OSIBISA

The cut-off point for prog fans, 'Heads' is the last Osibisa album to feature the group's original and distinct afro- jazz style, though the poppier elements that would come into play on next album 'Happy Children' are already prevalent. And it's a shame, not because 'Heads' is a bad album, but because Osibisa' second release 'Wowoya'('Heads' predecessor) was so good. A cool, detached and mellow mixture of African beats, Caribbean rhythms, jazzy textures and psych-tinged rock, 'Wowoya' is Osibisa's stand-out album, graced, just like the group's self-titled debut, by a beautiful Roger Dean-drawn cover. 'Heads' still features elements of it's predecessor's style, with jazzy organs, tribal percussion and hip-swinging beats brewing up another highly infectious dose of Afro-Caribbean rock, yet the group were becoming popular and that, as we all know, is usually a recipe for sonic homogenisation. Still, 'Heads' is an enjoyable album nonetheless, both fresh and funky and almost like an African version of Chicago thanks to the powerful horn section. Although more mainstream in it's approach this is still worth the effort, and those yet to explore the delights of Osibisa are urged to seek out all three of their original albums. It's a shame that they couldn't follow-up 'Wowoya' with a similarly-styled effort, yet in the end 'Heads' will do.

STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2012

(First review of this album.) OSIBISA is probably the best known 70's Fusion band from Africa and pioneers of the so called World Music. Most players were from Ghana but were operating in London. Their first two albums from the beginning of the decade, Osibisa and Woyaya, are considered their best. Funky, rhythmic Fusion with lots of woodwind, brass, excellent electric guitar and percussion, and with a strong Western African feel (a cousin to that of Latin-American). The band continued to make albums but they eventually got poorer and poorer, less and less original - often even disco-ish - as can be seen from the ratings here. And that notion gets pretty clear with this compilation too.

Roger Dean (the illustrator known by all YES fans) has done many of the later album covers too, including this one. That, and the title "The Very Best Of" makes one expect a good, well done compilation but these expectations are not fulfilled very well. It's definitely more recommended to get the double issue of the mentioned first albums. Not that all of the later stuff is crap. Some songs are quite listenable even if they don't have much in common with the Fusion they started with. And of course it's interesting to hear how they changed through the years. Well, at least they always kept that happy, joyous mood.

What a decent compilation should do is give the listener deeper information of the band. In that sense too this is a let-down. Especially I would have wanted to get the release years of each track. Albums are mentioned but not their release years, strange!

As someone who passed through a significant world music phase and still enjoys ethnic fusion, I was long overdue to check out the primordial blend offered up by OSIBISA before the genre even had a name. Hailing from 1971, their debut not surprisingly incorporates the progressive music of its day into an appealing mix of R&B, African, and Latin sounds. SANTANA certainly provides a solid point of reference but OSIBISA is more ensemble oriented and casts a wider net.

The intention from the get go was to produce joyous music that gets you or at least your chromosomes dancing, and the objective seems to have been met. While the group sound is clearly much happier than its analog in America, its general heaviness and incessant emphasis on rhythm do not produce the same effect on this listener, especially when compared to the more melodically oriented practitioners of the 80s and beyond - JULUKA, TOURE KUNDA, and HABIB KOITE to name a few. In the meantime, drum solos are the aural equivalent of traffic snarls for me in 2011, so, while I can appreciate that times were different, it doesn't mean I want to go back to something I never experienced in its proper context in the first place.

Still and all, OSIBISA offers enough striking material assessed on its own merits, as well as blueprints for the world music artists who followed, to merit their groundbreaking status. The best examples here of each respective aspect would be "Music for Gong Gong" and "Ayiko Bia". One of the group's strong suits is their expressive use of wind instruments, mostly brass, and "Oranges" provides the juiciest example herein. I am intrigued by the lyrical concept of "Phallus C", but the words are hard to make out and nowhere could I find them online. It almost sounds like an indictment of stereotypes around penis length and girth based on race, but musically leaves me cold. "Thing about the people" would seem out of place in lesser hands but actually works well as a closing number, solidifying the group's versatility in the realm of political protest. Lyrics aside, this one is worth it for the organ work even relative to the keyboard standards set earlier in the disk.

