Loose Egusi 007 - Departures, Dancefloors, and Freedom Funk

Featuring Detroit progressive house, Zimbabwean Sungura, African-American soul, and an extended Afro-Disco hour! Expect plenty of 9ja disco & boogie.

Malick Sidibé - Qui danse le mieux?, 1967, Gelatin silver print, printed 2003, 40 x 50 cm

Welcome if you’re new, welcome back to the returning crew! This edition was broadcast back in August 2023, against the backdrop of the ongoing popular uprisings and coups largely supported by everyday Africans in Mali, Niger, Guinea, Burkina Faso, against the ongoing conditions of coloniality for most Africans. The imperial interests and powers of France, (but also Britain and the US) with their uranium mines, military outposts, drone bases, and the French-controlled African currency the CFA Franc, are being, and will continue to be challenged, directly by populations and movements of Africans declaring ‘enough is enough’, ‘down with France’, and ‘colonisers out!’ until their demands, which are just, humane, and entirely reasonable, are met. Solidarity with those demonstrating and organising for economic independence, financial freedoms, and full and total self-determination and liberation. Right, scene set, let’s dig into the liner notes. Press Play below.

Liner Notes - LG007.

We kick off with an appropriate departing song, Woyaya from Britain based Pan-African afro-rock outfit Osibisa, with its organ-sounding keyboards, clean flutes (or panpipes??) and bobbing ¾ time. I was reminded of this song at Born: Free’s night Veranda, at Talawa Theatre, by an open mic’er who sang a rendition of it with the band, and sparked a forgotten memory, or at least the feeling of one. Our next few songs follow the freedom theme, including a personal new discovery Theo Parrish out of Motor City, Detroit, Michigan. Then we shift gears, adding some sweet but potent venom into the mix with francophone anti-war roots reggae from Immortah De Golgotha reppin’ Douala, Cameroon with On Veut La Paix (We Want Peace), and French-Argentinian community activist and microphone fiend Keny Arkana. After this we reground the mix by turning our ear to the future, just as the post-disco 80s, 808s and 8-bit saxophone led New World Music’s Music For All People does, but as we know you have to go back to go forward (Sankofa), so that’s why Odyssey is next. Similar chord progressions, complimentary messages, a perfect match.

Then it’s the second half, and everyone report to the dancefloor for your mandated Afro-Disco hour, covering Nigerian boogie/disco classics from Kio Amarchree, Jide Obi, Livy Ekemezie, and a proper stomper on Kalita Records from Kofi Ayivor, as well as 70s afro-rock fusion from Liberian seven-piece Kapingdbi, Somalian icons Dur-Dur Band, and a prime modern cut from our Frafra friends in Northern Ghana and Germany, the excellent label Philophon and the single Vocalize My Luv. We disembark from the good ship funk by taking it back to pure brightness with Ghanaian highlife and soaring Zimbabwean Sungura, and a new release from Baaba J, to leave you smiling and shuffling. 

Tracklist - LG007

Osibisa - Woyaya         [MCA]
Theo Parrish & Maurissa Rose - Free Myself [Sound Signature]
The Staple Singers - Come Go With Me         [Stax]
Prince - Baltimore     [NPG Records]
Damian Marley - My Sweet Lord       [Ghetto Youths International]
Immortah De Golgotha - On Veut La Paix [Defmusic]
Theo Parrish - Thug Irony [Sound Signature]
Keny Arkana - Abracadabra   [Because Music]
Inna MODJA - Tombouctou     [Warner]
New World Music - Music For All People     [Numero Group]
Odyssey - Going Back To My Roots         [RCA]
Kio Amachree - Ivory         [S.K.J Records / Mondo Groove & Afrodelic]
Jide Obi - Give It Everything You Have Got   [Taretone]
Me’Shell Ndegeocello - I’m Diggin’ You (Like An Old Soul Record) [Maverick]
Momo Joseph - Africain       [self-released / Africa Seven]
Dur-Dur Band - Ladaney (Woman’s Name)       [Analog Africa]
Livy Ekemezie - Delectation     [Linic Major Production Records / Odion Livingstone]
Kofi Ayivor - Adzagli (Jungle Funk)     [Kalita Records]
Kapingbdi - Hey Brother         [Trikont / Sonorama]
Jimi Tenor & Florence Adooni - Vocalize My Luv [Philophon]
Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band - Gyae Su         [Strut]
A.B Crentstil & The Sweet Talks - Juliana     [Philips West African Records]
Simon Chimbetu & The Marxist Brothers - Bvuma Mukwasha   [Dendera]
Baaba J - Wonderful [rain. Labs]

