Doctor Nico and African Fiesta – Save Me
Teta Lando – Muato Wa N\'gingila
From: Cazumbi African Sixties Garage Vol. 1 (No Smoke, 2009)
In the last year No Smoke has released two African garage rock compilations. The second was released just a few months ago, however this post features songs from the first released at the beginning of the year. This compilation is really interesting. Many people have been digging around into the archives of highlife, afrobeat and many other african genres from the 50’s and onward lately, but there were many bands on the continent playing fuzzed out R and B, blues and rock and roll.
What is really interesting is that in the 60s and 70s you could hear many american and western bands emulating some of the sounds found in African genres and being adopted by Cymande, Parliament, Curtis Mayfield and others to some extent. The Cazumbi compilation features bands in these areas adapting instead to more americanized rock and blues forms. It’s kind of a weird wormhole thing going on as many american genres can be traced back to some of the original sounds and scales of African music. It makes for some incredibly interesting garage rock and some new takes that results in some very funky, very fuzzed out rock.
Save Me is a cover of an Aretha Franklin song and has a small little drum kit, and a rumbling bass over some great vocals. You can just feel the sound on this one, the music rides low and the vocal rips high above letting your brain reside in a steady middle zone, surfing the expansion between the two.
The Krakmen start out their signature Twist with a standard blues scale before the vocals come in shouting over the top like Wooly Bully before dissapearing and letting the guitar pick up and dive into jumpy solo. Later a sax comes in and it sounds like King Curtis’ sqawking sax when he played with the Coasters. The song dissapears sounding like it could have gone on for another 10 minutes and that probably wouldnt have been a bad thing.
The last song I struggle to call garage rock, other than its fuzzed out nature. But it doesn’t matter. They found this song and it deserved to show up somewhere. This is a spaced out spiritual over some sparse bongos, soothing back vocals and a little bit of electric guitar. If Save Me is the lead up int he first act and Krakmen Twist highlights the action of the 2nd, Muato Wa N’gingila is the music as as the day ends and things fade to the titles.
Derek B 15 January 1965 – 16 November 2009
RIP to an artist who despite breaking boundaries within the UK music industry never really got the respect he deserved.
Miguel De Deus: Mister Funk and Black Soul Brothers
From: Black Soul Brothers [Underground, 1977]
Time to shake those Monday blues away with some down and dirty funk from Brazil in the shape of the first and only solo release from Miguel De Deus: Black Soul Brothers. Whenever I see an album with that kind of title my first reaction is one of excitement and fear. Excitement because the title promises all kinds of awesomeness awaiting on the vinyl and fear because 9 times out of 10 it turns out to be tepid light disco with little to recommend it.
Happily for me, and you, this is the bona fide deal and is usually priced according to this fact when it pops up on ebay. In fact, a quick check shows one going for 200 dollars as we speak (disclaimer: not my auction!)
Although this is Miguel’s only solo album up to this date his earlier work in supporting groups (including Os Brazoes) from the sixties onwards is evident in the tight composition and focused feel of the songs on offer here.
Mister Funk on an album called Black Soul Brothers has an awful lot to live up to not be a crushing disappointment but live up to it it does. Starting with an open break the track takes the form of an improvised jam that just happens to be unbelievably on point. Featuring vocals that are more scat than structured, backing singers that come in and out of the mix and some wonderful synthesised bass noises this is absolute killer.
Black Soul Brothers, the only track on the album not written by Miguel, is another funk treat. This time round the horns lead the line as the band once again concentrate more on the overall composition than any sort of coherent lyric and it’s all the better for it. Caught in that wonderful place between disco and funk it’s entirely inappropriate for the cold and wet weather outside the window but then who gives a damn when the music’s so on point?
As mentioned, this is far from a cheap LP to pick up but some light digging should turn up many of the tunes on various compilations released over the last few years. Forget the cold and feel the funk.
