Lafayette Afro-Rock Band – Soul Makossa

One of the most sampled albums of all time, Soul Makossa is the stunning debut from the Lafayette Afro-Rock Band, a peculiar sort of invented band comprised of a group of stranded soul-funk musicians from New York. After a few years of wandering through the clubs of the Barbes district, the musicians by chance met Pierre Jaubert, a record executive who seemed to be in all the right places at the right time (he was once offered to run Motown’s international operations, but turned Barry Gordy down). Jaubert, “I thought, I’ll make a name that is easy to register to record under. In France we use complicated names, so the Lafayette Afro-Rock band, that name was kind of complicated. So I invented that and registered the name immediately. It was a group that did not exist. There was no such group as [The] Lafayette Afro-Rock Band. I had to invent them.” Soul Makossa oozes with a brass-led high energy funk filled with rich musicality and dense arrangements perfect for sampling. The tracks have been sampled by everyone from Biz Markie to LL Cool K to Kruder & Dorfmeister and more.

Hear this classic album and other favorites in our Good Neighbor x Audio Note listening session. Free RSVP here.