Global Grooves -- Recently Added -- CD  

The roots of Congolese rumba -- served up here in a host of cool recordings from the 50s, in a package that really sheds new light on these under-exposed years of the genre! As you'd guess from the title, there's a fair bit of Latin rhythms at play here -- a key Cuban contribution back to the ...

Remixed tracks from Novalima's Coba Coba album -- put together with an even wider range of global influences than the original record! The group get plenty of overseas help here, especially some key input from London mixers -- and many of the grooves are pointed firmly at the dancefloor. Titles ...

A really cool little package -- one that features rare 20s recordings from the Middle East, alongside a host of modern "responses" to the original music! The first half of the set follows beautifully in the spirit of other recent sets from Honest Jons -- digging through the archives of ...

Massive work from this funky Nigerian cat -- a set that offers up a key mix of James Brown funk and home-grown elements -- all in a blend that's totally unique! The 1970 album mixes together equal parts African highlife and American soul -- making for a style that's heavy one minute, lighter the ...

Excellent stuff -- and a much-needed look at the funky 70s scene in Ghana! Much of the Afro Funk that's been revived over the past few years has come from the Nigerian scene -- so it's great to hear this set of funky tunes from Ghana, a rich selection of grooves with a slightly harder edge than ...

An amazing array of Afro Funk from the legendary Tony Allen -- 4 of his greatest albums ever, packaged together in a single set! The work here was all recorded hot on the heels of Tony's key years with Fela Kuti -- and shares a very similar approach to the groove -- long, stretched out passages ...

An incredible double pack of African Funk -- featuring 2 albums' worth of material by the legendary Orlando Julius! Julius was one of Nigeria's biggest soul artists in the 60s -- and has been credited with virtually inventing the Afro Funk sound, and for being the inspiration to some of James ...

A collection of tracks that amount to some of incredibly deep audio archaeology -- a wonderful, consciousness wakening collection of globe spanning 78s from the first half of the 20th Century -- all from the darkest corners of the EMI Vaults! Honest Jons does an impressive job of collecting ...

A well-titled set, given the grooves it's got -- a motherlode of rare Afrobeat numbers from the 60s and 70s -- served up in a variety of styles that really keeps things hopping! Most tracks here are pulled from other Vampi Soul reissues -- and together, they really distill a wide range of African ...

A fantastic record from one of the greatest underground jazz groups of the 70s! Oneness of Juju are perhaps best known for the heavy funk of their first album, African Rhythms, but we're actually partial to this second album -- a warmly spiritual batch of soul jazz tracks, filled with life, ...

A tremendous compilation of rare work by one of the hippest African groups of the 70s -- the mighty Orchestra Baobab, a combo who wove together many different strands of jazz, funk, and soul! The tunes here are all live ones -- recorded in the mid 70s in the group's home turf at Club Baobab, and ...

Amazing work from the Senegalese scene of the 70s -- easily one of the hippest musical hotspots on the African continent at the time, as you'll hear by the wonderful tracks on this set! Senegalese groups really embrace a wide range of sounds -- not just traditional elements, or occasional ...

Magical music from the 70s scene in Mali -- work that's often quite different than some of the more familiar modes that have hit the mainstream in recent years! As you'd guess from the titles, a good number of these tracks have a strongly electric vibe -- mostly on the guitars, which are often ...

They certainly got the title right on this one -- because the groove is heavy heavy heavy, and the set is one of the funkiest African collections we've ever stocked! Geraldo Pino's often credited as the man who inspired part of the Fela sound of the 70s -- and Pino was one of the first Africans to ...

An awe-inspiring mother lode of classic Guinean grooves from one of Africa's greatest bands! Senegal's Orchestra Baobab have become the media favorite of Africa's golden era, but it only takes one spin of this fabulous anthology to realize that Bembeya Jazz National were as good as any band the ...

More than just one day on Radio Mali -- given that the 2CD set features two full decades of recordings -- but a great overview of the styles that flowed freely in Mali during the initial years of independence -- in modes both rootsy and more contemporary! Some of the work here was recorded by ...

20 Years History, but a set that features four decades of music -- tracks from the 70s up through the present, all put together in a very nicely priced 5CD package! The work here is all material handled by the Syllart label of Paris -- recent recordings from the African scene, and older tracks ...

