{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox album | name = The African Tapes | type = live | artist = Famoudou Don Moye, John Tchicai, and Hartmut Geerken | cover = Moye_Tchicai_Geerken_The_African_Tapes_Vol_1.jpg | alt = | released = 1987 and 1988 | recorded = April 1985 | venue = Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia | studio = | genre = Free jazz | length = | label = Praxis<br><small>CM 114<br>CM 115</small> | producer = Kostas Yiannoulopoulos | chronology = | prev_title = | prev_year = | next_title = | next_year = | misc = {{Extra album cover | header = Volume Two cover | type = live | cover = Moye_Tchicai_Geerken_The_African_Tapes_Vol_2a.jpg | border = | alt = | caption = }} }} '''''The African Tapes''''', Volumes 1 and 2, is a pair of live albums by percussionist Famoudou Don Moye, saxophonist John Tchicai, and percussionist Hartmut Geerken. The albums were recorded in April 1985 at various locations in West Africa, and were released on LP by the Praxis label in 1987 (Volume 1) and 1988 (Volume 2).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jazzmusicarchives.com/album/famoudou-don-moye/the-african-tapes-volume-1-with-john-tchicai-hartmut-geerken(live) |title=Famoudou Don Moye — The African Tapes Volume 1 (with John Tchicai - Hartmut Geerken) |website=Jazz Music Archives |access-date=August 17, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jazzmusicarchives.com/album/famoudou-don-moye/the-african-tapes-volume-2-with-john-tchicai-hartmut-geerken(live) |title=Famoudou Don Moye — The African Tapes Volume 2 (with John Tchicai - Hartmut Geerken) |website=Jazz Music Archives |access-date=August 17, 2022}}</ref> In 2001, Leo Records reissued the recordings as a double-CD set as part of their Golden Years of New Jazz series.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jazzmusicarchives.com/album/famoudou-don-moye/the-african-tapes(compilation) |title=Famoudou Don Moye — The African Tapes |website=Jazz Music Archives |access-date=August 17, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.leorecords.com/?m=select&id=CD_GY_009/010 |title=The African Tapes |website=Leo Records |access-date=August 17, 2022}}</ref>
The recordings were made during a tour of Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia, with the musicians acting as cultural ambassadors, and feature extensive audience participation. Prior to the trip, the members of the trio had never played together.<ref name="aaj">{{cite web |url=https://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-african-tapes-famoudou-don-moye-golden-years-of-new-jazz-review-by-aaj-staff |title=Famoudou Don Moye/John Tchicai/Hartmut Geerken: The African Tapes |first=AAJ |last=Staff |date=May 1, 2001 |website=All About Jazz |access-date=August 17, 2022}}</ref> After leaving Africa, the group traveled to Europe, where they recorded the live album ''Cassava Balls'' the following month.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.leorecords.com/?m=select&id=CD_GY_004 |title=Cassava Balls |website=Leo Records |access-date=August 17, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/shop/geerken-tchicai-don-moye-cassava-balls |title=Cassava Balls |website=Cafe Oto |access-date=August 17, 2022}}</ref>
==Reception== {{Music ratings | rev1 = AllMusic | rev1Score = {{rating|4|5}}<ref name="allmusic">{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-african-tapes-mw0000002315 |title=The African Tapes: Famoudou Don Moye |first=Steve |last=Loewy |website=AllMusic |access-date=August 17, 2022}}</ref> | rev2 = ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' | rev2Score = {{rating|2.5|4}}<ref name="penguin">{{cite book |last1=Cook |first1=Richard |last2=Morton |first2=Brian |title=The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings |publisher=Penguin Books |year=2008 |pages=1050 }}</ref> }} In a review for AllMusic, Steve Loewy wrote: "The exquisite percussion of Famoudou Don Moye... and Hartmut Geerken colors every tune with a Dionysian joy. John Tchicai blows hard and convincingly, as he belts out simple riffs and improvises melodically and passionately... there is a unique enlightening quality to the bells and whistles that engulfs the saxophone in a meditative cloud of vaporous cacophony."<ref name="allmusic" />
The authors of ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings'' stated that the album "is not the easiest of listens comprising as it does a rather personal diary of encounters with local people, some trained musicians, most not. Tchicai plays mightily as he always does, but some of the extended percussion passages are hard to absorb without some visual stimulation."<ref name="penguin" />
A reviewer for ''All About Jazz'' commented: "''The African Tapes'' offers surprisingly high sonic fidelity. And the cultural, linguistic, and musical richness of these two discs stands unparalleled in the history of improvised music. It is hard to recommend ''The African Tapes'' strongly enough."<ref name="aaj" />
Derek Taylor, writing for ''One Final Note'', remarked: "the trio's sounds left an indelible mark on the ears they touched. This... diary of their mission of musical good will is not only a fascinating listen—it's an opportune impetus for examining the reciprocal relationships between African and jazz music ecologies."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.onefinalnote.com/reviews/m/moye-famoudou-don/african-tapes.html |title=Moye / Tchicai / Geerken: The African Tapes (Golden Years) |first=Derek |last=Taylor |website=One Final Note |date=April 2001 |access-date=September 3, 2022}}</ref>
==Track listings== ===Volume 1=== # "Mobimbirutile" (Moye/Geerken/Tchicai) – 7:03 # "Angklung Okro" (Geerken/Tchicai) – 6:20 # "Akarakuru" (Moye) – 7:39 # "Post-Ramadan Exhausters" (Tchicai) – 10:17 # "Yabom Kamara" (Geerken) – 8:44 # "Mohawk" (Charlie Parker) – 1:39
===Volume 2=== # "Bo Oh Bo" (Traditional) – 7:11 # "The Rainbow's Over" (Tchicai) – 6:40 # "Conakry Overtones" (Geerken) – 2:41 # "Go Down Moses" (Traditional) – 3:35 # "Reveiller Le Bellevillie" (Geerken) – 8:53 # "Pink Pepper" (Tchicai/Pierre Favre) – 4:38 # "Panjebo-Ta (Invocation of the Smoked Chimpanzees)" (Moye) – 4:26 # "Please Come to the Stage" (Moye/Traditional) – 2:38
== Personnel == * Famoudou Don Moye – drums, congas, bells, vocals * John Tchicai – tenor saxophone, percussion, vocals * Hartmut Geerken – bells, gong, cowbell, vocals, horn, whistle, waterphone
==References== {{Reflist}} {{Don Moye}} {{John Tchicai}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:African Tapes}} Category:1987 live albums Category:1988 live albums Category:Live free jazz albums Category:Leo Records live albums Category:Don Moye live albums Category:John Tchicai live albums