Hawa
My Little Green Box

Hot Casa Records proudly presents the reissue of Disco Hi-Life, a real treasure album composed and interpreted by Afro-Soul maestro, Orlando Julius.Following up to the 12inch release (HC07 / 2009), here comes the remastered version of a real mindblower piece from 1976 including four unreleased tracks, all recorded with the best Nigerian musicians, between Ginger Baker’ Studio in Lagos and the American Star Studio in West Virginia, USA.Orlando Julius Aremu Olusanya Ekemode was born in 1943 in Ikole-Ekiti, Nigeria and can be considered as a main figure of the Afro-Soul music history. One of the first African musician to get signed on a “Major” label (Polydor), he delivered many hit single as a composer and effortlessly performed live as a tenor sax and singer. He worked and met with some of the “greatest“, such as Louis Armstrong, James Brown (for his Nigerian tour with Bootsy Collins), The Crusaders, Gil Scott Heron, or Hugh Masekela.In the middle of 1975, just after they finished the recording of The Boys Doing It’ album with Hugh Masekela, they all flew to Ghana and Lagos. It was holyday and Orlando had also plenty of time to focus on his own songs. He wrote “Disco Hi-Life” in Yoruba and “Children of the World” in English. And he immediately planned a recording session including 12 finest musicians, such as the great singer Dora Ifudu Avery, Adelaja Gboyega on keys, Kenneth Okulolo on Bass guitar, Butley Moore on drums, Fela’s collaborator Tunde William on Trumpet, and also Ade, who helped sang “Love Peace & Happiness”.Originally released by Nigerian label Jofabro in partnership with the UNICEF association for the “International year of the Child”, it was only available in few promotional quantity… here comes the very first official reissue of this dancefloor masterpiece!

Born on June 28 1936, in Edikwu Village, Oturkpo, Idoma Division, Benue Plateau State, Nigeria, Ray Stephen Oche comes from a family of musicians, singers and flute players. His ancestors and folks were undisputed celebrities in the many music festivals of his native region, especially in the 30's, and Ray just followed with amazing ease and talent, the path they had so gloriously thread.From the tender age of 8, Ray was already an outstanding flute player in his village school band. Soon after, Ray joined local bands and became a first rate Obinde singer and started travelling extensively, visiting every part of Northern Nigeria, where he entertained Idoma communities.In 1953, Ray arrived in Lagos and quickly found his way into the best musician's circles, joining Stephen Amechi's and, later on, Bobby Benson's groups. Shortly after he found his own band, Ray Stephen Oche & His Orchestra, and quickly performed in Kano, Kaduna, Ilorin, Enugu, Aba, Port Harcourt or Ibadan. Coming back to Lagos, Ray decides to go to Accra (Ghana), where he achieved his musical studies at Ghana Military School of Music and, later, became a favourite of late Kwame N'Krumah. While staying in Accra, Ray met the world famous drummer and percussionist, Guy Warren, who is supposed to have delivered Ray with the secret of the authentic African rhythms.In March 63, Ray returned to Lagos, where he collaborated with Chris Ajilo & His Cubanos, before forming his own new band, Outter Space, with which he toured Sierra Leone. That's also where he ended invited to perform a series of private shows for the prime minister. Ray then visited Gambia, Senegal and then Paris, where he arrived in 1965. He and his band performed all over Europe in Switzerland, Spain, Italy, France, etc…After the memorable "Festival de Montparnasse" in 1970, Ray Stephen Oche joined Alan Silva & His Celestial Communications Orchestra for several shows and festivals. In 1971, he collaborated with Noah Howard Quartet and played for the Copenhagen Radio, the University or the famous "Montpartre Jazz Club". After having worked successfully in Germany and Holland, Ray came back in Paris where he raised his Freedom Suite Orchestra, this time bringing him to Algeria or Tunisia.Famous in many Jazz circles and at the SACEM, Ray is now leading the Ray Stephen Oche & His Matumbo (in Angolese language, Matumbo means: "Gifted with various talents"). This band is composed mainly of African musicians from Congo, Togo, Guinea or Gambia, but also with others from Brazil or French West Indians. The band main purpose was to shed more lights on the diversity of African melodies and rhythms.As a calm, gentle and discrete person, Ray answers very genuinely when questioned about his beliefs: "Of course I believe in God!!" This makes even more sense when you know that his real name, Owoicho Oche, means "God is the King".

Mr Day is also known as the singer of French combo Metropolitan Jazz Affair, the main singer in The Dynamics, for his House-Soul records released on indie label Rotax, as well as his superb guest vocals on productions by Boozoo Bajou, Patchworks and Mr President! "Small Fry" evokes classic soul music, from Curtis Mayfield to Motown, and from northern soul to west coast, without being a specific genre album. The musical style is vast and replete, but the composition and production manage to never fall prey to shortcuts or repetitiveness.

