UK

Soul Jazz Records' new Nigeria Soul Fever is their first release to explore the vast wealth of Nigerian music recorded in the 1970s. The new album comes with introductory sleeve-notes by Bill Brewster (author of Last Night A DJ Saved My Life).Packed-full with Afro-Funk, Disco and Boogie all from Nigeria, this triple album/double CD set brings together a stunning collection of diverse West African sounds. Whilst a small handful of the artists featured (Joni Haastrup, Tee Mac, Christy Essien) have seen the light of day outside Africa, this is essentially a collection of killer tracks by an array of artists completely unknown outside of Nigeria. Artists such as Don Bruce & The Angels, Akin Richards & The Executives, Angela Starr, Jimmy Sherry & The Music Agents. It's no surprise that these records are extremely rare and expensive to buy individually so this album will save you going broke trying to find them.These recordings were made at a time when Nigeria’s trade restrictions banned imported records. Whilst new musical trends (such as American soul, funk, disco etc) entered and influenced the country, the local music scene remained just that - local. Consequently, these recordings remain practically unknown to anyone outside of the country.This album follows on from Soul Jazz Records' 1960s collection Nigeria Freedom Sounds, released last month, and will be followed by the reissue of the incredibly rare and groovy Nigerian 1980 disco boogie funk album Tee Mac's Night Illusion. Triple-album vinyl + download.

The two glorious 80s boogie tracks written and produced by Roy Ayers are released here on 7" single for the very first time. The two songs were originally released back to back on 12" single for the Uno Melodic label, copies exchanging hands for over £400. These are the only two known recordings by Ethel Beatty, "It's Your Love" much sampled on the hip hop scene.

THE EARLY WORK OF A MUSICAL GENIUS WHICH BECAME A STAPLE OF THE MINNEAPOLIS SOUND FOR DECADES TO COME.Formed in December 1975 by Pepe Willie (the former husband of Prince's cousin), 94 East was the Minneapolis-based funk group with which Prince first came to prominence. Willie was a key player in launching Prince's career, spotting his many talents and quickly enlisting the young maestro into 94 East (named after Interstate 94 in Minneapolis). Alongside Willie, Prince composed one song for them, "Just Another Sucker", newly remastered for this release along with "One Man Jam".These are two of a collection of epic tracks laid down by the band between December 1975 and February 1979, with Prince's nascent musical power to the fore. Remastered versions of the complete recordings are available across three new Charly releases: CD (CHARLYF840), single LP (CHARLYL219 - purple vinyl ) and triple LP box (CHARLYL221) with bonus tracks and instrumental versions.The band disbanded in 1979 when Prince became a star in his own right . And the rest is history. . .

Brasilian crate diggers and party starters Selvagem deliver two savage reworks on Disco Deviance for their debut release on the imprint.Already highly respected DJs in their homeland with legendary parties in Sao Paulo and Rio, this DJ and production duo are now really starting to make waves and have an impact around the world with tours and releases on quality labels such as Beats In Space, Barefoot Beats and Disco Halal.For this release on DD they unleash a dance floor beast on the A side, while demonstrating their musical range with a hands in the air Balearic disco vibe on the flip.

Soul Jazz Records are releasing Tee Mac's 'Night Illusion', a lost classic Nigerian Afro soul meets disco boogie funk album originally released in Nigeria in 1980 as a private-press release of 1000 copies on the enigmatic artists' own label. Impossibly hard to find, the record remains practically unknown outside of Nigeria.Tee Mac Omatshola Iseli is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger and features on Soul Jazz Records' recent collection Nigeria Soul Fever - Afro Funk Disco and Boogie alongside Joni Haastrup, Christy Essien and others, as well as on a recent compilation 'Nepa Oh Nepa' (released on Hot Casa earlier this year). The timelessness of this soulful, ground-breaking funk jazz lost masterpiece 'Night Illusion' leads to comparisons with James Mason's legendary lost classic album Rhythm of Life, with his unique individualism and intensity hinting at the boogie funk of groups such as Mass Production and Slave so loved by artists such as Moodyman and Theo Parrish. While Fela Kuti is now a cultural icon of Nigerian music throughout the world, the recent crossover success of William Onyeabor shows just how much undiscovered Nigerian music remains waiting to be explored outside of the country.Tee Mac was born in Lagos, the son of a Nigerian princess and a Swiss diplomat. He picked up the flute at age 7 and ten years later was studying classical musical in Switzerland under his uncle the composer J.J. Direndirger. Returning to Lagos, Nigeria in 1970 he formed the heavyweight afro rock group Tee Mac and Afro Collection (which included Johnny Haastrup on keyboards and The Lijadu Sisters on vocals). This band was famously joined by the legendary Cream drummer Ginger Baker who came to Nigeria to play with them in 1971 (captured in the film Ginger Baker in Africa).At age 24, Tee Mac moved to Germany where he co-wrote and recorded the European disco group Silver Convention (whose 'Fly Robin Fly' became number one in the USA charts). This enabled him to return to Nigeria where he formed his own label SKJ Records to release his self-financed album Night Illusion, as well as buying two nightclubs and also investing in a number of mineral mining companies!Tee Mac continues to live in Lagos today and travels the world as a composer - one of whose pieces is The City of Mer Kailash (2009), a two-hour ballet featuring over 60 dancers and a 100+ piece orchestra.Strictly limited-edition 1000 copies worldwide exact-replica artwork reproduction LP (+ sleevenotes + free download).

As part of our 10 years anniversary Mukatsuku is proud to release the holy grail instrumental long version co produced by Tommy Stewart of 'Brotherson' from Atlanta USA resident Ojeda Penn.There were two versions of the album Happiness on the IFE independent label. They looked almost identical but the first version contained the now rarer elongated jazz fused instrumental version of 'Brotherson' and then a few months later they recut the album with a much shorter version adding strings and vocals.The former version is now being sold up to £500 so this 12 is a welcome release to the reissue market. According to Mr Penn this is the first time either version has been reissued officially and Mukatsuku after many years of discussion is glad to finally be in a position to finally put out both versions on one phat 12''

The reissue of Gemini’s most complete and varied album – 1997’s ‘Imagine – A – Nation’, originally released on Cajual subsidiary Relief.