I don't imagine I will be criss crossing these rhythms with high frequency, but I can certainly understand the buzz and the role this band could play as a portal to the world music scene for progressive afficionados.

Happiness is an angry elephant with wings.

Osibisa have self-professed on their debut album that their music is ''criss-cross rhythms that explode with happiness'' and have promised to make us happy when we listen to their music. For this music lover, mission accomplished. This is by and far the happiest band I've ever come across, even beating out Yes at times. Like the debut album, Osibisa plays upbeat jazz-rock laced with African percussions and rhythms as well as Latin music ideas that spark of Santana. To stress the happiness factor, WOYAYA goes nowhere near the sometimes darker tracks on parts of the debut.

If you've ever gotten curious and listened to ''The Beautiful Seven'', it starts the album very well. The first half is nearly mystic with some of the most gorgeous ensemble vocals I've heard; I can tell that these guys are having fun as well as taking their happiness somewhat seriously. They convince you that they know what they're doing vocally, and that intangible works better on me as a listener than any type of skill. To icing the cake, it segues right into a powerful, flute driven jam that signifies everything great about this group.

Some direct correlations with the debut album are the tracks ''Rabiatu'' (sounds a bit like ''Ayiko Bia'' and ''Phallus C'' combined) and ''Move On'' (sounds like ''Think About the People''; it made sense when I found out Wendell Richardson wrote both). ''Spirits Up Above'' is slightly weaker than the rest due the slow dance pace at the beginning, but it soon picks up. ''Y Sharp'' and the title track are other highlights in this collection emphasizing the happiness attitude with Chicago-esque horn, Santana-like organs and Osibisa's own percussion drives.

WOYAYA is very attached to its predecessor with a bit more happiness added to it. It's a very good companion to OSIBISA that anyone open to world music along with jazz-rock might want to pick up.

The first thing that striked me about the second studio effort by Osibisa is artwork, Roger Dean seems to be not able to do wrong regarding album artworks. It is a real delight to have the Repertoire Records version, it looks really great. Osibisa is listed on ProgArchives as a band from Ghana, this is only partially true, Teddy Osei, Mac Tontoh and Sol Amarfio are really from Ghana, but the other four musicians come from Nigeria, Grenada and Trinidad. But this is not a major mistake, and I have to be glad that I discovered this band via ProgArchives. The title of the opening track may refer to the number of band members, and to the number of tracks on this album. Beautiful Seven is indeed a beautiful track, great flutes, african rythms, a positive, joyful vibe, one of the signature songs of Osibisa. Y Sharp is also a fantastic track, irrestibly joyful, nice pllaying on trumpet, sax, and the rythms are again brilliant. Spirits up Above is an excellent Roland Kirk Cover, well, I have not heard the original, but this is very good.:-) After this the quality drops a little bit with the two following tracks, but not a lot. Honestly, I don't really like the intro of Survival. Fortunately, the band gets back on track and they finish the album with two fabulous tracks, Rabiatu features outstanding bass playing, and the title track is a wonderful ballad like peace, great to sing it along.:-) Overall, this is a very well played and written joyful album, with some minor flaws, a strong four star album for me.

Happy Children is a touch better than Heads, revitalising the Osibisa sound by adding a more funk-influenced bassline courtesy of Jean-Karl Dikoto Mandengue, and a carefully-applied layer of keyboards played by Jean Roussel. Still, by and large this is the same sort of material as appeared on the previous three albums, and if you already own them you may begin to wonder why you'd want a fourth. Like the Ozric Tentacles, early Osibisa are a band where sometimes you can feel as though if you've heard one of their albums you've heard them all. Interesting, but the first two albums are a better pick.

