Last night, I DJ’ed for the first time at Clem’s. I was a little nervous at first — it was my first public DJ set in which regulars, friends, loved ones and strangers would be hearing what I selected. But it turned out to be a lot of fun.
I’m now sharing the set with y’all. Four + hours of soul, funk, house music and more. Put on your dancing shoes and get on down!
Ba Banga Nyeck is a Alsace, France-based, Cameroonian-Ivorian singer/songwriter, musician and producer, who invented a chromatic balafon, a gourd resonated xylophone, with which he traveled across the world, making stops here in the States, Japan, India and South Africa. Of course, during his travels, he saw the degradation of the planet’s environment.
His latest single, the breezy, hook-driven and polyrhythmic percussive bop “Les champions du futur” is rooted in a much-needed message — championing the preservation of our environment, before it’s too late. Adding to the overall message, the song features some instruments made from recycled and reclaimed materials paired with twinkling keys, glistening balafon, guitar and call and response vocals.
The accompanying and delightfully playful video for “Les champions de future” features Nyeck and his backing band performing the song with keyboards, guitar, horns and balafon, along with instruments made from recycled and reclaimed materials. We also see a chorus of young kids, also playing instruments made from recycled and reclaimed materials. Let’s remember that those babies in the video are the future we should be fighting for.
Oakland-based psych outfit Orchestra Gold is rooted in the decade plus-long collaboration between Malian-born vocalist Mariam Diakite and Oakland-based guitarist Erich Huffaker. The duo first met in Bamako, Mali in 2006. At the time, Huffaker was very busy: he was working for a nonprofit, studying djembe and dunun (drums) and immersing himself in the city’s burgeoning music scene when he had met and befriended Diakite. The duo recognized a deep and profound musical connection, which led to Diakite relocating to the States to start a band — Orchestra Gold.
Since Diakite’s relocation to Oakland, the rising psych outfit has specialized in a kaleidoscopic sound that meshes Malian folk with psych rock and elements of Afrobeat and soul. Sonically they create a trippy and funky soundscape featuring swinging rhythms, funky bass and scorching guitar riffs while Diakite delivers heartfelt and thought-provoking lyrics in her native Bambara language. Their long-held goal is to transcend national and musical borders while being a much-needed healing force.
The band’s third album Medicine was released earlier this year. The album sees the band firmly continuing their pursuit of spreading healing and community through their music. In the lead-up to the album’s release, I managed to write about two album singles:
Orchestra Gold is about to embark to Austin for this year’s SXSW where they’ll play sets at several showcases. In order to build up buzz for their SXSW appearance — and to get the word out about their crowdfunding campaign to cover the tremendous cost of overhead for the trip, the band shared live footage of them performing album single “Keleya.” “Keleya” is centered around looping guitar, shuffling percussion paired with boom bap-like drumming, a James Brown-meets-Fela Kuti-like funky horn line paired with Diakite’s plaintive wailing. The end result is a hypnotic yet danceable song that brings James Brown, Fela Kuti, and Black Sabbath to mind.
For more information, check out the band’s GoFundMe here. If you dig this band, and you have a few bucks, any support you can offer is helpful.
Acclaimed Senegalse singer/songwriter and guitarist Baaba Maal is a member of the semi-nomadic Fulani people. He first left his home in Podor, Senegal to perform music hundreds of miles away as a teenager — and he has been a wanderer ever since. “It’s part of my culture,” Maal says. “The songs travel from village to village, from country to country. It’s something natural to my tribe and this part of Africa.”
Since then, Maal has followed his music, as it traveled around the world, starting from his young travels around West Africa, performing with mentor Mansour Seck, to the Paris conservatory, where he studied music theory and then eventually across the rest of the globe, while collaborating with an eclectic array of acclaimed, contemporary artists including John Leckie, Brian Eno, Damon Albarn’s Africa Express, and Mumford & Sons. Maal has worked on the soundtracks for The Last Temptation of Christ and Black Hawk Down. He has also worked with soundtrack composer Ludwig Goransson to create the soundscapes for both Black Panther films, essentially making him the voice of Wakanda.
