JUNGLE FUNK by KOFI AYIVOR

The first ever re-release of ‘Adzagli (Jungle Funk)’ and ‘A Song For You (Ayawa)’, two phenomenal pieces of West African disco from Amsterdam’s Kofi Ayivor.

Selected from his sought-after Nigerian 1981 self-titled debut album ‘Kofi’, at last these two recordings see the light of day once more via a loud-cut remastered 12” single. In addition, Kalita enlists fellow Amsterdam resident, DJ and producer Mendel to create his own remix of each recording, using the original multitrack session tapes to rework both for the modern-day dancefloor.

After having experienced life travelling with E.T. Mensah, as a percussionist for Afro rock supergroup Osibisa, and then as mproducer for Brit funk band Hi-Tension, in 1980 Kofi decided it was time to release his own solo album. With his own release, he could showcase his skills as a master drummer, combining these with the prevailing disco sound that had by this time taken over Western and West African airwaves. As he recalls, ‘all this time, especially on Osibisa's United States tour, I began to critically examine the difference between our native African music and the element of it that had been incorporatedinto popular Western music. And so my search began to find ma modern African sound’.

Kofi was joined on both recordings by various musical superstars of the time, including Osibisa members Kiki Gyan and Jake Sollo, Eddy Grant on guitar and Theadora Ifudu on improvised backing vocals, and in 1981 the album was released on CBS’ Nigerian imprint. Unfortunately, without a touring sponsor nor much label support the record soon faded into obscurity, and the record was lost.

Now, forty years later and with original copies highly sought-after and selling for triple figures on the second-hand market, Kalita unearth this masterpiece once more, accompanied by two remixes courtesy of Mendel.