One For The Weekend: (The New) Orchestra Baobab

The new version of Orchestra Baobab (below) – entirely different from the legendary ensemble you knew – has a new single "Togne Bakhoul" and a UK/EU tour.

Orchestra Baobab – Made In Senegal

‘Togne Bakhoul’ is the first new release in almost a decade from the legendary Senegalese group Orchestra Baobab, heralding a new collaboration between the Orchestra & Strut Records. 

Formed over 50 years ago as the resident band of the Baobab Club in Dakar, their timeless fusion of Afro-Cuban rhythms, Wolof griot traditions, mbalax, Congolese rumba and jazz continues to resonate across generations and continents. Now, the celebrated big band marks a new chapter in their illustrious history

"Made In Senegal," to be released by Strut Records UK in conjunction with Madoky Music in October 2026, is Orchestra Baobab's first new studio album since "Tribute To Ndiouga Dieng" in 2017 — celebrating home, heritage, love and resilience, recorded entirely in Dakar.

With the sad passing of Baobab's founding guitarist Barthélémy Atisso (in 2021) and saxophonist/percussionist Rudy Gomis (in 2022) – who together helped create the group's signature sound –  the new version of Orchestra Baobab has very little real connection to the group that began in Dakar back in 1970. Today's line-up – led by 77 year old saxophonist Seydou Norou “Thierno” Koité (who was a member of Baobab's contemporaries in Senegal: Le Sahel and Super Etoile de Dakar), with Zacharia "Papino" Koité (lead vocals), Korka Dieng (lead vocals), Taga Koité (drums), Moussa Cissokho (percussion), Yahya Fall (rhythm guitar), Malick Sy (bass), René "Bolero" Sowatche (guitar), Wilfrid Zinzou (saxophone/trombone) blends veteran musicians with a younger generation determined to preserve Baobab's enduring sound. Made In Senegal is another modern Baobab classic — the perfect time for a new generation to discover one of Africa's greatest ever big bands.

More to come, but for now, check out their beautifully composed new track ‘Togne Bakhoul’ (with lyrics by Rudy Gomis) along with a 30-minute performance from 2025. You can catch the new version of Orchestra Baobab on tour in Europe and UK – see dates below. 

Happy 90th Birthday Ebo Taylor!

Celebrating the 90th birthday of Ghanaian music legend Ebo Taylor with some interviews and performance footage worth checking. 

Ethio-jazz pioneer Mulatu Astatke updates his classics on new album

Mulatu Astatke enlists L.A. aces Carlos Niño & Kibrom Birhane to refresh some of his best-loved tunes for Mulatu Plays Mulatu. 

Here's the scoop...

Strut presents Mulatu Plays Mulatu, the first major studio album in over 10 years from the father of Ethio-jazz, Mulatu Astatke.

Featuring masterful new arrangements of some of his classic compositions, Mulatu Plays Mulatu finds Mulatu revisiting the sounds that helped to change the face of Ethiopian music during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. The album was recorded between London and Addis Ababa, working with his long-standing UK band, a tight, intuitive ensemble honed through years of live performance, alongside cultural musicians resident at his Jazz Village club in Addis.

Mulatu Plays Mulatu realizes Mulatu’s long-term vision of Ethio-jazz, intricately balancing Western jazz arrangements with the rich sounds of traditional Ethiopian instruments including the krar, masenqo, washint, kebero and begena. Throughout the album, he reshapes familiar material with rich textures, expanded improvisations and a deepened rhythmic complexity, creating a body of work that feels as vital and contemporary as it does steeped in tradition. Familiar compositions like ‘Yekermo Sew,’ ‘Nètsanèt’ and the celebratory ‘Kulun’ are reinvented here as elegant big band performances.

“Ethio-jazz brings us together and makes us one,” explains Mulatu. “This album is the culmination of my work bringing this music to the world and pays respect to our unsung heroes, the original musical scientists in Ethiopia who gave us our cultural music.”

