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viewing 1 To 14 of 14 items
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CD
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CCD 1232CD
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"The exhibition Stolen Moments - Namibian Music History Untold (until 09-21-2019 in London's prestigious Brunei Gallery) documents the Namibian pop underground of that time. Bear Family proudly presents Ben Molatzi's No Way To Go on our Cree Records world music subsidiary in co-production with Stolen Moments and the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation -- The first official album release with master recordings of Namibian musicians from a hitherto undiscovered cultural epoch. Ben 'Tukumazan' Molatzi (1954 -2016), a self-taught singer and songwriter from Tsumeb, Namibia, wrote timeless, beautiful ballads drawing on the distinctive melodies and harmonies of his Damara and Sotho heritage. His music recordings have been slumbering in oblivion in Namibian radio archives. His songs were consciously censored and damaged as its messages did not please the South African apartheid regime. The album contains field and studio recordings that were made in 1981 by SWABC. To this day, these recordings have never been commercially released. In his liner notes, Thorsten Schütte describes his ultimately successful search for Ben Molatzi and further meetings with the artist, who talks in detail about his life, his songs and the life circumstances in his country."
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LP
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CLP 1219LP
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"Ben 'Tukumazan' Molatzi (1954 -2016), a self-taught singer and songwriter from Tsumeb, Namibia, wrote timeless, beautiful ballads drawing on the distinctive melodies and harmonies of his Damara and Sotho heritage. His music recordings have been slumbering in oblivion in Namibian radio archives. His songs were consciously censored and damaged as its messages did not please the South African apartheid regime. The album contains field and studio recordings that were made in 1981 by SWABC. To this day, these recordings have never been commercially released. In his liner notes, Thorsten Schütte describes his ultimately successful search for Ben Molatzi and further meetings with the artist, who talks in detail about his life, his songs and the life circumstances in his country. The exhibition 'Stolen Moments - Namibian Music History Untold' (until 09-21-2019 in London's prestigious Brunei Gallery) documents the Namibian pop underground of that time. Bear Family proudly presents Ben Molatzi's No Way To Go on our Cree Records world music subsidiary in co-production with Stolen Moments and the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation -- The first official album release with master recordings of Namibian musicians from a hitherto undiscovered cultural epoch. Artwork by local artist John Muafangejo. High-quality 180-gram pressing limited to 1,000 copies!"
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12"
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CRS 518EP
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"Exclusive first-time re-release in cooperation with Brother Resistance. Out of the social unrest and revolutionary times of the early 1970s a new musical art form emerged on the streets of Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago. A group of young guys started to combine poetry with drumming and created the musical art form that is known today as Rapso. Poets known as much for their fiery verses as they were for leading protests were at the vanguard of the 1970s Black Power revolution. There was a new consciousness building in the Trinidad and Tobago arts scene. The two most influential characters were Cheryl Byron and Lancelot Layne. Lutalo 'Brother Resistance' Masimba and others would play basketball during the day and come back out at night, 'liming' and playing drums. Other people from the block would join with instruments and Brother Resistance would perform his poetry on the rhythms. The prestigious boys' school that Resistance attended refused to acknowledge his attempts at creating verses that reflected the rhythm of the Trinidad and Tobago creole. 'They said it wasn't poetry. They didn't want to put it in the school magazine.' Resistance and his friends toyed with other words to describe their style. They came up with 'rapsody' but one night during a show in Santa Cruz somebody in the audience shouted out 'How you could rap so!' And the rest is history. They recorded their first album Bustin Out in 1980. More albums followed and they started to work as producers. In 1986 the band performed at 'Caribbean Focus' festival in London and toured the U.K. which helped to lift their reputation internationally. The same year Brother Resistance decided to produce his first solo album and went to England to record Rapso Take Over. This album contains the highly acclaimed tracks 'Ring De Bell', 'Dancing Shoes Rapso' and 'Star Wars Rapso'. An unreleased take of 'Wars In Rapso' is featured on this Cree Records 12"."
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LP
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CLP 1222LP
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"Anyone with a passing interest in music will have heard Bob Marley but anyone with a little more than a passing interest will be familiar with Lee Perry also known as 'Scratch' or 'The Upsetter'. Now better known as a 'performance artist' his antics and acrobatics on the international festival circuit have gained him a committed following eager to see what Lee 'Scratch' Perry, now in his eighties, will dare to get up to next. However, throughout the sixties and seventies Scratch was the production genius behind some of the greatest, most complex, and seriously experimental music to ever come out of Jamaica... or anywhere else for that matter. He has made an indelible, incredible contribution to the development of reggae music as a producer, arranger, writer and (occasionally) singer and has been the inspiration behind innumerable developments in the genre. In 1968 Scratch's production of 'Tighten Up' with The Untouchables gave the name to Trojan Records' hugely popular series of albums which were instrumental in crossing over the sound of real reggae to the mainstream audience. The following year the scintillating Upsetters instrumental 'Return Of Django' reached number five in the UK National Charts. His work with Bob Marley & The Wailers in the early seventies, rated by many cognoscenti as the trio's strongest recordings, emphasized the deeper roots elements in their music and, paradoxically, paved the way for Bob Marley's commercial crossover success later in the decade. His collaborations with King Tubby in 1973 culminated in Upsetters' 14 Dub Black Board Jungle, one of the very first and perhaps the best ever dub albums. Scratch's production of Susan Cadogan's interpretation of Millie Jackson's version of Katie Love's "It Hurts So Good" reached number four in the UK National Charts in 1975."
