PARIS DJS SOUNDSYSTEM
"Take The Chains Off Your Brains - Psychedelic Hip Hop, Funk & Jazz Grooves"

Help us press this on a 15 CDs / 3 Boxsets anthology :
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Maxilla Blue - Lost In Composition

PARIS DJS SOUNDSYSTEM
"Spirituality and the Supernatural - Kaleidoscopic Jazz & Mind-Bending Poetry"

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Antoine Berjeaut "WasteLand" feat. Mike Ladd - J.D.

PARIS DJS SOUNDSYSTEM
"Massive Hits From The Grant Phabao Factory"

Help us press this on a 15 CDs / 3 Boxsets anthology :
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The Beta Club - Brassa Nova (Grant Phabao Remix)

Grant Phabao Afrofunk Arkestra - Ogun feat. Franck Biyong, Nicolas Baudino, Zakari Frantz

Grant Phabao & Imagine This - The Break Through

Grant Phabao, Carlton Livingston & The Lone Ranger - A Message To You Rudy

Grant Phabao & RacecaR - We Do Anything feat. Taiwan MC

Grant Phabao Afrofunk Arkestra - Ymoja

Chicago MC (now Paris-based) RacecaR has been recording and touring quite a lot in France these years. With bands Afro Latin Vintage Orchestra, Dafuniks or Sax Machine, with producers Etienne de la Sayette, Grant Phabao or Lawkyz, with beatmakers Asagaya, Blanka, DJ Suspect & Doc TMK, ICBM Son Of A Pitch or Soul Square… for sure we're missing a few other cool cats in that list, but you get the point: every musician who meets RacecaR over here understands very quickly how cool the man is, how tight his flow goes, how masterfully his rhymes are delivered, and how in any kind of context he's able to fit in with style.

RacecaR started working with the French producer Grant Phabao approximatively one year ago, with a simple concept in mind: exploring some new rare grooves of reggae, ska, afrofunk, soul and jazz, on which he would try rhyming and rapping - uncharted waters in terms of tempo for a boom-bap aficionado!

Summer 2014 things shot off with an afro-funk-hip-hop monster, 'Return Of The Dig-Fu', followed in the fall by another smashing hip hop/funk hybrid, 'Rock Your Boat', and close to the end of the year, by a third single, 'We Do Anything', exploring a different blend with the lyricist's groovy rhymes recorded over one of Grant Phabao's heavy one drop reggae riddims, and featuring Parisian activist Taiwan MC on guest vocals.

The voyage in a sea of styles is far from over though, as RacecaR has now to face a psychedelic funk whirlwind with heavy stompin' & swingin' beats! Borrowing its chorus from Canadian MC & friend Jeff Spec, 'One Two One Two' sees our MC in great shape, delivering expertly crafted verses one after the other. It seems as if he could even confront a tropical storm now… but that's a story to be told on Paris DJs later on.

Buy on Bandcamp bit.ly/1hThfjF
Buy on JunoDownload http://bit.ly/1USNlIQ
Info on Paris DJs bit.ly/1ERanxG

Buy on VINYL

Grant Phabao & RacecaR - One Two One Two

With his stage name coming from his love of late 60s Jamaican deejay U-Roy and his light skin, U-Brown began his deejaying career as the 1970s dawned. In the mid-70s he began working with major producer Bunny Lee, and soon got a chance to deejay on King Tubby's Hi-Fi. U-Brown's hyped-up version of U-Roy jive-saturated talkover style sounded great over the heavy dubs mixed by Tubby, and he ended up deejaying many of the top sounds in Jamaica from 1970 to 1985. He's continued to deejay and produce ever since.

In-between a few gigs with French sound system Soul Stereo, he came to the Paris DJs studio in december 2014 to cut a few new tracks with producer Grant Phabao, starting with this neo-classic 'Mr. DJ Let The Music Play', recorded on one of Phabao's biggest riddims, the 'Honey' one he had build over the Erykah Badu's hit of the same name.

