African Music Machine - 1972 - Black Water Gold

African Music Machine

1972

Black Water Gold

01. Black Water Gold (Pearl) 2:59

02. Mr. Brown 2:48

03.A Girl In France 2:25

04 The Dapp 2:40

05.Never Name A Baby (Before It's Born) 3:10

06.Tropical 2:20

07.Making Nassau Fruit Drink 2:26

08.Camel Time 2:50

Alias Rasheed (Louis Villery) – bass, vocals

Abdul (Louis Acorn) – drum

Yuseef (Tyrone Dotson) – tenor sax

Osman – percussion

Amal – trumpet

Ete-Ete – tenor sax, flute

Jumbo – guitar

Obitu – piano, organ

Session bassist Louis Villery formed African Music Machine in the 1970s as an eight-piece outfit of instrumental funk, which would gradually become the house band of the Jewel/Paula record label. Their distinct style of performance blended the classic sounds of deep funk music with their own New Orleans creole influences, and made its way onto singles and releases by Fontella Bass, Roscoe Robinson, Bobby Patterson, and many more. It was Patterson's own subsidiary label Soul Power which released African Music Machine's own singles from 1972 to 1974. These singles would provide a well of material for beatsmiths, and would later be compiled into a collection titled Black Water Gold. Highly recommended for the 70s-era James Brown maven in your life.

The African Music Machine was an eight-piece funk outfit from New Orleans led by bassist/songwriter Louis Villery. They got their start as a house band for the Jewel/Paula label axis, playing on records by the likes of Fontella Bass, Little Johnny Taylor, Roscoe Robinson, Ted Taylor, Tommie Young, and singer/producer Bobby Patterson, among others. From 1972-1974, they cut several of their own singles for the Patterson-owned Soul Power subsidiary. Most of their work was done in a heavy, James Brown vein, sometimes with a bit of Creole influence mixed in. Their original 45s -- including "Black Water Gold," "Tropical," and "The Dapp" -- later became highly prized items among funk collectors, fetching outlandish prices; a compilation of singles, also titled Black Water Gold, was reissued in 2000. In 2001, Villery assembled a

Black Water Gold is a compilation of 8 tracks from the circa 1972 sessions by African Music Machine. There were a total of 18 songs recorded at those sessions but the other 10 were lost and haven't been recovered which explains why this disc is so brief and the cover photo on the disc looks so dated. This is more than anything else archival material with this recording. Unless you're a dedicated fan of the re- formed band on the "S/T" disc (where there are 12 superb tracks, one of which is essentially repeated here - the opening tracks on both discs are similar) (Therefore you are getting short versions of that song " Black Pearl or Black Water Gold- Pearl" and 7 abbreviated songs from the original sessions circa 1972. Also, this exemplary band (the reformed one with Phil Upchurch) does NOT herald from Africa but are Stateside Musicians recording out of L.A. ...California.