The Royal Amanzimtoti Entertainers

Artist: The Royal Amanzimtoti Entertainers

LP: Zulu Music and Songs [10" EP]

Song: "Solata Nje"

[ listen ]

Happy New Year! I didn't intend to go MIA for two months, but I guess that's what happens if you never actually log in and post anything. I didn't get to put up any Christmas records! Also, several people have died in the past few months that I've lined up postings for, but since it's a New Year and everything I figured I'd start with life! Or actually, I'm starting with people who have probably been dead for a very long time instead of the recently deceased. 

This 10" various artists compilation of Zulu music from the 1930s and '40s was released on London Records in 1951; it was printed in the USA. It's one of the things I picked up yesterday at Everyday Music on Capitol Hill with the gift certificate my friend Trevor gave me for Christmas. Thanks, Trevor! 

I didn't expect to find any information about The Royal Amanzimtoti Entertainers online, so was surprised when a few things turned up. First, you can sample several more of their recordings on the South African Music Archive Project website here, and then there's also some information and a photo below that I found and copied without permission from a book on South African music, published by University of Chicago Press in 1991. 

I hope anyone who's reading this had a wonderful set of holidays in 2018. Life here on the farm has been hectic, but it's simply bound to get better. It's one of my 2019 resolutions to pop in here more pften to post records and reviews and things.

[ The Royal Amanzimtoti Entertainers ]

Drum

Artist: Drum

LP: 12" single

Song: "Bite-It" 
[ listen ]

I had a feeling Buffalo and I were going to get along pretty well, but I had no idea I was going to fall in love. I even bought these t-shirts to prove it. 

Buffalo is so much more my style than what Seattle has become over the past ten years. Buffalo is like a fun night out bar-hopping with The Bangles circa 1983, whereas Seattle has turned into an uppity vanilla-scented candlelight dinner with Swing Out Sister, where you're not allowed to smile at anyone and you have to be home in bed by 11pm. I mean, the prices on menus at restaurants in Buffalo still have decimals on them!  

Don't get me wrong...oh, forget it. Get me wrong. I don't care. The first record store I visited the day after I flew into town was Record Baron, in the north part of Buffalo. It's actually in a Buffalo suburb called Kenmore. The shop was full of great stuff stacked up all over the place, just the way I like it for digging. Dan, the owner, is a super friendly guy who gave me the two-minute tour, then set me loose in the bins, though he did first point out a few gems he knew I'd like. 

I found plenty at Record Baron worth posting, but settled on this 1984 hip-hop single by Drum (I was hoping maybe they were called Dr. Um) in which lead singer Gillespie Kelly performs a Swahili rap taught to him by someone called Mesfin the African. It's a doozey. The record doesn't seem to be particularly rare, but the copy I found has been sealed in plastic for the past 32 years, so it was a treat to break it open and finally drop a needle on it.
 

[ Drum ]
 

[ Record Baron — Kenmore, New York ]

Chief Bey and His Royal Household

Artist: Chief Bey and His Royal Household

LP: Congo Percussion

Song: "Asawanda"

[ listen ]

...and speaking of "all places," I found this terrific album full of African percussion at Everybody's Records last summer while I was in Cincinnati. Chief Bey (and His Royal Household) is only credited on the record's actual label for some reason, and not on the LP sleeve, which repeatedly refers to their "TABOO" recording session. That may be due to the fact that everyone evidently "lost themselves" and began "jumping around" during the recording session (see liner notes), or maybe because this same set of songs was also released on an earlier LP called "Taboo," featuring a much more exciting cover. In any case, Chief Bey was born in Yamassee, South Carolina before his family moved him to New York City, where he would become a famed jazz drummer and teacher, working with musicians like Cab Calloway, Miriam Makeba, Pharoah Sanders, and Herbie Mann. Sadly, he died eight years ago, about a week before his 91st birthday. You can read about Chief Bey here and go here to find his obituary in the New York Times.

[ Chief Bey: April 17, 1913 — April 8, 2004 ]

Juluka

Artist: Juluka

LP: Universal Men

Song: "Unkosibomvu - The Red King"

[ listen ]

Struggling teenage South African street musicians Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu "met cute" in Johannesburg when Mchunu challenged Clegg to a guitar-playing contest. The two quickly became buddies and formed Juluka, but they were banned from performing in local clubs because of South Africa's strictly-enforced policy of racial segregation. Interesting trivia: according to unnamed sources, there was a musical sequel to a popular 1971 kids movie proposed in the late '70s in which several lucky tykes would find golden tickets inside their chocolate Juluka bars, thereby winning a guided tour of Mchunu's family farm in Natal where they would also learn about the evils of apartheid. Unfortunately, things fell apart in the writing stages and the film was never made, though the design for the golden tickets was recycled for the cover of Juluka's 1979 debut LP. You can read a little about Zulu musician Sipho Mchunu here and read a lot about British-born anthropologist and musician Johnny Clegg here. And please don't tape this song, because it will die.

[ Johnny Clegg + Sipho Mchunu = Juluka ]

Olatunji and His Drums of Passion

Artist: Olatunji and His Drums of Passion

LP: High Life!

Song: "Ojo Davis"
[ listen ]

This wonderful 1963 Babatunde Olatunji LP is one of the things I found at Waterloo Records when I was down in Austin, TX back in October. With the release of his "Drums of Passion" album for Columbia Records four years earlier, Olatunji had provided many Americans with their very first exposure to African music. You can read about the life and career of this talented Nigerian percussionist here and here, and I'll be posting the extensive "High Life!" liner notes when I've got more time.

[ Babatunde Olatunji: April 7, 1927 — April 6, 2003 ]