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LP
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CLP 1214LP
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"When this album was first released in 1969, the young combo around vibraphonist and singer Andre Tanker conveyed a new style mix, which apparently naturally merged quite different musical influences into a new whole. At the center of the music of the Andre Tanker Five was jazz in its Caribbean, Trinidadian style, a combination of the modern jazz of those days and the sounds of the extremely popular steeldrum bands of the time. A very decisive addition is typical for Trinidad: Calypso. Calypso stands for the attitude to life of this young generation of musicians, for the 'Good Time Feeling' and the desire to incorporate danceable Caribbean rhythms and Afro-Latin grooves into their individual style. Although the original sounds of the young Andre Tanker Five are deeply rooted in the music of the West Indies, Afro-American elements always remain in the foreground. The young combo is musically equally at home in the Caribbean as in the 'hip' jazz clubs of the US megacities and the juke joints of the south with their sultry blues as well as the soul dance halls in Detroit or Memphis. The combination of vibraphone and electric guitar plus bass/drums is also rather unusual in those days. Not a pure instrumental album, Afro Blossom West delivers some surprising vocals - rather unusual for a groove-jazz-based project with a sophisticated rhythmic sound.Bandleader and vibraphonist Andre Tanker is considered a very creative and versatile musician. His exciting improvisations are a dominant feature of this group. 'Party In The City', 'Lena' and 'Swahili' are original compositions of which he sings the first two himself. Guitarist Clarence Wears is a gifted accompanist and effective soloist. His sometimes 'funky soul style' is more reminiscent of 'Memphis' than 'Trinidad'."
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LP
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CLP 1229LP
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"Newly written and researched liner notes by Ray Funk, based on recent interviews with Rudy Smith. Reproduction of the original album artwork with additional information. Gatefold sleeve and 180gram vinyl pressing, remastered from the original analog master tapes. Perhaps the first time that steelpan is featured on an album as a jazz instrument in Europe, Otinku is an important, groundbreaking jazz album that offers a mix of Caribbean and African roots with jazz and pan. The Modern Sound Quintet's leader Rudy 'Two Left' Smith grew up in Port of Spain, Trinidad in the Caribbean and has had an illustrious career as a pannist - having traveled with one of the first steelbands to perform all over Europe which then morphs into a jazz ensemble. He has continued to be a leading jazz pannist performing all over the world and recorded extensively. The Modern Sound Quintet recorded Otinku for EMI Finland. The album mixed originals and covers of both long time jazz standards and recent jazz hits. The title track offers the strongest African element Kofi Ayivor chanting and Rudy Smith trying to give the pans a balafon quality to its sound in that piece. They choose two jazz standards to work through. 'Bye Bye Blackbird' is a song from 1926 sung by crooners like Gene Austin. Didn't take off as a jazz standard until it was recorded in 1956 by Miles Davis. The other song from the 1920s, 'Softly As In A Morning Sunrise' written for an operetta at the time had been picked up by jazz artists from Artie Shaw to Miles Davis, Milt Jackson to John Coltrane and many others."
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12"
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CRS 513LP
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"After his success with the 'Michael Boothman Sound' and 'What You Won't Do For Love', a song Michael had recorded in 1980 with Charmaine Forde he decided to change his musical direction again. Once again, he incorporated Calypso and other Caribbean musical genres in his music. In the early 1980s he rebranded the 'Michael Boothman Sound' as 'Kysofusion Band'. Change and experimenting has been an important part of Michael Boothman's career since the 1960's when he started with his first group The Rockerfellas playing contemporary pop music. During the 1970 revolution in Trinidad and his experiences at the QRC Jazz Workshop The Rockerfellas evolved into Family Tree, a band that experimented with African rhythms, Calypso, Jazz, Funk and Latin music. A few years later The Michael Boothman Sound was born which was a Caribbean Pop/Disco project. The name Kysofusion Band is based on the name of the musical style 'Kaiso', a type of popular music in Trinidad & Tobago that has its roots in West African music and evolved into Calypso music. The band had many different line-ups over the years but the core of the band were Michael Boothman, Wayne Bonnaparte , David Boothman, Barry Howard, David Batiste and Sydney Joseph. In 1985 after a collaboration with Ralph MacDonald and Keith 'Designer' Prescott on Jump With Me, Michael went into Coral studios with Designer again to record Can't Stop Dancing, a Balearic and atmospheric Disco song with Calypso influences. The song got some minor recognition on the radio and in the local clubs in Trinidad & Tobago. Can't Stop Dancing is very sought after among record collectors and has now been picked up by DJs on the international club scene and is the perfect soundtrack for a mellow summer night."
