Cuba VII Congreso de la Union Internacional de Arquitectos (1963)

In 1963, the 7th Congress of UIA (Union Internacional de Arquitectos) released a special LP for the event, presenting diversity of cuban music. 

Colette Magny - Repression (1972)

(Le Chant du Monde - LDX 74476).

French singer Colette Magny became famous in the 60s thanks to her blues inspired voice and her non-aligned poetry. Her political commitment led her to interesting experiments with free jazz, including french spoken word.

Francois Tusques (piano), Bernard Vitet (trumpet), Beb Guerin (bass) here playing with Colette Magny are three of the main french free-jazz vanguardists with Michel Portal.

Palenque culture #01 Palenque de San Basilio

Palenque de San Basilio is a village not far from Cartagena (Colombia) which represents a really unique cultural space. At the dawn of the17th century, several groups of african slaves escaped from spanish settlers, building fortified villages called "palenques". San Basilio village, led originally by african king Benkos Bohio, is the only one who survived up to nowadays.

Ahmadou Kourouma - Les Soleils des Independances (1970)

A special post for this record, taking part of a valuable RFI collection about black literature. Ivorian writer Ahmadou Kourouma (+2003) explains his approach and background, particularly on one of his  most famous novel published in 1968: The Suns of Independences, which corresponds to this confused post-colonial period where many changes took place but also many disillusions appeared.

Bluecky d'Almeida - Unité Africaine

(Aux Ecoutes DB004)

"African Unity" has been a recurrent subject in post independance lyrics: many songs are direct reflect from Nkwame Nkrumah's political commitment for pan-africanism. Here's an example from Benin by Bluecky d'Almeida, with El Rego et ses Astronautes de Cotonou as backing band. The 7" is an early release of Mr. Lawani's label Aux Ecoutes.

Basically what he says in the part sung in french is that the remedy from colonialism, secessionism, racial discrimination is african unity (and also that praying is not sufficient...).

Bluecky d'Almeida - Unité Africaine:

Viglietti - Tropicos (1974)

Daniel Viglietti (1939) is a very popular and politically committed artist from Uruguay. He experienced jail in 1972 due to his socialist views and had to exile during military dictatorship (1973-84), which led him to travel worldwide denouncing uruguayan situation with his songs.

Perucho Conde - la Cotorra Criolla (1980)

(EPIC EPC8899).

A bonus track from the 45rpms found in Barcelona...

And here's a crazyness made in 1980 in Caracas: an humorist rapping in spanish on a fat disco instrumental. When first hip hop from the US arrived in Venezuela it was surnamed "musica cotorra" (cotorra = parrot) I guess because of the singers flow. So Peruche Conde made a hip hop typically from Venezuela with this hit "la cotorra criolla" (criolla = creole). Lyrics are very funny, but behind the humoristic approach, it's a real social and protest song (!) denouncing poor living conditions (prices increase, low salaries, no social welfare, pre-election promises...).

Gil Scott-Heron RIP (1949-2011) - Peace Go With You, Brother

Gil Scott-Heron just died 2 days ago. In order to remember this major RAP (Rhythm And Poetry) figure, I just selected 5 tracks from my favorite albums: "Peace Go With You, Brother" for a spiritual funeral, "Who'll Pay Reparation On My Soul?" for the afro-american militancy, "Lady Day and John Coltrane" for the soul and jazz inspiration, "The Bottle" for the funky percussive groove.

Winter In America

Strata-East, 1976

Gil Scott-Heron - Peace Go With You, Brother:

Small Talk at 125th and Lennox

Flying Dutchman, 1970

Gil Scott-Heron - Who'll Pay Reparation On My Soul?:

Pieces Of A Man

Flying Dutchman, 1971

Gil Scott-Heron - Lady Day And John Coltrane:

It's Your World (Live Album)

ARISTA, 1976

Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson - The Bottle (Live):

Abel Lima e Les Sofas cantam Nos Bida (1977)

Abel Lima is a singer from Cabo Verde islands, forced to clandestine imigration by boat at age of 13 to escape the totalitarian regime.

He came back 16 years later, when Cabo Verde became independant in 1975, as politically engaged with PAIGC (Amilcar Cabral's African Party for Independance of Guinea an Cabo Verde).

In the liner notes, Abel Lima explains the evolution of his home village Povoaçao: he quit a small peaceful village and when he came back he discovered only desolation as more sophisticated foreign fishing boats were fishing extensively, letting local people without any resources. In parallel, he also explains through his own experience how hard being an imigrant is, due to mistreatment and exploitation.

A very engaged artist, which seems to be compatible with raw funky tune...

Abel Lima e Les Sofas - Corre riba corre baixo:

Bernard Brito (Joaozinho): bass
Serge Neves: drums
Abel Lima: voice
Afonso Evora (Martinho): guit
Nouhoun Coulibaly: voice, tumba
Admir Evora (Mimis): guit, recoreque

Duke Ellington - Liberian Suite (1947)

CBS 20AP 1501

Liberia was declared a republic in 1847. This west african country has been created by freed american slaves "coming back" to Africa, which represents a unique (and controversial) experience.

To celebrate the centennial  in 1947, the liberian government ordered Duke Ellington to compose a suite for the occasion.

Credits:

Duke Ellington – piano

Shorty Baker, Shelton Hemphill, Al Killian, Francis Williams - trumpet 

Ray Nance - trumpet, violin 

Lawrence Brown, Tyree Glenn - trombone 

Claude Jones - valve trombone

Jimmy Hamilton - clarinet, tenor saxophone

Russell Procope - alto saxophone, clarinet 

Johnny Hodges - alto saxophone 

Al Sears - tenor saxophone 

Harry Carney -  baritone saxophone, vocal (track 1) 

Fred Guy - guitar 

Oscar Pettiford, Junior Raglin - bass 

Sonny Greer - drums

This suite has been perfomed live twice in Carnegie Hall, never in Liberia.
Duke Ellington had a trip to Africa 20 years later, during Senghor's official Festival des Arts Negres in Senegal (1966).

Super Mama Djombo - Na Cambança (1980)

(SMD 001 Cobiana - Republica da Guiné-Bissau)

Probably the best band from this period in Guinea-Bissau, Super Mama Djombo represented the 1st cultural identity visibility for this small country.

Independence was won in 1974, and that year brought the final formative elements to the band: freedom, euphoria, and bandleader Atchutchi. Atchutchi had been mobilized and politically aware for longer than the other members, and his contribution completed the project. The band would become politically charged. It would imagine a new, unified national identity that was neither Portuguese nor divided by indigenous ethnicity. It would help re-invent Kriol, the synthesis of Portuguese and African languages spoken in the cities, that the revolution had transformed into a common language of national unity. (SMD cd liner notes)