Throughout his career, the acclaimed Senegalese artist has spread the word of an idealistic, energetic Africa — to the entire world. “I could bring my Africa to this other, abstract Africa, and both places collided together beautifully,” he says of Black Panther, “I brought this mythical Africa back to Podor, extending my reality, my hometown, and my music. I didn’t know whether I would make another album after The Traveller, but I did know my thinking about music was still changing. And once more something stirred inside me at home in Podor. I found myself once again. It was time for a new album.”
Maal’s forthcoming album Being is slated for a March 31, 2023 release through Marathon Artists. The album reportedly is the latest stage in the development of a highly distinctive, ecstatically melodic sound that meshes traditional African instruments and rhythms with modern, electronic production, The album is a set of confrontational and contemplative stories in which Maal mixes evocative, personal local concerns with grand universal themes to produce a unique form of deep, immersive soul music, taking the listener to new places via his birthplace of Podor, Senegal, where his music always begins — and his travels always end. “However far I travel, whatever direction, I will always return home,” the acclaimed Senegalese artist says. “It is the nomadic nature. To wander, but to return home, eventually. Home is where you start from, where you begin to learn what really matters, and home is where you finish. Podor is the perfect place for me when I need some time to think, to see my music with a fresh eye, to surprise it, snare it, catch it unawares as if coming across it for the first time.”
The album is also deeply informed by experiences Maal had before, during and after the pandemic. The album is about being African, being a songwriter, being a romantic, being realistic, being wary, being online, being at the mercy of the elements, being caught between two worlds, being on your way somewhere — and ultimately about his being from Podor while being connected to a constantly turbulent and shifting world through his art. “Each song of this album has its own personality. A song is like a person. It has a life, name, a character, and it has a position in life,” Maal says in press notes. “I think that’s what makes this album so powerful – it is totally about now and where I am now, the dreams I have of the past and the future.”
The album’s material also reflects Maal’s need to continually move forward with his work. Much like the acclaimed Senegalese artist’s previously released work, there wasn’t a set deadline: Songs were finished when they ere finished, emerging out of a combination of both fast and slow work. There were intense improvisational studio sessions in Brooklyn, Podor, and London, where things moved quickly and songs took place over a few days. After energetic bursts of activity, both artist and producer took time to process their work, and songs would reveal themselves over many months. Some would be recorded by the ocean, in the ocean air, with the sound of crickets, dogs, donkeys, birds, traffic, rain and people being captured nearby.
Last year, I wrote about album opening track “Yerimayo Celebration,” a joyous and percussive stomp centered around layers of thunderous percussion, African traditional instrumentation and enormous, ebullient hooks. The song which features contributions from Cheikh Ndoye (bass ngoni) and Momadou Sarr (percussion) is celeebration of music — and of music’s power to open the mind and heart in deeply troubled times, and of its power in fighting cynicism and chaos.
Beings latest single, “Freak Out” feat. The Very Best is a mesmerizing and woozy alchemy of traditional African folk instrumentation and modern production through the form of skittering, tweeter and woofer rattling beats and percussion that effortlessly bridges the ancient and the modern — while being boldly and defiantly African. Lyrically, the song explores the complex dynamic of social media and its effects on both African and the wider world.
“It became a song about being careful what you put on the internet,” says Baaba Maal, “It might seem funny or popular when you do it, but it might have consequences and you will have to live with those all your life.
“There are things you should keep to yourself. Mystery is important in life; you don’t need to shine a light on every little thing you do. You don’t have to give away your soul for the sake of a little bit of attention.
“The internet should be used to make humanity feel good about themselves. It is so powerful, it can be dangerous and sometimes it just seems the internet has just caused a constant freak out.”
