Bonne Arrivée ! “Ivory Coast Soul” is back, with Djamel Hammadi aka Afrobrazilero and DJ Julien Lebrun have dug deeper into the country’s vinyl archives!

Bandcamp
ITUNES

After much painstaking research and investigative work, we are finally able to catch-up and gather together some key members of seminal Afro and Psychedelic outfit. We selected 13 afro-soul gems, centered mainly on the musically rich and creatively volatile Republic of the Ivory Coast during the 70s.

However the country has recently lived the unfortunate civil war, the deep socio-political crisis and instability, strong FRCI visa checkpoints or road killers, we’ve worked even harder with the help of our local friends to find the rarest and most interesting records. Last but not least, after many new trips, from Abobo “Baghdad “area, Yopougon, Bouaké, to Akoupé, or Jacqueville,… we also had to find their original producers or heir producers, to finalize the licensing process. This new volume highlights some extraordinary music and immense talent working in a variety of styles and approaches.

Ivory Coast gained its independence from France on August 7th 1960 and became a republic with a strong executive power, personified in the son of a Baoule chief, Felix Houphouët-Boigny. It has quickly become the musical center of West-Africa, attracting musicians from across the continent. The borders with Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Ghana made the country, and especially Abidjan, the crossroads of millions of culture and Diasporas.

It’s an honor to share with you this amazing music period, when urban music transcended tribe conception, and when panafricanism wasn’t a simple word, but a real philosophy and musical adventure.

The triple vinyl is presented with posters, dozen of photos, original covers, interviews, etc… The double cd is presented with a full coloured 24 pages booklet, with historical informations written by Ivorian historian Anicet Boka.

TRACKLIST:

A1. Pierre Antoine – Ye Man Noun
A2. Okoi Seka Athanase – Me Houe Gnoun
B1. Sumo Brothers – I Love Music
B2. Nguenang – Wouck
C1. Houon Pierre – Mansou Djouwi
C2. Bony Castro – Labazo
D1. Docteur Appiah Morroh – Man Moeu
D2. Stanley Murphy – Kossokpa
E1. François Lougah – Bravo Sotra
E2. Assale – Ameniwa
E3. Martial Droubly & Ivoiro Star – Wanossa
F1. Charles Atangana & Emitais – Onguido
F2. Wey Len Nobel – Kay Len Fecce

CD BONUS TRACK:
Soro N ‘Gana – Mi Gnan Mi Nibi (Julien lebrun Edit)

Laolu Akintobi was born in 1946 in Abeokuta in the Western part of Nigeria. He spent his childhood in a village close to the city where his father was a farmer and a hunter and also had been a soldier in a colonial army. His mother was a produce dealer, she sold palm nuts and cocoa. He grew up surrounded by traditional music such as Juju, High life, Apala, or Sakara music, as played by Yusef Olatunji and mostly sung in Yoruba language but he was also Influenced by the western music like jazz played on the radio .
The first drums he played were traditional nigerian Acubah and also Agidigo, a thumb piano.
He joined his uncle in Lagos and started to study in his local youth school and played mostly Hi life and popular nigerian band like ET Mensah , Victor Olaya , Billy friday but also soul from the USA and especially the king James Brown .
After a lifetime of music, Mr Laolu Akins is looking the span of his career: from school gigs with The Clusters band, to Lagos clubs where Fela and Tony Allen heard them (and that he will replace a week when he was ill ), worldwide tour with Salt, his 10 years “Collective Blo experience” settled by more than 6th album , (the last one Back in time was released in 1982), to his experience as music producer today.

Itunes / www.discogs.com

Interview done in February 2012 between LAOLU AKINS in Lagos and Julien Lebrun in Paris.

Julien Lebrun : When did you start music ?

LAOLU AKINS : For members of the group, we started music at different times and places, but our real get together as a group happened at the end of Nigeria’s civil war in 1968-69 when an earlier music group named ‘’The Clusters’’ was touring the Eastern part of the country (Nigeria) and met with several other musicians who had left Lagos just before the war, and gotten trapped in the war zones. This was how we began to team up again first to expand the Clusters and thereafter

You played with “the Clusters “, how can you describe this experience?

The Clusters started out as a college group with most of the early members going through college at the time, and practicing and playing music after school. It wasn’t a professional group just a few youths getting together and living out their dreams of wanting to be pop stars. At the time we had fairly elderly though young themselves supporting and financing us with costumes, money, instruments and publicity. We had many music competitions at the time because there were many such groups from different colleges.
During the civil war between 1967 and 1969, Mike Odumosu was the bass player of the ” Vampires” band and Berkely , an Ibo , who lived in the east part of the country called Biafra at this time was playing in a band called “The Figures”.
Mike Joined the Clusters after the war along with Joni Haastrup .
In 66 / 67 , Clusters became the most popular band in Nigeria , When the Sierra Leonean Pino came it was a great thing , a huge turnaround for nigerian music . He brought massive equipment from Sierra Leone via Ghana. And fortunately for us , the band was big enough to support Geraldo Pino.He really brought kind of magic to Nigeria .
By 1970 ,Mike, Berkely and i left The Clusters and joined Afrocollection along with the Lijadus sisters . Tee Mac a swiss musician who worked also with Silver Convention put that band together.

