Conjunto Folklorico Nacional de Cuba-Música Yoruba

Música Yoruba is an outstanding recording of traditional  Afro-Cuban  music.
It holds the double distinction of being one of the best produced records of it's genre,  as well as featuring performances by one of the largest assemblage of Cuban folkloric masters ever.
 It is both as an incredible aesthetic experience and   documentation of a time that has passed into history. the recordings consists entirely of Lucumí songs for the orishas, accompanied by batá drums.Recorded in the early 1970s, this recording has captured a period when many of the Conjunto's founding elders were still in residence.

Akpons (lead singers)

Lázaro Ros 

Cuba's most famous akpón is Lázaro Ros, founding member of the Conjunto. From early childhood, his talent set him on the path to becoming one of the great interpreters of the Lucumí language as used in Afro-Cuban rituals. Studying with Eugenio de la Rosa and other masters, he perfected his singing technique and has become a nationally recognized virtuoso. His long career has included work in theater and films and many recordings. Always an innovator, Lázaro's ground-breaking fusion efforts with Síntesis and Mezcla combine orisha songs with modern rhythms and orchestrations. These days the master lives simply in Guanabacoa where he devotes his time to singing in ceremonies and to developing his current group,Olorún, which includes many younger performers, thus fulfilling his desire to pass his knowledge on to the next generation.

Felipe Alfonso Pérez 

Felipe Alfonso, a founding member of the Conjunto, had a legendary style of singing. Felipe's technique included a playful approach to timing that was unparalleled. Playfulness characterized many aspects of his life. This recordingis probably the best documented example of this master's outstanding skills.Tragically, Felipe Alfonso died in November 1991 at the age of 43.

Zenaida Armenteros 

A founding member of the Conjunto, Zenaida Armenteros is still with the group.Until recently she was the primary dancer of the orisha Oyá in theConjunto. Zenaida's singing career spans more than 40 years. She started out by taking part in a singing competition on radio station Cadena Azul. One ofher early teachers was Obdulio Morales, an innovator who introduced the horn section to the popular music known as Son (or Salsa outside of Cuba).Zenaida has sung in the most prestigious clubs in Havana, such as the Tropicana,and appeared as a singer in two films,Yambao and Mulata.Música Yoruba captures the marvelous quality of this incredible singer's voice.

the drummers

Carlos Aldama (Iya Bata) 

Carlos Aldama, a founding member of the Conjunto Folklórico, left the group in 1991. He studied batá under Jesus Pérez when that master was in residence at the Conjunto. Carlos has also worked with Alex Valdez,director of the Karl Marx Theatre in Havana. Other credits include recording with Adalberto Alvarez y su Son and more recently, a project involving both Lázaro Ros and the piano virtuoso Gonzalo Rubalcaba. He is currently lead drummer for Lázaro Ros' Olorún, and plays with Sergio Vittier.

Mario Jáuregui (Itotele Bata) 

Another founding member, Mario Jáuregui studied batá with themaster Pablo Roche at the age of nine. He also played at the Tropicana nightclub with Jesús Pérez. Mario played on the very first record of folkloric guaguanco, Guaguanco Afro-cubano(Grupo Folklórico deAlberto Zayas). Mario also played with Sergio Vittier. In addition to his drumming skills, Mario is an extraordinary rumba dancer, a talent he demonstrated in many Conjunto performances.

Ramiro Hernández (Okonkolo Bata)

Originally from Matanzas, Ramiro lives in Jata near Guanabacoa. He is still in the Conjunto today and is among the new group of elders who have had the "baton"passed to them. Ramiro played with batá masters Jesus Pérez and"Trinidad" Torregrosa."

source/thanks

the orishas  must have been very happy that day

Música Yoruba

Prince Twins Seven-Seven

Prince Twins Seven-Seven changed his birth name, Olaniyi Osuntoki, to signal his status as the sole surviving child of his parents’ seven sets of twins. “They believed that I was the reincarnation of twins they had lost,” .
“Prince” was more than a flourish. His grandfather was king of Ibadan in the 1890s and, until the artist became seriously ill, he was about to be installed as chief of his clan, the Osuntoki.
A dancer and singer, Prince Twins Seven-Seven found his calling as an artist in the 1960s when he became part of an experimental school in the city of Oshogbo run by Ulli Beier.

