 This week we took a trip around the globe - from Afrobeat to Zamrock and back again. Tune in to The Purple Room every Saturday at 2 pm MT only on the mighty CJSR FM 88.5. Zamrock Sometimes you've gotta dig to find the gems, and Zamrock is a goldmine waiting to be discovered. Zamrock is more than a musical movement; it’s a cultural expression that mirrored the political and social changes in Zambia in the 1960s and '70s. Zamrock formed around the same time that artists in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya were incorporating traditional folk and afrobeat with funk inspired by North American music but Zamrock went in a bit of a different direction. Yes, it channeled funk, but also psychedelic and garage rock - think Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Deep Purple, and Cream. And this wasn’t a one-way relationship; a lot of musicians from other countries also dipped deep into the African pool. Ginger Baker, the drummer from Cream, became Fela Kuti’s apprentice at the time and even recorded a live album with Fela in 1971. Check out Hi Babe from The Ngozi Family’s 1976 album Day of Judgement, which was rereleased in 2014 by Now Again Records in all of its distorted beauty. Booker T. Jones  Keyboardist Booker T Jones, the frontman of Booker T and the MGs with his trusty Hammond B3 organ, put out a highly collaborative album in 2013 called Sound The Alarm. It was his 10th studio album since 1962 when he released Green Onions, and Sound the Alarm had guest appearances from Gary Clark Jr., Raphael Saadiq, Estelle, Sheila E, and Bill Withers’ daughter, Kori Withers, to name a few. Check out All Over the Place from Sound the Alarm featuring New Orleans’ Luke James on vocals. Jacob Banks The UK music scene is gold right now; on the show this week we checked out a Nigerian-born and Birmingham-based Jacob Banks with YOLO from his 2013 album The Monologue, and Ezra Collective, a five-piece band from London, England that combines elements of jazz, funk, afrobeats, reggae and soul. Thanks again for listening; see you next week! The Purple Room Playlist for March 9, 2024The Ngozi Family
Hi Babe Large Professor Secret Agent Matata I Feel Funky Bobby Womack Communication BJ The Chicago Kid Nobody Knows Booker T Jones f/ Luke James All Over the Place Otis Junior & Dr. Dundiff In the Dark The Floacist f/ Raheem DeVaughn Start Again Jacob Banks YOLO Ezra Collective Togetherness Little Simz Fear No Man Yussef Dayes Birds of Paradise Kurtis Stanley Sunrise in the Stuy Uyama Hiroto f/ Cise Starr Soul of Freedom John Robinson & Chief f/ U George Mega Fly —-- The Purple Room Curated by @ShantuDiggs Saturdays @ 2 pm MT FM 88.5 (yeg) | @cjsr_fm | CJSR.com (stream) Comments are closed.
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The Purple RoomThe Purple Room is an NCRA award-winning radio show that plays music by Black musicians from across the African diaspora—all genres, all eras. It airs every Saturday at 2pm MT, and replays on Sundays at 11am on CJSR FM 88.5. Archives
March 2025
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