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12"
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CRS 510EP
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At the beginning of the 1980s, Fifi Yawson and some other members of the Ghanaian band, Gem Movement, moved to the city of Hanover in Germany. There they met the Trinidadian drummer Martin James who had previously played with the 20th Century Steelband in England for several years. Thanks to his work as a studio musician, Martin was well connected in the Hanoverian music scene where he met sound engineer Thomas Rugel during a recording session. Together with the Ghanaians Fifi Yawson, Francis Dansei, Sam Asante and Tom Blay they formed the group Umoja I-nity. Other members of the band were Christine Clinton and Nyemah George Williams (who both had previously worked with Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba) as well as Ingo Erlhoff and Jochen Rose from Germany. In autumn 1982, Thomas Rugel recorded the band's debut album, a mixture of afrobeat, funk, disco and Caribbean influences, at the UTV Studio in Hanover. In April 1983 the 12" Feel The Groove / Foxy Sourcy Lady appeared on the local GeeBeeDee label which was more specialized in Pop music and 'Neue Deutsche Welle'. Despite a tour of Germany and some TV appearances in the spring of 1983 the band remained an insider's tip, and the sales of the first maxi were rather poor. Negotiations with the Teldec, and Deutsche Grammophon record companies to release the album on a major record label failed. After the lack of success, the band dissolved shortly afterwards and the master tapes of the unreleased LP disappeared in Thomas Rugel's archive - until some of them see the light of day on Cree Records for the first time! Fifi Yawson: keyboards, synthesizers, vocals and percussion, Sam Asante: saxophone, Nyemah G. Williams: vocals and lead guitar, Francis Dansei: bass and percussion, Christine Clinton: vocals, Tom Blay: congas, timbales and percussion, Martin James: drums and percussion."
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12"
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CRS 512EP
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"12 Inch, 45RPM EP -- packaged in disco sleeve! Being totally infected in the mid-seventies by the new possibilities analog synthesizers were offering in sound and studio production, Leston Paul became the pioneer in electronic music production in the early eighties in Trinidad. Leston Paul is one of the most in-demand music producers and arrangers in the Carribeans. It is said that he has worked as a producer on more than twenty-thousand recordings. In 1983 Leston Paul felt the time was right to record his debut album, The Arrival which was done at K.H. Studios in Port of Spain. His obsession with synthesizers led to a heavy use of electronic instruments like an Oberheim synth, a Roland bass machine, a Roland drum machine and a Simmons Digital Clap Machine on this record. Most of the instruments were played by Leston himself. On vocals he used well known singers like Charmaine Forde, Nadie La Fond, Carl & Carol Jacobs, Joanne Wilson and Peter Britto. Due to lack of proper distribution sales weren't very good. This circumstance makes this record very rare today and sought after. Leston was introduced to Kool & The Gang's background vocalist Barbara Hernandez by his friend Jeff Medina. Leston had started to write and record 'All Nite Tonight' in Trinidad and brought the song to New York. At the Millford Plaza Hotel Hernandez and Paul finalized the song and decided to re-record the track at the Sound Lab Studio. Kool & The Gang were playing a gig the same day of the recording session in New York and Leston managed to get them into the studio to record the horn section. Barabara Hernandez took Leston to Kool & The Gang's home studio in New Jersey and was very impressed by the sound quality they were able to produce and decided to adopt this model in Trinidad."