U-Brown's unmistakeable deejay flow with a stylistic debt to the deejay godfather is a delectation to hear voiced and mixed with Grant Phabao at the controls. Somehow echoing U-Brown's first production in 1977, the 'Please Mr Deejay' hit by Carlton Livingston, 'Mr. DJ Let The Music Play', with its dynamic skanking and shoutouts rocks the dance hall instantly with bubbles of joy exploding from the turntables!

Buy on Bandcamp http://bit.ly/1URYpv3
Info on Paris DJs http://bit.ly/1KQgPYl

Buy on Bandcamp

Grant Phabao & U-Brown - Mr. DJ Let The Music Play

Killer afrofunk bombs are dropping regularly with the Grant Phabao Afrofunk Arkestra project. After one limited (and sold out) 45, 'Ogun', two very limited t-shirt singles, 'Talking & Singing' and 'The Wow!', and two instrumental tracks released on the Paris DJs Soundsystem 'Massive Hits From The Grant Phabao Factory' LP, 'Ymoja' and 'Mazouglave', all featuring heavyweight musicians from the current worldwide afro/tropical scene, it was time to take a break, or more precisely, to get loose.

'The Fourth', composed by French producer Grant Phabao with Egypt 80 trumpet player Muyiwa Kunnuji is that kind of jam, an afrofunk joint where everyone's welcome - the more the merrier! With Franck Biyong (Massak) on tenor guitar & bass, Oghene Kologbo (Fela's Afrika 70 guitar player) and Alfred Sonou (Les Frères Smith) on percussions, Cedric Ricard (De La Soul, Grand Rateau Big Band), Ben Abarbanel-Wolff (Ebo Taylor, Pat Thomas), Valentin Pellet (Bim Bam Orchestra), Pierre Pierrot (Tarace Boulba), of course Muyiwa Kunnuji on horns, and Grant Phabao at the controls, this jam is really heavy shit, so fasten your earbelts!

ParisDJs http://bit.ly/1WA5sGi
Bandcamp http://bit.ly/1QMzMtm

Grant Phabao Afrofunk Arkestra - The Fourth feat. Muyiwa Kunnuji

Akalé Wubé are the hardest working band on the Ethio-Jazz scene in France today. For seven years they've been hitting the stage with an impressive regularity, all over Europe, Asia and Africa. Their music — half original songs, the other half covers of Ethiopian classics and traditional tunes from the 60s and the 70s — has been growing, expanding and maturing into a unique Ethiopian groove of their own. Next week they'll be playing at the Pan Piper in Paris, with famous Malian musician, vocalist, arranger and composer Cheick Tidiane Seck as their guest. French Ethio-jazz band Arat Kilo will be opening. It'll be on saturday, october 17th. We've said it before, but save the date!

Grant Phabao is the unstoppable producer behind the Paris DJs sound. Over nearly two decades of superb music-making, he grew to be a prime purveyor of Jamaican Soul, wether labeled "ska", "rocksteady", "reggae", etc. After releasing albums with reggae icons Carlton Livingston, The Lone Ranger, The Jays or The Silvertones, and remixes for the whole planet, from George Clinton to Alice Russell, from David Byrne to Shawn Lee, from Jurassic 5 to The Beta Club… he started producing African music, working with the likes of Ebo Taylor, Franck Biyong, musicians from Fela's Afrika 70 or Egypt 80, from Antibalas, from The Souljazz Orchestra, or from Brownout, just to name a few.
With the Paris DJs label, he managed to cross the rigid boundaries of music categorization with an astonishing quantity of high-quality productions and remixes in many styles, achieving a high-order mastery in reggae, ska and afrofunk…

While discussing the possibility of releasing Akalé Wubé's sax & flute player Etienne de la Sayette's solo recordings on Paris DJs, the idea of getting Grant Phabao to put to good use his reggae-remixing skills on one of Akalé Wubé's songs arose quickly. But what about the Ethiopian horn or vocal harmonies, would they fit on a reggae groove? Well you can't really know until you try, so that's exactly what happened.

