so whenever i am asked about which are the 5 most influential albums, i always cite: 2 albums by bob (marley ofcourse!, who else?!)- kaya and rastaman vibration, massive attack's blue lines, portishead's dummy, and a tribe callled quest's people's instinctive travels...







the above albums are works that i can play from start to finish...probably know all the words to... and have served as pivoting chapters in my life... i could elaborate on each, but that would be 5 separate chapters...

the point i am trying to make: there is another album that doesn't surface on my radar, because less people are familiar with it and because it doesn't get into my repertoire, unless i'm doing the houston international festival and they ask me to highlight my country (btw, josh zulu, simiyu, and i are playing at the ifest again, this year: april 18-19, and 25-26)

it's "lieve hugo's king of kaseko"..."lieve hugo" which loosely translates to "dear hugo" was the king of kaseko. he died at the age of 40, in the mid 70's, at the height of his popularity.  all songs from that album were played on surinamese radio, with the most popular one, the one listed below.



i started reminiscing a bit and searching for more material about suriname music and came up with:



and then a documentary about suriname and a recent controversy surrounding the "selling" of the rainforest in suriname