Mr Bongo Ebo Taylor Yen Ara LP
Ghanaian legend Ebo Taylor returns with perhaps his finest album to date.
But don't take Mr. Bongos' word for it.
That’s coming straight from the man himself.
And he should know after more than 60 years in the business.
Listen to Yen Ara and you will not only hear the high-energy afrobeat,
sweet highlife, jazz and konkoma influences that he’s famous for.
There is also a disco pulse and hard-hitting percussive edge to the tracks,
which were produced by Justin Adams (Tinariwen, Rachid Taha, Robert Plant)
and recorded in the live room at Electric Monkey Studio in Amsterdam.
An Ebo Taylor for these times, you might say.
His group, the Saltpond City Band, are all handpicked local musicians featuring two of his sons. $
An appropriate line-up on an album whose titles means “we”.
And they are on fine form, ripping through tracks such as ‘Krumandey’
(a surefire party starter) and ‘Mind Your Own Business’
(a simple message delivered over a frenetic drum rhythm).
Mr Bongo
(EN)Mr Bongo started life in 1989 as a small record shop underneath Daddy Kool’s Reggae Store on Berwick Street in London. They were the first shop to sell vinyl releases from independent hip hop labels such as Def Jam, Rawkus, Nervous and Big Beat outside of the USA. Mr Bongo also became an established bearer for hard-to-find, classic Latin music, particularly Brazilian, outside of the Americas.
Over the following years Mr Bongo moved three times within Soho and opened in Shibuya, Japan. They moved their first office to Brighton in 1999 and closed all other shops in 2003.
Their recording roster features some of the finest Brazilian, Latin, reggae, African and Jazz artists including Ebo Taylor, Hollie Cook, The Skints, Jorge Ben, Joyce, Seu Jorge, Prince Fatty, Incredible Bongo Band, Terry Callier, Arthur Verocai and Marcos Valle amongst many, many others.
(DE) Mr. Bongo begann sein Leben 1989 als kleiner Plattenladen unter Daddy Kool's Reggae Store in der Berwick Street in London. Sie waren der erste Laden, der Vinyl-Veröffentlichungen von unabhängigen Hip-Hop-Labels wie Def Jam, Rawkus, Nervous und Big Beat außerhalb der USA verkaufte. Mr Bongo wurde auch ein etablierter Anbieter für schwer zu findende, klassische lateinamerikanische Musik, insbesondere brasilianische, außerhalb Amerikas.
In den folgenden Jahren zog Mr Bongo dreimal innerhalb von Soho um und eröffnete in Shibuya, Japan. Heute sind sie in Brighton zu finden.
Ihr Programm umfasst einige der besten brasilianischen, lateinamerikanischen, Reggae-,
afrikanische und Jazz-Künstler, darunter Ebo Taylor, Hollie Cook, The Skints, Jorge Ben, Joyce, Seu Jorge, Prince Fatty, Incredible Bongo Band, Terry Callier, Arthur Verocai und Marcos Valle und viele, viele andere.