Jablonski - Soul Makossa (Jamaican Funk, 1973?)

(Randy's VC-011).

Randy's is a well known name for reggae aficionados, as Vincent Randy Chin (+2003) produced and recorded music in his Kingston studio (16-17 North Parade) from the early 60s. Alton Ellis, Sly Dunbar, Augustus Pablo, Gregory Isaacs and many other major figures of jamaican reggae and dub music played there. But in parallel some funky productions were released as influence from the US was growing and corresponded also to a market locally. This is case of this 7 inch on which Jablonski delivers a heavy cover of "Soul Makossa", backed by the studio band "The Randy's Allstars". It's impressive to notice how funky they can play on this track, although their main style is reggae... 

Jablonski - Soul Makossa :


Enjoy some tropical & funky sound from Cabo Verde: HERE.

Dikongue-Pipa - Muna Moto (OST from 1975 masterpiece)

A small budget movie imposes to be creative, and few dialogues can reinforce power of images (and sound).

Michel Kingué - Nout'am (1977)

SON 822

Michel Kingue (1933-2007) contributed to introduce makossa to occidental ears in late 60s playing clarinet and saxophone. Among his collaborations with Gilles Sala on Songhoi Records, here is Nout'am from 1977. First part of the track is a folk style song which turns into killer afrofunk...His daughter Weyah is pursuing the family musical tradition and explained me that title of the track might be misspelled as in duala language "ndut'am" means "pain".

Manu Dibango - Soul Makossa original 7" (1972)

AFRICAN 90.571

In 1972 Manu Dibango is ordered to compose the anthem for the 8th African Cup of Nations, taking place in Cameroon. The A face of this 7" is realized for this purpose with Eno Belinga. On the B side, he was free to include one of his personal production, Soul Makossa, a song that allowed him to gain worldwide fame (but also to be savagely sampled by Michael Jackson and recently by Rihanna...)

Manu Dibango - Soul Makossa: