Essential African Albums That Redefined the Electric Guitar

Franco Luambo made all manner of studio and live recordings on tape and cartridge during the 1960s, but À Paris from 1967 is one of the few full-length albums that made it to an official vinyl release. À Paris wears its Cuban influences proudly. Cha cha cha, rhumba, and the upbeat pachanga rhythm beat throughout the album, which lives up to Franco’s saying, “en entre OK, en sort KO” (you arrive OK, you leave knocked out). Furthermore, Franco’s twinkling guitar style had a name by now: sebene, meaning (in part) the ability to play rhythm and lead guitar simultaneously.  

The album’s opening track, “Mindondo Ya Kosuana Na Mobali,” features a clear example of Franco’s knockout style, and “Bails Mi Carabine” is a swinging, hip sway of a song, complete with a tootling penny whistle solo. The Democratic Republic of the Congo was renamed Zaire from 1971 until 1997 and a couple of tracks here reflect Franco’s country’s political struggles. 

Recorded in Paris and released in 1968 on the L’Afrique Danse series featuring Franco and Orchestre O.K. Jazz is worth seeking out.

Zoundegnon Bernard’s singular electric guitar sound being a highlight.

Afro Funk.

In the late 1960s, I.K. Dairo help shape Nigeria’s music scene with jùjú, the polyrhythmic, chant-driven style rooted in Lagos. Raised on the genre, Dairo primarily played accordion, while his band, the Morning Star Orchestra, featured an electric guitarist and a drummer using a range of traditional percussion.

Dairo modernized jùjú by blending its percussive instrumentation and vocal patterns with the popular Latin American sounds sweeping across Africa. As the band’s popularity grew, he renamed the group the Blue Spots.

The 1990 album Original Music, compiles some of the Blue Spots’ best-known tracks. Less focused on rhumba rhythms than the work of Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, the album keeps jùjú’s core themes front and center. The tracks, originally released as singles, appear here remastered and elegantly paced.

By the mid-1980s Franco Luambo had renamed the O.K. Jazz ensemble to Tout Puissant Orchestre Kinois de Jazz (sometimes documented as Tout Puissant O.K. Jazz or Mario is more of an EP than a full-length album by modern standards. The entirety of Side A is the title track, in which Franco narrates the story of the wayward youth from Kinshasa. 

At the time of the album’s release, critics drew comparisons  between Luambo’s O.K. Jazz projects and the Lokombe Bola Bolite wrote the two B-side tracks, “Je M’en Fou De Ton é” and “Esuke,” making for a power trio of African songwriters.

Formed in Dakar, Senegal, in 1970, Barthélémy Attisso lived in Senegal at the time, he was born in Togo and bought an added dimension due to his interest in his birth country’s musical roots. Moreover, he was self-taught, so his instinctive playing style fit neatly with saxophonist Issa Cissokho’s languid way of playing. By the end of the 1970s, the band was well-known enough to tour across Africa and could release up to three albums a year. 

Although Pirate’s Choice came out in 1989 via World Circuit, the band recorded the sessions in 1982. Standout track “Utrus Horas” could have come straight from Havana, imbued with snaking electric guitar and saxophone, while “Ray M’Bele” is a swaying, shimmering rhumba.

Before picking up the electric guitar, Bamako), he took an interest in John Lee Hooker’s gritty, stomping guitar style. However, he steered clear of calling the music he made a copy of the blues music playbook, insisting that he drew inspiration purely from the life around him in his hometown of Bamako, Mali’s capital city. 

Released on CD by the Bamako Nights – Live At Bar Bozo 1995 is an astonishing album. The Bamako bar in the title was a notorious dive in 1995, the perfect backdrop for Traoré’s electric band’s dirty, blues-drenched Afro-rock. Traoré was running his guitar through a flange pedal that night, and the opening track, “Ni Tugula Mogo Mi Ko,” is quietly reverential — just Traoré and his electric guitar, while the remainder of the album is a riot of slow-burning, soulful restlessness. 

Perhaps the best-known collective of contemporary electric desert rockers, Amassakoul set oozes with Ali Farka Touré’s legacy. As with Touré, the band’s powerful output had gained international attention, and the band was already playing at festivals across Europe by the time Amassakoul hit record store shelves. The number of electric guitarists in the band varies from three to even six, and there are five players here, doling out chopping strums on the album’s opening track, “Amassakoul ‘N’ ‘Ténéré,” looping boogie on “Chet Boghassa,” and rolling, fuzzy jangles on “Oualahila Ar Tesninam.” 

Such was Luambo Franco’s impact on Africa’s music scene that Malian radio played his music for four days following his death in 1989. And such was the reach and size of the O.K. Jazz group and all its iterations that there’s a Syran Mbenza, pays tribute to the mythic figure.

There are twelve tracks here, and the Les Quatre Étoiles. The songs on the album span Franco’s career, and the result is a wondrous celebration of his achievements.

Tinariwen’s success opened the doors for fellow Tuareg desert rockers, Toumastin the following year. 

The band’s ability to access international music via the internet and swapped MP3 compilations meant they explored the alt-rock and indie side of electric rock. Thus, the Tamikrest sound leans towards more Western song constructions, with space left for experiments in pace and emotion. Chatma means sisters, and the album is a moving tribute to the women forced to leave Northern Mali with their families after fighting broke out in the region.

Khruangbin were the ideal partners for a project as complicated as working with the son of one of Africa’s most revered guitar talents on a cover version album of his father’s venerated work.

By 2022 Vieux Farka Touré had already dipped his toes in collaborative waters, seemingly far removed from his Malian desert blues roots, having instigated projects with singer and performance artist Mark Speer’s electric guitar. 

For the record, Touré’s children chose which tracks to cover and Touré refused to explain the meaning of the song’s titles to Khruangbin until after the recording finished. The result is a touching, modern nod to Touré senior. The team’s take on “Diarabi” is a hazy sun-downer, “Tongo Barra” nearly retains its original funky motor, albeit at a lower resolution, and “Savanne” even enters the arena of Dead Oceans label, this is one blissed-out set.