Aleke Konanu - 1980 - Aleke

Aleke Konanu 

1980

Aleke

01. N'Gwode

02. Keep New York Clean

03. Mothers Day

04. Home Sweet Home

bonus from 12 inch

05. Happiness

06. Nwanne, Nwanne, Nwanne

Tenor Saxophone, Keyboards, Harpsichord, Organ, Synthesizer – Bill Fischer

Bass Guitar – Wilbur Bascomb

Drums – Buddy Williams

Flugelhorn [Solo] – Wynton Marsalis

Guitar – George Davis 

Piano [ Acoustic] – Ben Carter

Trombone – Earl McIntyre

Trumpet – Milt Ward

Vocals, Percussion, Kalimba, Congas, Bells – Aleke Kanonu

It's always a sunny day when a completely legit, remastered reissue of a £400 record drops into your lap - and friends, this is one of those days. Operating at the crossroads of boogie, disco, jazz-funk and Afrobeat, Aleke Kanonu lent his considerable talents to a veritable who's who of America's jazz scene throughout the late seventies, before laying down this mindblowing four-tracker on Arcana in 1980. The set kicks off in shoulder rolling fashion with the extended, low slung groove of "N'Gwode", a bass heavy disco funk cut topped with Aleke's passionate vocal delivery. The serious Afro-funk vibrations only get heavier on the fierce "Keep New York Clean", a bad mother with echo laced vocal yelps, burbling synths and pimped out horns. Over we go, and the B-side opens with the startlingly beautiful "Mother's Day", an emotive builder, boasting piano 7th chords, rattling polyrhthms and Aleke's heart wrenching vocals. A favorite down at Brownswood and a certified Theo Parrish life-changer, this is the real deal! The set closes with another full scale floor worker, as Aleke gets deep and rhythmic with the jazz-funk of "Home Sweet Home". Featuring the virtuoso skills of Wynton Marsalis on Flugelhorn, the track leaves our cosmos and heads off in search of a whole new place to play! Music this good doesn't come around that often, so when it's here, you just gotta grab it

After spending much of the ‘70s humping his congos around New York as a session musician, Nigerian Aleke Kanonu pulled in some favours to record an album of his own. The result was Aleke, a criminally obscure Afrobeat/Funk/Jazz masterpiece featuring Buddy Williams on drums, George Davis on guitar and a cameo from Wynton Marsalis on flugelhorn. There are only four tracks on the album but they are all killers. N’Gwode sounds like Fela Kuti and Manu Dibangu hanging out with Bobby Womack, probably somewhere across 110th Street. ‘Keep New York Clean’ struts like Shaft after a successful bust. And ‘Mothers Day’ keeps things sweet and soulful, before Wynton Marsalis brings back the groove with his flugelhorn on ‘Home Sweet Home’. Until recently you would have had to take out a second mortgage to get hold of Akele. And sold a kidney for the Happiness/Nwanne, Nwanne, Nwanne 12’’ Kanonu released a year later. Thankfully PMG has re-issued the LP and the EP, with the CD version containing both.