''Orchestra Makassy, the brainchild of Mzee Makassy himself, has taken audiences all over East Africa by storm. Their blend of pure Kiswahili and Zairois rhythms have captured the hearts of music lovers who have constantly demanded this set of Makassy's greatest hits.
The popularity of the group has not come without its share of disappointments and it has entailed great work from Mzee Makassy. The group would perhaps have been a household name sooner had it not been for the unexpected and tragic knifing of the lead singer Isiak Baharia, alias Gobby. This sad event caused great turmoil but from the ashes of the former group Mzee Makassy moulded his present band with the considerable help of Rammy Ongara and Fan Fan from OK Jazz. These were then supplemented with Aimala Mbutu, Simaroo on Solo guitar, Kadesi on Bass, Batty on Rhythm and Adam Seye on Trumpet (also formerly with OK Jazz) amongst the others in the group.
Thus the Orchestra Makassy, whose emblem of the elephant and drum has become famous in such a short space of time, has brought some of the finest musicians together from the brink of disaster to the top of the charts. Here now are Makassy's greatest hits - the first set of many from this fine band."
"Rammy Ongara"? Remmy and Adam Seye in the OK Jazz? Who has this man been talking too?Anyway, here is this great 1981 album from Orchestra Makassy.
EDIT March 29, 2012: I've 'refreshed' the link (yet again).
Stefan,
ReplyDeleteyou are right, Remmy Ongala was never with OK Jazz. Adam Seye Kadimoke, however, was a member of OK Jazz during the 1970s.
Thank you. I've had the Editions Makassy cassette for many years and have always wondered if these versions on the LP were different..I'll be listening later....thanks again Matt
ReplyDelete@ Matt,
ReplyDeleteIt looks like it's the same versions, with a "warmer" sound, but less songs.
@ Peter: thanks for this info!
ReplyDelete@ Matt: I have a cassette too, credited to "Rammy" (which I suppose is closer to his real name) Ongala and orch. Makassy, with 2 of the tracks replaced by 2 of Remmy's compositions. The sound is very similar to this album.
http://matsuli.blogspot.com/2008/01/editions-makassy.html
ReplyDeleteAh yes, that's the one.
ReplyDeleteI must have missed that post.
For my part, I thought about this older post :
ReplyDeletehttp://matsuli.blogspot.com/2007/01/destination-dar-es-salaam.html
Nice blog. Thanks for this album.
ReplyDeleteThanks a million for this rare music. I've been searching far and wide for the full version of "Molema" and I only found it here. Thank you! Merci! Danke! Baie Danke! Grazie Mille! Ni muvea muno! Asante Sana! Matondi mingi!
ReplyDeleteHello Wrldsrv
ReplyDeleteI tried to download this album but got an error message. What to do?
Greetings, Jan.
@Jan Duinkerken: Thanks for pointing this out! Service has been restored....
ReplyDeleteGreat album indeed, thank you!
ReplyDeleteTried to download again but nothing happens just black screen link may be dead
ReplyDelete@Rascal: Unfortunately I can't reproduce the black screen you are getting. I have no problem downloading the file. I know that some browser settings may block the use of the download function of Adrive. Have you tried downloading in another browser?
ReplyDeleteIf nothing works, send me an email via the address in my profile.