A Twist on the Random Tune: Ignace de Souza & the Melody Aces with "Asaw Fofor"

Ignace de Souza & The Melody Aces bring us today's tune, called Asaw Fofor. From Benin, Ignace de Souza began his music career in the 1950s in what was then the country of Dahomey (Benin's predecessor) and absorbed many different styles of music including cha cha, afrobeat, and especially Ghanaian highlife - he migrated to Ghana in 1955. This song, however, is a twist, which he also occasionally did. You can find Asaw Fofor on the 2018 various artists compilation African Scream Contest 2.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Source: http://electricjive.blogspot.com/2010/03/ignace-de-souza-west-african-genius.html

His Golden Voice: Pat Thomas and Kwashibu Area Band with "Oye Asem"

Today's random tune is by Ghanaian highlife singer Pat Thomas. He is the nephew of legendary Ghanaian guitarist King Onyina, who recorded with Nat King Cole. Pat Thomas began his musical career in the 1960s collaborating with musician Ebo Taylor and his band the Blue Monks, but eventually formed his own band, Sweet Beans, and recorded his first album in 1974. He then formed the band Marijata, but in 1979 he relocated to Berlin after the Ghanaian coup and eventually ended up in Canada. Known as "The Golden Voice of Africa," he is now performing with his Kwashibu Area Band. This song, Oye Asem, can be found on the 2015 album Pat Thomas and the Kwashibu Area Band which was released to mark his 50th year in music - it was his first album in over a decade. He was joined on the album for some songs by legendary Nigerian drummer Tony Allen.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Thomas_(highlife_musician), https://www.allmusic.com/artist/pat-thomas-mn0001009626/biography

Drumming and Dancing: Nii Okai Tagoe and "Oh Nu Kpa"

Ghanaian percussionist and dancer Nii Okai Tagoe performs the random tune for today, called Oh Nu Kpa. Tagoe was born into a family of master drummers and dancers in Accra, Ghana and eventually moved to London where he was principal performer and teacher for Adidzo Dance Ensemble. With the ensemble he traveled and toured around Africa, watching and learning other forms of African dance and music. He eventually formed Frititi, a London-based performing arts company whose name is the word for "ancient" in Ghana. He was the choreographer for Peter Gabriel's floor show at the London Millenium Dome, as well as two enthronements of Archbishop of Canterbury and a performance for the Pope. He has released two albums. Oh Nu Kpa is off his second album, West to West (2016).

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Burger Highlife and Shake: George Darko and "Hi Life Time"

Our random tune for today is by a Ghanaian artist named George Darko. Darko, from Ghanaian royalty, helped popularize the form of highlife music called Burger-highlife, which was created by Ghanaian immigrants to Germany and is considered a native German music. Burger-highlife is a crossover music created by Ghanaian and German musicians that features elements of highlife, disco and funk music, and it developed an entire subculture. Darko and his Ghanaian band, Golden Stool, moved to Germany in the 1970s - Darko went solo after arrival in Germany and then formed the Bus Stop Band in 1982. In 1988 he returned to Ghana and was made a tufuhene (paramount chief). This song, Hi Life Time, can be found on The Rough Guide to Highlife (2003) and other collections.

Ramblin': Baka Beyond and "Wandering Spirit"

Well, I know that anyone who reads this little blog of random world tunes waits with bated breath every day for my little bon-mots and homespun wisdom. Unfortunately, there are times like yesterday and today when I don't have the luxury and only have the time to bring you the random tune with the meticulously researched background (cough, cough...Wikipedia) of the bands that I write in each post. To those of you who wait for my ramblings, I apologize that I cannot always provide them.

Speaking of ramblings, today's random tune is by one of the more established "world' groups. Baka Beyond, formed in 1992, calls themselves "the original Afro-Celtic dance band," probably to distinguish themselves from the Afro Celt Sound System which formed around the same time. Baka Beyond fuses Celtic and other western styles with the traditional Baka music of Cameroon. It started when vocalist Su Hart and her husband, Martin Cradick (guitar, bazouki and mandolin), went to Cameroon to live with the Baka pygmy tribe to record their music. At first Hart and Cradick worked with English musicians to try to recreate the Baka music sounds and integrate it into their music. However, as the group evolved it began to include more musicians from African countries such as Senegal, Sierra Leone, Congo, Ghana and Cameroon. The group has also kept its relationship with the Baka people, returning regularly to record their music and integrate with the music created by the band. The band donates much of its profits to rainforest preservation and at the request of the Baka tribe, has built a music recording studio in their tribal area and has helped the tribe deal with various social and health issues in their villages. The BBC's Andy Kershaw has said that Baka Beyond's music may be the definition of world music. The group has released 11 albums, including one this year in 2014. This song, Wandering Spirit, can be found on their 2002 CD East to West.

