Fela is quintessentially Africa. i knew i had to start with him but i wanted to do it in a less expected way. when i finally came up with Wganda Kenya, i was pleased. the idea crosses over schools of music, overlaps mog themes (Africa Tuesday, Funky Friday, Sunday Under The Covers), an anomaly, a phreak like me.
Wganda Kenya is from the Africolombia music scene purveyed in the '60s and '70s by none other than Discos Fuentes, a label that represented a golden age in Colombian music and which carried the likes of Wganda Kenya in order to expand to a non-Latin sound such as hailing from Africa, Curaçao, and Martinique.
EDIT: that'd be Discos Fuentes, (not Disco!) thanks to Cody's comment. damn, i hate misspellings. (:
i don't know much about Wganda Kenya's discography but their stuff can be found in the best-of compilation Afromania Caribe, including what i am pretty sure were their two biggest hits: the Latin funk Pim Pom and the Afrofunk Shakalaode.
the infectious Shakalaode happens to be a cover of the hypnotic Shakara, one of my loved Fela Kuti sounds. it was originally released in '72 as a two-song record comprising the title track and Lady, both songs tackling the westernization of African women and really one of the first records in which Fela began his social commentary through music.
it's too bad, for the purpose of full appreciation, that Shakalaode does not have the English-language bits of Shakara where one can glean the intense lines on inequality toward females woven into that unstoppable Afrobeat. njoy.
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i refuse to upload my 13:27-long Shakara (18.5mb at 192kbps), sorry, but you can listen to it ]here at YouTube[.
meanwhile, if we're having Fela a la Latino, we'd better have Mrs. Masekela aka Mama Afrika aka Miriam Makeba doing Samba.
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Excellent Ilay.....Love this song....
Care for a bit more? Here's one I posted a while ago.
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One thing is for sure..the music road across the Atlantic is an express that goes both ways, as you have so quirkily proven we these two stormers.
Folks often talk about how adaptable Westen pop forms like hip hop and rock absorb influences, but the master musicians (and smart pop producers) of South America and Africa have roots that go so far back that they are blurred..the fusions seem to come naturally.
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There are 2 other tracks from Waganda Kenya on ► Colombia that I posted on back in the day.
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Of course none of those tunes are actually in that post so here's one..
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A riveting and intriguing gem, thanks.
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Nick! Cheikh Lo, Les Nubians, Manu Di - what a treat! i love it, thank you. a day filled with Shakara's would be awesome, i love that song, it's a perfect soundtrack to levitation and astral projection ...er, and dancing, too. :}
i also considered some Manu Dibango for today but i could not find the angle. (yeah, i like angles. pffft.)
"Here's one I posted a while ago." - um, did you mean the above song or was that missing a link? (or the new fancy mog ate up your link code.)
Cody, i was on a similar train of thought while writing up my post while listening to Shakalaode on a loop. we have all these club music and hiphop and stuff and when i really, really listen they have all these rhythms and beats that i can hear in the songs of old of Africa (and similarly traditional vs modern Asian music) - and i'm asking myself, like, are we just really listening to ten songs redone a zillion times? and is that why, because we each happen to like only some, no matter how variously we hear the others we can't get to like them? fodder for thought for me, i shoulda skipped the mocha latte today. (:
ps- i know that album - is it all good? i should find it. and hey, i went to the WK lounge and "who's listening"? you, Señor. ;p
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dang ilay, that is a groovin tune. one minute i was sitting here listening, and the next minute i was sweeping the entire house! i dig the bass lines these tunes hold. very infectious. i must admit that i have very little in the way of african music in my collection. gonna have to explore it more.
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Oh sorry... I meant the above song.... pasting my cuts in the wrong place ...
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Cody, i just went to read your post and listening to Afrosound now (thank god it's working) and also just listened to Elyoyo. super duper awesome. and i second you - Colombia, who'da thunk??
incidentally, i was going to include this quote on Pim Pom in reference to champeta in this post, don't know why i didn't: "This kind of music is very popular with the ‘champeta sound systems’: pretty similar set-ups to the reggae sound systems that you see at places like Notting Hill Carnival. ‘Champeta’ is supposed to sound like the noise that bare feet make when they’re dancing in sand! ‘Pim Pom’ is an old Haitian Carnival hit done Colombian-style."
on Cali, i should mention briefly that that place is also my Khmer pre-ban music pimp, but that's a whole other set of posts. :D go, Cali!