For those interested, my good friend Deji Olukotun made his way to Eugene O’Neill Theater last week to experience Fela! On Broadway. Here is a brief sampling of his account:
… The story begins with the impending closure of The Shrine by the government. It’s as good of a starting point as any other. Fela, played by the Sierra Leonean Sahr Ngaugah, recounts his life through a series of flashbacks, charting the development of his music and remembering the key personalities in his life. We see glimpses of his life in London, his visit to America during the Black Power movement, and his fear of James Brown’s music, which swept through Africa and haunted him, because he both loved it and disliked its lack of African sentiment. We also watch as he meets the first and most influential of his eventual household of twenty-seven wives. He then explains his Afrobeat music by breaking it down instrument by instrument...
Sounds like a full success (despite an arguably out of place tap-dancing sequence… ha!) Cool. I’m psyched; it sounds like a great show.
Be back soon with some choice jams of both old and new school varieties.
Fela Kuti & Afrika 70 – Zombie
From: Zombie [Celluloid, 1977]
Fela Kuti & Afrika 70 – Sorrow, Tears, & Blood
From: Sorrow, Tears & Blood [Kalakuta, 1977]
Fela on Broadway Official Site
A few months ago, I received a PR email asking if I wanted to receive some “cool stuff” that might, perhaps, inspire Earfuzz to help spread the word about a new musical coming to town. The show was vaguely described as “an energetic mix of Afrobeat music and African dance, following the life of a famous musician.” Hmm, I thought, sounds Earfuzzy… who could this famous musician possibly be?… of course, it’s Fela Kuti. While I expected it to be Fela, I did harbor a fear it might be a half-baked off off off Broadway production about a fictional composite character based roughly on the life of Fela. Nope. It appears they are going large here and doing their best to channel the spirit of Fela Kuti- the man, the myth, the legend-through the lens of a Broadway musical production. For many reasons, I’m optimistic it will be a killer show… Why?…
Exhibit A - PR mystery box actually contained some “cool stuff”
The contents of the box and more, after the jump.
Squarepusher: Don’t Go Plastic, Ill Descent and Shin Triad
From: Music is Rotted One Note [Warp, 1998]
Before I dive into the subject matter of this week’s post, I would like to personally thank Junior and Chuck for making the switch over to Wordpress without any major issues occurring. I apologize that I have been missing in action lately, but life has been smacking me around like a red-headed step child. I hope to get my bearings and post on a more regular basis, but I am unable to commit to any sort of schedule at this point. Thanks go out to the rest of the crew for bringing the serious funk while I was gone. Here’s to continuing the legacy of Ear Fuzz on Wordpress.
Today’s post focuses on electro-jazz, a style of music that juxtaposes elements of jazz fusion, funk and soul. In the late 90’s, electronic acts and jazz musicians began marching to the same drummer, as numerous like-minded acts started releasing records all over the globe. I know the name electro-jazz or nu-jazz makes a lot of people cringe, but aside from a few big names like St. Germain and Jazzanova, there is an abundance of great stuff to be found in this genre.
One of my first discoveries of Electro-jazz was the album Music is Rotted One Note by UK electronic act Squarepusher. This is essentially the brainchild of Tom Jenkinson who combined vintage samplers and sequencers with organic intrumentation to achieve a fascinating reinterpretation of the sound Miles Davis mastered on Bitches Brew. Even though I was merely a jazz novice when I first discovered this record, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between Squarepusher and most of the 70’s fusion like Miles, Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra, etc. The entire album is not in the jazz-fusion vein however, as it incorporates musique concrete, ambient electronic passages and aural transmissions from another world.
I am featuring three songs from the album that encapsulate the feel of it as a whole, with two of them sounding like they could have easily been on any Miles Davis album from the fusion era. Keep in mind that the only instruments used on this record are sequencers, synthesizers, percussion and rhodes piano.
The second track on the record “Don’t Go Plastic” starts out with cymbal splashes and the sound of rhodes piano bubbling under the surface like molten lava. It slowly builds with percussion that seems to be spliced from different takes, while the rhodes glides through the song like it has wings. At about the two minute mark, their is a percussive break that is seemingly computer-generated, and then a sinister piano melody plays for a couple bars. After a brief but impressive drum solo, a solo kicks in that is like no other. It is hard to tell whether this solo was achieved through the various sequencers and pedals that are the usual M.O. for Squarepusher, but it sounds to me like a piano is being played underwater while the rest of the band is riding the groove.
