April in Managua - The Central American Peace Concert 1983

I'm a bit upset that I won't be able to show my face at the G20 actions in London over the coming week, but I'm sending all my best wishes to all those who do attend. I do think its important to remember though, that this 21st century activisim is not a new phenomena. The struggle for an egalitarian society has been ongoing since...well, since hierarchies first emerged. These protests are a part of that history, and so is the music on today's post.

The album I'm posting today was picked up in my local YMCA charity shop a couple of months ago. I had no idea what it was at the time but it looked interesting so I paid my money and took my chance. It turns out that this is a fantastic recording of a historic concert that took place in the capital of Nicaragua in 1983. The concert was organised by the revolutionary Sandinista government at the time when the country was coming under more intense attacks from the US backed right wing Contra guerrillas. The concert, which featured a some of the biggest names in the Latin American 'nueva cancion' movement (Chico Barque, Mercedes Sosa, Silvio Rodriguez, Amparo Ochoa), was therefore a show of solidarity with the emancipatory desires of the Nicaraguan people, the heart and soul of a people in the midst of an intense struggle for change.

Documentary footage of the concert, complete with some great interviews with members of the crowd, can be viewed over here, in the meantime you can check this breathtaking performance by Argentinian singer, Mercedes Sosa:



I've posted the album as 4 separate mp3s rather than break it into individual tracks. I feel the concert is worth listening to as a whole.

You can download it HERE.

And here's the tracklist:

SIDE 1:
Luis Enrique Mejia Godoy - Yo Soy De Un Puebla Sencillo
Gabino Polmares & Amparo Ochoa - La Maldición De Mailinche
Luis Rico - El Salvador
Amparo Ochoa - Para Amar En Tiempo De Guerra
Amparo Ochoa - Quién Tiene La Voz

SIDE 2:
Ali Primera - El Sombrero Azul
Chico Buarque - O Que Será
Chico Buarque & Raymundo Fagner - Nao Existe Pecado...
Silverio Pérez & Quintento Puertoriqueno - Canción De Pueblo
Silvio Pérez & Quintento Puertoriqueno - Qué Bonita Bandera

SIDE 3:
Daniel Viglietti - Declaratión De Amor A Nicaragua
Daniel Viglietti - Canción Para Mi América
Adrián Goizueta & Grupo Experimental - Eugenia
Silvio Rodríguez - El Dulce Abismo
Silvio Rodríguez & Manguare - Canción Urgente Para Nicaragua

SIDE 4:
Carlos Mejía Godoy & Los De Palacagüina - Nicaragua Nicaraguita
Carlos Mejía Godoy & Los De Palacagüina - Chilotito Tierno
Carlos Mejía Godoy & Los De Palacagüina - No Passarán
Mercedes Sosa - Solo Le Pido A Dios
Mercedes Sosa - Cuanda Tenga La Tierra

Something Weird - Two more 'free' singles.

I quite like these odd little interludes where confusion can reign for a few moments. This first mp3 is both sides of another single that came with a 1992 issue of Bananafish. The magazine and the record sleeve are long lost, but the record's a winner...warped, outsider sounds that turn the head to soup.

Tracks: Eye Yamatsuka - Untitled/Merchants of the New Bizarre - Jimmy Carter/Lee Ranaldo - Deva, Spain Fragments/The Easygoings - Bigfoot & Popcorn Medley/Dead C - Puberty/Gate - That's Gate/Dead C - This Map/Mr Freeman's Pink Underwear - Untitled



As if all that wasn't enough, here's another 'free' record that came with an issue of a muso rag called Chemical Imbalance back in 1993. This one has non of the charming garbled tape hiss and crazed skits that grace the bananafish records, just a bunch of tracks by:

Kicking Giant - Rapid C/ Faust - Live, Hamburg 10-90/ Kicking Giant - Background, Moving Quickly/ Pavement - My Radio/ Sun City Girls - Swing of Kings/ T.V. Personalities - Girl on a Motorcycle