Can you tell us about your meeting with Ginger Baker?

Meeting and working with Ginger Baker was definitely one which seemed destined to happen. Ginger had visited Nigeria in 1970-71 driving a Range Rover Jeep across the desert and ended up in Lagos – Nigeria. During that visit, he met and had jam sessions with us in a group then known as Afro Collection, ( An offshoot of ‘’The Clusters’’) which at the time had Sunday Matinee gigs at a cub known as ‘’Batakoto’’ in the heart of Lagos Island. It is now known that he enjoyed the sessions so much that he decided on his second visit to Nigeria to form an All-African group though eventually mixed with two British horn players. The group ‘’GINGER BAKER & SALT’’ was formed around the first quarter of 1972 and rehearsed through the months towards a world tour which started at Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s Afro Spot in Yaba, Lagos. We then continued in Frankfurt, Germany with the Olympic Jazz Festival in Summer of 1972 followed with a number of gigs around many cities in Germany, on to USA, British Columbia, Canada, through USA and back to UK then finally arriving in Nigeria in October of 1972 at the point when BLO was formed after SALT was disbanded.

What was your influence ?

We had mixed influences starting out in the college days. These were the years of popular Nigerian –West African music called hilife, but soon afterwards, the strong rock and rockin’roll was becoming strong through the popularity of music by popular caypso by Harry Belafonte, Mighty Sparrow, Lord Kitchener etc. No long after the likes of Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Rolling Stones Cliff Richard and many others began to rule the airwaves and all the young groups including our group took from all these to build the foundation which eventually launched us into our own styles much later.

Blo was formed in 1972 , can you explain your meeting , the concept you wanted to promote ?

Yes, Blo was formed after Ginger Baker & Salt was disbanded in October of 1972 on arrival from the tour with group. But the 3 members that got together to form Blo had all played together at various times in The Clusters and Afro Collection, so we had been friends. Mike Odumosu ‘’O’’ in BLO, (Bass Guitar) who teamed up with myself ( Laolu Akins) ‘’L’’ in BLO ( Drums) and (Berkely Jones) ‘’B’’ in BLO (Guitar) prior to that time and while we were on the Salt tour had just returned from a UK tour with another Nigeria Choral group, The Steve Rhodes Voices. The three of us met and discussed the need to to have a totally new concept on a new formation and a fairly radical approach to the way groups had been formed and also but more importantly, the need to be original and different in the way we would sound musically, and the kind of image we should have. So, we agreed we would form a trio, and our music must be all original (no copying) and different; however insisting it must be rock with deep African influences in our rhythm, songs and beat hence the media tagged it afro rock.

On Step 3 ,You were 3 , but on the recording studio how many musicians were involved into the project , like horns?

In the group we were 3, and in our first album ( Blo Chapter One) we were still 3 and we recorded as a trio. But from the point when we recorded our second album ( Blo Phase II) we brought in a number of other instruments like Keyboards and Congas and got session musicians to play them as we had decided then to further enrich our music with additional instruments but not necessarily increasing our personnel line-up. On Blo Phase 2 , it was recorded in 9 sessions of 12 hours each from 6 PM to 6 AM .We still remained 3 and toured as such until the recording of Blo Step 3 .
Biddy ”Oladele” Wright replaced Mike as the ‘O’ of BLO. Mike Odumosu had joined Osibisa at the time this album was recorded.
Tunde Williams from the Fela 70′s band was playing trumpet on this session .

Did you have a political intention at this time ?

Not at all, our music was non-political in any way but sometimes a few songs touched on or addressed issues of the time. Radical in some ways but not directly political.

Who wrote the songs and what was your favorite theme ?

In the beginning, BJ ( guitars) wrote many of the early songs, though with help from L and O. But afterwards, we all contributed songs individually and jointly. Favourite theme is ‘’Togetherness’’

What is the particularity between Blo part 1 , 2 and this Step 3 ?

Blo Chapter One, was the real unadulterated music concept which we set out to do in the first place. In Blo Phase II, the commercial influences had began to creep into our concept though only musically. Blo Step was the beginning of our attempts to widen the group’s horizon and reach beyond the earlier boundaries, a big gamble, and it was the first time we had an external producer ( Keith Whitting) assigned from Decca London to work with the group. On this album, we had more session musicians on the set, Tunde Willams from Fela Anikulapo’s band on trumpet, and others.

What is your vision about the music of Fela ?

