Orchestre du Bawobab – Bure Yaay Damaan
https://amf.didiermary.fr/orchestre-bawobab-bure-yaay-damaan-1975/
Orchestre du Bawobab, also known as Orchestra Baobab…
Here’s a song from their album “Guy Gu Rey Gi” in 1975.
Orchestra Baobab is a Senegalese Afro-Cuban “Son” and “Pachanga” band formed in 1970 as a multi-ethnic, multi-national club band they adapted the then current craze for Cuban Music.
Ofege – Try and Love (1973)
https://amf.didiermary.fr/ofege-try-love-1973/
The first time a group of teenagers snuck out of St. Gregory’s College in Lagos to audition at a recording studio, they were told to go back and focus on their studies. But they didn’t give up. In the early 1970s, the group, including Melvin Ukachi, Paul Alade, Dapo Olumide, and M-Ike Meme, formed Ofege. […]
From the Heart of the Congo
African Roots Reggae, Congolese Soukous meets Dub music.
https://amf.didiermary.fr/rss-club/seke-molenga-kalo-kawongolo-lee-scratch-perry-heart-congo/
While begging in the streets of Kingston, after being abandoned by a Jamaican promoter, 2 Congolese musicians, Seke Molenga & Kalo Kawongolo, met Lee “Scratch” Perry who decided to record 8 tracks with them after hearing their story. The album “From the heart of the Congo”, aka […]
Uta Bella – Monboulae
https://amf.didiermary.fr/uta-bella-monboulae/
Very old stuff from French TV (ORTF) in 1969, a live music show called “Pulsation”. The Diva Uta Bella starts singing @ 2:38. In the first part, you’ll see a very young Manu Dibango playing the organ…
Orlando Julius – The Story of “Going Back To My Roots”
https://amf.didiermary.fr/orlando-julius-story-going-back-to-my-roots/
Nigerian Afro soul pioneer Orlando Julius tells the story of the complex birth of Lamont Dozier’s classic “Going Back To My Roots,” tracing its origins to Orlando’s composition “Ashiko,” touring with Hugh Masekela, working with producer Stewart Levine in L.A. and hearing Odyssey’s disco cover [...]
Club Africa
https://amf.didiermary.fr/club-africa-compilation/
Club Africa is the name of 2 compilations of “Hard African Funk, Afro-Jazz And Original Afro-Beat” released in 1999 and 2000.
Chief (Commander) Ebenezer Obey
https://amf.didiermary.fr/chief-commander-ebenezer-obey-aimasiko/
Ebenezer Obey (born in April 1942), aka Chief or Chief Commander, began his professional career in the mid-1950s after moving to Lagos. After tutelage under Fatai Rolling-Dollar‘s band, he formed a band called The International Brothers in 1964, playing highlife–jùjú fusion. [...]
47 years ago today, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti died from injuries sustained the previous year, when Nigerian soldiers threw her out of a second-floor window during a raid on her son Fela’s home.
The feminist and revolutionary community organiser was 77 years old.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funmilayo_Ransome-Kuti
Listen to: Coffin For Head of State https://amf.didiermary.fr/fela-kuti-coffin-head-state/
Gyedu-Blay Ambolley – Simigwa-Do
https://amf.didiermary.fr/gyedu-blay-ambolley-simigwa-do/
Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, the versatile, irrepressible singer, songwriter, producer and Ghanean “musical- life-force” exploded on the music scene in 1973, with a jazzy Highlife sound he called “Simigwa-Do”.
Ambolley taught himself to play the flute as a first instrument in his early years of musical interest dating back to [...]
Fela Kuti – Expensive Shit
https://amf.didiermary.fr/fela-kuti-expensive-shit-water-no-get-enemy/
The song refers to an incident in 1974 in which the Nigerian police planted a hemp joint on Fela Kuti in order to arrest him for narcotics charges. As the police converged upon his compound, Fela ate the joint. He was taken to a police station, so that they could “test” him for THC the […]
The album, released in 1975, also contains "Water No Get Enemy", based on a Yoruba proverb.
Old African Music Playlist
Collects posts from the African Music Forum blog into a full playlist of YouTube tracks and videos.
Fela Kuti & Africa 70 – Pansa Pansa
https://amf.didiermary.fr/fela-kuti-africa-70-pansa-pansa/
This video for Pansa Pansa is one of the few pro-shot concerts of legendary musician Fela Kuti, playing with his band Africa 70 at the Jazz Festival in Berlin in 1978.
Pierre Didy Tchakounté
https://amf.didiermary.fr/pierre-didy-tchakounte-lui-moi/
Pierre Didy Tchakounté “Ou c’est lui, ou c’est moi”, from album “Magabe Man”.
