Well, almost.

I have just returned from a month out of the office. I am currently finishing up the research for several forthcoming posts. In the days to come you should be able to enjoy some rare 45s from Somalia, some great tapes from Radio Mali, and hopefully, a second installment of Mauritanian music-I was in Nouakchott two weeks ago and brought back some interesting recordings.

In the meantime, here is a great single to tide you over. These tracks, which I just recently heard for the first time, were recorded before our VOA Heartbeats recordings.

In early 1963 the group went into the studios of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation, in Freetown, and recorded enough material for a few singles. These tracks were released in 1963 on Geraldo’s label ‘Pino Records’. None of these early singles have ever been reissued.

The biggest hit of the bunch was ‘Maria Lef For Waka’, which was composed by one of the group’s founding members, and then guitar player, Mr. Johnson ‘Dr. Dynamite’ Balogun-Williams. The ‘B-Side’ is ‘Heartbeats Merengue’, which features some great playing by percussionist Francis Fuster.

• [audio:http://www.voanews.com/MediaAssets2/projects/african_music_treasures_blog/HEARTBEATSMaria_Lef_for_Waka.Mp3] Heartbeats ‘Maria Lef for Waka’
• [audio:http://www.voanews.com/MediaAssets2/projects/african_music_treasures_blog/HEARTBEATSMerengue_Heartbeats.Mp3] Heartbeats ‘Merengue Heartbeats’