pat thomas and ebo taylor are the jagger and richards of nigerian highlife. drawn together by a mutual love of the genre – and an equally intense desire to stop it becoming moribund and bereft of ideas – ghana’s two most progressive musicians added a western twist to this traditional form of african music and gave it relevance again.

mr bongo presents the first 12inch in a series of remix packages curated from ebo taylors brand new album yen ara. the 81-year-old composer, arranger, guitarist and vocalist has been a key figure in the evolving afro-funk sound since the seventies, working with the likes of apagya show band, ck mann and pat thomas. this 12inch combines three of the best remixers in the business - the legendary ron trent, west coast talent flako, and disco connoisseur nick the record. you will hear the high-energy afrobeat, sweet highlife, jazz and konkoma influences that ebo is famous for, and the remixes have contributed their disco pulse, house groove, and hard-hitting percussive edge to the tracks.

‘pat thomas introduces marijata’ is a seminal ghanian album that fuses highlife, reggae, folk, funk and soul, from legendary vocalist pat thomas. originally released in 1976 on gapophone records. ‘marijata’ was a group made up of three members – kofi ‘electric’ addison on drums, bob fischlan on organ and nat osmanu on guitar, hailing from ghana. pat thomas career began in 1969 with the ‘broadway dance band’, leaving a year later to join the ‘uhuru dance band’. he then played with ebo taylor’s ‘blue monks’ and finally formed the ‘sweet beans’ in 1973 where he really made his name. the group released ‘false lover’ in 1974, split and then reformed as marijata, releasing ‘marijata’ (also available on mr bongo) and this album, ‘pat thomas introduces marijata’. thomas career spans more than 50 years and he still tours regularly across the world. replica original artwork, official mr bongo reissue. licensed from gapophone records courtesy of george prah.

2017 reissue - following his recent studio album with afrobeat academy, >love and death<, his first international release, ghanaian highlife guitar legend ebo taylor teams up again with strut for a long overdue definitive compilation of his seminal 1970s recordings, >life stories<.
tracks include the anthemic >heaven<, sampled by usher on his hit with ludacris, >she dont know, the original version of the poignant >love and death< and the rare 15-minute nugget, >aba yaa<. the package features rare photos, original album artwork and sleeve notes by soundway records miles cleret.

african music that will move your mind to this special combination of highlife, funk and jazz.

sorgfältig zusammengestellte vinyl-kompilation mit remasterten afro-highlights.
aus dem ghanaischen musikstil highlife und us-amerikanischem jazz der 1960er-jahre fusionierte fela kuti einst das genre afrobeat. es hat in den vergangenen jahrzehnten schon so manche mutation erfahren, blieb aber immer eins: vitaler ausdruck ungebremster lebensfreude. wie attraktiv dieser auch für europäische ohren klingt, unterstreicht einmal mehr die lp-kompilation -wanted afrobeat-. sie ist bestandteil der exklusiven serie -wanted collection- des französischen labels wagram. die reihe widmet sich mit vier parallel veröffentlichten zusammenstellungen auf 180-gramm-vinyl den genres afrobeat, soul, funk und reggae, und damit dem besten, was black music zu bieten hat. was die editionen so besonders macht, ist neben dem sorgsam ausgewählten und remasterten songmaterial das ansprechende erscheinungsbild, das auf fotos des britischen fotografen chris steel-perkins zurückgeht. -wanted afrobeat- enthält neun songs von größen wie mulatu astatke, livy ekemezie, pat thomas und peter king.