Originally released as Discos Fuentes 201111 (1976)

"According to Fruko, Wganda Kenya was formed at the request of José María Fuentes in 1974. Fuentes came to Fruko with the proposal to assemble a group with an African and Caribbean sound in order to appeal to the Costeño Colombian market and also inject a little international exoticism into the label. Discos Fuentes A&R man, producer and composer Isaac Villanueva maintains he was the one given the task of creating and maintaining various studio bands with different identities all based on the core players of Fruko y sus Tesos, including Los Líderes, The Latin Brothers, Afrosound, Los Picó, Pianonegro and Wganda Kenya. Whatever the case, Fuentes wanted to create their own domestic version of the rare (and often unidentified) African and Antillean records played on the Colombian coast in the outdoor picó sound systems in cities like Barranquilla and Cartagena, as well as opening up their markets to international tastes. Fruko was happy to comply, becoming the bandleader and bassist while his pianist from Los Tesos, Luis "Tomate" Mesa, was recruited to play various electronic keyboards. Venezuelan singer Joe Rodríguez was tapped to play drums, Mariano Sepúlveda of Afrosound played guitar, José "Cholo" Gallardo of Los Diplomáticos played saxophone and several Tesos manned the percussion section including Fernando Villegas (congas), Rafael Benitez (timbales), Jesús Villegas (bongos) and Rafico Restrepo (guiro). Various Fuentes regulars became the vocalists including Jaime Galé, Luis Carlos, and Joe Arroyo. The Fuentes stable of musicians were paid monthly and recorded on a daily basis as the label's in-house band, switching off into various combinations and arrangements, sometimes depending on the producer's whim or marketing department directives but often left to their own devices to see what they could come up with. In keeping with the exoticism and façade of foreignness, the vocalists often sang in made-up languages that approximated Indigenous Colombian, Haitian Creole, Papiamento from the Dutch Caribbean or Nigerian Yoruba; at other times they invented Spanish lyrics that mimicked the original foreign language ones, often in a humorous way. Wganda Kenya were of course not African or from the French Antilles or anywhere else but the landlocked mountain city of Medellín, though many people may have thought they were; at least until they saw them perform as part of a Fruko y Sus Tesos concert, which would occasionally happen!

Wganda Kenya, like almost all Fuentes acts, cut plenty of non-album singles and cover versions that ended up on "Bailables" compilations but it was the runaway success of a 45 with their interpretation of the Haitian song 'Homenaje a los embajadores released in 1975 that motivated the Fuentes studio team to continue with the project and begin releasing complete albums under the band's name. Later that same year a various artists compilation was released in Colombia titled Africa 5.000, containing five Wganda Kenya tracks and two by foreign bands. At the same time, in the US, Discos Fuentes affiliate Miami Records issued an entire album of Wganda Kenya songs, with only the band's name on the cover, but, confusingly, the title "Africa 5.000" was used on the center labels on the record itself.

In 1976, Discos Fuentes released the self-titled "Wganda Kenya" album and it is thought by many to be their first full-length record, which technically speaking, in Colombia at least, it was, but if you take into account the Miami Records release of "Wganda Kenya / Africa 5.000" the year before, it actually isn't the band's debut solo album. Whichever way you look at it, this record you are holding in your hands now has become a collector's favorite waiting to be reissued, and it's not hard to understand why since it's full of so many Afro-Funk, Congolese rumba and Caribbean flavored dance floor burners. Even when the band is covering a couple little-known folk/jazz gwoka tunes from Guadeloupe by Guy Conquette ('Pim pom', 'Fayab fayab') or an obscure mbaqanga number by South Africa's Soul Brothers ('Bayesa"), they do it with a confident, playful sense of interpretation and a funky, psychedelic approach that is unlike anything else recorded in Colombia or Latin America at the time. In fact all the tunes on this record, including the bonus tracks, are covers, and they include interpretations of songs by Haiti's Original Shleu Shleu ('El evangelio'), Guadeloupe's E Combo Moderno ('An Nous Dansé Tumbelé'), and the Paris-based Le Trio Africain Los Makueson's (Yoro'), as well as Argentinian songwriters Palito Ortega and Lalo Fransen whose compositions had been Afro-funk hits with Katunga several years earlier ("Por una negrita"). For an invented, ephemeral studio concoction created to exploit certain niche markets, Wganda Kenya ended up unleashing many legitimately excellent tunes that were a fascinating blend of authenticity and bizarre cultural appropriation, having withstood the test of time to be rediscovered today. Like its sibling band Afrosound, Wganda Kenya was ahead of its time, anticipating current contemporary global Afro Latin-funk in a prescient way that is finding more and more fans across the globe, and deservedly so. This special edition reissue contains two non-album bonus tracks from the same period that appeared on 45s and various artist compilations.

• Label: Vampi Soul – VAMPI 251 - Discos Fuentes 201111
• Title: Wganda Kenya
• Format: LP, RE
• Origin: Spain
• Released: 2022
• Track Listing:
  1. 1. 1. El Evangelio
        2. Pim Pom
        3. An Naus Dansé Tumbelé
        4. Yoro
           
           1. 1. El Yoyo
              2. Bayesa
              3. Fayab Fayab
              4. Por Una Negrita
              5. E'Un Mene