I got the Afro-beat blues . . .

Now it was a bit cold in Hong Kong today, and of course cold in HK is only 9 or 10 degrees, so you're probably wondering what I'm moaning about. Well, it was one of those mornings where you didn't want to get out of bed (most mornings?). Fortunately, the music system isn't far away and I was able to slip this tune on to warm things up.

'Money is the Root of Evil' is pure, unadulterated Afro-beat - ten minutes of meandering, sinewy rhythm. Don't know much about the artist Dan Boadi - other than he was from Ghana and he originally put this tune out in the late 70s in Chicago. By all accounts, the States wasn't ready for Afro-beat yet, although surely Fela Kuti was known by then and the likes of David Mancuso had made a reputation for picking up gems like this. In fact, this tune has a nice 'Loft' feel to it.

Boadi didn't release anything else. This is another wonderful re-find & reissue, this time from Aestaurium, who put out the excellent Philip Cohran Artistic Heritage Ensemble album - check that out for some understated, percussive, spacy jazz (God, that sounded a bit Fast Show).

Anyway, it woke me up this morning and it has the capacity to move any open-minded dancefloor.

Money is the Root of Evil

EDIT - just discovered his website - www.danboadi.com - seems he is still very much recording and has a band called Ghannata.