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Paris based Roforofo Jazz is a 7-piece liveband fronted by Chicago born MC Days (aka RacecaR), with a certain taste for adventurous blends, mixing hip hop, afrobeat and jazz into their very own style.After more than 15 years slashing the afrobeat of Les Freres Smith with his guitar cuts, Martin Smith digged into the musical sediments and silts in a swamp of hip hop, funk groove, afro power, jazz freedom radicality, with a certain taste for adventurous blends. This wax solid 5 tracks Vinyl was recorded live in Montreuil (France) at Studios La Peche, in November 2019, just a few weeks after the band toured in Nigeria and played at the mythical New Afrika Shrine on the occasion of Felabration 2019, where they got invited to perform by the Fela Kuti family for a series of concerts in Lagos.The 5 titles include the single “Fire Eater”, a raw afro hip hop tune mixing rhythms in the tradition of polyrhythm afrofunk tunes, while also alternating in between jazzy mood and burning hip hop anthem. “Dump It” is a dark, mid tempo beat, borrowing the groove signature of ethiopian soul, and coated with hip hop sharp drops, while horns bring the jazzyness through their themes. “Helelyos” is a cover/extrapolation of Iranian singer Zia’s hit, to which Days vocals bring an heavy old school hip hop vibe. “2Kick1” is a relentless afrobeat oriented tune, though with a languorous spacy chorus that breaks with the traditional afrobeat routine. And “What We Think We Saw” ends the EP with an opening to more psychedelic visions, in which a Gil Scott-Heron spoken word style meets jazzy space echoes, flutes under massive reverbs in a global vibe that could remind old analog recordings of Mandrill, Cymande or LKJ.

Nairobi, Kenya, 1978. In the Phonogram Ltd. music studio, the popular Congolese Rumba band Les Mangelepa is finishing a session. Things are going well: they have recorded all the music they planned and still have an hour to kill before giving back the studio keys. How about improvising one last song on the spot?And this is how “Nyako Konya” was born. An incredible 9 minutes hypnotic jam, that’ll eventually become one of their biggest tunes, earning them a Gold record and international acclaim throughout Africa.Meticulously restored and remastered by French engineer Nicolas Thelliez, the original version is featured here together with remixes by three talented producers: French House/Disco producer extraordinaire Yuksek and his wall of sound skills, Netherlands’ Afro lovers and world famous studio maverick Umoja delivering a space dub Lee Scratch Perry style, and last but not least, the trademarked syncopated stabs from Brooklyn’s Uproot Andy.

This disc closes the triptych of the two previous opuses. It's an imaginary road trip in accordance with the previous records, we find the usual groove with psychedelic flights while keeping those melancholic melodies dear to Lucien & The Kimono Orchestra.

Favorite Recordings pursues its 12inch Disco series with a new 2 tracks single by 7 Samurai. After a few remixes already produced for the label over the past 3 years, the duo (Tom Wieland & Marc Frank) known for their various edits and productions for labels such as G.A.M.M or Poets Club Records, will extend this collaboration with a new album planned for 2016.On these 2 first tracks, old-school “x-edit” kings 7 Samurai are back on da block with two soulful original party tunes.“Shake It Up” is a sun drenched disco reggae dub version of the classic rare groove anthem by The Vibrations, and features the vocal talents of Alicia “Blue Eyez” Smith. While the dubby disco flip “Cosmic Jam” (dedicated to Patrick Forge), sounds like Sun Palace´s rude movements reworked in King Tubby´s echo chamber. Essential listening!

Louis Xavier is a talented and sincere all-round artist. He is at once a musician, a writer, a composer, an arranger, a bandleader and a radio show producer. All this has made him a prolific element of the Parisian Jazz scene since the 1970’s.With his band, The Synchro Rhythmic Eclectic Language, he performed in most jazz clubs and venues in Paris. They also became regulars at José Arthur’s Pop Club, a legendary show on national French Radio France Inter. There, he met the French and famous producer Pierre Lattes. It was the start of a great long-lasting friendship.Pierre Lattes produced Chodo, with Louis Xavier & Georges Edouard Nouel, (1975, reissued on our label in 2017) and Ladja. This was a direct to disc recording at Translab Studio (Paris), it was done in live conditions with the precious help of Jo Maka.During his career, Louis Xavier has recorded many tracks, some of which are unreleased to date, and something tells us that we have not finished hearing about his work.