall mentioning the revelation of Tinariwen at Coachella. The notes I took during the performance are crude and cryptic. Bear with me. The gist is that the set was one of those times when a battery of hallucinogenic ideas infect your head–the notion of what it means to be swallowed whole by music. To an inveterate cynic, that’s a tough glass of Tuareg tea to sip. But this is sacred sun and sand music that cuts to an atavastic core. Songs that emerge from the water, air, fire, and ether. If you can’t feel it, you might be hollow.
Tinariwen make gangster music. Not like the coke-tasias spouted by your favorite trappers rapper*, but exile, rebel music. Nomadic warriors from Mali, banished from their homeland to drift across the desert, recruited by Kadafi to turn their Kalishnikovs on their countrymen. In the blazing bronze Mojave sun, they seemed at home, subduing the 100 degree heat with white headwraps and hand-drums, floor-length robes, and resurrected guitars tilting towards infinity, dancing slickly with no sweat, thanks to thick Bedouin blood.
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May 13th, 2009
In my quest to redeem that last lost post, let me invoke the name of half-Kenyan, half-American benga band, Extra Golden. Among the premier practioners of contemporary afro-beat, they’re living proof that the American legacy of Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, and D.O. Misiani, isn’t entirely the province of a bunch of pencil-necked geeks rocking Lacoste and loafers.
In advance of their show tonight at the Echo, I spoke with guitarist Alex Minoff about the band’s alternately uplifting and tragic history, African music, and the difficulty of getting an American visa. If you’re still looking for tickets, Duke at You Set the Scene still has a pair to give away. Extra Golden will be playing alongside reggae legends, The Meditations. If you don’t want to go, you deserve to watch comical cat videos for the duration of your existence.
LA Times: Extra Golden on African Music, Obstacles, and Obama
Download:
MP3: Extra Golden-”Anyango”
MP3: Extra Golden-”Ok-Oyot System” (Left-Click)
MP3: The Meditations-”There Must be a First Time”
Posted in African Music, LA Times | 1 Comment »
May 5th, 2009
Alemayehu Eshete, also known as the Ethiopian James Brown. Proof positive of the Godfather’s maxim that if a man has good hair and teeth, he’s got it all.
Download:
MP3: Alemayehu Eshete-”Tèy Geryèlèshem”
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May 3rd, 2009
Late pass for not reporting the death of Ethiopian legend, Tlahoun Gessesse, sooner, but unless you get placement in a Jim Jarmusch movie or name-dropped by Vampire Weekend, coverage of African music in the American media tends to be scarce. So thanks to the indispensable Likembe, for the heads-up.
For those unaware of the legendary Amharic singer nicknamed “the voice,” Gessesse was arguably the only icon rivaling Mulatu for G.O.A.T. status (Addis Ababa edition.) Accordingly, two weeks ago, millions of Ethiopians flocked to his flag-draped casket at Maskal Square, to pay tribute to a man, Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zanawi, declared, “an artiste of great renown, with lifetime contributions to Ethiopia’s modern music, which he popularized across the world.”
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Posted in African Music, R.I.P. | 2 Comments »