A great collection of classic Congolese rhumba work from the 50s and 60s -- music that has some elements of the Cuban style of the genre, but which really takes off on its own in whole new ways! The guitar is an essential part of the rhythms here -- dancing along with percussion at a level that ...

A 2CD overview of work from the years of Guinea's cultural revolution -- a time when the government sought to unify and direct the newly independent nation through a host of regional and national musical programs! Although potentially domineering, the rare effort was actually somewhat liberating -- ...

Brilliant work from Benin -- an ear-opening compilation that's filled with wonderful grooves we've never heard before! The rhythms are unusual, instrumentation hypnotic, and vocals really offbeat -- making the whole thing sound very different than more familiar African work we've stocked -- ...

The Republic Of Afro Beat keeps on pushing further into the global scene -- breaking down borders in a rich new revival of older African modes -- showcased here in a range of great grooves from around the world! The package follows on the other two entries in the series -- and like those gems, ...

Gorgeous traditional sounds from Mali! Lanaya are a young instrumental trio, all part of griot castes, deeply conversant in traditional Mande music, but here, on their debut album, they put their own spin on the sound with wonderful, extended improvisation. Kora player Djibril Diabate, ngoni ...

Great stuff from global funk phenoms Nomo -- deftly blending Afro steeped funk with an astral reach -- with more of a spiritual jazz influence and off kilter avant touches! Invisible Cities arrives just about a year since their breakthrough Ghost Rock opened so many doors, and although ...

Amazing work from Nomo -- their greatest album so far, and an incredible step forward in styles! Nomo started out as an already-great Afro Funk combo -- but over the past few records, they've picked up a really hip range of musical influences -- spiritual jazz, electronica, Congotronics, and other ...

Forget the "rock" in the title, and just focus on the "funk" -- because this set of tracks is a massively heavy batch of Nigerian numbers from the 70s -- all with the same solidly soulful feel as more familiar Afro Funk work of the time! There's a definite emphasis on guitars -- ...

Great instrumental grooves from the Occidental Brothers Dance Band -- a combo who take strong inspiration from older African styles, yet fuse the music into their own unique blend! The group's from Chicago, but clearly have an international ear -- and they work some really special magic with their ...

A global funk gem from Lightning Head, aka Glyn "Bigga" Bush of Rockers Hi Fi -- an artist who takes a surprising, truly funky, and wholly credible left turn into Afrobeat! Lightning Head doesn't forsake the electro grooves of earlier work so much as steep it very heavily in organic ...

One of the coolest Afro Funk groups of the 70s -- and an outfit who definitely earn the "poly rhythmic" in their name! TP Orchestre have a jagged, jaunty sound that's totally great -- really playfully rhythmic, in a way that breaks from the mold of most of their 70s contemporaries on the ...

Mindblowing work from one of the greatest new groups we've heard in years -- Michigan's mighty Nomo, easily one of the greatest Afro Funk combos going! Nomo's got a tightness that surpasses most other heirs to Fela's throne -- an intensely focused energy that's really tremendous -- and which soars ...

One of the greatest albums ever by one of the most compelling figures in Indian music! Ananda Shankar's been chronicled elsewhere and often on these pages -- so by this point, you probably already know that he's a renegade pioneer who combined funky grooves with sitars and tablas, forging a whole ...

Afro-psychedelia from Chrissy Zebby Tembo -- a set recorded in the Zambian scene of the early 70s, and served up in a blend of fuzzy guitar, funky drums, and some really unusual vocals! At times, Chrissy's voice almost sounds like it's being processed -- filtered down nicely amidst the fuzzy ...

Incredibly righteous work from Letta Mbulu -- arguably her best albums ever, and both produced by David Axelrod! The albums were cut at a time when Axelrod was riding high for Captiol Records through work done with Cannonball Adderley and Lou Rawls -- and both of the records feature Rawls' ...

Heavy-jamming Afro Funk from Osibisa -- the group's first 2 albums, back to back in one 2 CD package! Osibisa were one of the most popular Afro Funk groups of their generation -- with a globe-spanning influence that made them as well-received over here in the US as they were in their post-colonial ...

