The Perlich Post: December 2024

Monday, December 2, 2024

Watch Melissa Swingle play a song about Jesco White

What better way to celebrate Melissa Swingle's birthday than with her musical salute to the Dancin' Outlaw Jesco White.

Happy Birthday Michael Stuart!

Celebrating the birthday of Jamaican-born, Toronto based saxophonist Michael Stuart with a few recordings worth checking.

Whaddya mean you don't know Almon Memela's Soweto

The Broken Shoes album by Almon Memela's Soweto, which I stumbled onto a few decades ago, has just been reissued by Toronto's We Are Busy Bodies.

Here's the scoop...

As a longtime fan of Fela Kuti's Afrobeat sound, by the early 80s, I was already searching for other West African artists working a similar groove. Some of the stuff coming out of Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal that was turning up used in Toronto record shops by artists like King Sunny Ade, C.K. Mann, Sir Victor Uwaifo, Xalam, K. Frimpong, Étoile de Dakar and A.B. Crentsil's Super Sweet Talks was interesting but not really the sort of stuff I was after. It was probably around 1986 that I came across the Broken Shoes album that looked intriguing. The blocky outlined "college sweatshirt" font and cover image of a haphazard pile of well-worn footwear wasn't giving much away. Was "Broken Shoes" the band name or the album title? As I flipped it over, trying to discern who were the musicians involved or at least where they were from, the store owner shouted from across the room, "that's some kinda African thing. Don't ask me who's on it – the guy who sold it to me didn't even know – but it sounded O.K. so I bought it."

On the back there were no band members depicted just six tiny sleeve images advertising some other records available in the same series including the "Pele Pele" album by Philip Tabane's Malombo and the Michaelangelo and Woolmark National Jazz Festival 1976. Above there were just two side-long songs listed: "Broken Shoes" time stamped 15:30 and "Pelican City" clocking in at 15:20 which was a promising sign in itself since many of Fela Kuti's best albums were two-trackers.

Almon Memela

Although both the sleeve and vinyl were in pristine shape, the lack of recording info other than the release date oddly listed as MCMLXXVI, the label being Highway Soul distributed by WEA Records and the production and composition credits attributed to Almon Memela made the asking price seem like a bit too much of a risk back then. Not that the record was hugely expensive, I just had no idea what it sounded like. Remember, this was long before the Internet when many dealers priced records according to out-dated Goldmine price guide or simply added a reasonable profit margin to what they paid for them based on the relative rarity and current desirability of the item. It was a very different from today's racket where some store owners will consult Discogs to determine the pay out value for used records coming in through the door based on the lowest price ever paid for scratched up sleeveless copy and then mark them up to the Canadian dollar equivalent of the top price ever paid in Paris, Tokyo, Dubai or Zurich. Since I couldn't simply "google it," I'd need to hear the record first. But having seen the notoriously crusty store owner turn down many such requests from curious customers before, I knew it was going to be easier said than done.

"I know you don't like to do this," I started, "but I was wondering if you could..." Before I could finish, he snapped "I'm not going to play a whole song – there's only two and they're both over 15 minutes long!" So I suggested, "how about a quick needle drop in the middle of either side?" After grousing about how the majority of customers who ask to hear what a record sounds like never actually end up buying the record in question, he relented and played a few revolutions before raising the tone arm again. "Good enough?" he growled and then took another look for the credits and added "It's actually better than I thought." The brief passage I heard had a propulsive mid-70s groove and a solid horn arrangement. No cheesy synths, annoying vocals or corny French production moves which was a huge relief. "Yep," I smiled, "good enough for me, I'll take it."

At the time, there was scant little information available in North America concerning smaller production South African releases from the mid-70s. For many years following, I had no idea that the "Broken Shoes" mastermind Almon Memela, was the Soweto-based guitar ace behind Almon's Jazz Eight, A.M. Stragglers and the classic "Funky Africa" album from 1975. Apparently Memela cut both horn-backed studio jams for the Broken Shoes album with members of the hard swingin' house band from Soweto's Pelican Club but good luck to anyone living outside of Jo'burg trying to track down who they were.

Although the inspiration was clearly funky U.S. R&B of the pre-disco era being knocked out by the likes of B.T. Express, Kool and the Gang, Ohio Players, Bohannon and Brass Construction, the whole approach seemed to be a lot more West African than South African to my ears. Both sides mixed extremely well with Fela's extended Africa 70s workouts and I could tell it would go down a storm in clubs. It's a good thing I grabbed that Broken Shoes album when I saw it because I've never come across another copy anywhere in all the years since. The few times I've mentioned the Broken Shoes record to collectors with knowledge of African records from the 70s, it always drew blank stares and shrugs.

When Memela's "Funky Africa" album was reissued by Toronto's We Are Busy Bodies, I rang up the label boss Eric Warner and suggested he consider re-releasing Memela's mysterious "Broken Shoes" follow-up since no one else in the business of recirculating rare and funky African artifacts from the 70s had shown any interest.

For a long time, vintage jazz and funk records coming out of South Africa weren't seen as cool as those from West Africa by many collectors from Europe and North America. Perhaps the numerous poorly curated "world beat" comps of the mid-80s focusing on Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Johnny Clegg & Savuka left a bad impression. For whatever reason, it really wasn't until around 2010 when Strut Records started their multi-volume Next Stop... Soweto series and Matsuli Music reissued Dick Khoza's "Chapita" album that things started changing.

Maybe now, in 2024, the time is finally right for a rethink of Memela's mid-70s work. I guess we'll see. I'm happy to report that there's a new We Are Busy Bodies label reissue of the "Broken Shoes" album by Soweto – sweetly remastered from the original master tapes by Noah Mintz at Lacquer Channel Mastering – now available via Bandcamp that you can get right here. You'd better act fast however, there were only 500 copies pressed and many of them have sold since the November 15th release date. Have a listen below.