The song picked is the delighful 'Alègntayé', extracted from the band's latest album, 'Sost'. It's a tune originally written by Ayaléw Abbèbè and Tesfayé Abbèbè, arranged by Mulatu Astatqé and made famous by Pan-Ethiopian singer Tlahoun Gèssèssè. Akalé Wubé covered it with radiant Ethiopian singer Genet Asefa on vocals. Now Grant Phabao takes the tune all the way to Kingston, Jamaica — via Addis-Abeba, Ethiopia and Paris, France. It's gonna be hard to make a groove more global than that. And guess what? The resulting blend, unheard before, works like a charm! Ethio-reggae. What's next?

Credits :
Written and composed by Ayaléw Abbèbè & Tesfayé Abbèbè
Etienne de la Sayette : tenor & baritone saxophone
Paul Bouclier : trumpet
Loïc Réchard : guitar
Genet Asefa : voice
Erwan Loeffel : percussions
Laurian Daire : Hammond Organ
All other instruments, additional production, mix and mastering by Grant Phabao at Paris DJs studio
© 2015 Akalé Wubé / Clapson / T.I.M.E.C. / Paris DJs
Illustration by Ben Hito

Paris DJs http://bit.ly/1WKvN4z
Bandcamp http://bit.ly/1OVD4wY

Akalé Wubé - Alègntayé feat. Genet Asefa (Grant Phabao Remix)

Heavyweight Gambit, Nol Holds Barred' is the 11th compilation coming out on the Paris DJs label, and the second one digging into Funk & Soul music for the Paris DJs Soundsystem crew. A lot of tracks landed in the label's mailbox (thanks to everyone who participated!), choices had to be made, and until the last minute it was tough decisions. After many delays in adjusments and fine-tuning of this selection, this new compilations finally out, right on for Halloween 2015! The artwork depicts a stoned and scary wrestler, doesn't it? As suggested by this new, fantastic piece of visual art from French illustrator Ben Hito, the selection gathers psychedelic funk, soul for freaks, foot stomping beats, heavyweight breaks, thrilling grooves, hip hop coolness, fuzzy sounds and more...

Some of the bands/artists were already featured on Paris DJs finest selections, from compilations to mixes, reviews or remixes. Our readers and listeners should indeed start to get excited just hearing the names Connie Price and the Keystones, Breakdown Brass, Q.A.S.B., The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble, STEPAK-TAKRAW, Grant Phabao, RacecaR, The Echocentrics or J. Whitefield. All people with a heavy sense of classicism in their funky productions, with sound aesthetics close to ours, whom we're so proud to feature here. The ever-exanding family from the Paris DJs universe has answered our call once again, sending a whole bunch of new, often unreleased, killer tunes, and it feels GOOD.

The "discoveries" — at least for us — are also a delight, don' let us fool you. It was hard to pick a tune between the 3 San Fernando, CA funk unit Soul Scratch sent. Great things to come from them soon for sure! East Oakland-based Soul-Hop singer Baby Jaymes does sound quite close to Michael Jackson. His cover of 50 Cent released last year on a limited 45 is a scorcher and we hope to start collaborating with him as soon as possible. It would be very interesting to hear him sing on some reggae production from Grant Phabao…. Alex Puddu is a Copenhagen-based Italian producer we had on our radar for some time now. His Soultiger project is a treat, and from the album released earlier this year was extracted for a 45 release an original composition featuring the legendary Joe Bataan on vocals. It took us some convincing, but we couldn't pass on getting this track in here. The tune is very addictive, and Mr. Bataan's voice so unique, so purely soulful! There's also Italian soundtrackish funk from La Batteria, French P-Funk band Horndogz featuring Parliament/Funkadelic/Drugs singer Clip Payne, and we close this new chapter feets in the sand, with a relaxing piece of Samba Funk from Dambô & Pauliño Nunes in Recife, Pernambuco, northeastern Brazil. This music is good for you.

