80smusic

Essiebons Special 73-84

https://amf.didiermary.fr/essiebons-special-73-84/

In Ghana, few labels are as influential as Essiebons, the “Ghana Music Power House.” Founded by the producer and businessman Dick Essilfie-Bondzie, its catalog features sterling work from number of modern highlife legends.

For most of the 1970s Essilfie-Bondzie’s Dix and Essiebons labels were synonymous with the best in modern highlife, and his [...]

#70smusic #80smusic #Compilation #Ghana #Highlife #OldAfricanMusic

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Seigneur Tabu Ley Rochereau – Haffi Deo

https://amf.didiermary.fr/tabu-ley-rochereau-orchestre-afrisa-haffi-deo/

The title track of Tabu Ley‘s 1985 album “Haffi deo” is a daring crossover to a smoother boogie funk sound. Scattered among his discography which spans over 100 albums, there are a few tunes that sound quite different from the usual rumba. On the flip [side of the Bandcamp release below] is a previously unknown […]

#80smusic #AfroFunk #Congo

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Yvonne Chaka Chaka – Let Me Be Free

https://amf.didiermary.fr/yvonne-chaka-chaka-let-me-be-free/

Yvonne Chaka Chaka (Yvonne Machaka – 1965) is a South African singer from Soweto at the forefront of South African popular music since the ’80s, when “Bubblegum” music was all the rage.

Miriam Makeba said of her “She’s my baby!” and Hugh Masekela called Chaka Chaka “my mad niece”.

#80smusic #SouthAfrica

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Pierre Didy Tchakounté

https://amf.didiermary.fr/pierre-didy-tchakounte-lui-moi/

Pierre Didy Tchakounté “Ou c’est lui, ou c’est moi”, from album “Magabe Man”.

Pierre Didy Tchakounté is considered the father of modern mangambeu, a traditional Bamiléké music and dance from Cameroon. He harmoniously merged traditional African instruments (sanza, balafon, drums, etc.) and Western instruments (drums, bass, guitar, synth, violin, brass, etc.). [...]

#70smusic #80smusic #Cameroon #Mbira

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Harari – Party

https://amf.didiermary.fr/harari-party/

This single by Harari, “Party” (the 7″ release), entered the US Disco Top 100 in 1982.

#80smusic #AfroFunk #SouthAfrica #Funk

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The Original Sound Of Mali

https://amf.didiermary.fr/original-sound-mali-compilations/

The two compilations “Original Sound Of Mali” offer a selection of songs from across the country in the 70s.

Following Mali’s independence, after ten years of maturation, the 1970s saw modern Malian culture revealed to the world through musical anthologies and overviews of national and regional productions. It was a remarkably fertile period of the […]

#70smusic #80smusic #Compilation #Mali #OldAfricanMusic

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Thomas Frempong

https://amf.didiermary.fr/thomas-frempong/

Thomas Frempong has been a fixture in the Highlife scene for decades, playing with all the biggest bands in the country, including the famous Noble Kings of Dr. Gyasi, pioneers of Sikyi Highlife, which is the most common form of Highlife today, with the interplay between brass, organs and electric guitars. When this illustrious musician, […]

#80smusic #Ghana #Highlife #OldAfricanMusic

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Avolonto Honoré – Agbénon Hévi

https://amf.didiermary.fr/avolonto-honore-agbenon-hevi/

“Avolonto Honoré de Cotonou” (1944-2017), chanteur et musicien béninois, commence sa carrière en tant que percussionniste. On le retrouve ensuite avec l’Orchestre Black Santiago, puis accompagné par l’Orchestre Poly-Rythmo.

2 morceaux (Agbénon Hévi et Avi Yaman Houé) extraits d’un album paru probablement au début des années 80, avec Poly-Rythmo. [...]

#80smusic #Bénin #Vinyl #OldAfricanMusic

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Siassia & Tokobina – Mama Africa

https://amf.didiermary.fr/siassia-tokobina-mama-africa/

Originally from Pointe Noire in Congo, Albert Siassia came to Paris in the early 80s as part of the Ballet National du Congo and joined forces with a young French reggae group called Dread Lion – a band he re-christened “Tokobina” (Lingala for “let’s dance”). Keen to broaden their audience the group played a mixture […]

#80smusic #Congo

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Nairobi Matata Jazz

https://amf.didiermary.fr/nairobi-matata-jazz/

The Kenyan genre known as benga (“beautiful thing” in the Luo language) developed in East Africa in the early 1970s as a rhythmic, incisive style, with roots in Cuban music and Congolese rumba. Unifying various characteristics of Kenya’s musical past, it quickly crystallized poetic traditions of the country’s disparate communities, with lyrics conveying [...]

#80smusic #AfroCuban #Colombia #Kenya #Remixed #Rumba

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70s & 80s Kenyan Benga & Afro-Cuban Rumba

https://amf.didiermary.fr/kenyan-benga-afro-cuban-rumba-70s-80s/

Kenyan Benga & Afro-Cuban Rumba playlist from the 3-LP set from Soundway Records’ release “Kenya Special – Selected East African Recordings from the 1970s and ’80s”. There’s also a second volume with tracks from the same period. [...]

#70smusic #80smusic #AfroCuban #Benga #Compilation #Kenya #Rumba

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Alpha Blondy – Brigadier Sabari

https://amf.didiermary.fr/alpha-blondy-brigadier-sabari/

2 classic Reggae tracks from Côte d’Ivoire… by Seydou Koné, better known by his stage name Alpha Blondy. Many of his songs are politically and socially motivated.