Bridging continents and generations throughout his 50-year career, Astatke now offers us an invitation to hear his music again, with a completely fresh perspective. Ethio-jazz, like its creator, is always in motion.

Mulatu Plays Mulatu was produced by Dexter Story and features contemporary artists LA-based artists Carlos Niño and Kibrom Birhane. The album was recorded and mixed by Isabel Gracefield at RAK Studios in London and by Dexter Story in Addis. The inspired album artwork was created by acclaimed Oslo-based Ethiopian artist, Wendimagegn Belete with photography by Alexis Maryon. 

You can pre-order Mulatu Astatke's Mulatu Plays Mulatu on vinyl or CD via Bandcamp right here. Note: The CD version has 4 extra tracks. Check out "Nètsanèt" along with a video clip of a Sao Paulo performance of "The Way To Nice"  following the track listing below. 

Mulatu Plays Mulatu (vinyl edition)

A1. Zelesenga Dewel

A2. Kulun

A3. Nètsanèt

B1. Yekermo Sew

B2. Chik Chikka

B3. Motherland

B4. Yekatit

Mulatu Plays Mulatu (CD edition)

1.Zelesenga Dewel

2. Kulun

3. Nètsanèt

4.Yekermo Sew

5.Azmari

6.Chik Chikka

7. The Way To Nice

8.Motherland Intro

9.Motherland

10.Mulatu

11.Yekatit

Sun Ra's final El Saturn recording "Hidden Fire" due in September

Sun Ra's Hidden Fire Vol. 1 & 2 – recorded live at the Knitting Factory in 1988 – will be released by Strut Records on Sept 19th. 

Here's the scoop from Strut Records...

Strut Records proudly presents the official reissue of Hidden Fire Volumes 1 & 2, the final album released by Sun Ra on his El Saturn label in 1988 coming September 19th. 

Captured live over three nights at the Knitting Factory in New York City, these performances mark the closing chapter of a 33-year odyssey of radical, independent music-making. Originally issued in tiny quantities with minimal packaging and cryptic artwork—often featuring hand-written labels or Ra’s own handmade designs—Hidden Fire was among the most elusive entries in Sun Ra’s vast discography.

Musically, these recordings stand apart from Ra’s other ‘80s compositions. Here,Hidden Fire plunges into darker, more dissonant territory. Ra performs exclusively on the Yamaha DX7 synthesiser, pushing its digital sound palette into alien dimensions. The Arkestra lineup is uniquely configured, featuring a rare and heavy string section with three violins, including the legendary Billy Bang, and the singular space vocalist Art Jenkins, whose eerie textures and vocalisations had not been heard so prominently since the early 1960s Choreographers Workshop sessions. The music is raw, unsettled, and often overwhelming. 

“Retrospect / This World Is Not My Home” opens with a palindromic riff that evokes Ellington before unraveling into a stark sermon from Ra, warning of death’s dominion over Earth-bound minds. “Hidden Fire Improvisation” is a furious explosion of tone science, with Marshall Allen, Billy Bang, and John Gilmore delivering fire-breathing solos over relentless drumming and Ra’s cascading synth clusters. “Hidden Fire Blues” offers a warped, electrified version of Ra’s familiar blues feature, led by Bruce Edwards on guitar and Rollo Radford on electric bass, transformed through the haze of DX7 textures. “My Brothers The Wind And Sun #9” evokes the experimental weight of The

Heliocentric Worlds with its crashing percussion, pulsing synth-vocal duets, and string- driven chaos that seems to spiral into oblivion.

Even the quieter moments—such as “Hidden Fire II,” a duet between Ra and ArtJenkins—feel thick with unease and shadowy beauty. These performances represent a Sun Ra less concerned with cosmic joy or outer-space swing, and more focused on conjuring portals to the unknown.

Remastered from original sources and presented with archival photos, new liner notes by Paul Griffiths, and restored artwork inspired by the original Saturn editions, this reissue offers a definitive window into the last creative surge of one of music’s most visionary figures across two Vinyl LP’s. You can pre-order a ccopy of Strut's reissue of Sun Ra's Hidden Fire via Bandcamp right here. 

