Sweden's leading fusion band of the 70's,
founded in 1971 and active through the 80's, with one stray album
released in 2004. Their name stands for Electronic Groove & Beat
Academy but they're exclusively refered to by the acronym EGBA. The
band was centered around trumpeter Ulf Adåker and had a changing
line-up over the years, at one point or another including guitarist Jan Tolf, Göran Lagerberg, Amadu Jarr, pianist Harald Svensson (Resa, Häxmjölk), drummer Åke Eriksson (Wasa Express) and Per Tjernberg (Archimedes Badkar). A reformed EGBA is still performing.
EGBA (Grammofonverket, 1974)
Instrumental, other languages
Instrumental, other languages
International relevance: ***
Their first album presented all of the
band's characteristics, jazz fusion inspired by the likes of Miles
Davis and Chick Corea, with funky grooves providing the foundation on
the heavier tracks, with a distinct African influence to boot, most notably on”Gbinti”.
”Capsiloni”, written by drummer Claes Wang, veers towards
Archimedes Badkar. ”Egba” is one of the finer examples of Swedish
fusion thanks to its diversity and inspired playing. Great cover too.
Jungle-Jam (Sonet, 1976)
Instrumental, other languages
International relevance: ***
Egba's second album adds a bit of Latin
music to the mix, and takes the funk one step further. The album
unfortunately lacks a lot of the charm that makes their debut enjoyable.
This is pretty much a standard funk fusion album with the urge to
explore and discover largely substituted with technical precision.
Live at Montmartre (Sonet, 1977)
Instrumental, other languages
International relevance: ***
Better than ”Jungle-Jam”, probably
because it was recorded live, with Egba feeding off the audience at
the Montmartre jazz club in Copenhagen. Here they expanded their
palette of styles to include reggae on ”Satobe”. Still not on par with
their debut however.
Amigos Latinos (Sonet, 1978)
Instrumental, other languages
Instrumental, other languages
International relevance: ***
Just like the title suggests this is an
album with a stronger emphasis on Latin influences. It's also an
excruciatingly dull
album, with fusion meaning a mathematically precise show-off. I find
it extremely hard to sit through without a steadily increasing level of
irritation.
Bryter upp! (MNW, 1979)
Instrumental
International relevance: ***
International relevance: ***
A literal translation of the album
title would be ”breaking up”, and while not exactly true, it saw
Egba change to a smaller line-up and also a new label. The title also
suggests the band was taking off in a new direction which is partly
true as ”Bryter upp!” is less hysterical than ”Amigos Latinos”,
a little more reflective. It still fails to satisfy unless you
have a high tolerance for their kind of music.
”Progglådan” features two Egba
tracks recorded for the Swedish Radio in 1972, and three more from a
1978 session.
I can see why
they're highly regarded by fusion fans for their passion and skills
making them much better than many of their peers, even if they're not to my liking.
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