Today I present one of the all-time classics in African dance music. When this marriage of highlife guitars with the most earnest, universal tribute to Mother exploded from the studio in Nigeria,
Sweet Mother swept over the continent like a fresh breeze.
Prince Nico Mbarga's sweet voice delivers his simple, upbeat messages mostly in English, with a lightness that influenced, among others,
Tchico. "Aki Special" is the other mega-hit on this album, which also lent its title to the CD rerelease that likewise is long out-of-print.
This ± 1981 U$ release was among the first handful of 'world' music releases by then-vibrant, independent Rounder Records. Licensed from Rogers All Stars, there is abundant information on the back sleeve and album insert (included in the download). Rereading those notes today, which foreshadowed the 'world music' boom by a few years, is nostalgic. So is the sweet music.
8 comments:
Thanks plenty plenty - great to recover this classic (hard disk failure a while ago)
Good God! This is wonderful. I've been searching long time for this LP.
Thank you very much. Please could you also post the LPs with songs like: Free Education, Music Line, etc from Prince Nico Mbarga? Best Regards.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. This record: I haven't stopped listening to it since digitizing it a couple days ago.
Rhythm Connection, Thank you again for the good job. The sounds are perfect and it is a pleasure for the ears and the soul. Please keep on!
Amazing! Found the blog through Franco's Mario which I've been playing non stop for months now, and this is up there too! Cheers!
Many thanks for sharing this classic. Apurva from Pune, India.
Very good rip. Many thanks...
Excellent stuff! It's a real pleasure thinking of how good this record has probably made millions of people feel all over Africa and all over the whole world--and now getting that same jubilee here in the States 35 years after this beautiful record was released. Many thanks!
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