things and time will tell.

Masters At Work – Our Time Is Coming Cutting Edge – CTCR-14186/B 2xCD, Album, Japan, 2002 info I took too long to post as always, once again missing my chance to post some favorite Christmas records... Next year, I guess. I hope any of you seeing this got some peace over the holidays. It's almost the new year, so if you have an urgent need for some party music or a way to help ring it in on a positive note, this album might do it for you. Our Time Is Coming  was the second full length album by Kenny Dope and Louie Vega as Masters At Work, released in 2001. Once again, I won't pretend to be any kind of expert on house music, but I'll go out on a limb here and say that anyone who writes this record off as too "mainstream" or "predictable" is either: A. a snob; or B. not paying attention. MAW produced an album that I can put on to convince myself the sun is coming out, even at a late night party or in the Chicago winter.  On the predictable charge: Look, th...

One more visit to an off beat corner of Tony Allen's music before we move on from the legendary Nigerian drummer. In one of the previous posts I mentioned the diverse recordings he made later in life, before passing just a few weeks ago on April 30 at age 79. Long after his days with Fela Kuti, Allen was still bringing us new Afrobeat and stretching himself into electronic music, dub experiments, a return to jazz, and some surprising collaborations. Here are a couple of those collaborations that should make a good introduction if you haven't heard these groups before. (And they include a few rare tracks you may not have heard even if you're already a fan.) I didn't mean to take such a long break between posts, but life has been busy and I bit off more than I realized with these two records! I enjoyed getting reacquainted with them though, the second one in particular. It took some serious work to clean up the recording, but what a great song! It's perfect for, say, ...

From one of Tony Allen's final recordings to one of his earliest (coincidentally from another 10"). Fela Ransome-Kuti And His Africa '70 ‎– Fela Fela Fela Knitting Factory Records, Kalakuta Sunrise ‎– KFR-4007 Vinyl, 10", 33 ⅓ RPM, US, 2010 (Original LP released Nigeria, 1970)  info In their earliest days working together, Fela Kuti and Tony Allen played both the American-styled jazz that Allen would revisit in his later days (and in my previous post ) and their take on highlife, the jazzy Western African music originating in Ghana. By the late 60s, they were making the break through in new rhythms and styles that they would call "afrobeat," a change that was brought to a head during their 1969 trip to America. A ten month stay in Los Angeles, a deeper exposure to the latest funk styles, and (just as important to their new music, politics and attitude) exposure to Black power politics (partly through Fela's relationship with Black Panther Party member a...

One of the world's greatest drummers passed away Thursday. Tony Allen ‎– A Tribute To Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers Blue Note ‎– 574439 4 Vinyl, 10", 45 RPM, Europe, 2017 Tributes to Tony Allen  will understandably focus on his years leading Fela Kuti's Afrika 70 band, where the two Nigerian legends led the creation of afrobeat. They broke new ground in the 1970's and their influence has continued to grow far beyond Africa, funk and jazz, the last few decades bringing them deeply into hip hop, dub, electronic and more . Allen was 79 years old and remained active until the end. A  new album was released  just a month before he died this week. He avoided becoming a nostalgia act in his later years. His career revitalized in his highly visible 60s and 70s, he released a slew of new albums (both as a solo artist and in various bands), was signed to Blue Note, put out some important dance records and joined a band with a member of the Clash. If you're no...