Erick Cosaque et Les Voltages 8 - L'Heureux Noir (Guadeloupe, 1980, Franck R Records)

Following to this article, I wanted for this week to make you (re)discover another track from Erick Cosaque, one of my favourite musician from French Guadeloupe Island who is still active today.

"L'Heureux Noir", the track presented here, is a perfect example of early Cosaque's work, mixing perfectly Jazz and traditional Guadeloupean Gwo Ka percussions - Enjoy !

Erick Cosaque et Les Voltages 8 - L'Heureux Noir

 

Best regards,

Armand

New Selection - Gwoka Sonné (Spiritual Drums from Guadeloupe and Martinique islands)

Hello dear readers !

After months and months, lets travel together to the French Antilles for my brand new 33th selection, through those 8 Spiritual Gwoka (a unique drum from Guadeloupe island) Jazz tracks that I've selected for you - Enjoy !

Armand de Preseau - Gwoka Sonné

You can download this selection here (right clic, "save as")

TRACKLIST : 

1 - Guy Konket - Kimbe Red
2 - Ka Leve - Tou Le Maten
3 - Eugene Mona - Grodillo
4 - Thibaud Freydy Ahimsa Doressamy - O Fon A Ke An Nou
5 - Pakatak - Palkata
6 - Zepiss - Pou Mizik La
7 - Gwakasonne - Algerie 62
8 - Fabriano Fuzion - Kosmos

Have a nice week,

Armand

Erick Cosaque - Joue Zizipan (Guadeloupe, 1978, Yola Production)

For this beautiful sunday, I decided to share with you "Joue Zizipan", a not very well known track from Eric Cosaque, one of my favourite musicians from the Guadeloupe island, mixing perfectly elements of Gwo Ka, Jazz, Soul and Latin music - enjoy !!

Erick Cosaque - Joue Zizipan

Take care,

Armand

Synchro Rhythmic Eclectic Language - Pasto (France, 1976, Moshe-Naim)

Initially founded by Eddy Gaumont, a drummer, back in the 70's, "Synchro Rhythmic Eclectic Language" was French Spiritual Jazz formation (Antilles influenced) composed of several great Jazz musicians.

After the tragic death of the young Eddy Gaumont, the bass player Louis Xavier took the lead of the band, composed on "Lambi", the album presented here by :

- Louis Xavier : Bass

- Georges Edouard Nouel : Piano / Organ

- Jean Yves Rigaud : Violin

- Gerard Curbillon : Guitar

- Gerard Philadelphe : Vocals

- Jo Maka : Saxophone

- Saint Yves Dolpin : Percussions

- Steve Mac Call : Drums

- Franck Valmont : Vocals

I decided to make you discover one song, "Pasto", surname of Georges Pastel, a jazz percussionist who played for a long time with the band.

Synchro Rhythmic Eclectic Language - Pasto

Have a nice sunday,

Armand

Elias Rahbani - Lover's Lane (Lebanon, 1974, Parlophone Voix de L'Orient Series)

 

Following to my former article on Elias Rahbani (here), I decided to make you (re)discover a perfect song on this sunday evening, taken the second volume of his "Mosaic Of The Orient" masterpiece !

Elias Rahbani - Lover's Lane

The cover art is, again, designed by Nabil Mourani, who designed my favourite Oriental record covers !

Have a really good sunday evening,

Armand

Le Kene Star de Sikasso - Fitiriwale (Mali, 1977, Mali Kunkan)

 

Le Kene Star de Sikasso was one of the regional Malian Orchestras (such as "L'Orchestre Kanaga de Mopti" or "L'Orchestre Sidi Yassa des Kayes") back in the 70's.

The group was composed, among others, by François Ballo, Mamadou Touré, Mamadou Diakité and Cheick Sadibou Diabaté, former members of "L'Orchestre Regional de Sikasso", who released one album in 1970.

The track I've selected, Fitiriwale, is taken from their 1977 album, released in France thanks to the mythical "Kiosque d'Orphée" label.

This song is about wedding, and the ingratitude of the husbands towards their former wife and the good things they did for them.

Le Kene Star de Sikasso - Fitiriwale

 

If you're into Malian sound, you can check here (and download !) a Malian selection I did in 2013 !

Have a really nice sunday,

Armand

Elias Rahbani - Dance Of Maria (Lebanon, 1972, Parlophone Voix de L'Orient Series)

 

Elias Rahbani, from Lebanon, is the youngest of the three Rahbani Brothers, well known for their contribution to the Lebanese - and more, Oriental - music scene.

His two older brothers, Assi and Mansour Rahbani, also known as "The Rahbani Brothers" (which Elias wasn't be part of) were composers and songwriters, famous for their work with the Lebanese Diva, Faiyrouz (which was the wife of Assi).

