The Mongoose

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Since we were just talking about Jamaica, I can’t help but share a song that has been haunting me off-and-on for a couple weeks. Authentic Jamaican Folk Songs is a collection of “work” and “spiritual” songs from the internationally acclaimed choral group, Frats Quintet.  While their song Mongoose (or any of their work for that matter) doesn’t fit my usual dance floor-focused flavor, their rich vocal range and playful lyrics are comforting and somehow familiar.Give it a listen, and see if it’s not stuck in your head for at least the afternoon! – Smokestack

None Shall Escape

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For me, half the fun of searching for old vinyl records is found in the unforeseen stories and experiences that unravel with every new record digging adventure. One could argue that hunting for music online similarly uncovers some interesting artifacts, but scour your local flea market or try finding the last remaining record store in town while traveling the globe and you’ll find the computer just doesn’t compare! Here’s a short list of surprises that have turned up in the last year while in pursuit of my next blog entry….

  • Someone’s family photos from the 1920’s, in a record sleeve
  • Hand written song lyrics and love notes, also in a sleeve
  • A toilet plunger used as a 45 rack! (the seller said the plunger was unused)
  • Unopened bottles of whiskey from the 60’s
  • Met an original recording artist from a local funk band from the 70’s, and helped him fix his broken keyboard

And, of course there’s the life stories that every old collection you’re flipping through has to tell. For example, what exactly is going on when you find a sealed copy of a local funk EP in a collection full of country records? Or, how about the lone cumbia 45 that was trashed and buried in a pile of Broadway show tunes in pristine condition? Here’s a more recent discovery that surprisingly turned up in a pile of weathered jazz albums.

None Shall Escape is an independently released collection of excerpts, largely from a forum on Caribbean politics, held in San Francisco in 1983. According to The Anarchist Library, the edited commentary belongs to former frontline organizer and workers union activist Fundi. The site features Fundi ‘s writings and includes the following introduction…

The basis for his (Fundi’s) critical analysis of Grenada and the English-speaking Caribbean comes from a history of first-hand experiences with collective revolt in Jamaica.In 1967 he worked as a refrigeration mechanic at Western Meat Packers in the parish of Westmoreland. This area of Jamaica has the largest meat packing plant and the largest sugar refinery in the Caribbean outside of Cuba. Fundi was one of many workers who started the first strike in the history of Western Meat packers when a woman co-worker was fired for refusing to stand in a puddle while working on tile assembly line.

By Jamaican law and institutional practice, workers must keep working while the dismissal of a Co-worker is being challenged. But in this instance, tile meat packing workers spontaneously shifted the fate of rebel workers from union office negotiators to instantaneous strike action.Later in 1968, Fundi again became involved in a six week strike of sugar workers at the West Indies Sugar Company. This led to the formation of a broad-based Sugar Workers Council which took the government and unions by surprise.

The ongoing conflict between autonomous workers action and union/state representation has been detailed by a group of Caribbean Situationists in the LP recording “None Shall Escape.” In that album Fundi describes the resistance against hierarchical, representational forms of organization by Caribbean radicals:

From the start we saw through the fraud of the “independent” unions that ground up the meat packing and sugar factory workers. We decided that the union bureaucracy must stop; that there should not be any mediation between us and the boss for this has been responsible for suppressing confidence in ourselves to take up the total task of ending capitalism. So we took control of our union dies. We developed the capacity for instant strike action. We had meetings on the factory compound and the farms during work hours against the wishes of the boss and traditional unionism. We took control of the canteen. Such actions are the bedrock of direct participation which stands in truth against the lies of centralized leadership.

Wow, we really went down the rabbit hole! If you’ve made it this far, perhaps you now want to hear Fundi speak for yourself?…

– Smokestack

The Nairobi Sound with John Storm Roberts

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Speaking of African guitar stylings, music compilations, and John Storm Roberts….here’s another noteworthy compilation from his Contemporary African Music Series from the 80’s – the first of the series, I believe. At the time I found this and still today, I know very little about any kind of music from Kenya. No worries! All you need are open ears and an open mind!

The Nairobi Sound celebrates two contrasting, but equally soulful popular 60’s-70’s guitar styles from Nairobi’s bustling streets – “River Road” music referring to an area of town rich in recording facilities and the “dry guitar” or acoustic style reminiscent of the village musician. Storm Roberts, an accomplished journalist, author, and record producer, devoted his life to studying Afro-latin folk music traditions. Here’s what he writes about his experiences in Kenya in the Nairobi Sound liner notes.