Twin kora lines from Maher and Sousou Cissoko -- both of whom play the instrument on the set, and sing as well -- in a haunting double-kora groove that's totally great! Other instrumentation is relatively spare -- just a bit of bass, guitar, percussion, and brushes -- leaving lots of room for the ...

A Chicago combo, but one with a very international groove -- a sound that hearkens back to West African grooves of the 70s, played here with a great mix of guitars, percussion, and saxes! Most tunes are recorded with a very spare style that almost sounds classic -- and the vocals from singer Kofi ...

A group with a sound like no other -- one that features home-made electronics and amplification, and an array of highly-percussive instrumentation that includes thumb pianos, megaphones, microphones, and old car parts! Konono's been making this music for the past 25 years -- working in the suburbs ...

A much better collection than you'd guess from the title -- even if the individual CDs are named "chill", "bar", and "club" -- all words we're pretty suspicious of these days in compilations! The collection is a shift in Nascente's "Beginner's Guide" series - ...

Beautiful music from Bassekou Kouyate and his Ngoni Ba group -- a quartet of players who all handle different versions of the ngoni, a small four-stringed instrument with really unusual properties! The instrument's played partly like a guitar -- strummed and plucked, but with really gentle sounds - ...

Really wonderful stuff -- a collection of totally unique grooves that won't cross over with any of your other African funk compilations! The focus here is on jazz, not funk or soul -- and the set features a wealth of great tracks pulled from obscure South African records of the late 70s and early ...

Mellow improvisations from Sunil Dev -- a Nepalese flute player with a very hypnotic sound! The album's a studio session, but the flute lines here have a really echoey quality -- as if they're bouncing around the ridges and valleys in the mountains pictured behind Dev on the cover -- earthy and ...

A second heavy dose of sounds from the Panamanian scene of the 60s and 70s -- a long-overdue companion to the previous volume of the series on Soundway, filled with rare gems that are finally getting their first exposure to the world outside the isthmus! The sounds here are completely fresh -- ...

One of the grooviest compilations we've ever seen -- a collection of work by American expatriates living in Israel at the end of the 70s -- a hip blend of US funk and Hebrew spirituality! Most of the work here sounds like the best spiritual funk of the 70s -- very much in an Earth Wind & Fire ...

A classic bit of Afro Funk -- one that paired the growing groove of Fela with the focused sound of Ginger Baker -- the ex-Cream drummer who'd been championing Fela's cause on the UK scene! The sound of the set is great -- well on a par with Fela's best work of the time, and perhaps even a bit ...

Funky African work from Fred Fisher -- a Nigerian trombonist who crafted his own unique groove at the end of the 70s! Fred both sings and plays trombone -- the latter with a Fred Wesley-like soulfulness -- and his rhythms here are really wide-ranging, and embrace a host of new styles coming into ...

The definitive batch of tracks by one of the 70s' most famous funk ensembles ever! The Lafayette Afro Rock Band were a bunch of Americans, relocated in Paris, who mixed that city's strong African music traditions with their own American funk and soul leanings. The result was an incredible sound ...

An incredible collection from Honest Jons -- and like some of the rest of their best, music we never would have heard otherwise! The focus here is on calypso music, but recorded in West Africa -- not the usual Caribbean setting -- a very unusual strain of styles that cropped up in the fading ...

Massive funk from the Nigerian scene of the 70s -- and miles away from US disco of the time! These cuts represent a tighter, more uptempo side of African funk -- but they're never as polished or professional as American club or disco -- no soaring strings, female chorus vocals, or other sweetening ...

A fantastic batch of grooves -- and a much-needed document of the rich array of funky sounds that were coming out of Nigeria in the 1970s! The country's best known as the homeland of Fela Kuti -- an artist who forever changed the face of global funk -- but what's not as well known is that there ...

A full-length cooker from Akoya Afrobeat Ensemble -- a group who normally manage to pack an album's worth of energy into a 12" single! Given that talent, you can imagine how much is going on here -- thanks to some very long tracks that serve up a classic 70s-styled take on Afrobeat -- one ...

A very hip collection of Algerian work from the 70s -- work that predates some of the more familiar rai from the 80s, served up with a much rougher style overall! The instrumentation here is all tied strongly to the rhythms -- horn parts and guitar lines that romp just as much as the drums -- all ...