Two of my favourite Congolese singers on one great album,
that’s what we got here. Théo Blaise Kounkou and Sam Mangwana
in a sweet colaboration. As a guest star we also hear Mavos Mavungu
on the title song, ‘Les Champions’. Label and year are vague but the music
is absolutely not, don’t miss this one !

tracks;

1 Ata bassali nakozonga
2 Makengo
3 Les champions
4 La fete au village

WARNING !

Do you know that phenomena, you buy an LP, you check it properly
for being in a good condition. This one looks perfect, but when
I was recording it and came to the second side, it appeared
to be pressed almost 1 centimeter out of the center.
So, the first 6 tracks are just fine but tracks 7 to 12
sound a bit FALSE I’m affraid. The music is so nice however,
I didn’t want to withhold it from you.

Rafael Cortijo was one of Puerto Rico’s heroes of the 50’s
and 60’s. His plena’s and bomba’s were and are still among
the most respected in the world. This is his first stereo
recording from 1960. Volare is a well known song of which
he made his own version. If you are familiar wirh the music
of Brazil’s singer Dorival Caymmi, you will recognize the last
song on this album. It used to be called ‘Maracangalha’.
Cortijo’s versions are great, they sound natural as if
they were his own. Like lots of Cortijo’s albums, this one
is also with the great singer ‘Ismael Rivera’ with whom
he worked for many years.

tracks;

1 Oriza
2 Si te mueres no me lleves
3 Volare
4 Que le paso
5 La hija de la vecina
6 Madame Calalu
7 Y Pedro Flores
8 Mofongo pelao
9 Solavaya
10 Los chismosos
11 Dona Chana
12 Me voy a Marancagaya

It is getting closer now, carnaval is on our doorstep. I took
this picture in Rio, 2 years ago, time sure flies. This is Global
Sampler vol. 20 already, it samples the LP’s posted
between december 13 and december 28. There’s plenty
variety on this one again, enjoy it.

tracks;

1 Young Tiger – Tiger in your tank
2 Ebenezer Obey & his International Brothers – Ijesha
3 Le Nimba de N’zerekore – Ziko
4 Los Guaracheros de Oriente – La fiesta de los feos
5 22 Band – Venez voir
6 Doble R Super Special Stars – Auto biew
7 Original Shleu Shleu – Toujou juré
8 Joseito Mateo – Quisqueya
9 Riachao – Pitada de tabaco
10 Israel Vibration – Why you so craven
11 Anibal Velásquez – Coqueto de agua
12 African System Orchestra – African system no 1
13 Sam Mangwana – Georgette Eckins
14 Ruts D.C. – Push yourself/Make it work
15 Miguel Aceves Mejia – Siete leguas
16 Pedro Laza y su Banda – La champeta
17 Martinho da Vila – Plim-plim
18 Syli Authentic – Aye na
19 Thomas Mapfumo & the Blacks Unlimited – Ndanzwa ngoma kurira

This is the second edition in the series ‘Nova História da MPB’
about Martinho da Vila. The first was from 1970 when ( if I’m
correct ) it was still called História da MPB. It is a 10″
album with only 8 songs, 4 by Martinho and 4 of his songs
by other artists. Samba lovers should not miss it. Se gosta de
de sambar como eu, nao deixe este albun pasar. Vamos embora,
vamos a sambar.

tracks;

1 Martinho da Vila – Menina moça
2 Isaura Garcia – O pequeno Burgués
3 Roberto Silva – Tom Maior
4 Martinho da Vila – Quatro séculos de modas e costumes
5 MPB 4 – Iaiá do cais dourado
6 Martinho da Vila – Folia de reis
7 Martinho da Vila – Linha do ao
8 Cármen Costa – Amor, pra que nasceu ?

As I just learned from the back sleeve, this is number 6 of a
series, ‘african’ brought out late sixties. there are at least 7
of which some by Franco, some by Rochereau, Kwami and Jean
Bokelo. Enjoy another great Franco LP.
just a little hiss hiss and crack crack.

tracks;

1 Nganda maboke naboyi
2 Dede kabola mikolo
3 La vérité de Franco
4 Matinda
5 César aboya yo
6 Gare á toi Marie
7 Chaleco
8 Chicotte
9 Lisaso ya Kronembourg
10 Timothée abamgi Makambo
11 Yo mabali tapale

Ain’t much music in the world that makes me happy like cumbia.
This is a selection of Colombian cumbias, originally released
on Discos Fuentes. This one was made in cooperation with
Mexican label ECO, Mexico is a cumbia loving country.
Some time ago, our collegue Yoyo from ‘listentoyourears’
launched an album with practically the same cover, but
different title and partly different songs. So get this
LP, play it out loud, and forget about winter !

P.S. I found out I forgot to rename track 11, it must be
track 06 in fact, sorry for the mistake.

tracks;

1 Enrique Bofante – Soledad
2 C. Pompeyo – Gaita Colombiana
3 Joaquin Betín – Cumbia sampuesana
4 Luis Pérez – La morena encarnacion
5 Climaco Sarmiento – Cumbia sabrosa
6 Pasqual Rovira – Cumbia del monte
7 José Cáceres – Suena la timba
8 César Castro – Cumbia sambranera
9 E. Guillén – Noche de estrellas
10 Calixto Ochoa – Cumbia campesina

Hey groovers, what’s up ? It’s been a crazy week here.
Must be the time of the year I guess. I am posting an album
worth a little waiting today, for those who were. This is a pearl
of an LP, it’s got one small ‘but’ though, track #4 starts with a
little jump of the needle unfortunately. 1974 had a smooth sound
on it’s plate, and that came to show. I must say, Franco never
really disappointed me but this one is a sweet treat. I was
impressed from the first notes, hope you will be too.

tracks;

1 Mabele
2 Kinsiona
3 Luka mobali moko
4 Monzo
5 Kinzonzi kitata mbenda
6 Muana oyo
7 Mambu ma miondo

‘Elephant and dwarf’ they call them, Pepe Kalle and his little
stage dancing friend Emoro. This is one of Kishasa’s most
popular dance bands of the 80’s. The album was recorded in
Abidjan and contains fantastic dance material. Empire Bakuba
and Pepe Kalle are here to rock the place.

tracks;

1 Massassi calculé
2 O nager
3 Miss Africa
4 Nana Houphouet-Boigny

Track 12, Slide Mongoose, sounds very much like another well
known song. I first heard it as ‘All for you’ by E.T. Mensah,
being Highlife from Ghana. A couple of albums ago we heard Sami
Kamara from Sierra Leone doing it as ‘All for you tete’.
Mento, Calypso and Highlife are very much alike, and with this
song, Sugar Belly demonstrates that fact very nicely.
Although this album is on ‘Port-O-Jam’, we could say it is an
early ‘Studio One’ recording, Clement Coxone Dodd is the man
behind it all.

tracks;

1 Linstead market
2 Wings of a dove
3 River Ben come down
4 Land of sea and sun
5 Soldering
6 Jamaica farewell
7 Archie
8 Rucumbine
9 John Tom
10 Yellow bird
11 My pussin
12 Slide Mongoose

This cover is so beautiful, I could impossibly resist posting
one more Miguel Aceves Mejia. This one has two of the tracks
the previous one has aswell. ‘Serenata Huasteca’, which was damaged
is here oncemore in a complete version, and ‘El Jinete’.
Plenty of cracks and pops but still sweet.

tracks;

1 Ruega por nosotros
2 Siete leguas
3 El jinete
4 Que me toquen las golondrinas
5 Gorrioncito pecho amarillo
6 Vaya con dios
7 Escaleras de la carcel
8 Serenata huasteca