The accompanying video is a gorgeous and sensitive slice of the complexity of African life that’s life-affirming and necessary as it captures a mix of ancient traditions and modernity. But along with that, there’s a reminder of the fact that people are generally the same.
Mariaa Siga (born Mariama Siga Goudiaby) is a Senegalese singer/songwriter, musician, and JOVM mainstay, who can trace the bulk of the origins of her music career to winning a local talent show, where she caught the attention of acclaimed Senegalese act Joan of Arc. Joan of Arc’s frontperson mentored the young Goudiaby, helping her refine her style and further develop her musical skills. Shortly after, Gouldiaby landed a role in Mon Réve, a film which aired on RDV.
As a singer/songwriter and musician, the Senegalese JOVM mainstay was long accustomed to the traditional rhythms of the Casamance region of Southern Senegal; but her curiosity led to her to discover and experiment with Western styles like reggae, blues and jazz, which she freely incorporates into her own work.
Back in 2016, Goudiaby was was one of the winners of the Festival des Vielles Pirogues‘ Tremplin competition. Building upon that momentum, she released two singles the following year, “Ya sama none” and “Asekaw.”
The Senegalese JOVM mainstay performed in her native Casamance for the first time with a set at 2018’s Kayissen Festival. That same year, Yoro Ndiyae featured Goudiaby on his Sunu Folk compilation. She capped that year off with a French tour that November.
Her full-length debut Askew, which translates to “Woman” in her native Diola, was released back in 2019. That year, she won Baco Records‘ One Riddim Contest, which led to sets at Morocco’s Festival MarcoFoiles, France’s Midem Festival and to an invite to play Quebec’s Festival Mondial des Femmes d’Ici et d’Ailleurs.
The JOVM mainstay begins 2023 with “Le murmure des anges.” The song features a shuffling and buoyant reggae riddim from Artikal Band, complete with a slow-burning and soulful guitar solo paired with Siga’s gorgeous and expressive delivery. “Le murmure des angels” is a song that does two things — give thanks to the enteral while reminding listeners that they should listen to the little voice inside of us, which arms us with much-needed confidence; that voice that frequently says “You know, you got this. You know you’re dope.”
Directed by Mao Sidibé, the gorgeously shot, accompanying video captures snippets of everyday Senegalese life, following a small collection of hard-working folks, trying to survive with their dignity intact. When the video’s protagonist, stumbles upon a suitcase of money that falls out of car, he’s tempted to keep the money — who wouldn’t? — but he does the right thing and winds up being rewarded.
Nite Bjuti (pronounced as Night Beauty) — Candice Hoyes, Val Jeanty, and Mimi Jones — is an an acclaimed trio of Afro Caribbean improvisational artists, who use electronics, vocalism, bass, Haitian rhythms, sampling and spoken word to cultivate their narrative journey. The trio draw inspiration from a a centuries’ old Hatian folk tale called “Night Beauty,” about a girl whose bones begin to sing in the afterlife, her spirit seeking justice. The members of the trio play to rediscover the deeply buried Diasporic beauty in our world that’s transcendent cross generations. Fittingly, they made their debut at Jazz at Lincoln Center, as part of a celebration of 2018 International Women’s Day.
The trio have played NUBLU Jazz Fest, NYC Winter Jazzfest, The Schomberg Center and Jazz at Lincoln Center, and have done a live studio performance on WGBO. The trio are UMEZ Arts Engagement grant recipients for last year’s mixed media installation commissioned by the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture. They’re also 2020 recipients of the NYC Women’s Fund in Jazz Music, which has fully funded their full-length debut album, slated for an April 14, 2023 release.
