Teaspoon And The Waves’s rare 1977 South African jazz-funk album reissued by Mr Bongo

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Teaspoon And The Waves’s rare 1977 South African jazz-funk album reissued by Mr Bongo

UK’s Mr Bongo is always reissuing some of the greatest and most obscure titles from yesteryears, however they have certainly outdone themselves again with their latest reissue of Teaspoon And The Waves’ rare 1977 self-titled album, featuring a heavy dose of South African jazz-funk.

Over the year’s the record has received much attention from DJs and collectors alike for it’s massive dancefloor classic “Oh Yeh Soweto”, which is an incredible adaptation of Lamont Dozier’s anthem “Going Back to My Roots”. Even though the praise for this club classic is absolutely worthy, the track has often overshadowed the brilliance of the other four tracks on the recording. Great from start to finish, the entire album fuses together elements of jazz-funk with Afro-synths, disco, feel-good reggae vibes, and funky tropical grooves.

The original session was led by saxophonist Teaspoon Ndlela, who released a number of other solid albums for labels like Soul Jazz Pop, Hit Special, and Gallo GRC, as well as collaborating with other notable South African artists like Mpharanyana, Stimela, Sipho Gumede and Sgu. He was also featured on the Paul Simon track “Gumboots” from the iconic Graceland recording.

Overall, a well-crafted reissue of what has to be one of the greatest South African jazz-funk albums ever recorded. Even though I love “Oh Yeh Soweto”, I’m looking forward to hearing other material from the record also make it’s way to dancefloors (hopefully soon!).