I see Fela as a phenomenon, a master of his art, one of the greatest musicians and social crusader that Africa has ever produced.(they are not many) He was way ahead of many musically, never afraid, he spoke about the rot and injustices that pervaded Africa and specifically his country Nigeria, and used his music to bring attention to it as well as alert us all about the consequences if there was no change, but who listened?
what was your relation with him?
Answer – Very good relationship, he liked me, and I had great respect for him. I had a rear opportunity to play in his band as a drummer for a few days in the early 70s while he was doing regular gigs at Kakadu Night Club, Yaba in Lagos, Nigeria when his drummer and band leader of his Africa 70 band was ill, and boy, it was a great experience for me, first to play afrobeat and then in Fela;s band. Fantastic !!!

What did the musicians of Blo become ?

We all have remained in music to date. We returned to Nigeria in 1981-82 and set up a production company ( BLO Productions) We have recorded many hits and raised many artists individually and collectively. Berkely Jones does other business as well. Biddy .O. Wright who replaced Mike Odumosu ( the original ‘O’) after he joined Osibisa is now late. The rest of us are alive and well. Laolu Akins is a top producer with many hit records, Presently runs an independent music production service, own a modern recording studio in Lagos-Nigeria, and works as counsellor with young and needy artists

Who are the artists you produce ?

I have produced a number of highly successful artists from this part ( Nigeria) A few of them are – Orlando Julius, Album- Dance Afrobeat, Mike Okri – Rhumba Dance & Concert Fever, ( for Sony Music Nigeria) Onyeka Onwenu, Christy Essien-Igbokwe, P-Square, Sir, Shina Peters etc

What’s your project for 2012 and the future?

To continue the work of raising the creative awareness of growing artists around us and chart new courses to further expose and integrate the emerging music styles from Nigeria to the world. This work is endless.

HOT CASA RECORDS is back with a sublime and explosive 7 inch including two original edits from obscure AFRO FUNK and SOUL SOUKOUS dancefloor gem recorded in Ivory Coast in the late 70′s.
Hardly and fully licensed, this material is a unique piece, bringing together SORO N’ Gana aka the prince of Kpeuye & Yatchana and NGUENANG the amazing funky Cameroonian singer and composer.
A timeless blend of traditional percussions and soulful arrangements, edited more than remixed and pressed in a limited quantity. Those tracks ” announce” the forthcoming album Ivory Coast soul vol 2 , due to be released on MAY 2012 but will exist only on this Format!
A dancefloor future classic !

VIDEO

Soro N Gana: MI GNAN MI NIBI
aka the Prince of Kpeuye & Yatchana (beautiful mix of traditional rythm)

This song was recorded in 1981 and produced on his own label called “SORO”.
He recorded 4 th album in a typical Senoufo tradition.
He’s a welder in building business in Abobo in Abidjan and still perform and sing today, his fifth album called “le Défi ” will be release soon.
Here

Nguenang: WOUCK

Cameroonian singer, arranger and composer. This track was produced in 1980 in Abidjan on his unique album released by the famous ” Musique mondiale ” label based in Abobo Gare.
Taken& licensed from the album “Doty Gouock ” on Musique Mondiale records.
Sortie en 45 tours le 3 Mars 2012 chez tous les disquaires indépendants.
Digital: here

THE BOOGIE GENTLEMEN is a new fresh funky band composed of two beatmakers and a keyboard player based in Rouen & Paris . The concept of the band is to make new boogie tracks and stylish soul songs composed with loops , old vintage sounds , keys from the 70s and 80s and guest vocals . On this first digital release they invite the incredible “Jawen” , a french soul singer.

Listen here

Gatefold Vinyl , HC 16, HOT CASA RECORDS 2011, release date 2011-09-26

Growing up in a royal household in Nigeria, Joni Haastrup began his musical journey performing for his brothers band Sneakers and was quickly snapped up as a vocalist for Orlando Julius Ekemode and his Modern Aces’ Super Afro Soul LP, one of Afro-beat’s formative LPs. Soon after, Ginger Baker of Cream fame replaced Steve Winwood with Joni on keys for Airforce’s UK concerts in ’71 and the success of the collaboration led to further shows with Baker as part of the SALT project before he returned to Nigeria to set up MonoMono. Back in London in 1978, Joni recorded his solo gem Wake Up Your Mind for the Afrodesia imprint. Laced with funk basslines, swirling keyboards and screaming guitars, this is Joni’s most ‘western’ record but at the same time unmistakably of the African origin. From the slow-motion disco of Greetings to the stone cold groove of Watch Out to the Reuben Wilson style funk of Free My People Joni was soaking up the sounds of the times and blending them with the music of his roots.
After Keni Okulolo and Akeeb Kareem ‘s album , HOT CASA RECORDS is proud to reissue this nigerian afro funk gem on gatefold vinyl , remastered.

Wake Up Your Mind
01. Free My People
02. Greetings
03. Wake Up Your Mind
04. Champions & Superstars
05. Do the Funkro
06. Watch Out

discogs

New release from Akeeb Kareem out June 11th, limited vynil edition.

Itunes link here.