The 13th volume of the invaluable Habibi Funk series presents us The King Of Sudanese Jazz: Sharhabil Ahmed. While his sound doesn’t have too much in common with the western idea of jazz music, Sharhabil’s approach is more like a unique combination of surf, rock ‘n’ roll and funk.

Sudanese music has historically been rooted in the madeeh, the Islamic tradition of praising the Prophet Muhammed in song. This filtered into the more secular haqiba music in the 1930’s and ’40s, typically featuring individual vocalists accompanied by a chorus, tambourine and infectious rhythms - never failing to get people up and dancing at social occasions. In the 60’s and 70’s Ahmed operated in his own unique sphere bringing elements from diverse styles popular in the west, from Ethiopian jazz, from Congolese music, from the distinct sounds of South Sudan (an independent country since 2011) into the mix.

For Habibi Funk, releasing this record had its beautiful aches and pains. Finding Sharhabil’s music in a quality that it could be used as source for this release was a particular though task for the label. Although it was easy to find a lot of songs on the internet most of them were in very bad quality. The search for good source material included great coincidences and a trip to Sudan, as one can read in the album’s notes. It is another piece of history that the German label leaves us with. Available in vinyl, The King Of Sudanese Jazz.