It started as the B-side to a hymn Manu Dibango wrote for his native Cameroon’s football team in honor of their country hosting the 1972 Africa Cup of Nations. Listen: Lee Perry & the Full Experiences: “Disco Devil”Ī decade before Michael Jackson lifted it for “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” and long before Rihanna sampled Jackson’s version in “Don’t Stop the Music” (and both got sued for uncleared usage), “Soul Makossa” was a disco scene staple. The approach to “Disco Devil” demonstrates the many ways he was able to pull pieces of a song apart and put them back together, add snippets of lyrics and sounds, and shape deep bass and rippling guitar to glide as if underwater. It’s a particularly effective example of Perry’s innovative, eccentric production style that transforms the studio into an instrument itself. Perry essentially released a dub version of the Romeo and Jazzbo tracks, then followed it with a dub of the dub. “Disco” doesn’t reference the flashy dance genre of the same name but rather the concept of the “discomix,” a 12” vinyl format that contains a vocal song seamlessly followed by a dub remix or a deejay version (meaning a rapped performance over the rhythm track). All this and more gets tossed in the pot in the nearly seven-minute-long “Disco Devil.” This track is really three ’70s reggae classics in one: Max Romeo’s “Chase the Devil,” Prince Jazzbo’s “Croaking Lizard,” and Lee Perry’s mix of both with his own vocals. See also_:_ Brigitte Fontaine, Areski Belkacem & Art Ensemble of Chicago: “ Comme à la Radio” / Pharoah Sanders: “ Love Is Everywhere” Listen: Art Ensemble of Chicago: _“_Théme de Yoyo” As a piece of free-jazz funk that predates Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time band, “Théme de Yoyo” is an early reflection of the benefits the Art Ensemble reaped from their refusal to be tied to a single genre. No matter how out there each instrumentalist ventures, every feature spot contains references to the track’s pop-song foundation. Guest vocalist Fontella Bass-the wife of Art Ensemble trumpeter Lester Bowie-contributes soulful phrasings that sound downright commercial until you focus on the absurdist lyrics (“Your fanny’s like two sperm whales floating down the Seine”). When the group’s notoriously wild horn players enter, they begin by playing things pretty straight-only reaching for avant-garde theatrics in brief pauses of the swinging, mod theme. On “Théme de Yoyo,” the opening song on a soundtrack to a now-forgotten film, the Art Ensemble’s rhythm section offers up a funk groove. Over the course of a dozen-plus records cut in the 1970s, the band’s sound made good on the malleability suggested by this varied public image, as they created delicate improvisations and noise blowouts alike. The band’s exuberant stage show reinforced its members’ organizing slogan-“Great Black Music: Ancient to the Future”-with bassist Malachi Favors often dressed like an Egyptian shaman and saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell donning the garb of a contemporary urbanite. –Brad NelsonĪ healthy portion of Chicago’s musical avant-garde decamped for France in 1969, but the group that made the biggest splash in Paris was the Art Ensemble of Chicago. This kind of intimacy, personified by the whispery translucence of Rushen’s voice, is just as easily exported to the dance floor. “It only says ‘I’m looking for the perfect guy,’” Rushen sings, searching for connection not through direct communication but with ambient speech. It manages this even as the lyric itself is private-the literal text of a classified ad. “Haven’t You Heard” enhances time until it feels like the glitter of a cityscape unfurling through a cab window. The best disco songs imply infinity in both their length and groove, and always feel as if they’re attached to a black hole. “Haven’t You Heard” is a formally perfect expression of disco. This can make it feel like an early skeleton of house music, which is appropriate-it was a touchstone of Larry Levan’s sets at the Paradise Garage, and was eventually reborn as gospel house in Kirk Franklin’s 2005 single “Looking for You.” On “Haven’t You Heard,” the piano is an anchor for the song. Even as her sensibilities shifted from jazz to fusion to R&B and disco, Patrice Rushen focused on her keyboards while everything else swirled around them.
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