Both sides are knockout.
The Willacy is terrific roots, rough and mystical, compacted and bristling, with fine trumpet.
On the flip is Big Youth’s toast of Gregory’s Look Before You Leap.

‘This fifth LP in the series opens with a banger: Street Dance by Bonnie Jean, in the style of Shirley Ellis’ The Nitty Gritty, with Darlene Love & The Blossoms clearly audible on background vocals. The Hollywood-based Doré imprint is also the source of You Really Never Know Till It’s Over by The Vel-Vetts, One Way Street by The Swans, a soulful update of The Teddy Bears’ To Know Him Is To Love Him by the Darlings, and He’s Groovy — featuring lead vocals by Sheilah Page, formerly of groups such as the Bermudas, Becky & The Lollipops, The Majorettes, Joanne & the Triangles and Beverly & the Motor Scooters — by The Front Page & Her.
‘Other highlights include The Sweethearts’ Supremes-influenced No More Tears, the sophisticated slowie Lonely Girl by The Lovettes (that’s them on the front sleeve), My Heart Tells Me So by The Del-Phis (an early incarnation of Martha & The Vandellas), Brenda Holloway’s lovely pre-Motown Constant Love, and the Fran-Cettes’ terrific interpretation of Heart For Sale.’

A beguiling, one-of-a-kind blend of country, township jazz, and pop, from the heart of Zambia’s freedom movement, by ‘the first African voice on the radio for many Central Africans and the first kind of pop star for many Central Africans.’
Vocalist, guitarist, and bandleader Alick Nkhata moved effortlessly between lonesome country slide, big band pop, and air-tight vocal harmonies, all with roots in Bemba and other African traditional songs and rhythms. It’s a dizzying, inclusive, expansive blend from an artist and music archivist who became the voice of his nation’s fight for freedom. The lyrics and music represent the times — lonesome country laments like Nafwaya Fwaya and Fosta Kayi drift along the railways to urban centers and copper mines. Nalikwebele Sonka (I Told You Sonka) pairs honey-soaked yodels with a warning about the downward spiral of unemployment in townships, while Mayo Na Bwalya (Mother of Bwalya) is a mother’s plea to a traditional songbird for guidance of her wayward son. Songs like Shalapo, Kalindawalo Na Mfumwa, and his biggest hit, Imbote, infuse piano, big band horns, and even early electronic instruments into stunning syncretic pop masterpieces.’

‘It’s great that Zamrock is so well known for its incredible story and music, but that intense focus has a way of flattening the diversity of Zambian music and its history. So maybe we can’t necessarily say that Alick Nkhata led to Zamrock, but that rich history of mixing influences and creating new sounds in the copper belt started with Alick in lots of ways. All of that stuff is what people appreciate about Zamrock — that it was mixing sounds and that it was political in its own way. There’s a long history of that approach in the region, and it starts with Alick.’