Thematically, the trio’s debut reportedly contemplates existential themes including coming of age and deep physical, mental and spiritual change. The album’s first single, “Mood (Liberation Walk)” features around skittering voodoo and soca-like beats, ethereal cooing and wailing, a propulsive bass line, whirring electronics and a spoken word poetry to create a woozy synthesis of ancient folk traditions, contemporary electronic production and tight grooves. But the song also manages to a be an ageless conversation across time and space among members of the Diaspora, discussing things that only those within the community know and understand — and in the language that those within know and understand.
”What good is freedom if you don’t really feel free? Black girlhood maturation brings a range of evocative contradictory experiences,” Nite Bjuti’s Candice Hoyes asks, and “in ‘Mood (Liberation Walk)’ we express the sudden sensation of a girl jumping/jumped into puberty, roped into a new emotional reality, physicality and societal positionality. As explored in the music video, she jumps through the portals of her own design right until the foreboding street lights flicker. Jumping is tied to shared childhood experiences, embodies connectivity and the chasmic leaps of growth in the Black womanly experience.”
Matt B is a Chicago-born, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter., known globally for crafting romantically-driven, chart topping R&B: His debut, Love & War and his sophomore album Dive landed at #1 on the iTunes R&B charts. Building upon a rapidly growing profile, 2018’s Bryan-Michael Cox-produced EP Rise and his 2021 Cox and Tricky Stewart-co-produced Stateside debut, 2021’s EDEN landed in the Top 40 on Billboard‘s R&B Albums, Digital Albums, Heatseekers and R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Charts.
The Chicago-born, Los Angeles-based global R&B artist’s highly-anticipated forthcoming EP ALKEBULAN is slated for a spring release through Vitae Records. The EP derives its name from the ancient name of African, and sees the acclaimed, chart-topping artist paying homage to his African ancestry while further tapping into the Afrobeats-inspired sound he has developed and honed over the course of the past couple of releases.
“ALKEBULAN is a body of work that searches for identity and the longing to reconnect with the Motherland and my people,” Matt B explains. “In search of this identity, I found that the heartbeat of it all is rooted in love. When I first stepped foot on the continent of Africa, that longing for home and search of identity was finally fulfilled. This EP encompasses the summation of this journey.”
The EP features the previously released “Get Down Mami,” and “Gimme Love,” feat. Eddy Kenzo, which received a Best Global Music Performance nomination at this year’s Grammy Awards. The track has also received critical acclaim and commercial success, debuting in the Top 50 on Billboard US Afrobeats Songs Charts, and took home top prizes at the MUSE Creative Awards, Global Music Awards, LIT Talent Awards, and New York International Film Awards — all while amassing over five million streams across digital platforms.
“Gimme Love” is a crowd-pleasing, bop rooted in slick, modern production featuring glistening synth arpeggios, processed and chopped up vocal samples, skittering tribal-influenced beats paired with euphoric hooks, serving as a silky, sultry bed for Mike B’s plaintive and achingly vulnerable delivery and Eddy Kenzo’s smooth, easy-going and soulful flow. The end result is a song that’s both club and lounge friendly while being a sweetly earnest love song.
Directed by PhillyFlyBoy, the accompanying video for “Gimme Love” featuring the two collaborations and a collection of some of the most beautiful sisters I’ve ever seen — in beautiful Africa. Give me this all the time!
Throughout his lengthy career, Guinean-born, Belgian-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist N’Faly Kouyaté has had a long-held interest in bridging two distinct worlds: the ancient and the modern, and his native Africa with the West. Growing up Kouyaté received a rigorous and traditional Guinean musical education. When he relocated to Belgium, he received conservatory training.
Kouyaté has collaborated with an eclectic and diverse array of internationally acclaimed artists including Peter Gabriel, William Kentridge, Phil Manzanera, Ray Phiri and others. But he may be best known for his work with groundbreaking, genre-defying and Grammy Award-nominated act Afro Celt Sound System.