RBPicks

Osibisa - Woyaya  [MCA].
In Ga, woyaya  means we keep going. A gem of a song, an anthem to persistence and hope, famously covered by Sweet Honey In The Rock, Art Garfunkel, and doubtless hummed by countless Africans the world over. 

Jimi Tenor & Florence Adooni - Vocalize My Luv [Philophon].
Bringing together the gospel-adjacent vocals of Florence Adoni and Lizzy Amaliyenga from Bolgatanga with the pulsating Korg MS-20 bass synth and dope production, this is sure to light up any dancefloor. This functions like an African re-secularisation of the sacred, imagine the ineffable energy of the journey away from the church and to the dancefloor held in the stories of Donna Summer or Little Richard, mixed with the electrification of Dylan, but without the juvenile purist backlash, and in the era of popular African reissue culture in the long shadow of the post-2008 financial crash, and scratching the need-for-authenticity itch in music, as keenly felt in Berlin, Germany to Bolgatanga, Ghana.

Me’Shell Ndegeocello - I’m Diggin’ You (Like An Old Soul Record) [Maverick]
God bless the late 90s, early 2000s, and the era of, what I’ve recently seen dubbed on social media, but would never call myself, ‘hairy coochie music’. Meshell Ndegeocello was an artist I’ve struggled to conceptualise and locate in the pantheon, which is a testament to her steadfastness, uniqueness, and musical excellence as a bassist and composer. This tune shows off all of those skills, and includes some solid sprechgesang verses and an infectious shuffle groove. Sultry, soulful, slicker than a oil spill, and anything using the line ‘I need some Black on Black love baby’ and get away with it is my kinda tune.

Art Corner
Malick Sidibé - Qui danse le mieux?, 1967, Gelatin silver print, printed 2003, 40 x 50 cm

When looking for photographers who captured the irrepressible aliveness of Africans in the era of state decolonization (esp Francophone Africa, like Mali post 1960), there are few better than Malick Sidibé, the Eye Of Bamako. His instantly recognisable monochrome portraits capture the movements of the people, especially the youth, living a new blend of music, dances, fashion, faith, food, and cultural expression. The optimism of afro-funk, apparent independence, and the newly discovered phenomenon of teenagehood in popular culture are so well realised in an African context, Sidibé’s pictures bring me such joy to witness, I had to pick one for this episode. Imagine being a young Malian, or would-be Burkinabé in the early 60s, with the affirmation-/slogan of ‘Black is Beautiful’ resonating on the continent and in the diaspora, echoing everywhere the music of the patron saint of funk, James Brown was played, vibrating from Jimi Hendrix’s guitar in a subversive screech and ecstatic wall of noise, or swelling in the golden voice of Aretha Franklin. What a time to be alive, and shaking a leg on a dancefloor. I wonder what these dancers would make of my selections. Hopefully, LooseEgusi can encourage a young dark-skinned soul to dance like a Malick Sidibé subject. To paraphrase the teenage trumpeter Stephen in Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Small Worlds; dance might be the thing that saves us. 

THANKS FOR READING - NEXT EPISODE WILL BE OCTOBER 4TH, 12-2pm GMT. Listen & watch live via mixcloud.com/TheBoatPod

Sources - 

https://thebirdsings.com/woyaya/ 

https://thetricontinental.org/newsletterissue/malis-break-with-france-is-a-symptom-of-cracks-in-the-transatlantic-alliance/ 

http://otrabandarecords.com/2016/06/08/the-drums-of-kofi-ayivor/