Osibisa – Happy Children (1973)

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Happy Children is the fifth studio album by Ghanaian Afro rock band Osibisa released in 1973 by Warner Bros. Records WB 2732.

In the wake of the massive early-’70s success of Santana, a flurry of groups that combined rock with traditional percussion were signed to major labels.
Osibisa, though a completely different animal than Carlos Santana and crew, were one of these groups. On Happy Children, the band’s fourth album and one of their best, Osibisa emerge as a true world fusion group, merging a myriad of styles to an extent unmatched by almost any other unit of the period.
The band usually shies away from anything like traditional pop structures, favoring long jams played on top of a repetitive bass vamp in the tradition of live Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew period. Unlike these two artists, however, Osibisa usually emphasizes group dynamic shifts and Blood Sweat and Tears/Tower of Power-style written-out horn lines over individual solos.
As they were an African group recording in London, the band’s basic rhythms also differ significantly from those of its contemporaries.
They play a style of music that has its roots in authentic tribal drumming and chants. Consequently, there are similarities to New Orleans second line, Southern and West Coast/Sly Stone funk, Jamaican reggae, and Afro-cuban jazz, but in a raw, driving manner that seems to pre-date all of these styles.
At the same time, on several tunes, Osibisa brings a Duke Ellington-like harmonic sense that belies the members’ musical sophistication.
Though they don’t generally approach anything resembling a pop tune here (which might make the album a hard listen for the casual funk fan), Happy Children is a fascinating glimpse at a band successfully fusing a celebratory, pre-rock energy with ancient rhythms and modern jazz harmony.

 

Track listing

1. Happy Children – 6:32
2. We Want to Know (Mo) – 5:59
3. Kotoku – 2:39
4. Take Your Trouble… Go – 4:04
5. Adwoa – 4:16
6. Bassa-Bassa – 4:57
7. Somaja – 3:35
8. Fire – 5:20

 

Personnel

• Teddy Osei – tenor saxophone, flute, percussion, vocals
• Sol Amarfio – bongos, drums
• Mac Tontoh – trumpet, flugelhorn
• Kofi Ayivor – congas, percussion
• Jean-Karl Dikoto Mandengue – bass
• Jean-Alain Roussel – keyboards

Production

• Producer – Peter Gallen
• Engineer – Ashley Howe
• Cover illustration – Jeff Schrier
• Art direction – Ed Thrasher
• Photography – Fin Costello

Notes
Released: 1973
Recorded: September 1973 Studio Lansdowne Studios, Holland Park, London
Genre: Afrobeat
Length: 37:22

Label – Warner Bros. Records

Osibisa – Super Fly T.N.T. (O.S.T.) (1973)

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Super Fly T.N.T. is a 1973 American blaxploitation crime drama film directed and starring Ron O’Neal. O’Neal reprises his role of Youngblood Priest from the 1972 film Super Fly. The film was both a critical and commercial failure according to some critics.

The soundtrack was done by English/African/Caribbean band Osibisa and charted at #159 on the Billboard charts and #41 on R&B albums.

This album is one of those miracles of mid-70s experimentation where everything falls together just right and a perfect hybrid has been created that may never happen again. ‘Superfly T.N.T‘.is equal parts African fusion, groovy 70s progressive rock, experimental psychedelic effects and exotic soundtrack eclecticism that blend together for a constantly unfolding journey in a classic 70s progressive style.

The mood of these songs is upbeat, and the rhythms are polyrhythmic in the style of African fusion. Meanwhile, the melodies are bold and memorable and are often taken through interesting developments in the style of the popular progressive rock bands of the day.
Add to all this, excellent solos and extended rhythmic jams that feature a plethora of exotic acoustic and electric instrumentation and you have one of the finest mostly instrumental albums in a decade known for excellent experimental instrumental albums.
If you were to try to give this album some musical references, possibly a mix of early 70s groups like Mandrill, Chicago, Santana, Bo Hanson, Camel and Focus, plus Les Baxter and Sun Ra might do. This is an excellent album that does not have a single dull or bad moment. Most Osibissa albums are good, but I have never heard them create on this level before or since.