Audiovisual concept by Djouls & Ben Hito
A&R : Djouls with the help of Loik Dury and Grant Phabao
Audio mastering by Grant Phabao
Artwork by Ben Hito

Full info on Paris DJs http://bit.ly/1KPx1CD
Buy on Bandcamp http://bit.ly/1GUkCSV

12 Whitefield Soundz - Safari Strut (Fuzzed)

11 La Batteria - Vigilante

10 The Echocentrics - Has Regresado Viejo Feat. Natalia Clavier

09 Alex Puddu Soultiger - The Mover Feat. Joe Bataan

07 Grant Phabao & RacecaR - One Two One Two

05 The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble - Rise Of The East

04 Soul Scratch - Pacified

03 Q.A.S.B. - Jaguar (Instrumental)

02 Breakdown Brass - Mary Jane

01 Connie Price And The Keystones - El Niño

California MC Raashan Ahmad used to be the front man for the live hip-hop group Crown City Rockers (formerly known as Mission) in the 2000s. Since then he's launched a succesful solo career culminating so far in 2013 with the neo-classic 'Ceremony' album.

Early 2014 he got in touch with Paris DJs, submitting a handful of songs for the French label's jazzy hip hop compilation 'Spirituality & The Supernatural', released in the following spring. Summer 2015 while on tour in France, Raashan Ahmad came to visit and decided with Grant Phabao & Djouls to launch some ongoing collaborations… starting with a couple of reggae & ska remixes.

Extracted from his 'For What You've Lost' album released in 2010, 'Falling' is originally a crackin' piece of Dilla-esque shuffle with a great guest verse from fello Bay Area MC Gift Of Gab from Blackalicious, a dope 'I'm Good' hook from soulful singer Aloe Blacc — and the first tune from Raashan Ahmad to get the Grant Phabao rework treatment!

Dressed with a fruitful one drop riddim, all bouncy and elastic with its dynamic Grant Phabao skanking sound, 'Falling' becomes an outstanding reggae soul/hip hop smoothie, spreading its positive vibes with style.

Raashan Ahmad - Falling Feat Aloe Blacc & Gift Of Gab (Grant Phabao RMX)

Following up on Paris DJs tradition of reworking songs using only their vocal part to build a brand new intrumental to back it, Parisian Ehio-Jazz band Akalé Wubé has decided to try their organic jazz chops on an a cappela from Chicago MC RacecaR.

Originally produced by Grant Phabao as an unstoppable afro-funk-hip-hop monster, this new 'Return Of The Dig-Fu (Akalé Wubé Remix)' keep its rhymes evoking the digger's lust for the vinyl rare groove, but replaces the afrofunk with some deep, smokey jazz. The soothing flute solo near the end confirms the first impression: there's a blazing sense of purpose here.

Akalé Wubé's loose vibes and RacecaR nervous wordplay fit together so nicely that more collaborations have already started to happen, in the studio and on stage. They'll be playing together on december 11th at Le Studio de l'Ermitage, after a first date together a few months ago. It's not a last minute warning so don't miss this joyous moment next week !

Grant Phabao & RacecaR - Return Of The Dig-Fu (Akalé Wubé Remix)

Following the events that occurred in several countries and closer to us in Paris and in response to the media and community’s reactions, we have decided to gather around between friends and record a version of Los Hermanos, written by Atahualpa Yupanqui, to advocate the importance of being united. Hatred breeds hatred. War breeds war.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YDPOpsNXnc

Sandra Nkaké (voice)
Mélissa Laveaux (voice)
Jî Drû (flute/ voice)
Christophe « Disco » Minck (doublebass)
Julien Tekeyan (drums-bongos)
Jérôme « Tchiky » Perez (guitar)
Thomas De Pourquery (saxophone)
Mike Ladd (voice)
Antoine Berjeaut (bugle/trumpet)
Cyril Atef (disto sanza)
Jérôme « Blackjoy » Caron (mix)
Grant Phabao (mastering)
Alain « Seka » Ledoux (video)

We thank: Loik Dury / Karine Morice / Bahini Camara / Bérangère Viennot

Suite aux événements récents survenus dans bon nombre de pays et plus proche de nous dans les rues de Paris et à leur écho dans les médias, les réseaux sociaux et la société civile, nous avons décidé de nous réunir, entre amis, pour enregistrer une version de Los Hermanos, d’Atahualpa Yupanqui et faire valoir qu’il est important d’être unis. La haine engendre la haine, La guerre engendre la guerre.

