Motown meets West Africa on Eboni Band’s 1980 album, reissued by We Are Busy Bodies

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Motown meets West Africa on Eboni Band’s 1980 album, reissued by We Are Busy Bodies

Toronto based record label We Are Busy Bodies has recently reissued the rare 1980 recording by the collaborative supergroup ensemble Eboni Band, featuring musicians from Ivory Coast based Eboni Records and prime Motown session players, including funk legend and longtime JB’s bandleader Fred Wesley.

Produced by Art Stewart, who was known for his work with Marvin Gaye and Rick James, and arranged by Greg Middleton, who notably worked with The Checkmates Ltd and Marlena Shaw, this brilliant session brings together the Detroit inspired soul and funk grooves with West Africa rooted vocals, harmonies and instrumentation. Eboni Records’ Abdoulaye Soumare, who also sings on the album, recorded the album in Los Angeles, applying American production techniques to the West African based music, resulting in an essential soulful funk masterpiece.

Following the recording, Stewart pitched Motown on releasing the album, however they passed because they didn’t feel that State side audiences, at the time, were uninterested in African rooted music. Now 41 years later, We Are Busy Bodies has remastered the recording, working directly with Stewart, Middleton, and Soumare, and released an official limited-edition reissue (only 1,500 copies, and going quick!). Truly a remarkable project that will hopefully begin to get the attention it absolutely deserves.