Various Artists: London Is The Place For Me 5: Latin, Jazz, Calypso And Highlife From Young Black London

Honest Jon’s HJRLP 061 (Do LP) - € 30
5th volume in HJ’s longest ongoing, wonderful, clever & beautifully presented series
At last, fresh installments in our acclaimed, much-loved series: open-hearted, bitter-sweet, mash-up postcards to the here and now, from young black London. As then, calypso carries the swing. There are four more Lord Kitchener songs — in consideration of his wife leaving him for a GI, cricket umpires, a fling onboard an ocean-liner and West Indian poultry — besides a hot mambo cash-in, cross-bred under his supervision, and an uproarious, teasing Ghanaian tribute to him in Fanti by London visitors The Quavers. Other calypsos range compellingly from the devaluation of the pound through jiu jitsu, big rubbery instruments, football fans, heavyweight champ Joe Louis and the sexual allure of English women police. The Mighty Terror contributes the woe-begotten, cautionary tale of his beloved Patricia's change of heart: ’I cannot believe, not for one moment / She gone with Millicent... / You may think I am jocular / But this really happened in Manchester / I felt so ashamed, my friends laughed at me / I had to take a train for London city.’ Ambrose Campbell is back, with six more shots of prodigal, limber, melancholic, visionary West African highlife. Also the Rolling Stones’ favourite Ginger Johnson, with a percussive Latin scorcher; and Mona Baptiste, with some wonderful, soulful exotica. Jamaican mento makes its first entry in the series, with a brace by Tony Johnson: a drily witty drinking-song, and a love-letter to Marilyn Monroe. Also finally getting some dues, the path-breaking Latin-African-jazz experiments of Ghanaian drummer and percussionist Buddy Pipp, with spine-tingling playing by the great Jamaican saxophonist Joe Harriott. Expert jazz idioms course sophisticatedly through all the selections, which include a straight-up, South London version of Duke Jordan’s Jordhu, something from Dizzy Reece’s soundtrack — brokered by Kenneth Tynan — to the British crime film Nowhere To Go, and a trio of magnificently hybrid, hard-swinging instrumentals led in turn by master-guitarist Fitzroy Coleman, Kitch’s innovative arranger Rupert Nurse, and trumpeter Shake Keane — named after Shakespeare because of his love of poetry — from St. Vincent. Proper Brit Pop.

Tracklisting:

Buddy Pipp’s Highlifers: Cuban Nightingale

George Browne: Calypso Mambo

Lord Beginner: The Dollar And The Pound

Lord Invader: Goodwood Park

Shake Keane: Trumpet Highlife

West African Rhythm Brothers: Ominira

Caribbean Swing Band: Jordhu

Buddy Pipp’s Highlifers: Ghana Special

Lord Kitchener: Cricket Umpires

Lord Kitchener: Kitch’s Mambo Calypso

West African Rhythm Brothers: Jekafo Ju Agbawo

Mighty Terror: Patricia Gone With Millicent

Lord Kitchener: My Wife Went Away With Yankee

The Quavers: Kitch

Mona Baptiste: Tabu

Lord Kitchener: Jamaica Turkey

Mighty Terror: Women Police In England

Tejan-Sie With The West African Rhythm Brothers: King Jimmy Foo Foo

West African Swing Stars: My Sorrow