Kaa ben waleya mounu tèmèna djamana tchan ma kan ana laminy ani françi bolon kono, ani kounafoni sèbè, ladjè kulu dow ani djamana syki den dow bèn na kan fara yonkon kan ni teriya sira ye ka donkily doh dah ni los hermanos tokoye, ka yira ko ben ne yonkon teh djougouya deh be. Nah ni djougouya ye, kèlè debè na ni kèlè ye.

En reacción a los recientes acontecimientos sucecidos en en numerosos países y más cerca de nosotros en las calles de París y a su eco en los medias y la sociedad civil, hemos decidido reunirnos, entre amigos para grabar una versión de Los Hermanos de Atahualpa Yupanqui, y demostrar lo importante de quedernos unidos. El odio engendra el odio. La guerra engendra la guerra.

http://www.sandrankake.com/acollectivevisionofpeace

A Collective Vision Of Peace

Akalé Wubé - Mèmona (Etienne de la Sayette Remix Remix)
(Digital Single) Paris DJs PARISDJS079-D, 2016-01-05

Buy on Bandcamp http://bit.ly/1n3Zelq
Info on Paris DJs http://bit.ly/1RrMSyz

In their 6 years of existence, Akalé Wubé have never stopped widening the canvas onto which they lay their music, which keeps becoming richer and deeper just like their primary source of inspiration: the popular Ethiopian repertoire of the 60s and 70s. The band started off by covering music from the 'Ethiopiques' series, after which they immersed themselves deeper into Ethiopian music, all the while multiplying their collaborations with musicians and dancers from Ethiopia, Africa and Europe. Slowly but surely, clocking in at around 200 concerts in Europe, Asia and Africa, the band has become one of the world’s leading ambassadors of Ethiopian groove.

'Mèmona' is a traditional Ethiopian piece from the Tigray Region (the northernmost of the nine ethnic regions of Ethiopia), played at weddings. Akalé Wubé discovered the song as sung by Tèwèldè Rèdda on the 'Éthiopiques 5: Tigrigna Music 1970-1975' compilation from Buda Musique, released in 1999. They covered it in their third album 'Sost', and it has since grown into one of the great rockin' jams in their setlists. Nonetheless, saxophone and flute player from the band Etienne de la Sayette has decided to try his producing chops on a remix, trying to bring the tune into a gritty psychedelic afro-rock trip, with lots of sanza...

Credits :
David Georgelet : batterie
Oliver Degabriele : basse
Loïc Réchard : guitare
Paul Bouclier : krar
Etienne de la Sayette : organ, synths, mbira
Mastering by Grant Phabao at Paris DJs studio
© 2015 Akalé Wubé / Clapson / T.I.M.E.C. / Paris DJs
Illustration by Ben Hito

Akalé Wubé - Mèmona (Etienne de la Sayette Remix Remix)

With his stage name coming from his love of late 60s Jamaican deejay U-Roy and his light skin, U-Brown began his deejaying career as the 1970s dawned. In the mid-70s he began working with major producer Bunny Lee, and soon got a chance to deejay on King Tubby's Hi-Fi. U-Brown's hyped-up version of U-Roy jive-saturated talkover style sounded great over the heavy dubs mixed by Tubby, and he ended up deejaying many of the top sounds in Jamaica from 1970 to 1985. He's continued to deejay and produce ever since.

In-between a few gigs with French sound system Soul Stereo, he came to the Paris DJs studio in december 2014 to cut a few new tracks with producer Grant Phabao, starting with the neo-classic 'Mr. DJ Let The Music Play', recorded on one of Phabao's biggest riddims, the 'Honey' one he had build over the Erykah Badu's hit of the same name. With its dynamic skanking and shoutouts the tune has been rocking the discerning dancehalls those last few months, getting even picked by DJ Craig Charles (BBC6) as one of the Biggest Funk and Soul Stompers from 2015!

U-Brown's unmistakeable deejay flow with a stylistic debt to the deejay godfather U-Roy is a delectation to hear voiced and mixed with Grant Phabao at the controls once again on this follow-up single: a heavy, bubbling, slow and fat, masterful one drop riddim from the Parisian producer, on which the veteran deejay lays a a deep and sensual rub-a-dub toast. Hopefully both tunes will end up on a lovely 7 inch vinyl, in the 'Vinyl Is Good For You Vol.2' boxset of 45s Paris DJs has started working on...

