November 28, 2005

The Music Machine Does Its Thing


Black Water Gold
"Tropical" (Villery)
African Music Machine, Soul Power 111, 1972


For a few years in the early 1970’s, the African Music Machine recorded four singles at Sound City Studio in Shreveport for the Soul Power label, distributed by Stan Lewis’ Jewell Records, which included the in-house Jewell, Paula and Ronn imprints. The eight-piece AMM was headed by bassist Louis Villery, who played regularly on Sound City sessions backing local and outside artists, 

Jerry Strickland, who ran Sound City, started Soul Power with Lewis’ to issue records on artists being recorded at the studio. The  AMM singles released were: “Black Water Gold (Pearl)” b/w “Making Nassau Fruit Drink” (#109), “A Girl In France” b/w “Tropical”, “The Dapp” b/w “Never Name A Baby (Before It’s Born)” (#115), and “Camel Time” b/w “Mr. Brown” (#117). While the records made hardly a ripple at the time, over the years collectors have developed a liking for their funk and rarity. Around 2001, Soul Power/Jewel released the LP, Black Water Gold, (pictured), which conveniently and cheaply compiles all the singles.

For this feature, I’ve chosen one of the more syncopated band grooves, “Tropical”, from their second single. Drummer Louis “Abdul” Acorn and percussionist Osman make this track a standout for me; and, as in most all the band’s work, Louis Villery’s bass is prominent and jammin’. The horn charts are pretty tasty, too. Villery wrote or co-wrote all the songs, arranging and producing the records, as well. Hearing the sides on the LP collection, it strikes me that they don’t have the unique spark of originality. Instead, these are hip, well-played, yet derivative, grooves that don’t hide their influences: James Brown (of course, that’s “Mr. Brown”), the JB’s, Hugh Masekela, War, and even a little Santana. While there’s nothing truly memorable here, this is a band still worth hearing. My picks besides “Tropical” would be its’ flip, “A Girl In France”, along with “Black Water Gold” and “Never Name A Baby”.

The LP contains some minimal notes on the band by David Nathan, and the African nicknames of the band members, only a half of which are identified with their given names. The other main artists on Soul Power were George Perkins from Baton Rouge and the amazing Tommie Young. The label folded around 1974 (except for this LP compilation almost 30 years later); and I don’t know much about the group after that, other than Villery went on to play in B. B. King’s band for a time. I look forward to getting to some more of these sides at a later date.


[Update: My friend Art Edmaiston, hot sax honker with the Gamble Brothers Band [now Mofro, as of 2014], left this message in the comments: Dan, Louis Villery is from Tunisia. He was on the road in the late 50's early 60's with blues legend Bobby "Blue" Bland playing upright bass. Louis rejoined the 'Boss of the Blues' in early 2000 and has been back on the bus ever since. - Hey, Art ought to know, he was on that bus touring with Bobby Bland for a while himself. Wow. Now the African motif makes sense. And that makes Villery the one not from Shreveport. Great tidbit, Art. I owe ya. By the way, readers, you can catch the GBB on the road soon in Colorado, opening for Frequinox.]

The African Music Machine was
Alias Rasheed (Louis Villery) - bass, vocals
Abdul (Louis Acorn) - drums
Yuseef (Tyrone Dotson) - tenor sax
Osman - percussion
Amal - trumpet
Ete-Ete - tenor sax and flute
Jumbo - guitar
Obitu - piano and organ


[Update #2: See Da Clinic's comments below for more on Villery.]

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dan, Louis Villery is from Tunisia. He was on the road in the late 50's early 60's with blues legend Bobby "Blue" Bland playing upright bass. Louis rejoined the 'Boss of the Blues' in early 2000 and has been back on the bus ever since.-art

11:07 AM, November 28, 2005  
Blogger Da Clinic said...

Louis Villery IS the African Music Machine! HE was a session musician for the Paula/Jewel label--not the other members in AMM. He assembled the band of musicians, gave them the "ethnic" monikers (Jumbo,Amal, Yuseef, etc.) and wrote every song. He released a another African Music Machine record in 2001 for the E-Music label, which is currently out-of-print. He is alive and well living in Arkansas trying to launch a "comeback" and collect all the checks due from these releases. I met him over ayear ago and speak to him on the regular basis. All of my information is straight from his mouth.

7:18 AM, May 08, 2008  
Blogger Dan Phillips said...

Thanks for the information, Da Clinic. It's hard to come by on AMM and Louis Villery. I'll move your comments onto the post. Any further insights or updates would be appreciated.

4:40 PM, May 08, 2008  
Anonymous James Leary said...

In the earl 1960's .I was a teenager .I played piano and I met Soko Richardson and Bassy.I am told his name is Louis Villery.They were working at Flamingo Club Little Rock historic West Ninth Street area.They demonstrated a funk groove bass and drums I had never heard before.Soko called it Boogalu,I think.It was amazing to meet these two and learn about what they went on to do which is music history!I switched to upright bass about a year later .James Leary




3:06 AM, August 07, 2015  
Blogger Unknown said...

I grew up around Louis acorn in the 805 and early 90s he lived in Sherman oaks with my dad Craig Marquette and they played in his studio the wood shed. I have lots of tapes of them jamming

7:50 PM, July 31, 2016  

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