Mr. Records

March 25, 2018 8:48 AM

Tucked between butchers and hair braiders in Nairobi’s Kenyatta Market is the Real Vinyl Guru, a shabby stall that has become a mecca for vinyl lovers.
posted by infini (5 comments total)

I want to go to there.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 11:22 AM on March 25, 2018 [3 favorites]

I love the Ethiopiques series, which makes ethiojazz waaaay easier to access than a trip to Ethiopia. (Volume 4 achieved quite a bit of later-life fame for Mulatu Astake.) And the Nigeria 70 compos are great for afrobeat... Know any good compos for other parts of East Africa? Seems a shame that all this work would only live in one vinyl shop in Nairobi.
posted by kaibutsu at 11:45 AM on March 25, 2018 [5 favorites]

When Zero Freitas hears about this, what will happen?
posted by cgc373 at 1:15 PM on March 25, 2018

I recommend Getatchew Mekuria and The Ex for some mean Ethiopian sax / punk hybrid, as well as Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou for great Ethiopian piano. The wonderful people at Mississippi Records have released or distributed records by both.

Sahel Sounds also has some wonderful African releases.
posted by dobbs at 1:38 PM on March 25, 2018 [5 favorites]

kaibutsu, you and any Alan Lomax fans might be interested in the Singing Wells project; their mission is recording and preserving the traditional music of East Africa, e. g. this beautiful recording, "Malugaro", by a member of the Chibite Group in Tanzania.
For West Africa (mostly), there is Awesome Tapes from Africa, which started as a blog by Brian Shimkovitz ripping tapes from Ghanaian markets; it's now a record label & I believe he now makes extraordinary efforts to hunt down the artists behind the tapes and pay them royalties.
posted by trotzdem_kunst at 12:22 AM on March 26, 2018 [5 favorites]