Everyone is asleep at home, I have some fresh strawberries and blackberries straight from the garden and some drops of a delicious Port Mourant from 1997 alongside myself, seems like I'm ready to drop another "Music galore" post!
So, to start smoothly, first tune will be an old favourite jazz theme, bluesy till the last note. It's taken from Dave Brubeck's "Jazz impressions from Japan" LP and it's simply titled Fujiyama.
Not "tropical"at all but such a beautiful piece of music!
open the following link in your browser :
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1760f4885l9sfxu/Dave%20Brubeck%20quartet%20-%20Fujiyama.mp3
Let's now step into the tropical business with a very confidential LP extract from the Virgin Islands. The name of the band is Mal and the Imaginations, on the 88 music label. I found no information anywhere so here is the artwork which I am fond of and a side of the lyrics insert. The song gives a definition of terrorism which I quite like and blame all form of organised violence, from any side you look at it. Mid eighties calypso for summer!
More Caribbean islands vibes : a supacool cadence-lypso from Dominica island (not Dominican Republic). Let's introduce the Midnight Groovers of Dominica with this nice 12' titled "Africa". I do love this type of keyboard driven tune.
For more example of their skills, please refer to the excellent Sofrito Discotheque series, volume 2 :
http://www.sofrito.co.uk/releases/sofrito-international-soundclash-preview.html
or
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hi0e8mb2q8o3dbw/Midnight%20groovers%20of%20Dominica%20-%20Africa%2012.mp3?dl=0
Let's continue our trip tonight with what you know is to be my main interest, some cool reggae vibes!
Here is the disco 12' majestic version of "Mr Boss Man" from roots man Linval Thompson, n the Strong like Samson beautiful label. Pure roots business, and you get the BIG BIG version by Barnabous DJ and dubwise alongside :
Nice Company sleeve for this one!
Back to the roots of Africa, here is a tune taken from the first band (I think) of now famous Salif Keita : Les ambassadeurs du motel de Bamako. The song is an original composition of Salif Keita and is titled Mali Denou. This ame on the Sonafric label in 1977. Beautiful voice, superb horn harmonies, that special something of african melodies, 10 minutes and a half of enlightenment for your soul, sooooo good!
Salif Keita is easy to spot!
Panama has been the home of nice and original music back in the late 60's, early 70's. Here is one good example of that with that nice 7' on the Tamayo label. Accordion driven cumbia by Claudina Vargas, titled "Lisy Gisela". If you like this one, you may search for the 3 volumes of Panama series on the always excellent Soundway label :
(http://www.soundwayrecords.com/release/va---panama-3/panama-3-calypso-panameo-guajira-jazz--cumbia-tpica-on-the-isthmus-1960-75-sndw018)
Hum, last picture was hazy, the Rum is starting to affect my abilities...
By the way, here is a picture of my drink for this post, very enjoyable one if you can spot it :
I'll continue the journey anyway, this time with some soul jazz. The guitar of O'Donel Levy delivers a nice and speedy interpretation of Al Green's classic "Let's stay together". This is from 1972 on the Groove Merchant imprint, the album is titled Breeding of mind and, well, it breeds mine...
OK, it's getting late so I'm gonna drop one more and go make sweet dreams.
To match the hour I found a reggae favourite called "Midnight Rock". It's a song by early 80's singer General Plough and the album (which has the same title as the featured tune) came out on the mythical Clappers records label. Although Clappers aimed to promote "roots and culture" music, this one song is more like a lovers reggae vibe...still I man love it!
Well, that's all for tonight folks, hope you dig the features as much as I do. As I already said, feel free to comment, share, ask for more of this and that, and please respect the music and people who play it : go buy records!
Love,
Ben
