The Mighty Cavaliers - Mapendo

Want Some Records

£36.70

Format: LP
Catalogue No.: WSR001
Barcode: 4170000122043
Release Date: 13 Oct 2023
Genre: Afro/Funk/Soul/World

Gatefold sleeve includes biography and download code.

The Mapendo album of the Mighty Cavaliers, up to today, has been shrouded in mystery. If you look at the original cover of this very rare Kenyan funk-infused album all you will find are the names of the engineer and the producer, as EMI Kenya omi`ed the names of the musicians and the songwriters. Digging deeper a rather sinister story of deceit develops whereby Mapendo becomes symbolic for all what was wrong about the Kenyan record industry in the 1970s, and the music industry in Africa as a whole. As this maltreatment of ar[sts proved endemic throughout the con[nent, although li`le talked about.

One of the three surviving members of the Mighty Cavaliers, bass player Bonnie Wanda - who started his career in 1971 with Gloria Africana - vividly remembers par[cipa[ng in the recording of the two albums the band made in 1976 and 1977 - Fisherman and Mapendo - and how they, especially on the last album, got shortchanged by shrewd record label execu[ves. In the 1960s it was mostly Indian and European record bosses that called the shots and usually gave musicians the chance of a one-off payment for their session [me and recorded songs or wait for - hopefully - a generous royalty check. In most cases records didn’t sell more than a thousand copies with an occasional hit selling in the tens of thousands, so musicians were reluctant to register themselves with the Music Copyright Society of Kenya. Although without doing so one couldn’t receive royal[es.

‘For two years the Mighty Cavaliers performed five nights a week at the Starlight Club for five hour sets.

The re-release of Mapendo, the first of the German Want Some Records label, is another exci[ng puzzle piece in the tapestry of groovy Kenyan music. It proves that there are s[ll great gems out there to be re-discovered for audiences worldwide.

Text wri`en by Michiel van Oosterhout

This Album is dedicated to the musicians
Bonnie Wanda, Rashid Salim, Vuli Yeni, Juma Waweru Njuguna and Athmani ‘guitar boy’.”

For the first [me on vinyl since 1977! Mastered by Nick Robbins!

Tracklist:
A1: Wacha Maneno A2: Baruwa Ya Soweto A3: Africa Tuungane A4: Mama Come Home A5: Mapendo Mapendo B1: Mambo Bado B2: Wacha Tabia Mbaya B3: Mimi Ni Wako B4: Bring Your Love B5: Nifanye Nini