…Unlike Ghana’s highlife or the all-pervasive music of Zaire, this was not primarily a dance style. Nairobi’s nights are too cool for the open-air dance halls that nourished so many musicians elsewhere, and Congolese refugees got most of the jobs in the few joints there were.

That left the record companies: store in front, studio in back, tiny loudspeakers outside. The musicians – even the best known – were too poor to own their instruments, but mostly too much musician to hold down other jobs even if other jobs were to be found. So they hung out in the studios, and jammed, and dreamed up songs to reflect the dusty realities of the streets outside….

…There was also an acoustic style mysteriously known as “dry guitar”, that was more rural in origin and practice. Dry guitar – two guitars in its classic format, backed by percussion that usually consisted of two Fanta bottles – was an extension of what you could hear played by a man sitting on a corn sack waiting for a bus on some remote roadside. It tended to be more varied than River Road music, perhaps becasue the singers were closer to their traditional roots, and certainly because they often sang in Kikuyu (Wanjiru Wanjiru) or Luo (Elias Odede), or any one of Kenya’s 40-plus languages, rather than in Swahili…

And now hear are a few tunes from Nairobi Sound that I can’t get enough of, two of which come from unidentified musicians. Check the vocals on Chemirocha, so good!!!

To read more about OG RECORD DIGGER JSR check out this interview he did with the good people at Perfect Sound Forever.

– Smokestack

Thum nyatit solo – Unidentified

Elias Odede – Dick Ngoye & Party

Chemirocha – Unidentified 
Vijana Niambie – Williamu Osale
Safari Kibosho – Humphrey Eshitool

The Sound Of Kinshasa

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Once upon a time I couldn’t be bothered with compilations. Why not go straight to the source, I thought. Well, that shortsightedness eventually gave way as I found myself listening to large dosages of Ethiopian Jazz around 2003. With no plans to go record digging in East Africa and being too poor (and uninterested) in shelling out $100 plus for a single piece of vinyl on Ebay, the Ethiopiques series was my next best option!

Since then my eyes have opened to the ever-increasing number of compilations that are released each year, documenting even the smallest of musical niches, say like…cinematic Pakistani Psych-Pop or Peruvian Psych-Rock. Who knew such genres even existed?!

While finding original vinyl pressings remains hard to trump, over the years my appreciation for carefully crafted compilations has continued to grow. Just within the wild resurgence of West African music in recent years, labels like Sound Way, Strut, and Analog Africa have dedicated countless time to researching, locating, remastering, and releasing lost and forgotten music from a large part of the African continent. My favorite of these comps are chalked full of incredible artwork, photos, history and interviews with the original recording artists!

While earlier compilations of African music that came out during the 1980’s “World Music” awakening may not compare to the sleek packaging and dense liner notes of today’s comps, the musical content is often just as deep. Check out for example, The Sound of Kinshasa, an early 80’s compilation highlighting the influence of acoustic “Spanish” guitar and Latin rhythms on traditional Congolese music. Compiled and released by the British-born ethnomusicologist John Storm Roberts on his own mail-order label Original Music, The Sound of Kinshasa does an excellent job exemplifying the connections between Latin dance music such as rumba, chachacha, and salsa with Congolese rhythms like kirikiri, soukous, and boucher.

Featured here are 4 of my favorite selections from The Sound Of Kinshasa. Enjoy!

Pelanga X Poly-Rythmo!!!

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And now for a little taste of what to expect at this Saturday’s Pelanga! The legendary Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou Benin stretches out with this scorching Sato-Salsa track.  There’s nothing I really can say that hasn’t already been documented by Analog Africa in one of their many compilations featuring the band’s illustrious work from the 70’s and 80’s. That said, we’ll just let the music do the talking. Vamos!

Smokestack

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First Taste Of Fuji

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While Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister may not be the go-to floor-filler on a Friday night, his unique blend of west African spiritual rhythms still energize the soul like a Pelanga dance floor! As if the faded carnival font and dapper 70’s fashion were not a strong enough lure, our featured musician is rockin’ some turquoise leather shoes! Don’t know about you, but that’s evidence enough for me to drop a few dollars and take the risk of buying an unknown record. I figured a man with such style, yet laid back enough to take time out to smell the flowers would surely create some high quality music.

