David Dalle
Thursday July 6th, 2023 with David Dalle
Real World's reissue series "Africa Sessions at Real World". Taj Mahal at the Savoy. Improvised electronic dance music from Sudan. More Pharoah Sanders spiritual 60's music.

Real World has reissued six classic albums from the late 80's through the 90's of different African artists recording in the Real World studios in the village of Box, Wiltshire in the UK. I had four of these albums, but happily picked up the other two. Featuring six great artists and groups from Africa, the Master Musicians of Jajouka from Morocco, S. E. Rogie from Sierra Leone, Remmy Ongala from Tanzania, Farafina from Burkina Faso, and the last two, which are new to me, King Wasu Ayinde Marshal I from Nigeria, and Omar Pene and Super Diamano from Senegal. We will hear from all of them with a focus on the latter two. We will also hear from Taj Mahal's new album "Savoy" which is his loving tribute to the Harlem ballroom famous from the Swing era, and where his parents first met. This album features Taj Mahal playing with a large band (appropriate for the swinging Savoy) performing many of the great hits from that famous dancehall. Also up on the turntable, obscure improvised synthesizer dance music from eastern Sudan by Ahmed Mohamed Yaqoup Eltom, who performs under the name Jantra, and is an innovator in African music on a Yamaha keyboard, to which he made many tweaks and alterations to in order to play Sudanese melodies. This new recording on Ostinato Records is the first of its kind. Lastly, we will hear some more spiritual Pharoah Sanders from the first of his iconic Impulse albums from the mid 60's onwards, "Tauhid".