Depending on the country, the “thumbs piano” is called a Mbira, a Sanza, a Blab… The “queen of this instrument” was Stella Chiweshe, from Zimbabwe. Pierre Didy Tchakounté is considered the father of modern mangambeu, a traditional music and dance from Cameroon. […]
Nigeria Soul Fever
https://amf.didiermary.fr/rss-club/nigeria-soul-fever/
“Nigeria Soul Fever” is a 3xLP or 2xCD compilation, released in 2016, of Afro Funk, Disco And Boogie tracks from the 70s & 80s, described as “West African Disco Mayhem!”
#Nigeria #70sMusic #80sMusic #AfroFunk #Soul #Disco #Compilation
Mahmoud Ahmed & Badume’s Band – Mela Mela
https://amf.didiermary.fr/mahmoud-ahmed-badume-band-mela-mela/
Mahmoud Ahmed, the Ethiopian crooner… Live @ Fiest’A Sète 2008.
Mahmoud Ahmed (Amharic: ማሕሙድ አሕመድ; born 8 May 1941) is an Ethiopian singer. He gained great popularity in Ethiopia in the 1970s and among the Ethiopian diaspora in the 1980s, before rising to international fame with African music fans in Europe and the Americas. […]
Roots Rocking Zimbabwe – The Modern Sound of Harare Townships 1975-1980
https://amf.didiermary.fr/roots-rocking-zimbabwe/
In the early 1970s, the townships of the Rhodesian capital, Salisbury (which would become Harare upon Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980), were buzzing with new sounds from diverse backgrounds. Bands began to fuse Anglo-Saxon rock, Congolese rumba, South African Mbaqanga, Soul, and traditional rhythms, [...]
New Tutenkhamen – Forever together
https://amf.didiermary.fr/new-tutenkhamen-forever-together/
New Tutenkhamen, a 1970’s band from Harare, Zimbabwe, played an eclectic brand of Zimbabwean township music combining traditional rhythms and western influences.The album “I wish you were mine” was originally published in 1979, during the liberation war.
The band’s most famous release, “Itai Cent Cent” was a sad lament of the poverty afflicting black people [...]
Orchestre Super Borgou de Parakou
https://amf.didiermary.fr/orchestre-super-borgou-parakou-bariba-sound/
Super Borgou de Parakou was a band created by Moussa Mama and guitarist Menou Roch. This group, influenced by Afrobeat and Funk in the 1970s, also drew inspiration from Beninese folk music such as Bariba and Dendi.
The Bariba Sound 1970-76
Originating from the Kwara state of northwest Nigeria, the Bariba – a predominantly Islamic […]
Teddy Khuluzwa, better known as Dr Footswitch, was one of the icons of rock in both Zimbabwe and Zambia through the 1970s.
https://amf.didiermary.fr/dr-footswitch/
After a carreer in Zimbabwe, known as Southern Rhodesia at the time, Teddy Khuluzwa moved to Zambia.
In the ’60s and early ’70s, Khuluzwa played guitar alongside future Zamrock stars such as Rikki Ililonga, […]
#70smusic #FullAlbum #Rock #Zambia #Zamrock #Zimbabwe #Blaugust #Blaugust2025
Alefa Madagascar
https://amf.didiermary.fr/salegy-alefa-madagascar/
“Alefa Madagascar: Salegy, Soukous & Soul from the Red Island 1974-1984,” the first compilation to document the unique music culture on the island during the ‘70s and ‘80s.
Originating as far back as the 15th Century through folkloric ceremonial music and an a cappella chanting style called antsa, salegy emerged as a fast-tempoed local dance […]
#70smusic #80smusic #Compilation #Madagascar #Soukous #Blaugust
Originally released in 2001, the first volume of Nigeria 70 was the first compilation of its kind to explore in depth the fertile music scene in Lagos as domestic artists mixed Highlife and traditional rhythms with Soul, Funk, Rock and Jazz. Three further volumes followed, exploring the far corners of original Afrobeat, Juju, Funk and […]
https://amf.didiermary.fr/nigeria-70/
Enjoy!
#70smusic #80smusic #AfroFunk #Compilation #FullAlbum #Jazz #JujuMusic #Nigeria #Blaugust
2 compilations, “The Unique Sound Of Luanda 1968-1976” & “Hypnosis, Distorsions & Other Sonic Innovations 1969-1978,” to revive the unique soundtrack of Angola is the 60s & 70s.
https://amf.didiermary.fr/angola-soundtrack-60s-70s/
These compilations represent the best of the short lived recording industry in Angola, a brief moment of history, when three recording companies produced approximately 800 limited [...]