Well, for our listening enjoyment Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister and his Fuji Exponents produces just that…the kind of music that instantly soothes the soul and leads those unfortunate enough not to speak the Yoruba language to ask “what on earth is he saying”?

A brief internet search quickly informs me that as far as the Nigerian musical style of Fuji is concerned I’ve tapped the source. As it turns out, Alhaji is not only the father of Fuji but was also an early master of it’s musical precursor Were/Ajisari, a genre traditionally performed before dawn during the fasting season of Ramadan. According to the spiritual leader and master musician, Fuji music is named after the Japanese mountain of love and is a combination of Sakara, Apala, Juju, Aaro, Gudugudu, and Highlife.

With over 150 albums recorded up until his passing in 2010, Alhaji helped cement the Fuji sound in the popular culture of Nigeria, where it continues to flourish today. Listen to this incredible self-titled album in its entirety here!

-Smokestack

DJ Smokestack : Crunch time in Costa Rica

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Last month we had the honor of joining Pelanga homies and superstar couple DJs Smokestack and Chung-Tech in celebrating one of the dopest weddings we have ever seen. Sweaterfunk DJ collective? Presente! Forever We Rock B-boy crew? Presente! Scrumptious arepas and rice cakes? Presente! The groom carrying the bride’s mom in his traditional Korean outfit? Presente! The love, the wisdom, and the good looks of their beautiful families? Presente!  I could go on and on.

They just got back from their honeymoon, and DJ Smokestack stopped by to tell us all about it. ¡Gracias, hermano!  (Don’t miss his previous post here.)

On July 9th, after over 7 years of trying to find our records in each others crates, my love Christina and I finally got married! A week later saw us both soaking up the sun and daily rain showers of Costa Rica on a short 9 day honeymoon.

Our time was largely spent on the southern Caribbean coast, on the wonderfully undeveloped beaches of Puerto Viejo. After a week of beach bumming and exploring the surrounding rainforests, we made the 6 hour trek to one of the country’s most famous (active) volcanoes, Arenal, where we soaked in natural volcanic springs for much longer than doctors recommend.

Sandwiching these two rejuvenating experiences were a couple hours of intense recording digging in the capital of San Jose. On our arrival, our friendly cab driver Esteban helped as I followed several leads, which led to little more than a bathroom full of records. With only an hour before our bus out of town was scheduled to depart, there was only enough time to break the ice. After Esteban understood that I was actually serious about looking for dirty, old records, we made plans to follow some of his own leads on my way back through San Jose.Originally we were suppose to have 3 and half hours in San Jose before taking off, giving me at least a solid 2 hours of serious digging. As it turned out, our flight was bumped forward almost 2 hours, fatally cutting into my precious record digging time. Deflated, I went to meet Esteban and to let him know the unfortunate news. He seemed to take the update as a personal challenge and insisted that at least one stop could be squeezed in.

So off we went into San Jose’s thick rush hour traffic with just an hour to spare. In total I ended up with about 30 full minutes at our one destination, Esteban’s friend’s now defunct music shop. The first 10 minutes was spent sifting through mostly scratchy American rock and pop classics. After pulling aside two hopeful looking local productions, I asked my gracious host if he had any more records. “I’ve got about 20,000 more right upstairs” he repeatedly mentioned, emphasizing that “no one has looked at them in 20 years”! Even though he was excited to share this prized information, he assured me they were too dirty for me to view. After another 10 minutes of convincing him, he led me upstairs where I spent my remaining time manically flipping through the dusty stockpile of old store stock. To my benign disbelief, half of the whole second floor was 2 boxes-deep full of records, covered in tarp, and topped off with an assortment of other forgotten junk.

Needless to say, I had to pull out after looking through only 3 boxes. With my new wife in line to board our flight home, I had no choice but to throw in the towel and plan for a return trip in the not too distant future! In the end, these 30 frantic minutes produced a handful of quality vinyl, including some classics along with some new numbers from Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador, Haiti, Colombia, Cuba and the French Antilles. Here’s a quick 5 song mix to give you a little flavor of what I found…

Los Hicsos – Beso Sobre Beso (Costa Rica)
Jaime Llano Gonzalez – La Murga Panama (Colombia)
Rolando La’serie – Rio Manzanares (Cuba)
Orquestra Hermanos Flores –  Estoy En Onda (El Salvador)
Los Hermanos Duncan – Amor Verdadero (Panama)