Time: 40:58 + 43.08
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1977
Styles: Afro, Soul, Funk
Art: Front
CD 1
1. Intro-The Dawn [8:20]
2. Welcome Home [4:30]
3. Ayiko Bia [7:33]
4. Living Loving Feeling [5:59]
5. Woyaya [6:45]
6. Spirits Up Above [7:49]
CD 2
1. Kelele [7:50]
2. Fire [7:01]
3. Music For Gong Gong [8:03]
4. Beautiful Seven / Y Sharp [8:30]
5. Sunshine Day [7:16]
6. Encore / Survival [5:08]
Recorded on July 19, 1977, this double LP (reissued as a two-CD set) contained live versions of songs that appeared on several of their 1971-1977 albums, as well as one ("Living Loving Feeling") that only came out as a single. Osibisa, who anticipated many of the features of the worldbeat sound, cover a lot of ground on this lengthy set -- maybe too much for some tastes. Sometimes the material gets close to traditional African music in its rhythms and chanting; at others, it nearly treads on jazz fusion territory, though not in a bad way. And while Osibisa singer and multi-instrumentalist Teddy Osei says in the liner notes that the band wasn't influenced by Santana, the Afro-Latin rhythms and chant-style vocals in some of the songs certainly remind you of Santana, though again not in an objectionable fashion. There's also some Rahsaan Roland Kirk-style flute playing, and a rendition of their substantial 1976 British hit "Sunshine Day" that finds them at their most pop-friendly. While they might not have been the most innovative or original of these kind of groups, overall this is a lively document of an ensemble that fused African, soul-funk, and some Latin and jazz elements when that sort of mixture was far less accessible outside Africa than it would be in subsequent decades.
Black Magic Night - Live At Royal Festival Hall