Olatunji: "Soul Makossa"

To me, this LP deserves a place in history right next to the Incredible Bongo Band records in terms of having an unlimited wealth of breaks and beats; Olatunji is more famous for his earlier Afro-Percussion efforts of the ‘60’s, while this album has achieved little more than cult status, at best.  One listen, though, will convert even the most jaded beat-seeker, and really, the beats and breakdowns here just scratch the surface of how monumental this music truly is.  Joe Henderson is the saxophonist, playing in a mode unlike anything else  in his musical legacy, and famed producer and Miles Davis alum Reggie Lucas is on guitar, with the recording year (1973) being early enough in his career for him to still be billed as “Reginald.”  Meanwhile, Olatunji and his army of percussionists stomp through the grooves like a herd of rampaging rhinos, trampling everything in their path as Lucas and Henderson provide psychedelic musings on the top end of things.  Songs like “Takuta” and “Dominira” live outside of time and space, and when the initially muted drums of the former shift into full tonality, the band takes the expressway to the skull directly, rattling the psyche and leaving reverberations in every nook and cranny of the brain.  Even the cover of Manu Dibango’s legendary “Soul Makossa” demonstrates a flavor not present in the original; though this album was surely an attempt to cash in on that song’s hit potential circa the early ‘70’s, it breaks outside of those boundaries to carve out its own path, and what a path it is.