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CD
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CCD 1209CD
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"It has been said that Richard 'Nappy' Mayers (1951-1993), the copiously gifted musician, composer, arranger, producer and singer began his earthly sojourn in an era inappropriate for the fullest exploitation of his creative potential. From his teenage years he exhibited an innate impulse to craft melodies that were distinctive and enticing yet reflecting his attraction to the dominant influences of the period particularly American, Jamaican and homeland Trinidad and Tobago. Charismatic and a natural leader, Nappy's enduring passion for creating, performing and producing singularly progressive music so fired initial band members comprising relatives and close friends, that their loyalty and willingness to co-create with him proved key to its extensive popularity. From teenaged music-makers styled 'The Tornadoes,' his group evolved through several personnel shifts into 'Embryo' to enjoy their most productive and successful phase from the early 70's to 1980 as a trailblazing recording and stage performance outfit. Nappy's ever-fertile mind originated a continuous stream of unique creations with lyrical content ranging from his 1975 premier release 'Cash In Calypso/Breakaway' through the 1977 all-time best seller Wanna Make Love To You with sultry frontline songstress Nadie La Fond, down to his bittersweet plea in 1991's Bring Back The Ole Time Days. After he was so unexpectedly taken from us in 1993, it was beyond doubt that Trinidad and Tobago and the world of popular music he too briefly inhabited had lost a phenomenal talent in Richard 'Nappy' Mayers. The main focus of this compilation is layed on Nappy's early recording years with his own band Embryo and on artist such like Nadie La Fond, Felix Ceasar or Colin Lucas." --Dave Elcock
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LP
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CLP 1220LP
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"12'' vinyl LP 180 gram with download-code, nine tracks. Re-release of Clive Zanda's classic calypso jazz album, originally released in 1975. Recorded in Portz of Spain, Trinidad. Only 350 copies of the record were pressed in 1975. Extremely rare and much sought-after Caribbean record from that period. Comes with a reproduction of the original artwork."
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2LP
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CLP 1206LP
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"Artists include Dave Barker, BB Seaton, Junior Byles, Augustus Pablo, Glen Adams, Willie Lindo, Lloyd Charmers, Cedric Brooks, Richard Ace, and more. Sleeve notes from Steve Barrow and Noel Hawks and superb photographs from Dave Hendley. 180-gram vinyl (2-LP set). Cover versions have always been an integral part of Jamaican music and an indication of the wide-ranging influences on reggae and the versatility and adaptability of its artists, musicians and producers in their approach to music making. Anything and everything could be, and has been, incorporated into the mix over the years but it is what reggae's artists, producers and engineers did with their sources that make their cover versions so special and so vitally important; in many cases their versions have travelled so far from their starting point that they are virtually unrecognizable. This set, compiled by reggae historian Steve Barrow, not only demonstrates the massive influence of American soul and disco releases on Jamaican music but also showcases the wholly original approach of Jamaica's musical maestros. The track listing for Doing Our Thing reads like a roll call of some of the best of Jamaica's greatest ever singers, deejays, musicians and producers and the selection opens with one of reggae's first ever artists to break into the international charts. In 1971 the inimitable Dave Barker, as one half of 'Dave & Ansel Collins', hit all around the globe with Double Barrel which was inspired by two American records The Funkie Moon by Smokey Johnson & Company and Party Time by Ramsey Lewis. Dave could sing every bit as well as he could deejay and both sides of his tremendous talent are featured here." Gatefold sleeve; 20-page booklet.
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CD
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CCD 1206CD
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"Artists include Dave Barker, BB Seaton, Junior Byles, Augustus Pablo, Glen Adams, Willie Lindo, Lloyd Charmers, Cedric Brooks, Richard Ace, and more. Sleeve notes from Steve Barrow and Noel Hawks and superb photographs from Dave Hendley. . . . The music makers from Jamaica had always leaned on American, Cuban, and occasionally British, elements in creating their magic and, in doing so, attained their own voice whose worldwide reputation is out of all proportion to its humble beginnings and circumstances. Like the Jamaican people, whose motto is 'out of many, one people', the roots of Jamaican music are embedded deep in the music of elsewhere but as its branches grew they too spread worldwide. The subsequent repercussions have been of serious significance to the music of the past forty years. Its worldwide influence has long overtaken and superseded its origins: the massive sound systems, dub (the 'remix'), Jamaican MCs and deejays (rap). In fact, the whole transmission system of 'dance music' was pioneered in Jamaican dance halls, which are not 'halls' at all since most dances are open air affairs, where as Josie Wales says 'you could skank your life away...'. Accompanied by extensive contextual and historical sleeve notes from Steve Barrow and Noel Hawks and superb photographs from Dave Hendley. This release is respectfully and affectionately dedicated to Dave's memory and his insightful vision."
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LP
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CLP 1216LP
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"Calypso and African rhythms from Trinidad and Tobago. Famous drummer and percussionist who has accompanied countless musicians. Recorded in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Featuring Trinidad and Tobago musician and composer, André Michael Tanker. Super rare album, a collector's item. Reissued for the first time. Remastered from the original analog master tapes. Includes free download code. Rudolph J. Lord and his group of young percussionists, also known as Mansa Musa, have accompanied many Trinidad and Tobago musicians like Andre Tanker, Brother Valentino, Black Stalin and Lancelot Layne. Bear Family's subsidiary Cree Records has re-released Mansa's first album that features his own compositions. It shows that he has a more comprehensive knowledge of and affinity to African-based West-Indian rhythms than any other of his contemporaries."
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