African

Next up on Africa Seven is the second edition of our "African Funk Experimentals" LPs. With these we took some of our favourite African artists, choose the most funky we can find and then put together a compilation of their choicest and funkiest tracks. Of course that may not be their most popular or best selling tracks…but that's just fine. We are digging for the funk.

"Doll's House Story" composed 1985 for the Amadinda Percussion Group. "Pebble Playing In A Pot" composed 1978. "Second Construction" composed 1940. "Piano Phase" composed 1967. Digitally recorded in1986. Performing on a wide array of percussion instruments, including Polynesian log drums, Chinese gongs, tin cans, bicycle wheels, and frying pans, the Budapest-based Amadinda Percussion Group skillfully combine the masterpieces of percussion music, the work of contemporary Hungarian composers, and new compositions by bandmembers. Taking their name from an African-style instrument that they made themselves, the group continues to celebrate the joys of polyrhythmic music.

African Magic is a sweeping 24-part suite recorded live at the 11th and final Jazz Across the Border Festival in Germany in 2001 by the Abdullah Ibrahim Trio. Ibrahim's trio features acoustic bassist Belden Bullock and drummer Sipho Kunene distilling the melodic sounds of South Africa into a personal improvisation of jazz, religious, and traditional world music coupled with European classical and chamber music influences. Recurring cubistic style fragments of Ibrahim's multi-themed tone poem "Blue Bolero" are sequenced throughout this enchanting program and encourage listeners to participate in the invigorating rhythms that are abstract yet romantic…