Perez Prado - Pops and Prado (1959)

Soon the world of popular music cocked an ear. Perez Prado started climbing like the ripping trumpets in his orchestra, and he's been soaring eve since.

And there's another added attraction - the electric organ. For this album, both the Conn and Hammond organs were used. Conn can be heard on Ida, Sweet As Apple Cider; Hammond on Heigh-Ho, Yes Sir, That's My Baby and Taking a Chance on Love; and both are heard on Carolina in the Morning, You're Driving Me Crazy!, Paper Doll and If You Knew Susie.

In addition to the organ, the instrumentation also includes Prado's piano, bass, percussion, two drummers, one trombonist, four reeds and five superb trumpets. The master's hand has not lost its touch. The stunning brass cascades that make the hackles rise are here, along with that concise, but pulsing, Latin beat that throbs with almost hypnotic intensity.

1. You're Driving Me Crazy! (What Did I Do?)
2. Manhattan
3. Isle of Capri
4. Three Little Words
5. Carolina in the Morning
6. Yes Sir, That's My Baby
7. Ciribiribin
8. Ida, Sweet As Apple Cider
9. If You Knew Susie (Like I Know Susie)
10. Paper Doll
11. Taking a Chance on Love
12. Heigh-Ho (The Dwarfs' Marching Song)

>> additional bonus tracks (mono):
13. The Millionaire
14. Catalania
15. Ola Conga
16. Clap Hands
17. Tic Toc Polly Woc

link@320

Tipsy - Trip Tease (1996)

On their debut album Trip Tease, the electronica-lounge duo Tipsy seem to get as much pleasure from playing around with their music as they do playing it. Given that Tim Digulla and David Gardner were involved in industrial and ambient projects previously, it's not a surprise that there are bizarre juxtapositions of mood, tone and texture on this album.

What is somewhat surprising is how well the group's blend of state-of-the art editing and retro-exotica-sci-fi kitsch works that goes beyond the intellectual, studio experiments they could have been, blossoming into hothouse hybrids that transcend genres and just sound good. The album's remarkable arrangements feature bouncy drums, sitars, harps, horns and all sorts of unclassifiable "space" effects that jell into a collection of songs that are retro and cutting edge, bachelor pad and launching pad. Trip Tease is an invigorating debut that only gets better with each listen.

- Heather Phares, All Music Guide

"Easy listening collaged and reorganized for 90s taste, with the same absurdly upbeat emotional impact as the orginal genre." -- The Wire


1 Mr. Excitement
2 Space Golf
3 Grossenhosen
4 Tuatara
5 Nude On The Moon
6 El Bombo Atomico
7 Liquordelic
8 Cinnabar
9 Fuad Ramses
10 Oops!
11 Ugly Stadium
12 Something Tropical
13 Zenith

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

TIPSY is brought to you by:
*** Tim Digulla and David Gardner

>Executive Producer Naut Humon (Asphodel)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Credits:
Accordion, Organ - Rob Burger
Artwork By - John Borruso
Bass - Trevor Dunn
Flugelhorn, Trumpet - Tom Dambly
Guitar - Alex Oropeza , Joe Gore
Keyboards - Mark Wyman , Michael Padilla , Mitzi Johnson
Percussion - Jeremy Brooks
Recorded By - Jessica Wing
Saxophone [Tenor] - Scott Rosenberg

> Live Recording by Tim Digulla, Jessica Wing & Xopher Davidson
> Engineered by Xopher Davidson, Tim Digulla & David J. Gardner @ Bloody Angle Studios, San Francisco
> Mastered by mixture 151

link@320

King Sunny Adé and His African Beats - Juju Music (1982)

"After nearly 15 years as Nigeria's biggest musical draw and juju music's reigning monarch, King Sunny Ade went global in 1982 with a brief but fertile stint on the Mango label. The three albums that resulted -- Juju Music, Synchro System, and Aura -- gave Ade unprecedented exposure on the Western market and introduced a slew of music lovers to the sounds of Afro-pop. Juju Music was the first of Ade's Mango titles and remains the best of the lot. Over the course of seven extended cuts, King Sunny Ade & His African Beats lay down their trademark mix of talking drum-driven grooves, multi-guitar weaves, lilting vocal harmonies, and pedal steel accents; for this major-label debut, the band also chucks in some tasteful synthesizer bits and a few reggae-dub flourishes. Besides classic juju pop like 'Ja Funmi' and 'Ma Jaiye Oni,' Ade and his 20-piece entourage serve up percussion breakdowns like 'Sunny Ti de Ariya' and a heady blend of soul, dub, and synth noodlings on '365 Is My Number/The Message.' Throughout, Ade deftly inserts Hawaiian slide guitar licks and Spanish-tinged lines reminiscent of Hendrix' 'All Along the Watchtower.' Juju Music should not only be the first-disc choice for Ade newcomers, but for the Afro-pop curious as well."

Stephen Cook, allmusic.com

1. Ja Funmi
2. Eje Nlo Gba Ara Mi
3. Mo Beru Agba
4. Sunny Ti de Ariya
5. Ma Jaiye Oni
6. 365 Is My Number/The Message
7. Samba/E Falaba Lewe

Thanks to the original uploader.

link @320

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This message was approved by JR Ewing

Afrique - Soul Makossa (1973)

The first articles on "disco music" appeared in 1972, and the invention is credited to a Cameroon-born and Paris-based jazz saxophonist, Manu Dibango, who in that year released Soul Makossa (1972), an exciting mixture of funk-jazz saxophone lines and hypnotic African beats.

