The Boy's Doin' It

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South African trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Hugh Masekela blew open international music doors in 1968 with his surprise hit, "Grazing in the Grass," which quickly pushed African popular music into the spotlight. But it wasn't until Masekela signed with the then-new Casablanca Records and released this CD that he traded in the nuances of jazz for a slew of steamy West African dance and African American funk. With "The Boy's Doin It" Masekela took a new band, with musicians steeped in Nigerian and Ghanian pop music like highlife and juju, into the studio. The resulting CD overflows with funky horn charts and swirling West African pop rhythms, as well as telltale signs of the 1970s. Melodies brightly mix Ramp;B and nascent strains of pre-disco, and the vocalists make great antiphonal contributions, not unlike Fela Anikulapo Kuti's bands of the time. As a reissue, an additional six out-of-print tracks are added to the original issue of "The Boy's Doin It," solidifying this as a vital Masekela item. --Andrew Bartlett