He began drawing in pen and ink on paper, but soon began using ink and paint on large sheets of laminated plywood. His subject matter was Yoruban myths, many of them recited to him by his mother, but others absorbed through the novels of Amos Tutuola and Daniel O. Fagunwa. In a consciously naïve style, he depicted village scenes, animals and deities, especially the goddess Oshun, filling in outlines and borders with jewel-colored patterns based on traditional textiles.

Taiwo Olaniyi Osuntoki Oyewale was born on May 3, 1944, in the village of Ijara. As a young man, he danced with a traveling medicine show that sold Superman Tonic.

In 1964 he crashed a party at the Oshogbo art school and soon became integrated into its group of artists. After an exhibition of his work was mounted in Oshogbo, he moved to Lagos and later to London. His work was included in the 1989 exhibition “Magiciens de la Terre” (“Magicians of the Earth”) at the Pompidou Center in Paris.

 He later formed a band, for which he was the lead singer and occasional drummer, and which recorded a number of hit records; he continued to perform and record throughout his life. Like his artwork, his music was rooted in folk tradition.

infos from here and  here

and now these magic paintings are coming alive in sounds:

Twins Seven Seven's Black Ghosts International  sing and play for  Oshun 

the 2 sides separately (as in the original post in 0Earth)



Oshun part1



Oshun part 2


nuevo enlace

Les Shleu Shleu - Haiti Terre de Soleil

When Compas Direct the band of Nemours Jean Baptiste was in his prime time,

many young men were copying the work of the famous musicians especially the Accordionist Richard Duroseau and the the guitarist Raymond Gaspard. 

Among the followers was a young man living in the neighborhood of Mornes Nelliot by the name of Serge Rosenthal. Serge played the accordion and the guitar trying his best to be the next Richard or the new Raymond.With his friend the drummer Smith Jean Baptiste and other guitarists like Jacques Fabre,Camille Philippe and Kiki Bayard a little neighborhood band was created....
they called themselves LES MANFOUBENS.
Dada Djacaman an Arab-Haitian man with much better financial situation decided to take the dream of the youngsters to another level and on December 22,1965 the band with the addition of some new members was baptized as LES SHLEU SHLEU de Dada Djacaman......showing that the band is the property of the investor.
Contrary to the bands of Nemours and Sicot and the other bands of the time playing with a full horn section, the new band had a reduce format with only one saxophone played by Tony Moise....and there you have it: the first MINI JAZZ was created with J.C pierre Charles (Peddy) and Hans Cherubin (Gro Bébé) on lead vocal.
The band captured the attention of the new generation and before long they were the kings of the airwaves with songs like Alfredo- Pèche A La Ligne-Maille -Devinez -Café Au Lait among others. By the end of the decade the country was floated with Mini Jazz bands from almost every neighborhood copycatting the work of Shleu Shleu. But Shleu Shleu continued to be like a real king among the others and they carry themselves as such too. They continued to write hit songs like Moune Damou- 7 Jours Se La Semaine-Ceremonie Loa and some nice slow songs like Grille Ta Cigarette and Minuit Sonnen....

Les Shleu Shleu


Terre de Soleil

Kendu Revolution '72

2 singles of revolutionary benga  from '74 and  Kendu 

children have their own sense of time (and revolution) and  really don't bother with all these

but they are curious and learn quickly

Kendu

Mankunku -Yakhal' Inkomo

There are recordings considered  as landmarks in Jazz  and jazz fans have their own milestones,

records and common names like A Love Supreme - John Coltrane

Out to Lunch - Eric Dolphy,Go - Dexter Gordon,Maiden Voyage - Herbie Hancock

The Blues and the Abstract Truth - Oliver Nelson ,Saxophone Colossus - Sonny Rollins

The Sidewinder - Lee Morgan,Monk's Dream - Thelonious Monk,The Shape of

Jazz to Come - Ornette Coleman,Kind of Blue - Miles Davis and the list goes..on and on ..

