Una Mas

Or, perhaps: "Abraxalyptic Interlude, Bonus Beat Edition"...

Not sure why I bothered, but here’s an offhanded post I banged out & posted for the pretty-much-moribund ‘70s blog. Blahblahblah armchair-ethnomusicological glossolalic overthinkage, when (don't mind if I do) dancing is the much more appropriate response. Toward the end of which I draw some parallels between the music of Manu Dibango and the then-contemporaneous Afro-Caribbean fusion of Carlos Santana & his crew, mentioning how – once upon a time – the latter served as an inspiring force for a variety of “musicians...be they black, brown, beige or white.”

By which I primarily had in mind the “Chicano rock” upsurge of the late 1960-early ‘70s, however peripheral and fleeting it may have been. But above is a selection of some favorites, all of the same vintage. The question of direct influence might be tenuous or – given the geographic distance between the acts in question – nonexistent. Whatever the case, the idea of artists scattered across the globe striking up in such a similar groove at roughly the same time is enough to make you wonder what common influence set it into motion. So atop we begin with an oft-noted crew of stateside Latinos who managed to make it high into the pop charts with their (much-improved) cover of a Gerard Wilson tune. And in descending order from there: A group of African expats gigging in London, a fly-by-night outfit from Nicaragua, and a sibling act hailing from the Bahamas.