“Ill Descent” captures the essence of ambient rock bands like Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze while simultaneously managing to experiment with textures and sound that pull from jazz and avant garde music. If I had thought of this song when I was compiling my triumvirate of space music comps, it would have fit like a glove.
The last track is a short burst of creative energy that opens with scattershot drumming and electronic sound waves only to switch gears completely into a cacophonous, funky slab of goodness that is just too good to pass up. The rumbling bassline from Digital Underground’s classic hip-hop track “The Humpty Dance” is the most obvious influence on this track.
This concludes my overview of Squarepusher’s 1998 classic Music For Rotted One Note. I welcome any comments about other Electro-jazz bands that you guys are digging right now.
Mombasa: Nairobi and Shango
From: African Rhythm & Blues [Spiegelei, 1975]
What with all the toing and froing over trying to get the site back up and running in a state you can actually access I’ve taken my eyes off the all important actual posting of music. I can only once again apologise and hopefully will go some way to rectifying this sorry state over the next week with a couple of great music posts.
In with bang we have the first Mombasa album, African Rhythm & Blues. When I first encountered the album I, kind of understandably I think, assumed that the album was of African origin. It was only on paying closer attention that the slow whirring gears clicked in and I realised that the band was led by swing trombonist Lou Blackburn and the whole shebang was recorded in Germany.
A few simple searches revealed that Lou moved to Germany in 1970 and spent his time from then on working with the band Mombosa and releasing a number of albums in this series. Having come across other titles by the group since I’m still confident that, while they’re all pretty fantastic, the first release is the pinnacle of their achievements.
Once the background story is in place the tracks actually make more sense, combining as they do a mixture of afro funk grooves with a more western approach to the brass section and overall track construction.
Nairobi is a proper little groove burner as the bass leads the way through the percussion, the track slipping between something on a jazz tip, to something more funk and back again.
Shango is a more out and out funk track and I can see why it’s become a bit of a cult dancefloor favourite. It kicks off with a simple trumpet line before the percussion picks up a few minutes in and the track becomes all about the rhythm and groove going into ultimate overdrive when the wah wah bass enters the scene at five minutes in.
I believe the album has had limited CD reissues over the years so keep your eyes open, you never know…..
Hey Everybody, we’re gettin’ ready for the comeback. Any lackadaisical posting will be heretofore remedied as we and by we I mean Chuck and Junior mostly were fixing things up, making the switch and just generally making things happen and hopefully Ear Fuzz will now be more user friendly as well as work a little better.
I got a little something for you all this Halloween, its something I’ve been posting over at The Ghost Town. Just like the last 4 years I’ve been posting a spooky supernatural song a day and recently completed a mix. It’s called There Goes Your Corpse and has some classics, some remixes, some out of print stuff and a little bit of everything. It’s over at Divshare so you can download it there. And Later tonight I’ll put it on our FTP. Let me know what you think.
Here it is.
So after having endless trouble with Blogger posting and updates we’ve finally made the switch over to Wordpress. Over the coming weeks we should be adding new features to the site and also sorting out the various technical glitches that are currently floating around like the early christmas gifts that keep on giving.
If you spot anything that looks particularly wrong or have some knowledge of wordpress wonders that you think we can use please drop us a line or leave a comment.
Thanks for your patience and welcome to the new dawn…….
Buddy Miles – Rockin and Rollin on the Streets of Hollywood
Buddy Miles – Nasty Disposition (with Stevie Wonder)
Sorry folks, I was held up in Hollywood. Ergo, that’s why I haven’t been keeping up with sharing the funk! But we’re still posting links over at the Facebook fan page -
The experience really made me think of Buddy Miles’ song ‘Rockin and Rollin in Hollywood’.
Earlier this Spring, I posted up about Buddy Miles (RIP) and his post Hendrix / funk years. I think you’ll find Part 1 of my look at Buddy Miles funk years informative, but let’s share some more of his funk.
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