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LP
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HC 027LP
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Limited 2024 restock. Hot Casa Records proudly presents the reissue of Disco Hi-Life, a real treasure album composed and interpreted by Afro-soul maestro Orlando Julius. Following up the 12" release, here comes the remastered version of a real mindblower from 1976, including four unreleased tracks, all recorded with the best Nigerian musicians between Ginger Baker's studio in Lagos and the American Star Studio in West Virginia. Orlando Julius Aremu Olusanya Ekemode was born in 1943 in Ikole-Ekiti, Nigeria, and is considered a main figure of Afro-soul music history. One of the first African musicians to sign to a major label (Polydor), he delivered many hit singles as a composer and effortlessly performed live as a tenor sax player and singer. He worked and met with some of the greatest, including Louis Armstrong, James Brown (for his Nigerian tour with Bootsy Collins), The Crusaders, Gil Scott-Heron, and Hugh Masekela. In the middle of 1975, just after they finished the recording of The Boys Doing It album with Hugh Masekela, they all flew to Ghana and Lagos. It was holyday and Orlando had also plenty of time to focus on his own songs. He wrote "Disco Hi-Life" in Yoruba and "Children of the World" in English and he immediately planned a recording session including 12 of the finest musicians, such as singer Dora Ifudu Avery, Adelaja Gboyega on keys, Kenneth Okulolo on bass guitar, Butley Moore on drums, Fela's collaborator Tunde Williams on trumpet, and also Ade, who helped sing "Love Peace & Happiness." Originally released by Nigerian label Jofabro in partnership with the UNICEF association for the "International Year of the Child," it was only available in a small promotional quantity. This is the very first official reissue of this dancefloor masterpiece.
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12"
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HC 007EP
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2016 repress. "Orlando" Julius Aremu Olusanya Ekemode was born in 1943 in the Osun state of Nigeria. He first learned of his musical talent studying and playing drums and flute in school, but found his true love in the sounds of the alto saxophone. As early as 19, he was involved professionally in music as both bandleader and as a "Top Ace" with Eddy Okunta's popular band in Lagos. In 1964, he released his first massive hit single with his newly-formed Modern Aces. His 1966 effort, Super Afro Soul, made him a national celebrity in Nigeria and even went so far as to influence music in the United States. The record's dramatic, highly melodic incorporation of soul, pop, and funk was very much ahead of its time, helping to shape the funk movement in the U.S. for years to come. After Super Afro Soul, Julius released a long list of records exclusively in Nigeria and from them received a great amount of local fame. He recorded this Disco Hi-Life session in 1976 with 12 musicians.
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2CD
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VAMPI 091CD
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2007 release. One of the most innovative and pioneering musicians of his time, Orlando Julius had an amazing impact on the Nigerian music scene in the sixties and seventies. This double CD package includes Super Afro Soul with Orlando Julius & His Modern Aces, and Orlando's Afro Ideas 1969-72 by Orlando Julius & His Afro Sounders. A mind-blowing mix of Nigerian highlife-style jazz, soul and funk. Orlando's first album, Super Afro Soul, originally released in 1966, is a head on collision between highlife -- the soundtrack of Independence first in Ghana and then in neighboring Nigeria -- and '60s soul from the USA, the soundtrack of African America's struggle for civil rights and equality . Orlando's Afro Ideas 1969-72 is a compilation of tracks from three albums Orlando recorded for PolyGram in Lagos. Orlando formed a much larger band, the Afro Sounders in the late '60s. They began to explore an altogether deeper, funkier highlife fusion, responding to rock and psychedelia, the deeper funk grooves that were coming from the USA and also to Fela Kuti's Afrobeat sound. The tracks are longer, the sound mellower, the rootsier grooves profoundly hip shaking.
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CD
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VF 001CD
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"Orlando Julius has been a well known name on the West African music scene all through the 1960s and 70s. His early work was recorded in the Philips studios under the strict supervision of their house producers who were putting an emphasis on a pleasant and swinging sound that was jugging along in a pleasant way, bridging big band highlife music with American soul. In 1972 and 1973, Orlando Julius and his band The Afrosounders visited the legendary ARC Lagos studio of Ginger Baker and what OJ and the gang put to tape there was an entirely different beast: They recorded an album packed with unadulterated, funky Afrobeat of the heaviest caliber. For the first time, Orlando and his band were able to really let loose and showcase their full power with an unfiltered impact. They laid down six epic tracks that, from a funk or Afrobeat perspective, definitely count as Orlando's strongest work but it seemed that Philips were not too happy with this result. They completely botched the distribution of this record and while Orlando's earlier and later work has all been re-issued over the past years, this, his best record has remained under the radar and virtually unknown to the worldwide community of African music lovers. Now this record is re-released with its original artwork and extensive liner notes written by Orlando Julius himself, including loads of great vintage photographs." Includes 20-page booklet, housed in a hardbound package.
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LP
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VF 001LP
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2013 repress; LP version. "Orlando Julius has been a well known name on the West African music scene all through the 1960s and 70s. His early work was recorded in the Philips studios under the strict supervision of their house producers who were putting an emphasis on a pleasant and swinging sound that was jugging along in a pleasant way, bridging big band highlife music with American soul. In 1972 and 1973, Orlando Julius and his band The Afrosounders visited the legendary ARC Lagos studio of Ginger Baker and what OJ and the gang put to tape there was an entirely different beast: They recorded an album packed with unadulterated, funky Afrobeat of the heaviest caliber. For the first time, Orlando and his band were able to really let loose and showcase their full power with an unfiltered impact. They laid down six epic tracks that, from a funk or Afrobeat perspective, definitely count as Orlando's strongest work but it seemed that Philips were not too happy with this result. They completely botched the distribution of this record and while Orlando's earlier and later work has all been re-issued over the past years, this, his best record has remained under the radar and virtually unknown to the worldwide community of African music lovers."
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