VIA PRESS RELEASE | World Circuit Records will release Tony Allen & Hugh Masekela’s celebrated album Rejoice on 30th October. Originally released in 2020, the universally acclaimed record is being reissued on special edition orange, pink and white splatter vinyl. Rejoice is the fifth in a series of re-releases celebrating the label’s 40th Anniversary and is available now for pre-order.
Rejoice is a very special collaboration between Tony Allen, the legendary drummer and co-founder of Afrobeat, and Hugh Masekela, the master trumpet player of South African jazz. Having first met in the ’70s through their respective close associations with Fela Kuti, the two world-renowned musicians talked for decades about making an album together. When, in 2010, their touring schedules coincided in the UK, the moment presented itself, and producer Nick Gold brought the giants together in the studio.
Shortly after the very sad passing of Hugh Masekela in 2018, and with renewed resolution, Tony Allen and Nick Gold, with the blessing and participation of Masekela’s estate, unearthed the original tapes and finished recording the album in summer 2019 at the same London studio where the original sessions had taken place.
Rejoice can be seen as the long-overdue confluence of two mighty African musical rivers—a union of two free-flowing souls for whom borders, whether physical or stylistic, are things to pass through or ignore completely. According to Allen, the album deals in “a kind of South African-Nigerian swing-jazz stew,” with its roots firmly in Afrobeat.
Allen and Masekela are accompanied on the record by a new generation of well-respected jazz musicians, including Tom Herbert (Acoustic Ladyland / The Invisible), Joe Armon-Jones (Ezra Collective), Mutale Chashi (Kokoroko) and Steve Williamson.
World Circuit Records has established its reputation by producing some of the finest albums of the past three decades, specialising in music from Cuba and West Africa but also introducing audiences to a diverse range of exceptional music from other corners of the globe.
The label is best known for the Grammy-winning Buena Vista Social Club album, which at over 8 million copies is the biggest-selling “global” music album of all time, and contributed to the phenomenal rise in popularity of Cuban music. The extraordinary acclaim of the original album also provided a launchpad for solo albums from the Grammy-winning Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo, Rubén González, Guajiro Mirabal, as well as innovative albums by Cachaíto López and Angá Díaz, both of which helped redefine Cuban music for the 21st century. Buena Vista Social Club (30th Anniversary Edition) will be released on 4th September as part of World Circuit Records’ 40th Anniversary.
World Circuit is also home to several iconic African albums. Legendary Malian desert blues pioneer Ali Farka Touré’s classic Grammy-winning Talking Timbuktu, recorded with Ry Cooder, brought the label early international acclaim. The label launched international careers for Malian superstar Oumou Sangaré, the revered kora player Toumani Diabaté, the legendary Senegalese dance band Orchestra Baobab, Malian singer-songwriter Fatoumata Diawara, Cheikh Lô, Africa Express and Jonny Greenwood, and most recently the Grammy-winning Original Cast Recording for new Tony Award-winning Broadway Musical Buena Vista Social Club.
The driving force behind all these landmark records has been Grammy-winning producer and former World Circuit head, Nick Gold. In 2006, The New York Times described Gold as a “musical matchmaker… (who), in the age of corporate music conglomerates, has built a small empire on personal taste, tight quality control, and canny marketing.”