Daudi Kabaka & His T.B. Eagles - Kenyafrica! (Playasound 1977)

I think this may be a compilation of Benga sounds from '60s Kenya. It's beautiful, lilting stuff with great guitar playing and a latin feel, sweet like the rumba of Congo. Strangely, the first song here 'Helule Helule' was covered by Essex beat group The Tremeloes. Their version hit number 14 on the hit parade in 1968 and must have been popular on Dagenham dancefloors with its freaky blend of afro breaks, harmonies and Byrds-ish rickenbacker:


Don't let that stop you checking out Daudi Kabaka...

Tracklist:

01 Helule Helule
02 Njoo Mpenzy Mary
03 African Twist
04 Msichana Wa Elim
05 Nyama Kilo Moja
06 Bachelor Boy

07 Second Hand Material
08 Kujisifu Ulevini
09 Mirija Ya Mapenzi
10 Safari Ya Nigeria
11 Kazi Ngumu
12 Spare Tyre

Get it HERE.

Simon Jurad - Ambiance Des Antilles

Zouk is (or was) the party music of the French Antilles, the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe. It is a hybrid music combining influences from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and western pop, funk and jazz. The dizzy mix is sometimes disorientating on this great, funky album by Simon Jurad.

Tracklist:

01 Ambiance Nous
02 Critique
03 Deception
04 Changement
05 Colette
06 Mi Bel Jounee
07 Experience

Get it HERE.

Famous Indian Film Music sung by Lata Mangeshkar, Mohd. Rafi, Asha Bhosle, Mahendra Kapoor & Sulakshana Pandit (1969)

Great album of songs from Hindi films by some of Bollywood's best known singers. Nice crackly, charity shop sounds from the films of 1968 and 1969. Here is a clip from the 1968 movie, Shikar featuring Asha Bhosle's song 'Parde Mein Rahne Do':



Tracklist:

01 Lata Mangeshkar & Mohd. Rafi - Main Hoon Saqi Tu Hai Sharabi
02 Mohd. Rafi - Likhe Jo Khat Tujhe
03 Lata Mangeshkar - Parai Hoon
04 Mohd. Rafi - Na Aadmi Ka Koi Bharosa
05 Asha Bhosle & Chorus - Parde Men Rahne Do
06 Lata Mangeshkar - Mere Jeevan Saathi
07 Mohd. Rafi - Aaj Purani Rahon Se

08 Asha Bhosle & Mohd. Rafi - Aulad Walon
09 Mohd. Rafi - Mere Pairon Men Gungharoo
10 Lata Mangeshkar & Mahendra Kapoor - Ye Kali
11 Mohd. Rafi - Babul Ki Duayen Leti Jaa
12 Lata Mangeshkar - Rama Duhai
13 Mohd. Rafi - O Nanhe Se Farishte
14 Mohd. Rafi & Sulakshana Pandit - Jab Jab Apna Mel

Get it HERE.

Soweto - Various Artists (Zensor/Rough Trade 1982)

This compilation from 1982 is a total treasure. Here's what Robert Christgau had to say back when the album was released:

"It's fair to assume that these fourteen crude, tuneful little singles, released six or seven years ago out of a Johannesburg record shop and featuring a writer-producer named Wilbur Dlamini and a backing band of Jo'burg Zulus called the Bamalangabis, are typical of nothing. They're apolitical except by their sheer existence, mostly small-group instrumental, with guitar, sax, and organ leads. Not too clearly recorded, either. And they're delightful. It's possible Dlamini is a lost genius. It's also possible that when I've heard more music from South Africa's hellish black urban work zones I'll find him minor or derivative. But what's certain is that a lot of very talented people are getting lost in black South Africa. Ain't capitalism grand?"

