Biography
From humble beginnings in the London basement of Daddy Kool’s reggae shop on Berwick Street, Mr Bongo is now seen as the standard bearer for Latin music outside the Americas. With regular imports from Latin America, Cuba and the USA to our store, we brought the Latin and Brazilian sound to discerning listeners across Europe, establishing a core interest which has since gone from strength to strength. Championed by characters such as Gilles Peterson and clubs like Dingwall’s in the late 1980’s, Mr Bongo soon began to establish itself as the leader and provider for the whole scene.
In 1991, Huw Bowles entered the fray, bringing his own encyclopaedic knowledge of hip hop thereby expanding Bongo’s field of expertise. Initially stocking what is now termed old and mid school hip hop, Mr Bongo was the first store in the UK to start selling releases from independent US hip hop labels - artists like Jurassic5 had special Bongo vinyl pressings and we exclusively imported the first releases by Dr. Octagon, Mos Def and many others. As interest in this area grew, light was shed on the wealth of home-grown talent and the shop became a hot spot for now well known UK artists and DJs as well an essential stop off for all touring artists.
Ray Barretto opened our much needed new premises in Lexington Street, London, as the Latin section expanded having to bite the CD bullet. Five years later the Mr Bongo store moved to its final and most well known premises in Poland Street, London. This premises initially acted as the home of the record label and newer imprints Disorient (for Japanese dance music) and Beyongolia (for old school hip hop reissues). In 1995 the empire expanded into Japan, opening a store in Shibuya, Tokyo, that proved to be an incredibly useful A&R channel for Disorient, leading to classic releases such as Kaori’s ‘Good Life’, ‘Samurai’ by Jazztronik and Love Love Mode by Dimitri from Tokyo, as well as heaps of disco house classics.
The Mr Bongo label, meanwhile, began by releasing Brazilian classics by artists such as Joyce, Marcos Valle and Os Ipanemas. Some delicious reissues followed in the form of Swedish singer Doris, Labi Siffre (sampled by Wu Tang, Jay-Z and Dr Dre and featuring a track written by Chas & Dave) and Charlie Palmieri in the Montuno Sessions (which led to recording Tito Puente one night in the basement of the Chelsea Hotel in New York and sleeping under a piano… a whole other story).
We spent three years recording Terry Callier at the Jazz Cafe aided by Andy ‘Atmosphere’ Sojka, resulting in the classic ‘Alive’ live album and so ensued our finest musical alliance with the main man TC. My proudest moment is seeing Terry live and pinching myself as I could not believe we were working with such an incredible performer, who provokes tears, laughter and cheers in an instant.
After moving the office to Brighton in 1999 we opened a studio with Ben ‘Mr Hermano/Sao Benitez’ Mitchell, recording the likes of Paulisto hero Pedro Martins and his band Bazeado as well as Bukky Leo, Mr Hermano, Terry Callier and Mitchell & Dewbury.
Known for being pioneers in releasing Brazil’s finest fruits, we were the first to release Seu Jorge outside Brazil, with what many regard as his finest album ‘Carolina’. In partnership with Regatae we recorded Banda Black Rio, Clube Balanco and Paula Lima and worked with Sade’s producer Robin Millar to record Ive Mendes self titled debut album.
Always keen to stay on top of the current sounds from Brazil we teamed up with Tetine and the legendary DJ Marlboro to put out a killer Baile Funk compilation ‘Slum Dunk’. Working with Brazilian hip hop legend Marcelo D2 was a real honour and we toured him and his band worldwide - from the MTV Awards in Portugal to a performance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in 2007 alongside Sergio Mendes, which saw Fernandino rocking the crowd with a killer beatbox verison of ‘Elephant’.
The legendary Brazilian Beats series was created around a Kenny Dope beat - Brazilian Beat - that went on to become a worldwide club anthem. Eight instalments of the series followed and these were finally released as a comprehensive boxset featuring every single one.
After a two year crusade we secured the soundtrack rights to the classic hip hop movie Wild Style, and more recently we’ve reissued another legendary album by the Incredible Bongo Band, featuring the all-time classic break ‘Apache’. We’ve kept them coming with the long-lost, highly collectible, 1970s Brazilian psychedelic monster ‘Paebiru’ by Lula ‘Squid’ Cortes and Ze Ramalho.
In the new millennia, we expanded out of South America into Africa with releases from Nigerian Afrobeat legends Bukky Leo and Lekan Babalola, and most recently Fela Kuti’s son Seun; backed by members of his fathers original Egypt 80 band. Then to Ghana, collaborating with the charity Bottletop to release Sound Affects: Africa, to South Africa for The Mothers album and finally to Senegal with French hip hop main stay and former member of Positive Black Soul ‘Awadi’.
On the Latin side, we recorded Hanny in Cuba, and our triple LP ‘Latin Beats’ compilation hit new heights - essential in every collection. Most recently we were thrilled to put out the ‘I Like It Like That’ album with the help of Mr Dean Rudland, featuring remixes of the awesome Fania catalogue from DJ Format, Bugz In The Attic, Bonde de Role, 4Hero and more. Jose Conde and Zemog came in from Puerto Rico via New York - watch out for Zemog’s killer indie latin rock album ‘Nueva York Sessions’ to be released in 2009.
We have been increasingly employed to source and produce music for adverts for brands including Nike and Adidas. The well-known Parney De Castro was used for a Fosters advert, Tejo, Black Alien & Speed on the Nissan X Trail advert and the infamous Babarabitiri by Beny More for THAT Guinness advert with the racing snails (huge thanks to Pete Soundtree who nailed this one down and picked up many deserved awards for his work in the future). We now have a production studio of our own along with offices in London and LA specialising in music for advert, film and TV.
In 1996 we visited Salvador, Brazil and started helping out with the Street Angels charity resulting in construction of a school and running a health clinic in a marginalised favela community. Luciano, Miriam, Helen, Luiz and Jozefa have all helped this project grow and bring so much light to so many people. The Street Angels album was later recorded with Luis Bonfa, Joyce and the naturist artist Lord K amnogst others, to raise money for the project. Big support came more recently from Cameron & Oly at the Bottletop organisation and we have since started making recycled ring-pull bags in the community - importing and selling them in clothes stores in the UK to continue to raise funds for the project and create job opportunities.
The most recent chapter, Mr Bongo Films, was setup as a result of our love for world and arthouse cinema. Our first joyous classic ‘I Am Cuba’ (or ‘Soy Cuba’) was a huge success and led to many other titles such as ‘Saragossa Manuscript, ‘L’Avventura and ‘Under the Volcano’ with many more planned for release in the coming years.
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