Montenegrin born in Istanbul, precocious pianist growing up in an embassy, brilliant musician. Prolific composer speaking eight languages, he arranged music for jazz, pop music, adopting multiple identities.For one label, he is Andy Loore; for another, Emiliano Orti. For others, he is called Alan Blackwell or Johnny Montevideo, but behind all these aliases, there is only one man: Janko Nilovic. Exploring the shelves of musical production, venturing into the less-illuminated corners of library music, Janko Nilovic's name lights up dozens of shelves on which his soundtracks, his records for Editions Neuilly or Sforzando, but above all his twenty albums for Editions Montparnasse, are stored. A considerable and imposing work, rich in orchestrations of keyboards, strings and brass instruments, themes, atmospheres and melodies. A repertoire in which the cinema, television and advertising have come to find their delight ... Subjected to the sharp blades of samplers, reduced to a few effective seconds, joined with rhythmic beats, some of his tracks have infiltrated hip hop for a long time , leading the most curious to go back to the source to get the complete albums from which the precious loops had been taken. Almost unknown to the general public, Janko Nilovic is a master for the initiated, whether they are at his side in the studio or comfortably seated in their armchair savouring the final result on their turntable. His discretion combined with his long years of silence on the record could lead one to believe that he had cleverly arranged his disappearance from the radar to make Janko Nilovic a mystery that has never been completely solved. Until this message from The Soul Surfers.A few miles away, in their studio fired up by analog funk, the Muscovites had been put back on the Nilovic track by multi-instrumentalist Shawn Lee. A few passionate discussions later, and the desire for a joint album was already lighting up the amps, making the bass strings shiver and the drum skins tighten. Initiated by the coming and going of scores, the collaboration finally continued in studio for a real exchange, instantly bouncing off proposals, developing ideas in a live group dynamic that distance would have made impossible. To feel the vibrations accumulated for decades at the CBE studio (like Chatelain Bisson Estardy), a mythical place founded in 1966, in which many albums, especially library, were immortalized. A place where consoles, equipment and instruments were kept as they were, accumulating in their wiring, meters and speakers, endless hours of experimentation and recording. A place that Janko knew well and where an old acquaintance was waiting for him. A Hammond organ with a Leslie booth whose keys he had already flattered in the past and behind which an improvisation and a single take were enough to complete the eponymous title. Together, Janko Nilovic and The Soul Surfers have built Maze Of Sounds, a musical labyrinth paved by the master's keyboards where the soul-funk groove of the fiery Russians is the listener's thread, his point of reference in this maze of atmospheres and emotions, at once cinematic, nostalgic, dancing, dreamlike and contemplative.An album where, however, nothing is compartmentalized. Where, blown by the whirlwind strung by a violin quintet, the barriers move preparing the entrance of a Slavic choir, letting a screaming guitar come and go alongside the crystalline liveliness of the Fender Rhodes, organize some rhythmic aerations at the disposal of the samplers.A fusion between the cleverly blackened scores, between the science of precisely written arrangements and the soul-funk feel of The Soul Surfers. An album such as Janko Nilovic has been dreaming of making for years.

Favorite Recordings proudly presents Voiciii, the 3rd and new album by Voilaaa, an immersive dip into its Afro-Disco universe spread across 14 tracks. Needless to say you’ll find in this new LP all the ingredients that made him famous: strong dancefloor-friendly festive bangers, irresistible funky arrangements and an undeniable sense of humor and irony. Bruno “Patchworks” Hovart, behind Voilaaa, is as often surrounded by amazing vocal featurings from previous LP’s regulars (Pat Kalla, Lass) but also new voices you may already have heard on its recent EPs (David Walters, Rama Traore, Ayuune Suule), as well as the saxophonist Boris Pokora. The LP is also an occasion to pay tributes to major artists of the African sound, such as Fela Kuti (on “Water No Get Enemy”), or Manu Dibango (“Manu Écoute Ça” and “Tenor Jam For Manu”). Since the release of Voilaaa’s previous LP’s Des Promesses and On Te L’Avait Dit and their massive international support, the Voilaaa Soundsystem did travel through the world to deliver its message of infectious joy and groove, from Equator to Thailand, from Kazakhstan to the infamous French “Fête de l’Huma”. Now you know: Voilaaa is everywhere and Voiciii (“here it is”) their new album.

Roots reggae stepper released on B.B. Seaton's album Reggae Land. Strong actual lyrics, heavy dub "The People's Dub". Previously unreleased on 7inch. "B.B. Seaton is a musical veteran, having begun his career in the 60s as one of the Gaylads – finding himself harmonizing with the likes of Ken Boothe and Delroy Wilson – while this track is lifted from his 2005 long-player, Reggae Land. Bottom-end booming, it`s an impassioned Jah Shaka-esque steppers. A warning of revolution, which calls out the rich, the greedy, the heartless and callous – as a plaintive guitar figure unwinds in the distance. It`s flipped by a version, suitable for disciples and bush chemists, that shifts between banging and ethereal. A flute floating in amongst the righteous thunder." (by Ban Ban Ton Ton).