TRACKLIST
1. African Rhythms (Album Version) 07:21
2. Follow Me 05:04
3. Space Jungle Funk
4. JuJu feat. The Space Rangers - Got to Be Right on It (Original 45 Version)
5. Okyerema Asante - Sabi (Black Fire Mix) CD/Digital only
6. Interlude - Rhythms Timelesness (CD/Digital only)
7. JuJu feat. Roach Om - No Name #3 / Love is... / My N*gg*r & Me
8. West Wind 07:42
9. Juju - Freedom Fighter (CD/Digital only)
10. Be About the Future
11. Nooky
12. Interlude - African Rhythms (CD/Digital only)
13. Oneness of Juju feat. Plunky - Every Way But Loose 06:41
14. Bootsie's Lament (Unreleased Version)
15. Chants / Don't Give Up 07:00
16. River Luv Rite 08:08
17. Oneness of Juju feat. Plunky - Higher (CD/Digital only)
18. African Rhythms Chant
19. Juju - Nairobi / Chants
20. Okyerema Asante - Asante Sana
21. Interlude: African Rhythms II (CD/Digital only)
22. JuJu feat. The Space Rangers - Plastic (Original 45 Version) 06:12
23. African Rhythms (Original 7" Version Pt. 1) CD/Digital only
24. The End of the Butterfly King
DESCRIPTION
Strut kick off a brand new deal with the seminal independent black jazz and soul label Black Fire in May with 'African Rhythms 1970-1982', a comprehensive 2CD / 3LP compilation of Oneness Of Juju, led by Plunky J. Branch.Tracing their career from the band's earliest work in 1970 with South African exiled jazzman Ndikho Xaba in San Francisco, the compilation covers the band's journey to New York's loft jazz scene, forming Juju and releasing two landmark albums of hard-hitting percussive jazz on Strata-East. "I saw myself as a cultural warrior," explains Plunky. "We studied about Africa and tried to infuse our music with an African spirit." Moving back to his hometown of Richmond, Virginia during the mid-'70s, Plunky drew in a superb new group of musicians and vocalists and created the band's new incarnation, Oneness Of Juju, retaining the African influence but fusing his sound with funk and R'n'B on the classic 'African Rhythms' album. "We realised that, if we put a backbeat to the Afro-Cuban rhythms, people in Richmond and Washington D.C. could be drawn into it; it didn't change anything about our message." The change would lead to a series of enduring soul-jazz classics on Jimmy Gray's Black Fire label, including 'River Luv Rite', 'Plastic' and 'Don't Give Up' and their biggest crossover international hit, 'Every Way But Loose' in 1982, later famously remixed by Larry Levan. The band received renewed interest in their music during the mid-'80s as Washington D.C.'s go-go innovators cited the band as a major influence and rare groove DJs revived their albums for London dancefloors.