Jazz /
Warteef Jigeen
The Guelewar Band of Banjul are a band quite unlike any other – an explosive mix of soul and funk with local rhythms like Boogaraboo and Ndaga combined with a defiant insistence on singing in their local language, Wolof. They certainly blew a young Y…
Sweeter Than Honey
Pat Thomas and Ebo Taylor are the Jagger and Richards of Nigerian Highlife. Drawn together by a mutual love of the genre – and an equally intense desire to stop it becoming moribund and bereft of ideas – Ghana’s two most progressive musicians added a…
Rock Town Express
There was a time in the 1970s when the best band in the Nigeria was actually from Cameroon. Rock Town Express, formed out of the ashes of Wrinkar Experience by Yaoundé boys Edjo'o Jacques Racine and Ginger Forcha, hit it hard, hit it loud and hit it …
Pyramids
Bala Miller was famous for pushing boundaries. His first job was selling beer in the Muslim north. And as a musician he'd always try to sneak in 'local' flourishes while playing trumpet with Bobby Benson and Victor Olaiya. It was with his band, the P…
Coming Home
In 1977 Jake Sollo returned to Nigeria to record his first solo album, Coming Home. His long-term band, The Funkees, had imploded in London. And his big break with the Afro super band, Osibisa, was cut short when he went on strike with Kiki Gyan and …
Vol. 3: Aviation Grand Father
In the mid-seventies Nigeria, everybody loved the Black Children Sledge Funk Co. Band. Blasting out of the bustling river port of Onitsha, their infectious, feel-good grooves were the perfect antidote to the dark economic clouds gathering over the co…
My Good Friends
Set up by producer Ben Okonkwo in 1973, the BEN label, and its offshoot Clover Sounds, broke some of the biggest bands outside of Lagos. The Apostles, Akwassa, The Doves, Mary Afi Usuah and Aktion all got their start in the cramped studio in the comm…
We Can Get It On
By the mid 1970’s in Nigeria, the Biafran War was a distant memory and the music scene in the eastern city of Aba was booming again. Bands like The Funkees, The Wings and The Apostles grabbed the headlines, but the more interesting stuff was coming f…
Unity
In 1979, long-time Highlife veteran Aigbe Lebarty decided to try his hand at high-energy disco funk. Checking the Lebartone Aces at the door, he borrowed the Sex Bombers from Prince Omo Lawal-Osula and created Unity, a sure-fire dance floor stomper t…
Freedom Anthem
S. Job Organization (also known as SJOB Movement) was a rarity in the Nigerian music scene – a collective of equals in a world where band ‘leaders’ ruled the roost and ‘band boys’ had to make do with the crumbs. The name was an acronym representing e…
Sahara All Star Band Jos
Based in the Havana Nightclub, in the central plateau town of Jos, the Sahara All Stars of Jos weren't part of the Lagos scene or the one in the east. Their leader, Dan Satch Ayo, had played with Dr Sir Warrior in the Orientals. He'd jammed with Moha…
What Ever You Need
By the 1979 release of Whatever You Need, the Elcados were ready to party. “We got rhythm, we got sound,” they declare on ‘Funky Music’. “You’re going to dig it!' Starting out as the Moonrakers in Kanu in 1968, Steve Black, Rocky Mustapha, Tony Nosik…
Country Boy 'Mr. Funkees'
Don't let the floppy hat and rolling English countryside on the cover fool you. Harry Mosco's Country Boy is a certified floor-filler, bursting with Studio 54 era disco-funk as well as a token reggae monster, complete with its own dub version. Harry …
Aleke
After spending much of the ‘70s humping his congos around New York as a session musician, Nigerian Aleke Kanonu pulled in some favours to record an album of his own. The result was Aleke, a criminally obscure Afrobeat/Funk/Jazz masterpiece featuring …
Jungle Magic
Considered an acid boogie classic, Jungle Magic is a cosmic transmission from the early days of Nigerian disco. The bass lines are lethal. The synths are fat and squelchy. And the groove is non-stop and primal. Channeling the jungle gods of funk and …
African Woman
Mary Afi Usuah trained as an a opera singer at the prestigious St Cecilia Academy in Rome and spent 13 years touring Europe with artists like Duke Ellington and Deep Purple. She matched vocal chops with Robert Plant performing with Led Zeppelin and b…
Nation Building
Nation Building is a real forgotten gem from the late '70s and is among the very best Afro-Beat Disco Lps ever. Berkely Ike Jones is one of the icons of the Nigerian scene being the guitarist and founder of BLO. BLO were one of the very best progress…
Mr. Love
Nigeria had a unique music scene which began spreading rapidly in the 1970s. The era was based on unspoiled use of fuzz pedal, keyboards and indisputable influences of the Psychedelic Blues bands of the West. In 1980 Effi Duke & The Love Family came …
Village Boogie
After starting his musical carrer back in 1968, the Nigerian artist, drummer, singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Steve Black released his fantastic and unique album "Village Boogie!" in 1979. "Village Boogie!" really deserves the status of a …