Soul Jazz Records Presents - Apala: Apala Groups In Nigeria 1967-70 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Album Tracks 1. E Ma Mobun Saya 2. Ariwo 3. Aye Wa Kael 4. Baby I Tire 5. Iba Awon Agba 6. Chukwu Fulum Nanya 7. Cool Cats Invitation 8. Iyawo-Ile 9. Freedom Highlife 10. Bonfo 11. Owo Ni Fari 12. Cut Your Coat According to Your Size 13. Lumumba Calypso 14. Save for a Rainy Day 15. Onyeoma Rosa 16. Look, Look, Look 17. Saturday Night 18. Iyawo Ma Pa Mi 19. You Cheat Me 20. Ozo Emena 21. Obo Mi Ebe Mi 22. Olowufuja Sawa 23. Omo Alara

Soul Jazz Records' Nigeria Soul Power 70 album showcases the influence of funk, rock and disco on Nigerian music during the 1970s. Originally released as a now-long-out-of-print collectors' 7' RSD box, this fully expanded album now also includes extra tracks from Sonny Okosuns, Wings, Chief Kollington Ayinla and more. While for many people the fusion of funk and jazz music with Nigerian rhythms and aesthetics began with Fela Kuti and his afro-beat sound, in fact this can be traced further back to the phenomena of the 1960s Nigerian artists and house bands in nightclubs and hotels who interpreted US soul and pop music with a local flavour and none more so than Geraldo Pino, the 'African James Brown' who features heavily in this collection. Other similarly inspired Nigerian funk and soul artists featured here included Tony Grey and his Ozimba Messengers and Don Bruce and The Angels. Nigeria Soul Power 70 includes a number of tracks from the group Wings originally known as BAF (Biafran Air Force) Wings, an army band formed during the Biafran civil war in Nigeria. The groups' heavy mixture of funk, rock and African styles was popular among many Nigerian groups at the time. Beneath the shadow of the few Nigerian artists who signed international recording deals in the 1970s ' Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Chief Ebenezer Obey ' lies of vast wealth of largely undiscovered musical transmutation and cultural cross-pollination, and included here are heavy afro-funk/rock and disco tracks from artists such as the legendary Sonny Okosuns as well as rare cuts from little-known outside of Nigeria - groups such as Colomach and MFB. Most of these obscure artists signed to major labels in Nigeria in the commercial slipstream that opened up as Philips, Decca and EMI tried to emulate the international success of the big three international Nigerian artists. Finally featured here is Kolling

Soul Jazz Records' Brasil album was recorded in Rio de Janeiro in 1994 with a host of legendary Brazilian musicians and has remained one of the key defining early releases from the record tag. Out-of-print for over 20 years the album has now been fully digitally re-mastered for this new 2018 edition.The album was recorded at the height of the first wave of interest in Brazilian music in London in the 1990s led by Gilles Peterson and Brazilian music obsessive Joe Davis.Singer-songwriter Joyce had been a living legend in her native Brazil ever since the Bossa Nova movement of the 1960s and had made her first record when she was just 20, and described by Antonio Carlos Jobim as 'one of the greatest singers of all time.' Joyce Moreno agreed to be involved in the project to record an album in Brazil produced with a UK sensibility and Tutty Moreno's group signed up as the house-band for the project. Stuart Baker (founder of Soul Jazz Records) and Joe Davis then flew to Rio de Janeiro, searching out studios and rehearsal spaces.During this time in Brazil more artists signed up for the project including legendary figureheads of the Brazilian music Sivuca and trombonist Raul de Souza. Other key figures included singer/guitarist Celia Vaz who worked extensively as arranger with the legendary Quarteto Em Cy and drummer Dom Um Romao; Wanda Sá, who played in Sergio Mendes' original seminal bossa nova group Brasil 65; and legendary saxophone/flautist Teco Cardoso whose bio reads like a who's who of Brazilian music; and the percussionist Pirulito whose stunning display of self-made instruments allowed him to magically create the massive sound of Rio's Samba Schools live inside the studio. The album was recorded over one hot summer and mixed in London.Over 20 years on and Soul Jazz Records' Brasil album manages to capture both an important cross-cultural musical moment in time betwee