Kouyaté’s forthcoming album sees the acclaimed Guinean-born, Belgian-based artist developing a new genre, which he has dubbed Afrotonix, which mixes polyphony, electronic production and traditional African instruments like the kora, the balafon and regional percussion. Last year, Kouyaté shared the album’s first single, “Free Water,” a slick synthesis of tweeter and woofer rocking beats and traditional Guinean instrumentation paired with a guest spot from Tiken Jah Fakoly. “Free Water” is rooted in a vitally necessary message for all of us — water is life for all of us.
The acclaimed Guinean-born artist’s latest single “Khili Kané” pairs glistening synths, dancehall -like tweeter and woofer rattling thump and glistening bursts of kora paired with big hooks. “Khili Kané” continues Kouyaté’s long-held reputation for meshing elements of contemporary production with ancient African instrumentation and the acclaimed artist’s expressive delivery. Much like its predecessor, the new single is rooted in contemporary concerns, pointing out universal truths: the song is a deeply philosophical tale about ingratitude and denigration.
Oakland-based psych outfit Orchestra Gold is rooted in the decade plus-long collaboration between Malian-born vocalist Mariam Diakite and Oakland-based guitarist Erich Huffaker. The duo first met in Bamako, Mali back in 2006. At the time, Huffaker was very busy: he was working for a nonprofit, studying djembe and dunun (drums) and immersing himself in the city’s burgeoning music scene when he had met and befriended Diakite. The duo recognized a deep and profound musical connection, which led to Diakite relocating to the States to start a band — Orchestra Gold.
Since then, the Oakland-based psych outfit specializes in a kaleidoscopic sound that meshes Malian folk with psych rock and elements of Afrobeat and soul: Diakite delivers heartfelt and thought-provoking lyrics in her native Bambara language over a trippy and funky soundscape featuring swinging rhythms, funky brass and scorching guitar riffs. The outfit’s goal is to transcend national and musical borders while being a healing force.
Orchestra Gold’s third album Medicine is slated for a January 20, 2023 release. The album reportedly sees the band firmly continuing their pursuit of spreading and healing and community through music.
Last month, I wrote about album single “Koniya (No Benefit to Envy),” a song which featured shuffling rhythms, scorching feedback and distortion-driven riffage serving as a lysergic and sinuous bed for Diakite’s expressive delivery. The end result was a song that arched upward towards the cosmos while rooted in earthly matters.
Medicine’s latest single, “Gende” begins with a lengthy and dreamy introduction featuring looping and swirling guitar textures. Around the 2:25 mark or so, the song rapidly morphs into a breakneck Fela Kuti-meets-Black Sabbath-meets-Tinariwen-like ripper, reminiscent of JOVM mainstays Here Lies Man, centered around a funky horn line, scorching riffage and looping guitar textures. Diakite’s expressive vocal and shuffling, propulsive polyrhythm glide and dance around the song’s disparate parts. The end result is a song that’s lysergic but defiantly — and boldly — African and danceable.
Diakite explained the inspiration and meaning of the song to the folks at Glide Magazine:
“’Gende’ talks about the importance of family. This song uses poetic imagery to draw analogies about how important our familiar relationships are. We need to treasure them and not exhaust them.
For example, the first image compares the father to wheat. Absent-minded interaction deteriorates the relationship just as overworking wheat turns the grain to dust. This is not to be taken literally but to encourage people to be mindful of their relationship with their parents.
The second image compares siblings to soap. When you scrub soap too hard, taking more than you need, the bar disappears unnecessarily. If you take more than you give to your siblings, you could be left without an intimate, treasured relationship.
The third image compares children to mirrors. This analogy may be different from how we think about ‘mirrors’ in the west. It implies that If you judge or critique your children too harshly, you will end up damaging your relationship. This will distance them from you, and you will end up missing the intimacy that you could have had.”
The accompanying video fittingly features some lysergic imagery that’s eventually superimposed over the band performing the song. Much like its accompanying song, the video is meant to inspire the viewer to get up from their screen and dance.