Buy on Bandcamp http://bit.ly/1PM9E47
Info on Paris DJs http://bit.ly/1Q7aKt9

Grant Phabao & U - Brown - Rub A Dub Inna Di Dancehall

Paris-based, Chicago-born MC RacecaR has been living a pure hip hop life for the last two decades. He's one of the coolest hip hop cats in the French capital, relentlessly touring but in a constant state of rap, writing & rehearsing whenever he can. His flow, lyrics and friendly Native Tongues attitude got him to collaborate with more and more people, among which Paris DJs collaborators Lawkyz, on his 'The Waxidermist' project, or Etienne de la Sayette, RacecaR opens his afrojazz album 'Maputo Queens' to be released in may.

A true meeting of two worlds first happened when RacecaR met with the label's in-house producer Grant Phabao, who's radical expertise in groove got him to work with many famous musicians worldwide, from Jamaica to Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, USA, Brazil, UK, Germany and more. From there on, an ongoing special production project started, with RacecaR bringing the rhymes and Grant Phabao recording them over one of his reggae, ska, funk, jazz or afro productions… No boom bap, no maverick beats, no wonky, no wobble, all breaks, skanks, drops and more polyrhythmics. The word was : "let's turn out worlds upside down, and make something different together".

'One Free', the latest single extracted from RacecaR's upcoming 'A Healthy Obsession With Pétanque' album, sees the American MC laying a thick rap, moving on and around the beat, over a deep & dubby, slow & stripped-down early 80s dancehall style riddim from French producer and multi-instrumentalist Grant Phabao. The vibe is laidback, smokey, while tropical and hip. A pure stoner tune in the "play it again, Sam" category.

Written by RacecaR
Composed by Grant Phabao
Published by T.I.M.E.C.
Vocals by RacecaR
All instruments, recording, production, mix and mastering by Grant Phabao at Paris DJs studio
© 2016 T.I.M.E.C./Paris DJs

Bandcamp http://bit.ly/22jRwTD

Grant Phabao & RacecaR - One Free

Chicago-born but now Paris-based MC RacecaR and French producer/multi-instrumentalist Grant Phabao are hard at work this summer, finishing the last details to their upcoming album "A Healthy Obsession with Pétanque", and trying to find support to fund its pressing.

Already the 6th digital single from the duo, "Think It Al"' is a smoothing smoocher tune, quite unclassifiable with its unique blend of styles. On a 33% funk, 33% jazz and 33% dub instrumental, RacecaR recalls a Jurassic 5 vibe which should appeal to many fans of post-golden age hip hop grooves!

Paris DJs needs your help to be able to press a CD and a vinyl LP of that album, illustrated by poster artist Ben Hito.
Support our new crowdfunding campaign, find your name on the booklet (or insert for the LP), or get yourself a collector t-shirt printed.
>> http://bit.ly/29VYuZm ≤≤

Don't hesitate to participate, post on facebook, share on twitter, etc. (ends august 31st)
Thanks in advance !

Think It All

Grant Phabao & RacecaR - Think It All

Reggae comes from Mento, Ska and Rocksteady. When Reggae invented dub and toasting, it gave America the technology and ideas which led to Hip Hop's emceeing (later known as rapping) and scratching. Thus Hip Hop was born. Even Gangsta rap came from Dancehall — both speaking about the violence from their neighborhoods.

Now let's take the thing full circle, and have a modern, fast rapper toasting over a punchy & roots ska instrumental! It'll be anachronic for sure, but might be deeply groovy too… cos' it's all nothing but the good stuff.

This "Champion Sound" tune is a piece of art for sure, but it ain't gonna end in a museum though. Instead, it's gonna bring some heavy duty MADNESS on the dancefloors not afraid to tear the roof off !!

In two weeks, Paris DJs' crowdfunding campaign to press this gem on VINYL (along with two handfuls of other musical mischiefs from Chicagoan rapper RacecaR and French producer Grant Phabao) will end.
Support Paris DJs on Kiss Kiss Bank Bank : http://bit.ly/29VYuZm

DO NOT pass on this opportunity of a lifetime, and remember : dance is a warm-up to life.