Elias composed of over 700 songs, both in Eastern and Western styles.

This album, "Mosaic of The Orient", is considered by many as Elias best album, a very eclectic instrumental record, with some psychedelic organ and bouzouk parts, oriental jazz and hip hoppy beats.

The cover art is designed by Nabil Mourani, who designed my favourite Oriental record covers (Remember Babylon Mood by Munir Bachir ? That was him also !).

Elias Rahbani - Dance Of Maria

Have a nice monday,

Armand

Armand de Preseau - Three Versions of "D'leau Coco" (Martinique / Guadeloupe / Cape Verde)

 

Hello my friends,

Today a special selection with three (yes, ONLY three !) songs, the original one and two covers of the famous tropical anthem "D'leau Coco", written by Albert Nadeau, a member of the band "Les Leopards de St Pierre".

This song was originally released in 1972 by the band "Les Leopards de St Pierre", from La Martinique, a raw tumbele biguine track.

Les Leopards de Saint Pierre - D'leau Coco

It was covered a bit later by Georges Plonquitte and his band, from La Guadeloupe, with a cool Jazz feeling and some good piano solos.

Georges Plonquitte - D'leau Coco

The Os Apolos", a Cape Verdian band, also covered this song, in a raw tropical way !

Os Apolos - D'leau Coco

Which one is your favourite ? Do you know other versions ?

All the best,

Armand

Salah Ragab and the Cairo Jazz Band - Egypt Strut (Egypt, 1968 to 1973, Sphinx Productions)

Hi dear readers !

For this post we go to the mystical Egypt, with a very famous band back in the 1970's, Salah Ragab and the Cairo Jazz Band !

All the songs of this recently pressed compilation were recorded in Heliopolis Egypt between 1968 and 1973.

Close your eyes, you're on the Nile, hearing the songs of the Pyramids..

Salah Ragab and the Cairo Jazz Band - Egypt Strut

I've already talked of this band in this earlier post, with a slightly different version of the song I present you here.

Take care, see you soon,

Armand

Rax Saba Tha Inc - Seventh Combination (Ghana, 1977, Awoko records)

 

Hello,

This time we move to Ghana, with a very unique and hard to find record from "Rax Saba Tha Inc" band, out in 1977 on the Awoko record label (All the LP's I have on this label are great !).

I decided to make you discover "Seventh Combination", a slow spiritual afrobeat track, hope you'll like it !

Rax Saba Tha Inc - Seventh Combination

All the best,

Armand

New Selection : Au Temps des Biguines // A Selection of early Biguines, Merengues and Boleros from the French West Indies

 

Hi Dear readers !

I'm proud to present you my 28th selection ! Ten early Buiguines, Merengues and Boleros songs, from the French West Indies.

Those tracks are taken from some quite hard to find seven inches of my personal collection, hope you'll like them !

Armand de Preseau - Au Temps des Biguines

You can download this new selection right here (as usual, right clic, "save as").

Enjoy, and get ready for the next selection..

Armand

New Selection : Bon baisers de Fort-de-France : A Selection of Fine Biguines and Jazzy Tracks From the French West Indies

Hi everyone !!!

It's a reaaaal pleasure to be here with you after these 2 months !!!! Sincerely sorry for the delay, too much work (yes I have a job), and just the time for me to dig for my dear readers some records from all over the world : Zambian records, Ethiopian stuff, records from Turkey, Morrocco, Guyana..

So to celebrate the rebirth of this blog, I've prepared one (short) selection (yes, from now I will select only 6 records for each mix, to avoid a too long and boring stuff !) of Carribean Biguines and Jazzy tracks from several records taken from the 30's to the 80's - Enjoy the ride !

Next week we'll travel to Mali,

Sincerely yours,

Armand

Armand de Preseau - Bons Baisers  de Fort-de-France

You can download the selection here (right clic, save as)

Egypt : A Holliday Souvenir (feat Salah Ragab)

Hi dear readers !

For this new article, I decided to present to you a very nice Egyptian compilation from various artists : Egypt - a holliday souvenir.

This record pressed in Greece and issued in the 1970's on the EMI label was offered to tourists visiting the mystic country of Egypt.

All the tracks on this LP are winners, and it contains one astonishing tune, "Amber of the Nile", from Salah Ragab (or Rageb), an Egyptian Jazz Player.

This tune is actually a different version of his well known track, "Egypt Strut", that exists only on this compilation (and that is faaar better according to me), a mixture of Funk, Jazz and Oriental Groove.

Salah Ragab - Amber of the Nile

Here are some pictures on the inside parts of the gatefold cover, that show several famous historical places around the Nile to be visited by tourists.

As a tip, another track (the last one) taken from this record by Karim Shukry, an Egyptian crooner (my favourite song of the LP !)

Karim Shukry - Take me Back to Cairo

Enjoy !