But me would certainly add among these heights a brave young man from South Africa,

that was just 23 when he recorded Yakhal' Inkomo:Winston "Mankunku" Ngozi.
---
Ah... at last it's done. I mean the recording of South Africa's number one tenor sax player, Winston "Mankunku" Ngozi. This is the LP that every jazz fan has been waiting for. Listen to it from side one to the last note on side two then you'll agree with me that this is jazz, dished out by the son of the soil in a soul/jazz bowl.>liners 

In an 2003 interview to Gwen Ansell, Mankunku said:

“Yakhal’ inKomo was an odd tune. Things were tough then – but don’t ask me about all of that,

I don’t want to discuss it. You had to have a pass; you got thrown out;

the police would stop you, you know? I was about 22.

I threw my pass away; wouldn’t carry it. We had it tough. I was always being arrested

and a lot of my friends and I thought it was so tough for black people and put that into the song.

So it was The Bellowing Bull: for the black man’s pain.

And a lot of people would come up to me and say quietly: “Don’t worry bra’.

We understand what you are playing about.”

“I once saw Mankunku Ngozi blowing his saxophone. Yakhal’inkomo.

His face was inflated like a balloon, it was wet with sweat, his eyes huge and red.

He grew tall, shrank, coiled into himself, uncoiled and the cry came out of his horn.

“That is the meaning of Yakhal’ inkomo.”

Mongane Wally Serote

(from the introduction to his collection of poetry entitled Yakhal’ inKomo,

published by Renoster Books in 1972)

more readings  in flatinternational and  wfmu


“He just went deep, right down to the floor of despair, and reached the rim of fear and hatred.
He just spread and spread out and out in meditation, with his horn, Mankunku, Ngozi,
that guy from the shores of South Africa, and he said: “That was it.”
For that is what he was doing with his horn, Yakhal’ inKomo…”

this reissue from 1996 combines two records Mankunku recorded within four months in 1968:

one with his own quartet (Yakhal Inkomo) and Spring with pianist Chris Schilder's quintet.

Mankunku Quartet(Yakhal' Inkomo) :

Winston "Mankunku" Ngozi: tenor saxophone

Lionel Pillay:piano

Agrippa Magwaza:bass

Early Mabuza:drums

Chris Schilder Quintet(Spring) :

Chris Schilder:piano

Winston "Maknunku" Ngozi:tenor saxophone

Garry Kriel: guitar

Phillip Schilder: bass

Gilbert Matthews:drums

record review

it was a spear for freedom then )  still is, now  :

Yakhal' Inkomo

Ousmane Sacko & Yakaré Diabaté

Hommage à Ousmane Sacko, le " Rossignol du Khasso"

follow the river's flow for the next 19 minutes:

Abdoulaye Tandia

and for 5 more in front of the most famous curtain in Mali:



 


.

Aparecida - Samba Afro Axé

Maria Aparecida Martins (Caxambu, 4 de dezembro de 1939 - Rio de Janeiro, 1985) foi uma cantora e compositora brasileira, de carreira dedicada principalmente ao samba e a ritmos africanos.....

Maria Aparecida Martins from Caxambu,Minas Gerais was a legendary  in her time,voice

 and among the most important popular interpreters of the music of Umbanda

during  the 60's & 70's in Brasil-but too soon and unjustifiably forgotten,

Aparecida was gifted with a powerful  and rich voice full of spirituality

and  while based on her own beautiful sambas she has always been accompanied

 by  many excellent  musicians of her time.

we don't forget her here

 Axé