“Fremeaux & Associes are the same French label who gave us those extraordinary compilations on Jamaican mento and the gombey music of the Bahamas and Bermuda, as well as a definitive round-up of early Jamaican r & b. Please note that compiler Bruno Blum is meticulous in his research and invariably serves up a feast of little-known gems and seminal recordings that should delight even the most committed fans of Caribbean music. This three CD set is another remarkable pot-pourri of vintage recordings – one that sets out to trace the influence of African and Caribbean styles in American music. The main depository of this legacy was jazz of course, except this fifty-seven track collection also encompasses calypso, gospel, rhythm and blues and even field recordings before signing off with a hard bop sides by Art Blakey [Afrique and Ayiko Ayiko], Randy Weston and Max Roach. Disc 1 opens with an extract from one of Marcus Garvey’s speeches before we’re whisked back in time to the early 1920s and 1930s, when giants like Louis Armstrong [The King Of The Zulus], Duke Ellington, Sidney Bechet [Jungle Drums] and King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band incorporated the sounds of Africa into their repertoire. Often these tracks played up to existing stereotypes, and it’s hard listening to songs like Cab Calloway’s The Jungle King, Slim & Slam’s African Jive and the Mills Brothers’ Jungle Fever without winching a little, no matter how fascinating they are as musical artefacts. The most recent example being a rockabilly tune by the Cadets called Stranded In The Jungle, dating from 1956 that otherwise leaps out the speakers, it’s so vibrant. Separate recordings of A Night In Tunisia by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker steer us towards safer shores, as do New Orleans’ classics by Fats Domino and Sugar Boy Crawford, whose Jock-O-Mo (Iko Iko) was made popular by artistes like Professor Longhair and Dr. John in later years. The Jayhawks’ Stranded In The Jungle is early rhythm and blues at its most effervescent; Lord Kitchener’s Birth Of Ghana celebrates that nation’s independence from Britain in 1957 whilst fellow calypsonians Bill Fleming and Alwyn Richards both sing of obeah, which is derived from African spirit worship. There are also elements of this on the mesmerising field recordings of John Canoe, Kumina and Pukkimina ceremonies that close Disc 1. Further examples are to follow we’re told, and on an album devoted to that particular subject. As the music progresses from Ellington’s rich big band numbers into bebop and beyond, instrumentals begin to dominate. Bandleaders like Mongo Santamaria, Eugene List, Ahmed Abdul Malik, Sonny Stitt and Wilbur Hayden join the fray at this point. African influences are now occasionally limited to the titles alone, and yet the set list remains singularly impressive. It’s on Disc 3 you’ll find John Coltrane’s sixteen and a half minute opus Africa, together with Joe Harriott’s Moose The Mooche and the Tokens’ irrepressible The Lion Sleeps Tonight, which is accompanied [on Disc 1] by Solomon Linda and the Evening Birds’ original cut, Mbube. Rich pickings indeed and not only for archivists, but also for all jazz and calypso lovers wishing to explore the music’s African heritage.”
Par John MASOURI - ECHOES
Par John MASOURI - ECHOES
