Mandingo Griot Society - Mandingo Griot Society (1978)

Mandingo Griot Society were a Chicago-based quartet who fused elements of African, jazz, funk, and blues musics. Jazz trumpeter Don Cherry guested on this, the band's 1978 debut album. - Product info

This, the first album by the Mandingo Griot Society, is not simply a different form of fusion music. True, it does combine traditional African instruments with a contemporary American rhythm section: electriss bass, drums set, and percussion. But is it, in fact, a reuniting, a coming together of two musical cultures with a common origin. For it should be understood that the African creative process, spiritual in its essence, has always been the root of American "fusion" musics, most significantly jazz, funk, and blues. - from the liner notes