After it was issued, David Mancuso found a copy in a Brooklyn West Indian record store and often played it at his Loft parties. The response was so positive that the few copies of "Soul Makossa" in New York City were quickly bought up. The song was subsequently played heavily by Frankie Crocker, who DJed at WBLS, then New York's most popular Black radio station.Since the Dibango failed to register the copyright, 23 or more groups quickly released cover versions to capitalize on the demand for the record.

This album witnesses a band of studio musicians hell bent on creating not only a club and jukebox 45 hit of the Dibango original, but an entire set of groove-driven instrumentals that could be issued as 45s for the juke market. There is plenty of wah-wah excess, saxist angst, and drunken careening rhythm to propel a soul train from one end of the continent to the other.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
1:: Soul Makossa
2:: Kissing My Love
3:: Sleepwalk
4:: Let Me Do My Thing
5:: Slow Motion
6:: Hot Mud
7:: House Of Rising Funk
8:: Dueling Guitars
9:: Hot Doggin’
10:: Get It
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Bass - Chuck Rainey
Drums - Ray Pounds
Guitar - Arthur Wright , David T. Walker
Organ - Charles Kynard
Percussion - Charles Taggart , Chino Valdes , King Errisson , Paul Humphrey , Wallace Snow

Saxophone [Baritone] - Steve Kravitz

Saxophone [Tenor] - Joe Kelso , Paul Jeffrey

vinyl rip@320

Fred Wesley & the J.B.'s Band - Doing it to Death (1973)

"In spite of James Brown's 1974 hit "The Payback" and his future canonization in rap, 1973's Doing It to Death was, as the title now suggests, the sound of James Brown obsessing the almighty funk into commercial irrelevance. His tight circle of musicians was still creating a brand of R&B as distinct as it was influential. (You can hear it in the music of artists as disparate as Nigeria's Fela and Germany's Can.) But on his home turf, James was already competing with post-Superfly wah-wah pedal hoppers and the pre-disco Philly sound. So it's not surprising that he soaked up loose change from his pre-sold followers with cut-'n-press JB's albums like this one on his indie label, People.

Though composed by bandleader Fred Wesley and a bigger hit than any single released by James under his own name that year, the talky 10-minute title cut is still pure Godfather. And the unexpectedly solid album constructed around it is every bit a classically Jamesian combination of loose lip and tight ship. The boss man's mug is missing from the sleeve, but if there's any doubt who's in charge, just listen to the way he introduces the bass solo on "More Peas," relinquishing the groove only after giving the band notice that "if he lose the funk we gotta chunk him out."

The theme song, "You Can Have Watergate Just Gimme Some Bucks and I'll Be Straight," is ironic given James' re-election endorsement of the vulnerable funky president. JB had hoped to pressure Nixon for a Martin Luther King holiday ("You can't change a house from the outside," he'd told hecklers at the Apollo). By '73, he just wanted his 40 acres. Instead, he got a call from the IRS and belated thanks "for inventing modern music" some 23 years later". Peter S. Scholtes

"An incredible album -- a landmark piece of funk that nobody should be without, funk fan or not! The album is the second to feature James Brown's famous backing combo of the early 70s -- and unlike their first one, which was really more of a collection of singles, this album has the group playing hard, long, and loud, in the free funk improvisational mode that was James' real contribution to the music at the time. The tracks are all long, with James at the forefront, egging the band on with shouts and comments -- but also letting them open up large instrumentally, playing in a mode that's as much jazz as it is funky soul. The whole thing's peppered with some nice shorter seques between tracks -- but the long cuts are the winners, and are some of the best funk ever recorded" Dusty Groove America

1 - Introduction to the J.B.'s (0:23)

2 - Doing it to Death - Parts 1 & 2 (9:49)
3 - You Can Have Watergate Just Gimme Some Bucks and I'll Be Straight (0:14)
4 - More Peas (8:16)
5 - La Di Da La Di Day (5:32)
6 - You Can Have Watergate Just Gimme Some Bucks and I'll Be Straight (0:14)
7 - Sucker (8:00)
8 - You Can Have Watergate Just Gimme Some Bucks and I'll Be Straight (6:22)

James Brown - lead vocal

Fred Wesley - trombone

Darryl "Hasaan" Jamison - trumpet

Jerone "Jasaan" Sanford - trumpet

Ike Oakley - trumpet

St. Clair Pinckney - tenor saxophone

Eldee Williams - tenor saxophone

John "Jabo" Starks - drums
Jimmy Nolen - guitar

Hearlon "Cheese" Martin - guitar

Fred Thomas - bass
Maceo Parker - alto saxophone

back again
link@320

Prince Nico Mbarga & Rocafil Jazz - Free Education in Nigeria (1977)

Bravo Juju is very happy to bring you this very nice Highlife record, ripped from vinyl

01. Free Education In Nigeria

02. Onye Ori Obi

03. Simplicity

04. Nature

The son of a Nigerian mother and a Cameroonian father, Mbarga embraced the musical traditions of both cultures. With his soulful vocals set to the light melodies of his acoustic guitar, Mbarga created a unique hybrid of Ibo and Zairean guitar playing and uplifting highlife rhythms. Mbarga's musical approach was inspired by the five years he spent in Cameroon during the Nigerian Civil War of the late '60s.

Sharpening his instrumental skills while playing xylophone, conga, drums, and electric guitar in school bands, he made his professional debut as a member of a hotel band, the Melody Orchestra, in 1970. Returning to Nigeria two years later, he formed his own group, Rocafil Jazz, to perform regularly at the Naza Hotel in the eastern Nigerian city of Onitsa.

Although he later formed the New Rocafil Jazz Band, Mbarga failed to match his early success. Leaving music, he turned his attention to managing the two hotels that he owned, Hotel Calbar and the Sweet Mother Hotel.

link @320 [vinyl rip]