Great Just A Band “82” review @ Afrobeat blog

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Marc of Afrobeat Blog has been very supportive of our work in the past. But his latest review of Just A Band‘s album 82 is the best so far… we’re happy he dug JAB’s music, in his own words:

“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: nobody is doing more to expose the best underground music in Africa to increasingly wider audiences than Akwaaba. The fair trade record label started by Benjamin Lebrave has given the world possibly their best album yet, 82 from Kenyan pop outfit Just a Band.

You may know Just a Band from their incredibly popular youtube video for Ha-He, but Just a Band has much more to offer than imitations of Chuck Norris. This album covers many bases, mixing bumping club tracks with cooler hip-hop and heartfelt down-tempo tracks. The three artists that make up Just a Band, Blinky, Dan and Jim, bring out different elements of their personality to collaboratively create a style all their own.

Just a Band accomplishes something truly impressive: they manage to create music that has widespread mainstream appeal without totally foregoing their integrity as artists. Many African musicians struggling to find their way often go for easy cop outs and cheesy effects, but Just a Band creates a production style that sounds contemporary and clean. They also know how to mesh hip-hop style lyrics in English or Swahili with R&B style vocals and electronic beats. The end result is something new and interesting you probably wouldn’t expect to come out of Africa.

This album is something new and different. If you were to listen to it blindly, you might think it came from a house producer in Miami. That’s what I like about it though, it’s maintains its African identity while simultaneously being obviously affected by European and American electronic musical styles. While it’s not easy to cross over as a Kenyan pop star, these guys have as good a shot as anybody.”

Schmoozin’ in Accra

We’ve been really, really bad about keeping the site up to date these last couple of weeks. We’re just too busy schmoozin’ around in Accra! These photos will give you a quick taste of the types of encounters we’re making on the ground in Ghana. Left to right, top to bottom:

– Wanlov the Kubolor and Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

– Ananse practicing xylophone with members of Daoma (Burkina Faso)

– Ananse being subtle

– Ananse with King Ayisoba

– Benjamin with Abraham of OM Studios

– Benjamin with Appietus at his studio in Dansoman

– Kojo the sculptor just back from his village with another incredible mask

– Benjamin with Skillions’ ill beat maker Jay So at his studio in Adenta

– Jay So kickin’ back

– Efya being a beautiful dork with some friends

– Jada Sparkle & Stonebwoy Burniton

– last but not least, Ladji, our Francophone buddy, an art dealer visiting from Abidjan. Sagacité!

Ambolley Rehearsal for South Africa

Many of Ghana’s top artists are BUSY right now, getting ready for a massive series of Ghanaian music concerts. Amandzeba, Samini, Ambolley, Rex Omar and a few more have been rehearsing daily at TV3 Studios, as they get ready to head down to South Africa for a series of concerts in support of Ghana’s national soccer team, the Black Stars.

This video is just a very short sample of the type of potent beats created by one of highlife’s most respected voices, the man who started rapping in the early 1970s before rap was even a concept, “Simigwa do Man” himself, Mr Gyedu-Blay Ambolley. Ambolley’s career started pretty early in the highlife days, he learned from legends such as Ebo Taylor, but he added a distinctly funky touch to highlife, and 40 years later this short break is a nice reminder that Ambolley is one of the heavyweights we MUST bring to the table. Let’s get him touring soon!!!

Also introducing Ananse, aka Old Dad, who’s been helping us a LOT in Accra, he is a comedian, model and more importantly a people’s guy, he knows Accra impeccably and keeps us laughing through traffic jams… you may have spotted him in some of our earlier photos…

Northern Ghana

Northern Ghana from Akwaaba Music on Vimeo.

I’ve been trying to leave Tamale in the north of Ghana all day, which leaves me with plenty of time to fill you in.

What do we know about the North of Ghana? It’s fairly isolated from the south, where both major cities sit: Accra the economic heart of the country, and Kumasi, center of the dominant Ashanti culture. Culturally the north is quite different, it’s a sahelian society, the climate is much drier, hotter, and the culture is much closer to what we saw in places like Mali.

Yet there is hardly any communication with the neighboring Sahelian – Francophone – countries.  The north seems like such a cul-de-sac really: artificially landlocked from neighboring Francophone countries (Burkina mostly, with Togo and Cote d’Ivoire on each side), and politely ignored for the most part from the more afluent and populous south.

That explains how isolated the culture – and music – have remained. King Ayisoba is probably the most famous voice coming from the region, although to most readers he’s probably still a complete unknown. Look up his music on myspace or iTunes, Ayisoba has an incredible voice, but will leave you thinking he has two or three!

Besides Ayisoba, whom we’ll get back to soon, there is almost no structure in place for music. Musicians stick to the traditional circuit, mostly playing for funerals and weddings, sometim. That’s for the traditional musicians, for the home studio generation there are almost no shows, no bars to play at. So not much of an industry.

Yet – and you saw this coming – TONS OF RAW TALENT. We’ve got beautiful videos which our connection won’t really allow us to post just yett, but check in soon for more.