Buy on Bandcamp http://bit.ly/2bs3ZDr

The Wheelie Champion Sound

Grant Phabao & RacecaR - The Wheelie Champion Sound

'Don't Mind Them'  is the first single extracted from Oghene Kologbo's long-awaited second album 'Africa Is The Future' , to be released in december 2016 on Paris DJs. Kologbo was Fela Kuti's tenor guitar player in Afrika 70. It was only in 2007 that he put out his first solo album, 'Remember Fela' , with the berlin-based Afrobeat Academy (which would later on evolve into Ebo Taylor's band for his 'Love And Death' album). He's been playing with everyone from the afrobeat scene since then, on stage and on record, spreading his knowledge of afrobeat to every interesting musician interested.

In his own words :
"The tune just happened on the spot at Paris DJs, near the end of july 2015. Loik had sent my music to Djouls & Phabao because he was busy. I came to them, we just sat down, and I said "OK, if Loik is delayed, what if we did another song?". They replied "When ?". I said "Now ! Are you ready", and that's how we started. I played the drums first, it was good. Then I played the bass, it was getting better, then the guitar, then the doung, ding, deng deng deng… oof! and it was there.

'Don't Mind Them' is still afrobeat, but the old school taste. And it's the classic, because I play Afrika 70 style. No matter what you hear, this style was kept. Some people like to play Bob Marley style, some people play ska… I love the classic. Tony Allen has a style already, it's the Tony Allen. Femi Kuti has his Positive Force. Seun Kuti keeps the Egypt 80 style. So me I go back to 70. Orlando Julius, Segun Bucknor, Fela, Monomono, Sunny Ade, that's my college of music. And I like the combination of Phabao and Loik, it's one up to my taste, yes. Good things never hide!

I've been doing workshop with Les Frères Smith, playing with them for almost 6 years now, I knew Saké Smith, I knew Fab Smith, instead of bringing some horn players from Berlin or from Bruxelles, I had those ones right in front of me, and we gave it a go ! Daniele from World Squad is on this one too, he played with me many years, so I gave him a chance.

There's also backing singers from South America. Girls from Newen Afrobeat, a band from Chile. This came accidentally, incidentally. I didn't know them. The day we layed down the track, the band was in Paris. They came to see me in the evening at the place I was staying, all of them. We had fun. When I put my new music on, they started singing on the chorus! I said "Would you like to come to the studio tomorrow to record it ?" We practiced, did a workshop together that night. They are good, I was lucky they passed around ! I even played with them and Tony Allen a few days later…

'Don't Mind Them' comes from suffering. That day we were talking, and it just came to my head. I remembered all the stories I was telling, my experience. I see all the problems around me: television, politicians, my so-friends and the people I work with… They promise you that, they promise you this… everytime it's zero. That's how I came to "Don't Mind Them". I want to be myself. No matter what will happen, it'll happen. I'm kickin', movin', I don't mind them." — Oghene Kologbo, september 2016

Crédits :
Baritone saxophone & alto saxophone solo by Saké Smith / Nicolas Sakélario
Trumpet by Julio Smith / Julien Sannikolo
Tenor saxophone by Fab Smith and Daniele Martini
Backing vocals by Macarena Rozic; Francisca Castro, María Francisca Riquelme, Camila Fuentes and Serena Kologbo
All other instruments (drums, percussion, rhythm guitar, tenor guitar, bass) and lead vocals by Oghene Kologbo
Composed and written by Oghene Kologbo
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Grant Phabao at Paris DJs
Published by T.I.M.E.C.
℗ 2016 T.I.M.E.C. / Paris DJs

Bandcamp http://bit.ly/2cgRaLI
Paris DJs http://bit.ly/2cQIqu3
Junodownload http://bit.ly/2cM7bZq

Don't Mind Them

Kologbo - Don't Mind Them

Paris-based production team (Djouls, Grant Phabao, Loik Dury & Ben Hito) featuring guest vocalists, musicians, deejays, graphic/web designers and writers

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