His first success was “Brigadier Sabari” from album Jah Glory! (1982) with The Natty Rebels, known for its satirical lyrics about police brutality. […]

#80smusic #CôteDIvoire #OldAfricanMusic

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Ghetto Blaster live (rare)

https://amf.didiermary.fr/rare-ghetto-blaster-live/

The Ghetto Blaster adventure starts in 1983, when two French musicians (Romain Pugebet and Stéphane Blaes) asked Pascal Imbert to produce them. He decided to go with them to Lagos, Nigeria, by car in order to make a record with the musicians he knew there.

This trip from Paris to Lagos was filmed as a […]

#80smusic #Cameroon #LiveMusic #Nigeria

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Manu Dibango – Ah! Freak sans fric

https://amf.didiermary.fr/manu-dibango-afrique-sans-fric/

Ah! Freak sans fric…
Afrique sans fric…

Un très bon morceau, bien dansant de Manu Dibango.

"This album is dedicated to all brothers for a better vibration." [sleeve note]

L’album “Home Made” de 1979, enregistré au Nigeria, puis remixé et mastérisé à Paris, contient […]

#70smusic #80smusic #Cameroon #ManuDibango

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Anything You Sow – William Onyeabor

https://amf.didiermary.fr/anything-you-sow-william-onyeabor/

“Anything you sow” is one of the reissued albums by William Onyeabor, the pioneer of electronic music from Nigeria.

"Anything You Sow" was his last album before he gave his life over to Christ, turning his back on his musical output.

A 9xCD box set that collects the entirety of Onyeabor’s recorded output was released […]

#70smusic #80smusic #Nigeria #Electro

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Ousmane Kouyaté

https://amf.didiermary.fr/ousmane-kouyate/

A 2-track Limited Dance Edition available on vinyl (and digital) with two funk-infused Mandingue gems from the early 1980s by Ousmane Kouyaté.

Here’s also a track from his album “Révélation” in 1982.

Ousmane Kouyaté was an innovator of the Mandingue sound, whose career – as a member of Les Ambassadeurs Internationaux, and as guitarist for […]

#80smusic #Guinea

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Yishak Banjaw – Love Songs Vol. 2

https://amf.didiermary.fr/yishak-banjaw-love-songs-vol-2/

“Love Songs Vol. 2” by Yishak Banjaw, an album of instrumental tracks, could be defined as “Ethiopian Minimal-Wave from Outer Space!” and was recorded in 1986 in Eritrea.

Yishak Banjaw is a composer and keyboard player from Addis Ababa known to his country for his innovative compositions and unique sound. His ability to transform traditional […]

#80smusic #Eritrea #Ethiopia #Instrumental

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The Indestructible Beat of Soweto

https://amf.didiermary.fr/indestructible-beat-soweto/

The Indestructible Beat of Soweto is a compilation album released in 1985, featuring twelve tracks by artists from South Africa. The sleeve notes state that all songs are in the mbaqanga style, a guitar-based style popular at the time in the townships of Johannesburg and Durban, but the tracks actually cover four different styles, mbaqanga, […]

#80smusic #Compilation #FullAlbum #Mbaqanga #SouthAfrica

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Doing It In Lagos

https://amf.didiermary.fr/doing-lagos-boogie-pop-disco/

Boogie, Pop & Disco in 1980’s Nigeria

#80smusic #AfroFunk #Compilation #Disco #FullAlbum #Nigeria #OldAfricanMusic

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The Mahotella Queens – Jive Mabone

https://amf.didiermary.fr/the-mahotella-queens-jive-mabone/

Jive Mabone (Show Them How to Jive), by the Mahotella Queens, the track that was the “basis” (aka plagiarized) for “Jive My Baby” on Malcolm McLaren’s Duck Rock in 1983, produced by Trevor Horn.

From the compilation “Soweto Never Sleeps: Classic Female Zulu Jive” released in 1986. […]

#80smusic #Mbaqanga #SouthAfrica #OldAfricanMusic

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Nigeria 70

https://amf.didiermary.fr/nigeria-70/

Originally released in 2001, the first volume of Nigeria 70 was the first compilation of its kind to explore in depth the fertile music scene in Lagos as domestic artists mixed Highlife and traditional rhythms with Soul, Funk, Rock and Jazz. Three further volumes followed, exploring the far corners of original Afrobeat, Juju, Funk and […]

#70smusic #80smusic #AfroFunk #Compilation #FullAlbum #Jazz #JùjúMusic #Nigeria

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Hailu Mergia, the Ethiopian one-man-band extraordinaire

https://amf.didiermary.fr/hailu-mergia-ethiopian-one-man-band-extraordinaire/

Hailu Mergia made his name in Walias Band and later went on to do some visionary solo recordings. Hailu Mergia’s beautiful and surprising 1985 foray into traditional Ethiopian songs via analog synth, electric piano and accordion has been remastered.

In 1985, master accordionist and veteran bandleader, arranger and keyboardist released the [...]

#80smusic #Ethiopia #FullAlbum

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Nguenang – Wouck

https://amf.didiermary.fr/nguenang-wouck/

Cameroonian singer, arranger and composer N’guenang Myke Maurice aka Nguenang recorded his album Doty Gouock in 1980 in Abidjan.

#80smusic #AfroFunk #Cameroon #CôteDIvoire #OldAfricanMusic

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