I've been collecting vinyl records for about 15 years. I started the "Babaliah Loves" serie of selections about 6 years ago. It's about selecting tracks that I love, on original records, by country or cultural space, genre or artist.
By now, you can enjoy the following ones: just click on the title to find the article with a miniplayer:
Africa : Guinée, Ghana, Angola1, Angola2, Mali, Congo, Benin1(latin), Ebenezer Obey, ...
The Caribbean : Tumbélé, Cuba, Haïti1, Haïti2, Ryco-Jazz, Ska, Madikera 1 (Calypso),...
Indian Ocean : Madagascar, Sega 1 (60's)
America(s) : Colombia, Mongo Santamaria
Europe and Asia : Eurasia, Turkey, Jugoslavia 1 ( Traditions), USSR
Unclassifiable : Jazz 1, Bonus, Jazz 2, Afrotropical Party
Dj/Crate Digger Bio : I've been collecting vinyl records since 2000 and didn't inherit a lot of records from my parents as they were not really into the music I liked : french 80's pop was not my thing! However, my parents taste in music strongly influenced my relation with words and litterature, as they were more into french language songwriters, such as George Brassens, Jacques Brel or Renaud...
My record collection is not really old, but when I started digging in the crates, I had already spent my teen age exploring the more easily available side of black music. When I was 15, my best friend introduced me to Jazz. As his mother woked at School, He lived in the school, and during lunch time, we used to spend a lot of time eploring his father's big collection of jazz cd's, including nearly every Blue Note record reissued in cd in France during the 90's..
As I had been playing saxophone in both a soul/rythm and blues band and a Jamaïcan jazz band ( mostly playing ska and rocksteady standards with a lot of choruses or covering jazz, bossa or latin classics with 60's jamaïcan rythms), I had been in touch with a wide range of music.
When I was about 19, another guy entered my life and clearly opened the Hiphop door for me. I had been in touch with french Hip Hop since its beggining, but had only a little idea of what US Hip hop was at this time. I had been given a K7 of Public Enemy's "Fear of a black planet when I was 15, in 1990, and I did not really like the kind of US Rap featured on french TV at this time. but never really listened to something else, until I discovered Olivier Cachin's Rapline. Then, my friend helped me to go further : in his somky room, we spent a lot of nights listening to all time classics by big names of the golden era.
The link between all the kinds of music I liked seemed to be Africa. and by then, I started to explore avery kind of music that had its roots in Africa. Starting with Fela. Huge slap in my face. The first thinking was : "Hey! Man! There is one guy in Africa who made some killer funky music with african rhythm!!!" Then it all really started for me...