Throwback Thursday: Osibisa and "Sunshine Day"

It is rare when my random selection process coincides with Facebook's Throwback Thursday meme, but today it happened, and it's a happy song about sunshine to go with our sunny and warm day here in Albuquerque as well. While I know that occurrences like these happen because of random chance, it still always seems slightly a miracle to me when things coincide so well. There have been days when I feel extremely melancholy, and that perfect melancholy song in my playlist pops up. Or when I am feeling happy, and Happy by Pharrell Williams or September by Earth Wind and Fire comes on the radio station I have been listening to. It almost feels like something was meant for me...like a divine hand or the guiding laws of the universe decided to remind me that even in the midst of randomness, that hiding in the midst of all the colliding variables, I was meant to experience that moment where life, earth, history, time, and the universe all coalesce into that one perfect point of unity around me.

Or perhaps I think too much of myself...

Anyway, Sunshine Day is a song by Osibisa. Osibisa was founded in London in 1969 by expat Ghanaian and Caribbean musicians and is considered a pioneer band in world music. They toured extensively in the 1970s, especially in Japan, Australia, India and Africa. With the advent of punk and disco, declining sales led to the band's decline and eventual disbanding. However, in 1996 they reformed and began reissuing past releases. The band tours only occasionally because of the effects of a stroke on founder Teddy Osei. The band's music has inspired and influenced many of their contemporaries and even the current generation of African musicians. The band has 27 albums (some unauthorized) and 17 compilation albums. Sunshine Day can be found on their 1975 album Welcome Home as well as compilation albums. This is a live version of the song. I have also included, just below, the studio version.

Killing Me Softly: Ebo Taylor and "Love and Death"

Do you remember your first broken heart? It probably occurred sometime in school, I'm guessing. For me it was around 6th or 7th grade. There was a girl I really liked, and I dreamed about her a lot. I was an awkward, ungainly kid with unruly hair and large glasses, and I most likely didn't have a chance in a world with this girl or as I thought at the time, any girls. But that didn't stop me from dreaming and fantasizing about her. Dreaming and fantasizing are okay, because in those dreams and fantasies you create yourself in the image that you want - handsome, strong, someone who would be immensely attractive to the girl you want. And of course, she wants you. If your dreams stayed just that, dreams, then you'd be okay.

Unfortunately, dreams clash with reality because at some point, you realize that you can't stay in the dreams. You have to make contact with the object of your affection, and doing so means you find out whether there is anything possible. When there isn't, and for me that seemed to always be the case, your dreams crash about you. When my dreams came crashing down that first time, a tightness developed in my chest while the rest of my body felt a malaise. I felt like crying and probably did once or twice. A depression sank over me, and it was like I could only speak in monosyllables, walk with my head down and avoid the stares that I was certain others gave me, and resist the urge to crawl into some hole somewhere and die. In fact, I felt like I would die - the death of my dreams meant the death of me. Of course, that's not what happened, and after that grief period I was back to dreaming and fantasizing about some other girl, to repeat the cycle over again.

It is exactly that heartbreak and grief that Ebo Taylor references in his song Love and Death. At the bottom of this post you'll get a bonus...a little video documentary of Taylor explaining how he came up with some of his songs, and he states that love and death go together, that love often feels like a death especially when it goes wrong. A Ghanaian guitarist, composer, bandleader and producer, Taylor is one of the legendary figures of Ghana's highlife musical genre. Briefly, highlife is a style developed in 20th century Ghana featuring a jazzy horn section and multiple lead guitars. Taylor first broke into the Ghana's music scene in the late 1950s with the bands The Stargazers and Broadway Dance Band. In the early 1960s he lived for a while in London where he met Fela Kuti and other African musicians and collaborated with them. These influences eventually led him to experiment with fusing Ghanaian highlife with other forms of Afro-beat as well as jazz and funk, leading to his own recognizable style that culminated in the 70s. In the early 21st century, rapper and hip hop artists rediscovered Taylor's music and revived interest in his works. In 2010, Strut Records released the album Love and Death and followed that up in 2011 with Life Stories: The Best of Ebo Taylor 1973-1980. In 2012, Strut released Taylor's intensely personal Appia Kwa Bridge, an album where he combines traditional Fante songs and rhythms with children's rhymes and his own personal experiences to push the frontiers of Ghanaian music and highlife even further. This version of his song Love and Death can be found on Life Stories: The Best of Ebo Taylor 1973-1980.