Oakland-based psych outfit Orchestra Gold is rooted in the decade plus-long collaboration between Malian-born vocalist Mariam Diakite and Oakland-based guitarist Erich Huffaker. The duo first met in Bamako, Mali back in 2006. At the time, Huffaker was very busy: he was working for a nonprofit, studying djembe and dunun (drums) and immersing himself in the city’s burgeoning music scene when he had met and befriended Diakite. The duo recognized a deep and profound musical connection, which led to Diakite relocating to the States to start a band — Orchestra Gold.
Since then, the Oakland-based psych outfit specializes in a kaleidoscopic sound that meshes Malian folk with psych rock and elements of Afrobeat and soul: Diakite delivers heartfelt and thought-provoking lyrics in her native Bambara language over a trippy and funky soundscape featuring swinging rhythms, funky brass and scorching guitar riffs. The outfit’s goal is to transcend national and musical borders while being a healing force.
Orchestra Gold’s third album Medicine is slated for a January 20, 2023 release. The album reportedly sees the band firmly continuing their pursuit of spreading and healing and community through music. Medicine‘s latest single “Koniya (No Benefit to Envy)” features shuffling rhythms, scorching feedback and distortion-driven riffs serving as a lysergic and sinuous bed Diakite’s gorgeous vocal. The end result is a song that arches upward towards the cosmos while rooted in earthly matters.
Acclaimed Senegalse singer/songwriter and guitarist Baaba Maal is a member of the semi-nomadic Fulani people. He first his home in Podor, Senegal to perform music hundreds of miles away as a teenager — and he has been a wanderer ever since. ““It’s part of my culture,” Maal says. “The songs travel from village to village, from country to country. It’s something natural to my tribe and this part of Africa.”
Since then, Maal has followed his music, as it traveled around the world, starting from his young travels around West Africa, performing with mentor Mansour Seck, to the Paris conservatory, where he studied music theory and then eventually across the rest of the globe, while collaborating with an eclectic array of contemporary artists including John Leckie, Brian Eno, Damon Albarn’s Africa Express, and Mumford & Sons. Maal has worked on the soundtracks for The Last Temptation of Christ and Black Hawk Down. He has also worked with soundtrack composer Ludwig Goransson to create the soundscapes for both Black Panther films, essentially making him the voice of Wakanda. Throughout his career, the acclaimed Senegalese artist has spread the word of an idealistic, energetic Africa — to the entire world. “I could bring my Africa to this other, abstract Africa, and both places collided together beautifully,” he says of Black Panther, “I brought this mythical Africa back to Podor, extending my reality, my hometown, and my music. I didn’t know whether I would make another album after The Traveller, but I did know my thinking about music was still changing. And once more something stirred inside me at home in Podor. I found myself once again. It was time for a new album.”
Maal’s forthcoming album Being is slated for a March 31, 2023 release through Marathon Artists. The album reportedly is the latest stage in the development of a highly distinctive, ecstatically melodic sound that meshes traditional African instruments and rhythms with modern, electronic production, The album is a set of confrontational and contemplative stories in which Maal mixes evocative, personal local concerns with grand universal themes to produce a unique form of deep, immersive soul music, taking the listener to new places via his birthplace of Podor, Senegal, where his music always begins, and his travels always end. “However far I travel, whatever direction, I will always return home,” the acclaimed Senegalese artist says. “It is the nomadic nature. To wander, but to return home, eventually. Home is where you start from, where you begin to learn what really matters, and home is where you finish. Podor is the perfect place for me when I need some time to think, to see my music with a fresh eye, to surprise it, snare it, catch it unawares as if coming across it for the first time.”