Sun Ra - Hidden Fire (2LP)

A1. RETROSPECT - THIS WORLD IS NOT MY HOME

A2. HIDDEN FIRE IMPROVISATION

B1/B2. HIDDEN FIRE BLUES

C1/C2. MY BROTHERS THE WIND AND SON #9

D1. HIDDEN FIRE I

D2. HIDDEN FIRE II

Expanded version of Salah Ragab's 1973 album Egypt Strut due in June

Strut's reissue of Salah Ragab's classic Egypt Strut album includes 8 bonus tracks recorded during the original sessions.  

Here's the scoop from Strut Records...

Record Store Day Store Day is back with two more 'Drops' this year and, for the first June drop, our offering is a definitive, expanded edition of the Egyptian jazz classic, Egypt Strut by Salah Ragab and Cairo Jazz Band, originally released on Prism Music Unit in 1973. 

Inspired by a concert in Cairo by Randy Weston in 1967 encouraging Pan-African unity, drummer Ragab, Eduard “Edu” Vizvari, a Czech jazz musician, and Hartmut Geerken of Goethe Institut vowed to create Egypt's first jazz big band. Ragab became a Major in the Egyptian army and had unparalleled access to the military's musicians and instruments. Following a crash course in jazz history, the Cairo Jazz Band was born, playing their first concert at Ewart Memorial Hall at the American University in downtown Cairo in 1969. Further inspired by Sun Ra and his Arkestra's visit to Egypt in 1971, Ragab recorded his landmark 'Egypt Strut' album in '73, a perfect fusion of jazz and Arabic modes with tracks referencing Islamic festivals, Egyptian landmarks and people dear to Ragab. 

This expanded version of the album features eight extra tracks recorded during associated sessions. It is released in its original artwork for the first time and is packaged with the original Prism Music Unit house bag designs, a replica of an original mini-booklet describing the tracks and an over-sized booklet featuring rare photos and new liner notes by Francis Gooding of The Wire. 

Check out "Oriental Mood" and "Egypt Strut" below. 

Before They Were Famous: Pierangelo Maset and Michael Hirsch of ExKurs

A few years before forming German NDW band ExKurs, Pierangelo Maset and Michael Hirsch were playing punk rock as The Wankers. 

Various Artists – Kreaturen der Nacht
1. "Leben Und Arbeiten - Amanita" 00:00
2. "Malaria! - Your Turn To Run (I Will Be Your Only One)" 04:19
3. "Ausserhalb - Zeitzelle" 08:27
4. "Die Haut - Der Karibische Western" 12:02
5. "Aus Lauter Liebe - Pingelig" 17:32
6. "Mania D. - Track 4" 20:32
7. "ExKurs - Fakten Sind Terror" 24:02
8. "Christiane F. - Wunderbar (JD Twitch Edit)" 27:55
9. "Sprung Aus Den Wolken - Dub And Die" 24:07
10. "P1/E - Up And Above / Up And Above Dub" 28:19
11. "Franz Erlmeier & Fritz Köstler - Öffnen Sie Mal Ihre Tasche" 35:02
12. "Populäre Mechanik - Scharfer Schnitt (No. 1)" 37:33
13. "Andreas Dorau & Die Marinas - Fred Vom Jupiter" 40:06
14. "Weltklang - Veb Heimat" 42:46
15. "Stefan Blöser - Voyager One" 45:09
16. "Matthias Schuster - An Rah Robeel" 51:00

One For The Weekend: Shina Williams & His African Percussionists

Here's the 12-inch mix of Shina Williams' Nigerian disco destroyer Agb'oju L'ogun available here.

Souljazz Orchestra readies Resistance for September – watch their Shock & Awe clip

The Resistance album is slated for release by Do Right! on September 4. Check out "Shock & Awe" below.