The Okukuseku International Band, led by Sammy Koffi, was a Ghanaian group that made its way to Nigeria in the '70s and built an enduring career there. In this Okukuseku was not alone: the '70s oil boom was like a giant magnet that drew musical talent from across Africa. When the Nigerian economy crashed in the '80s these musicians were all sent packing. Sammy and Okukuseku apparently also retreated to Ghana, but by 1989 they were back in Nigeria, where today's offering, Beautiful Woman (His Master's Voice/EMI Nigeria HMV (N) 061), was recorded.
Sammy Koffi himself started out with K. Gyasi's band in Ghana in the '60s, before leaving to form Okukuseku's No. 2 Guitar Band in 1969. I've been wanting to post something from Okukuseku for a while. Thing is, quite a bit of their material has been posted on various blogs already, notably Moos's Global Groove, which has an extensive selection. Beautiful Woman, to the best of my knowledge, has not been made available before. In fact, it's not even included in Discogs' extensive listing. So, double bonus!
The title song, "Beautiful Woman," seems to draw on the same sentiment as, if it's not directly inspired by, Jimmy Soul's 1963 smash "If You Want to Be Happy," but I really enjoy the extended jam that takes up Side Two of this LP. I hope you'll enjoy it also!
Download Beautiful Woman as a zipped file here. Side A of this pressing was off-center, resulting in a slight "wow." My apologies, couldn't do anything about it!
"The title song, "Beautiful Woman," seems to draw on the same sentiment as, if it's not directly inspired by, Jimmy Soul's 1963 smash "If You Want to Be Happy,""
ReplyDeleteThen there's the roaring Lion version from 1934
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZnNwZyaGf8
Thanks John.
Thanks for that, Ken! I had no idea Jimmy Souls's version was a remake.
ReplyDeleteThiis is dope!
ReplyDeleteHello. I am a great fan of your blog. Thanks a lot.
ReplyDeleteThere are solutions to the off-centre problem. With one of my turntables I place a thick (but light) disk to be as high as the centre-pole, and I can place the record (trial and error) to play
centric again. Rip the record and etc. On another turntable I can pull out the centrepole, so I can also easily place the record so, that it plays centric. It is a bit of a puzzle evry time, but has given me so much good music back, otherwise underappreciated.
I hope you can make something with this comment.