The album is also deeply informed by experiences Maal had before, during and after the pandemic. And as a result, the album also manages to be about being African, being a songwriter, being a romantic, being a realistic, being wary, being online, being at the mercy of the elements, being caught between two worlds, being on your way somewhere — and ultimately about his being from Podor while being connected to a constantly turbulent and shifting world through his art. “Each song of this album has its own personality. A song is like a person. It has a life, name, a character, and it has a position in life,” Maal says in press notes. “I think that’s what makes this album so powerful – it is totally about now and where I am now, the dreams I have of the past and the future.”
The album’s material also reflects Maal’s need to continually move forward with his work. Interestingly, much like his previous work, there wasn’t a deadline: Songs were finished when they were finished, emerging out of a combination of fast and slow work. There were intense improvisational studio sessions in Brooklyn, Podor, and London, where things moved quickly and songs took place over a few days. After energetic bursts of activity, both artist and producer took time to process their work, and songs would reveal themselves over many months. Some would be recorded by the ocean, in the ocean air, with the sound of crickets, dogs, donkeys, birds, traffic, rain and people being captured nearby.
Album opening track “Yerimayo Celebration,” Being‘s latest track is a joyous and percussive stomp centered around layers of thunderous percussion, African traditional instrumentation and enormous, ebullient hooks. The song which features contributions from Cheikh Ndoye (bass ngoni) and Momadou Sarr (percussion) is celeebration of music — and of music’s power to open the mind and heart in deeply troubled times, and of its power in fighting cynicism and chaos.
Red Hot has been producing great music to promote diversity and equal access to health care since 1990. The first project was the Cole Porter tribute Red Hot + Blue, quickly followed by Red Hot + Dance, No Alternative, Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool, and Red Hot + Rio. Over the past 15 years Red Hot produced two successful projects with Aaron and Bryce Dessner – Dark Was The Night and Day of the Dead – along with a tribute to Arthur Russell and several other projects.
Yesterday, was World AIDS Day. And to commemorate the occasion, Red Hot reissued their acclaimed Fela Kuti tribute, Red Hot + Riot, which featured contributions from D’Angelo, Questlove, Femi Kuti, Talib Kweli, Sade, the late Tony Allen, Macy Gray, Nile Rodgers, Jorge Ben Jor, Baaba Maal, Meshell Ndegeocello, Dead Prez, Kelis, the late Roy Hargrove, Archie Shepp and many others 20 years after the compilation’s original release. (On a personal note, 20 years ago I was interning at FHM Magazine. I received a press copy of Red Hot + Riot Fela Kuti tribute, and that album was my introduction to both Fela and to Afrobeat.)
The 20th anniversary reissue is remastered and features two hours of bonus material, including a previously unreleased cover of “Sorrow Tears & Blood” by Bilal, an acoustic version of “Trouble Sleep” with Baaba Maal accompanied by the late and legendary kora player Kaouding Cissoko, and an extended version of Sade’s “By Your Side” by Stuart Matthewman. The original release had to be heavily edited to fit the time limit of a physical CD, and the reissue also features a wealth of bonus material, including extended versions of many album tracks, along with early mixes, acapallas, instrumentals, and much more.
And lastly, the folks at Red Hot have released the album on digital streaming platforms for the first time ever.
Just to refresh your memories a bit: Fela Kuti was — and still is — one of the most important African musicians, bandleaders and activists of his time. Sadly, Kuti died at age 58 in 1997 of causes related to HIV/AIDS, two years before Red Hot began the project.
The idea for the Red Hot Fela tribute came from Questlove during sessions for Red Hot’s Gershwin tribute compilation, which featured a collaboration between The Roots and the late and legendary Bobby Womack. Questlove suggested that Red Hot do a cover of Sly Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin On but they couldn’t secure the rights.