The album features new additions on bass (Jean Mandengue from Cameroon who replaced Spartacus R), guitar (Gordon Hunte, who stood in for the talented, sensitive and mercurial Wendell Richardson), Kofi Ayivor on percussion (for the volatile Loughty Lasisi Amao) and the welcome return of keyboard ace Robert Bailey to augment the standing membership of Osei, Amarfio and Tontoh. This a cracking album with all the hallmarks of the O-S-I-B-I-S-A sound: front-loading horns, thudding, pedal-driven drums and stand-out/syncopated percussion liberally sprinkled with soaring keyboards and stinging guitar licks; not forgetting the yelps and chants that Westerners delight in as African gibberish. “Numo” (senior man among younger males) Amarfio doesn’t spare his trademark tom-tom approach to his timekeeping duties and you get the impression that his kit gets the full workout on the album! Personal favourites are Superfly Man and Come Closer (If you are A Man). The former has the metronomic cowbell percussion heard in Akan traditional music and a whimsical trumpet/flugelhorn? solo by Mac Tontoh that should have gone on for longer while the latter always reminds me of the sheer volume of brass-band music that is popular.

 

Track listing

1. T.N.T. – 6:51
2. Superfly Man – 3:56
3. Prophets – 5:25
4. The Vicarage – 3:32
5. Oye Mama – 3:26
6. Brotherhood – 4:12
7. Come Closer (If You’re A Man) – 5:23
8. Kelele – 5:37
9. La Ila La La – 7:35

All songs arranged, performed and composed by Osibisa.

 

Musicians

Teddy Osei, from Ghana; – tenor sax, flute, African drums & vocals
Sol Amarfio, from Ghana; – drums
Mac Tontoh, from Ghana; – trumpet, flugel horn, kabasa
Jean Mandengue, from the French Cameroons; – bass guitar, percussion, vocals
Gordon Hunte, from Guyana; – lead guitar & vocals
Robert Bailey, from Trinidad; – organ, piano, timbales
Kofi Ayivor, from Ghana; – congas, African drums, percussion, vocals

Companies, etc.

• Record Company – Viewlex, Inc.
• Manufactured By – Buddah Records, Inc.
• Distributed By – Buddah Records, Inc.
• Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Super Fly Ltd.
• Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Buddah Records, Inc.
• Copyright © – Buddah Records, Inc.
• Pressed By – PRC Recording Company, Richmond, IN
• Published By – Arabrab Music Inc.
• Recorded At – CBS Studios, London
• Mixed At – Lansdowne Studios
• Lacquer Cut At – Bell Sound Studios

Credits

• Arranged By [Additional Brass] – Mike Gibbs
• Bass Guitar, Percussion, Vocals – Jean Mandengue
• Composed By, Arranged By, Performer – Osibisa
• Congas, Drums [African], Percussion, Vocals – Kofi Ayivor
• Drums – Sol Amarfio
• Engineer [Mixing] – Ashley Howe
• Engineer [Recording] – Bernie O’Gorman
• Lacquer Cut By – sf
• Lead Guitar, Vocals – Gordon Hunte
• Organ, Piano, Timbales – Robert Bailey
• Photography By – Lindsay Shore
• Photography By [Photographs Of Osibisa] – Fin Costello
• Producer – Peter Gallen
• Songwriter – J. Mendengue, K. Ayivor, M. Tontoh, R. Bailey, S. Amarfio, T. Osei
• Tenor Saxophone, Flute, Drums [African], Vocals – Teddy Osei
• Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Cabasa [Kabasa] – Mac Tontoh

Notes
Released: September 24, 1973
Recorded at: CBS Studios, London (April, 1973)
Mixed at: Lansdowne Studios, London
Genre: Funk, Soul
Styles: Afrobeat, Free Funk
Length: 53:57

Label – Red Steel Music