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Jox, speaking of riveting and intriguing, i am still wrapping my head around the cat massacre! golly gosh, i'm not through with that thing, i've only just begun. ;D
Jeff, "and the next minute i was sweeping the entire house" - hahahahah. i'm not the only one who should've skipped coffee. yep, am diggin' the bass lines myself - this guy Fruko played bass (or was it rhythm?) for WK and he's like this Colombian music / Discos Fuentes bad-ass.
Nick, oopsie, okay.
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poebegoe, when you and Cody engage in friendly dueling uploads in one post, the force field becomes industrial strength. Whoa! When I started, the Fuentes label LP cover picture model was pointing her leg at a similarly clad lass in the MOG ad above her, but by the time it took me to enjoy all the post's servings, the ad had changed. Whoever Fuentes' cover art director was, he probably didn't realize that one of the songs on the LP was about the "westernization of African women."
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Woo! And I'm Shaka-ing my booty even as I type this!
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Cool man, crazy. . . . Not a style I'm normally drawn to but I'm always open to hearing something new to my ears. This would be great to hear in the background sitting on a porch near a body of water(or pool)drinking summer drinks & kabbitzing to your hearts content!
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here's the thing... I am keepin all y'all cuz you keep me in the loop of the killer styley & the good tuneage !!!
Kabbitzing - really ?!? ;P
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Hhmm, looks like I'm not gonna be sleeping any decade soon. Other than a very early fascination with Osibisa, I know so little here. But, the absorptions already begun, and who needs sleep anyway?
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Holy Cartagena! This is unstoppable. It's weird, though - if you really listen to the percussionists, there's a hint of cumbia there.....
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Yo, kabitzing, fo' realz!(yes I know I misspelled it the first time)
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Can we have an aphreak week...month...year? Fantastic stuff, Ilay.
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Spike, thank you for the kind words, i would probably never in my life engage in dueling with Cody, friendly or unfriendly - i'll just sit there and nod profusely. ;D truth be told, the Wganda Kenya album photo'd up there isn't the one with the song Shakalaode but i did think it was interesting to up and juxtapose a popular '70s notion of women with something like the subject of Shakara - good of you to catch it!
Mike, careful with the booty shaking, you might just end up being photographed by Bartleby / Bloodtea / Cody for Funky Friday. (;
August and Lizzie, god knows i barely listened to African music in my youth. heck, if it wasn't a beautiful boy singing about despair and death, i didn't care to listen! :} thank you, mog, for helping expand my horizons.
seriously, what the hell is kabitzing?!?
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Scott, "looks like I'm not gonna be sleeping any decade soon" - i love that! an early fascination with Osibisa puts you off to a good start, my friend, you can hardly go wrong from there.
Bill, you wouldn't be mistaken on that one, quite possibly. this group was put together in Colombia, i know for a fact there are Latino members, and some 6 out of 10 songs they had put out were Latin funk.
Colin, feel free to take it up with Mr. Ivylander who rightully commenced this fantastic madness. i know i look forward to it every week now!
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Kibitzing=chatting, idle talk, conversing, etc.(And I misspelled it the 2nd time above but looked it up for this comment)
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Again, I deflect credit, probably foolishly. Condy and consumerx are the brains behind African Tuesday.....
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Sorry about the typo. I meant Cody, not our Secretary of State....
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Hello,
Already visited the blog Africolombia. some cover and tropical music and Afro-Colombian, very good.
i recommend.
http://africolombia.blogspot.com/
Wganda Kenya Music.
http://africolombia.blogspot.com/search/label/Wganda%20Kenya
Thom
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Aug, hot dayum, another day of higher learning!
Mr. IVL, i'll have to say - that was a very funny typo. you "cool cats" of MOG should have a collective name - (B)Rat Pack? Chain Gang? Billionaire Boys? New Kids On The Block? (;
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Thom,
hello there. thanks very much for the links, much appreciated. looking forward to checking out the blog right away and hopefully wade through Africolombian gems.
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Thomyago! Wow, that is an incredible blog..Many thanks.
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constantly i communicate with the manager this Blog your name is Fabian.
he told me that some day Auctions the vinyls and also told me, had 1000 Lps of Tropical music, Salsa and Afofunk, Afrobeat...etc
Thom
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Higher learning is da sheeeeit!!!!!!!