The ongoing HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa, along with a love of Fela Kuti’s work transformed the project into what we now know. Red Hot secured the rights to Fela’s music, as well as his master recordings, which allowed for both covers and sampling. Questlove kicked things off with a superstar session at Electric Lady Studios covering “Water Get No Enemy,” with a band led by D’Angelo and Fela’s son Femi Kuti, along with members of the Soultronics — James Posner, Pino Pallodino and the aforementioned D’Angelo and Questlove — and Femi’s backing band Positive Force. Nile Rodgers, Macy Gray and Erykah Badu joined the session, although Badu’s vocal didn’t make the final mix. Red Hot producer Beco Dranoff brought in legendary Brazilian artist Jorge Ben Jor to the session a bit too late to join in, but he recorded the basic track of what would become “Shuffering and Shmiling” in another room at Electric Lady overseen by producer Andres Levin.
Red Hot spent the the next two years recording material around the world and at the Fun Machine studio that Andres Levin built in the SoHo office of Funny Garbage, the digital design company co-founded and run by Red Hot’s co-founder and creative director John Carlin. Coincidentally, the Baaba Maal session for Trouble Sleep,” the first session at Fun Machine was on September 10, 2001. 24 hours later, the World Trade Center, which could be seen from the studio windows was attacked. It was a tragic and tumultuous time, but the recordings continued and by the end of the year, there was a joyous celebration of Fela’s music and life about to be released.
The 20th anniversary of Red Hot + Riot is a cause for celebration, but also a sober reflection on the continued devastation of HIV/AIDS, particularly as Sub-Saharan Africa is disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic: Sub-Saharan Africa currently accounts for 71% of people living with HIV, a devastating reality where 75% of global HIV-related deaths and 65% of new infections occur. I think these numbers will give you a better sense of HIVs impact on Sub-Saharan Africa: Of the 38.3 million people living with HIV worldwide, 27.3 million are in Sub-Saharan Africa. 7.8 million of the 27.3 million infected people are in South Africa, including 6,.3 million young adults and children. 11% of the global population is in Africa but it accounts for over 71% of the global impact in terms of infections and mortality.
The stigma around men who have sex with other men, women’s lack of resources and agency and the vilification of sex workers and drug addicts halt all progress that can be made to aid the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Frequently, ignorance is used to distance the culture from undesirable and uncomfortable topics like intimate partner violence, sex education, the LGBQT+ community and women’s lack of agency and access to proper care.
Tragically, young women and girls bear the brunt of the impact from cultural silence and their pain and misfortune is passed onto future generations. The HIV/AIDS epidemic’s root is the intersection of structural and cultural setbacks in awareness, acceptance, understanding and treatment.
Red Hot celebrates the 20th anniversary reissue by sharing the expanded album’s first single, “Sorrow Tears and Blood,” off the bonus material, a joyous yet righteous, pan-African Diasporic take on the original that sees its talented crew of collaborators — Bilal, Zap Mama and Common — seamlessly meshing elements of jazz, neo-soul, hip-hop and Afrobeat. As Black folk — hell, as people — we need to be concerned with what’s going on in the Motherland, the very cradle of all of us.
Paris-born singer/songwriter Fabien Gravillon specializes in Zouk, Kizomba and Afro pop — but in his native France, he may be best known as an actor, who starred in the hit French soap opera Plus belle la vie.
After the release of his debut album through Because Music, Gravillon went to Los Angeles and appeared in several videos by internationally acclaimed artists including Macklemore and Patrick Stump‘s “Summer Days,” Collapsing Scenery and others.
He also participated in several projects filmed at Fox Studios in Hollywood and for The Jim Henson Company. Interestingly enough, inspired by animation and by his experience as a voiceover artist, Gravillon decided that his music videos should be cartoons. . .
“Bonita,” Gravillon’s latest single is sleek and swooning, genre-defying bop featuring skittering, reggaeton beats. glistening synth arpeggios and Gravillon’s sultry and vulnerable cooing (in French and Spanish) paired with a two-step inducing hook. While being slick and modern pop song, “Bonita” is a sweet and old fashioned plea of devotion and love.
The animated video features cartoon version of Gravillon and the song’s titular Bonita on a romantic date that’s sweet in its old-fashioned feel.