Check out this fuzzy monster from the album:

Tracklist:

A1	New Lucky Boys	Jane
A2	Kid Bera-Bera And Mister King Jerroo	Katanga Country
		Backing Group - Bamalangabis, The
A3	Unknown Artist	Nobamba
A4	Unknown Artist	Wilburforce
		Backing Group - Bamalangabis, The
A5	S. Tshabalala	Bonakele
		Backing Group - Bamalangabis, The
A6	Unknown Artist	Saulsville
		Backing Group - Bamalangabis, The
A7	New Lucky Boys	Indoda
B1	Steven Phiri	Malangabi D-One
		Backing Group - Bamalangabis, The
B2	S. Tshabalala	Ukwenza Kwendoda
		Backing Group - Bamalangabis, The
B3	John Motha	Zulu Boy
B4	Unknown Artist	Queen Shikwambani
B5	Elfas Zondi	Umkumbani
		Backing Group - Bamalangabis, The
B6	Saul Malapane And Mister King Jerroo	Here We Come
		Backing - Abafana Bamalangabi
B7	A.M'Kosane	Amaswti Special
		Backing Group - Bamalangabis, The

Get it HERE.

Sun Ra & His Arkestra - Out There A Minute (Blast First 1989)

I thought it was a bit of a tease to mention Sun Ra in the last post without including some of his music, so here is the compilation of unreleased recordings that was released on the infamous noise label, Blast First, back in 1989. These tunes were all recorded in some New York loft apartment sometime in the late '60s, yet this is a strangely accessible and coherent album, its various styles and textures being held together by the murky lo-fi quality of the recordings. If you've never heard Sun Ra, then this album is a really good springboard into his amazing soundworlds.

In the Kool Keith post I touched upon some stuff about Kool Keith's use of alter egos, something also important in Sun Ra's artistic and spiritual life. While many people often think of Sun Ra as a jazz crackpot with a thing about Saturn, in 'reality' he was something of a mystic, a deeply knowledgeable trickster who constantly tried to bring heaven and earth closer together and who attempted to marry knowledge of ancient African spirituality with space age rhetoric in order to promote the kind of human understanding that could free humanity from its home-made chains. Here's an excerpt from John F. Szwed's excellent biography, Space is the Place: The Life and Times of Sun Ra, in which Sun Ra discusses his change of name from Herman 'Sonny' Blount, and his reemergence as an Egyptian god:

""Sun Ra is not a person, it's a business name...it's a certificate which was gotten in New York City; they didn't notice that I didn't have down there what my business was. They stamped it, notarized it, and they filed it. So therefore, it's a business name, and my business is changing the planet. If Jesus had done that, gone and gotten himself a business certificate, he'd have had the right and he wouldn't have had to go up there on the cross"

...So Sun Ra was a stage name, in the tradition of jazz royalty, but no one, not even the most desperately ambitious entertainer, had ever assumed the name of a god, and defied mortality.

He was well aware of the implications of his choice, and the African-American tradition of naming which lay behind it. Once, while speculating on why black people were treated as property in the United States...he saw that they were considered as goods, a word he in turn traced to the Middle English "god". And as gods (as with kings and queens) they had no last names. When these names bacame necessary they were given or took those of their white owners.

"That's why I don't use no name except Ra because I saw that, and I'm not going to go and take somebody else's name, I'm not going to do that. I got my name, the Creator gave me my name.""

John F. Szwed (1997) Space is the Place
Edinburgh: Payback Press

Here is Bill Sebastian's incredible film for 'Calling Planet Earth' which is the source of the cover images on 'Out There A Minute':


Tracklist:

1. Love in Outer Space

2. Somewhere in Space

3. Dark Clouds With Silver Linings

4. Jazz and Romantic Sounds

5. When Angels Speak of Love

6. Cosmo Enticement

7. Song of Tree and Forest

8. Other Worlds

9. Journey Outward

10. Lights on a Satellite

11. Starships and Solar Boats

12. Out There a Minute Get this great album HERE.