Mambo is the term for a female (as opposed to the Houngan, or male) High Priest in the Vodou religion in Haiti.
Mambo are the highest form of clergy in the religion, whose responsibility it is to preserve the rituals and songs and maintain the relationship between the spirits and the community as a whole (though some of this is the responsibility of the whole community as well). They are entrusted with leading the service of all of the spirits of their lineage.
There are two ranks of mambo, mambo asogwe (high priestess) and mambo sur pwen / mambo sur point ("junior priestess"). A mambo asogwe is the highest member of clergy in vodou; she is the only one with authority to ordain other priests.
Voodoo is the debut studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Alexz Johnson. The album was released on March 9, 2010 through Orange Lounge Recordings and inDiscover Recordings.
The recording process began in mid-2009 when Johnson revealed on her website that she was dropped from Epic Records, and that the album she recorded and planned to release with them, was now shelved due to contractual complications. Some tracks were written as far back as 2005 with intent to be released through the album she planned with Capitol-EMI, but that deal shortly ended as the executives who signed Johnson to the label had been released from their contracts.
After several months of recording, Johnson announced that the album was almost complete and clips of several potential singles were posted on her official site shortly after. Johnson also worked with several musicians during the recording process. She teamed up with guitarist Tim Welch once again after previously working with him on several of the songs she had recorded for Instant Star. As of October, video treatments began being formed and Johnson had applied for the VideoFact grant, funded by MuchMusic, MuchMore and PromoFACT, and learned she was one of 272 other applicants to win in late 2009.
Max on the Rox is a rock/blues band from Vaasa, Finland. The band is notable for being the rock/blues band where Kai Hahto, the well-known heavy metal musician is a drummer.
Voodoo is a concept album by King Diamond. The album was released in 1998. The album cover is drawn by Kristian Wåhlin. The album was remastered by Andy LaRocque and was re-released in 2009.
Voodoo takes place in the year 1932 and deals with the affairs of the Lafayettes, a family consisting of Sarah (who is pregnant), David, and Grandpa. They move to an old colonial house on the Mississippi River, just north of Baton Rouge, which also happens to have been built next to a voodoo graveyard.
Unknown to the Lafayettes, the colonial house's servant, Salem, is involved in voodoo. Salem partakes in voodoo rituals at the graveyard, along with Doctor le Croix, a voodoo sorcerer, Madame Sarita, and Lula Chevalier, a girl who is never seen.
The Lafayettes hear the voodoo drums from the ceremonies in the graveyard. They call a secret meeting with Salem to discuss what should be done. The Lafayettes decide to destroy the voodoo burial ground. Salem does not want this to happen, so he sneaks out at midnight to talk to Doctor le Croix. Le Croix gives Salem money to buy some goofer dust, and tells him that the Lafayettes must all die.
Mambo is the fifth studio album by Spanish duo Azúcar Moreno, released on CBS-Epic in 1991.
The duo's two previous studio albums Carne De Melocotón and Bandido had resulted in the release of two remix albums, Mix in Spain and The Sugar Mix Album. Mambo was their first studio album on which the influences from contemporary dance music genres like house music, R&B and hip hop were fully integrated in the original production; the track "Feria" even saw the sisters making their debut as rappers. The album was also the first not to be entirely recorded in Spain or predominantly produced by their longtime collaborator Julio Palacios - it had no less than ten producers.
The lead single "Torero!", although as typically flamenco-flavoured as their international breakthrough single "Bandido", was in fact written and produced by Englishmen Nick Fisher and Garry Hughes and German Zeus B. Held and was recorded in London. Fisher and Hughes have since gone on to collaborate with numerous artists in the electronica/experimental/world music genres under the moniker Echo System, including Björk, The Shamen, Salif Keita, