Various Artists: Africa Airways One & Two: Funk Connection 1973-1980 / Funk Departures 1973-1982

Once, there was vinyl; then, there were CDs, and the vinyl recordings were reissued on them; now, there is vinyl again, and once again vinyl recordings are being rounded up and issued on CD or other digital formats. There is nothing new under the sun, right?

This Africa Airways release was originally issued as two separate volumes on vinyl — not in, say, 1973, but in 2015. Those two volumes have now been compiled on this two-CD set. As their subtitles suggest, the recordings themselves date from the disco era into the early 1980s. They are the fruits, one imagines, of much crate-digging. These 19 tracks present a true fusion of African and Western musical styles and virtues. The artists are African; specifically, the West African nation of Cameroon is by far most heavily-represented, but several other countries are, too. But these artists are clearly heavily inspired by American and European notions of disco, funk, and soul. The catch, of course, is that these Western sounds were themselves heavily influenced by African traditions. To wit, James Brown himself was successfully sued by Cameroonian artist Tala A.M., whose disco-fied “Black Gold” appears here. It seems the Godfather of Soul borrowed a little too liberally from one of Tala’s compositions for his own “The Hustle”. Just another circle making the revolutions, or, to overly simplify it, if soul and disco were Black music that was eventually co-opted by the white Western majority, Africa Airways is Black musicians co-opting it right back.

But all you really need to know is Africa Airways is a ton of fun. Without exception, it has a good beat and you can dance to it. Crucially, this is true fusion. Only in a couple cases does it veer off into “Africans doing funk” or “Africans doing disco”. Yes, there is plenty of James Brown-inspired chicken-scratch guitar on Ekambi Brilliant’s “Aboki”, and there are horns aplenty and a proto-hip-hop beat on Jo Bisso’s “Give It Up”, plus wah-wahs and growling bass on Jo Tongo’s “Jangolo”. But only Oscar Harris and the Twinkle Stars’ “Relax (Before Doin’ Sex)” would qualify as a straight-up JB tribute. As such, it is exceptionally funky and unrepentantly lascivious. Bozambo’s “Get It On the Music” has a decidedly P-Funk / Sly Stone groove. However, as always, the syncopated percussion and uniquely African voices ensure there is much more than a game of “spot the reference” going on.

There are more overtly Afro-centric elements in the polyrhythms of M’Bamina’s “Mbongui” or the twinkling finger piano and acapella chant of Africa Souls Band’s psychedelic “Nande”. But the more esoteric Africa Airways gets, the more fascinating it becomes. Take, for example, the taut beat and minor-key brooding of the other M’Bamina selection, “Kilowi-Kilowi”, which is as goth/new wave as it is anything else. Or the most wonderfully bizarre notion of Myriam Makeba’s “Toyota”. The South African Makeba is easily the compilation’s most recognizable name. She even scored an American major-label record deal and had a crossover hit. But here she is, over a slinky, flute-laced jazz/funk groove, cooing, “Everybody loves good music and good living too, and everybody loves a good a beautiful car. So why not Toyota?”. Pure capitalist bliss.

Africa Airways does have a fair share of disco; therefore, it has a fair share of camp. But what campy fun it is! If you can’t smile at the ridiculous bass and synth stabs of Pasteur Lappe’s “Na Real Sekle Fo Ya”, not to mention the synth explosion in the middle, you might want to get yourself checked out. So marvel at its multi-cultural significance. Or just groove along to its timeless coolness. As one lyric puts it, “Music is the best thing to work out a problem”. The evidence is all here.