By Heads, the formula of the first two Osibisa albums was beginning to wear a little thin. It's still perfectly pleasant fusion, but by this point the songs get a bit too repetitive (like opener Kokorokoo, which could have done with being a few minutes shorter), and dismayingly the band seem to tone down their sound here and there in an attempt to reach a mainstream audience - but if they have to lose their soul and their cultural identity in doing so, where's the victory in that? It's still a reasonably enjoyable listen if you are already an Osibisa fan, but it's hardly their finest hour.

OSIBISA's second album released in the same year as the debut (1971) is a definite improvement.This is more mature as that party atmosphere from the debut is all but gone.To my ears they seemed to focus more on making serious instrumentals and they have succeeded in a big way because they sound incredible. We get another Roger Dean cover in the same style as the debut.

"Beautiful Seven" opens with thunder and rain as the flute comes in followed by a beat.Vocals after 2 minutes.The tempo picks up after 4 minutes as the percussion and flute lead. Horns kick in quickly on "Y Sharp" blasting away as the percussion continues. I like when the electric piano comes in after 3 1/2 minutes.Vocals follow. Love the guitar 5 minutes in.

"Spirits Up Above" opens with organ and a relaxed sound. I like it ! Horns join in as it stays laid back.Vocals after 1 1/2 minutes.The tempo picks up with drums, piano, horns and more. Guitar 5 1/2 minutes in. Nice. So much going on here.

"Survival" has these vocal expressions as lots of percussion and drum sounds join in. Cool sound here. A change before 2 minutes as the tempo picks up.Vocal melodies and a catchy sound. Horns and organ too. A sax solo before 5 minutes.

"Move On" has a catchy beat and I like the lyrics. "Rabiatu" features bass and drums before it gets fuller. A SANTANA vibe here. Back to percussion and bass as the horns join in again. "Woyaya" is an interesting track with organ,vocals and drums leading.

Less theatrics and frills on this one and a more professional sound all translates into this being a keeper. An easy 4 stars.

OSIBISA may have been a band out of the UK but it's seven members were from Ghana (3), Grenada, Antigua, Nigeria and Trinidad.The band's name apparently means "Criss-cross rhythms that explode with happiness". An apt description. You feel like your listening in on a celebration as they woop it up vocally as percussions, horns, flute, organ and guitar standout. Interesting that this has a Roger Dean cover before even YES had one. So yeah this is a lot of fun.

"The Dawn" is my favourite track once the vocal expressions die down and the music becomes the focus. Flute leads then horns before the organ comes in around 2 1/2 minutes. Guitar before 4 minutes as the organ floats in the background.Big finish to this one. "Music For Gong Gong" is catchy with horns and percussion. Organ before 3 minutes. Someone is blowing a whistle at one point.

"Ayiko Bia" has some weird vocals before the music comes in. More of those vocals again. Not a fan of this one although the guitar is good before 4 minutes. Again a big finish. "Akwaaba" opens with percussion and vocal expressions along with horns. Guitar before 2 minutes then the organ leads a minute later.

"Oranges" is great until the vocals arrive after 2 minutes. Catchy stuff though. "Phallus C" is interesting because the vocals remind me of Joe Jackson (haha). I keep thinking eighties. Love the percussion late. "Think About The People" reminds me of SANTANA, at least the percussion does.

A good album no doubt but I must admit I was hoping more for something like EAST OF EDEN.

Building impressively on the successes of their first album, Osibisa's Woyaya combines killer guitar playing in a classic rock or fusion mould (as on Y Sharp or Spirits Up Above) or delicate, gentle flute (as on Beautiful Seven) with the African rhythms of the band's legendary percussion section to create a true piece of world music, showing as it does the influence of three continents. There's even a bit of funk that works its way in on Survival and Y Sharp. The music is so wonderfully upbeat and cheerful that it's impossible not to say that the album fulfils the previous album's mission declaration of "criss-cross rhythms that explode in happiness". A very worthy addition to the band's discography.