While not a universally praised piece of the Art Blakey discography, The African Beat is quite engaging. Yusef Lateef is the only horn player, featured on oboe, flute, tenor sax, cow horn, and thumb piano with Ahmed Abdul-Malik on bass, but trombonist Curtis Fuller is only heard playing tympani – it was that kind of session. The drum ensemble includes Chief Bey, along with five other percussionists on conboro, log, and bata drums with penny whistles, gongs, congas, and African maracas. This is reminiscent of Lateef's more exotic sessions from the same time period, but quite unlike other Blue Note releases from the early '60s.
Tracy Huang is a famous taiwanese female singer, every Taiwanese knows Tracy Huang as Huang Yingying (黃鶯鶯), she sings in Mandarin and English. Tracy’s first English album “Feelings” won the Gold Disc Award in Hong Kong for top sales.
There is some great ambient electronica on these 4 Discs. This collection was put out on the Jumpin' & Pumpin' label back in 1999. If you are a Jake Stephenson fan this is a very important collection, since it includes the whole of the Crystal Moon (Jake Stephenson and Matt Hillier) album 'Temple' which is otherwise a very expensive CD to pick up. All the tracks are here. There are also a number of other Jake Stephenson tracks, either under his own name (unusually), or under more of his pseudonyms (Alien Mutation, Curly Whirly Spirits). We also get some Matt Hillier tracks, and some rather good tunes by Dave Hendry (as O-Head, Hyperborea and Twilight Pilot).