Prince Nico Mbarga and more

Ah, Prince Nico and the Rocafil Jazz. In 1976 they released Sweet Mother, a song so beloved across the continent, it is often referred to as "Africa's Anthem." It's a catchy, sweet ode to our mothers. The album, Aki Special, is full of wonderful highlife grooves. Mbarga's mother was Nigerian, his father from Cameroon. During the civil war in Nigeria, he spent a few years in Cameroon, where he discovered a passion for highlife.

This is Seventies Highlife in all its raw glory. The cheap, barely tuned instruments, the lilting, floating guitar over the bubbling rhythm section. This isn't a record I would give to someone hoping to turn them into overnight fans of African music. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but particularly the production values could be hard to get past for new listeners.

Sadly, Rocafil Jazz never had any more big hits, and in 1997, Prince Nico was killed in a motorcycle crash.

Loketo

Ah, it's time to send some love to the congolese stylee! I'll save a full post for the whole sordid soukous tale and the founding fathers like Franco. I want to focus on Loketo because they're just a ton of fun. Most impressive for me, as a guitarist, is the fact that this band was the vehicle for the great Diblo Dibala. He started out as a teenager playing in Franco's TPOK band, but first really hit his stride playing with Kanda Bongo Man. Loketo was the band he formed with Aurlus Mabele after leaving Kanda Bongo Man's group.

Super Soukous, Comme Un (with Jean Baron), Soukous Trouble, were great albums. Here's Pingui Bill off of Soukous Trouble. Fantastic! Notice how this music is defined - apart from the distinctive guitar style - by the four on the floor kick drum coupled with the clave. Diblo's guitar just sings over these tracks. So smooth, so effortless.

I've been a fan of this stuff for ages, but it wasn't until relatively recently that I've had the pleasure of viewing the amazing music videos that accompanied these tunes. This video for Rosa for example. Totally homegrown. And proof that the love of T&A in music videos isn't merely an MTV phenomenon!