Habibi Funk Germany レコード& CD

Review: Maha was the vocalist with Salah Ragab's Cairo jazz band and in 1979 she recorded this somehow completely unknown album. It is a real world music gem that previously only came on cassette, and features production from Hany Shenoda of Al Massrieen. It mixes up plenty of Egyptian musical traditions with jazz, funk, soul and Latin influences. There's a string-laced serenity to 'Kabl Ma Nessallem We Nemshy' and 'Ala Shat El Nesyan' which stand out as particular highlights. Maha left music behind in the mid-1980s for a different life, which in this evidence suggests the jazz scene lost a great one.

Review: For their latest essential primer on Sudanese music, Habibi Funk has chosen to focus on singer Sharharbil Ahmed, an artist whose desire to update Haqiba, a popular secular style of vocal-driven music, made him a pivotal figure in the 1960s. In his home country, Sharharbil became known as the "king of Sudanese jazz", a distinctive style that melded local instrumentation and vocals with jazz horns and heavy, guitar-driven grooves that drew much inspiration from rock and roll, surf-rock and rhythm and blues. The compilation does a great job in showcasing this insatiable, effervescent sound, showcasing the very best of Sharharbil's golden period output, most of which has never before been released outside of Sudan.

Review: Habibi Funk co-founder Jannis Stuertz first came across "the Holy Grail of Sudanese funk", Saif Abu Bakr and The Scorpions "Jazz, Jazz, Jazz", while browsing eBay listings a few years back. His interest piqued, he took a trip to Sudan to track down the musicians who had made a ridiculously rare LP that was changing hands for thousands of pounds online. Some four years later, his wish to reissue the set has finally come through. It was originally recorded in Kuwait in 1980 and brilliantly joins the dots between American funk, soul and rhythm and blues, traditional Sudanese vocals and rhythmic arrangements, and even a dash of Congolese soukkous. It's the first full album Habibi Funk has reissued, and with good reason: it's near perfect from start to finish.