毎度新たな風を吹かしてくれるアフロ系タイトルのリイシューレーベルAWESOME TAPES FROM AFRICA最新作。1980年代にベニン、ギニア、マリ、トーゴなど西アフリカでも最も人気を博したバンド Jess Sah Bi & Peter One が初登場!!本作のオリジナルは1985年で、彼らのデビュー作。コートジボワールの伝統と、アフリカの芳醇な大地のエネルギーに満ちたFOLK ROCKの融合、英語/フランス語/西アフリカのダン語を駆使し、アパルトヘイトをはじめとする当時のアフリカ社会が抱えた問題を歌い続けた。本作が正式なリイシューを遂げるのは今回が初。アフロ~レアグルーブ~フォーク・ロック・ファン幅広い層に推薦できる期待の一枚!! In the 1980s, Abidjan's Jess Sah Bi & Peter One became one of the most popular musical acts in not just the Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire), but broader West Africa, eventually performing with a full band to stadium-sized audiences at home and throughout Benin, Guinea, Mali and Togo. Although they'd been popular radio and television performers for several years prior, the catalyst for Jess and Peter achieving this new level of stardom was their debut album, Our Garden Needs Its Flowers, recorded and released in 1985. In contrast with the heaving funk, disco and reggae sounds of the day, Our Garden Needs Its Flowers was a lush fusion of traditional Ivorian village songs and American and English country and folk-rock music. Jess and Peter sang in French, English and Gouro, delivering beautifully harmonized meditations on social injustice and inequality, calls for unity across the African continent, an end to apartheid in South Africa and the odd song for the ladies, all set against lush guitar riffs, rustic harmonica and rollicking feel-good rhythms. Surprisingly, it's the first time the album has been re-released in a high-fidelity, legally licensed form.
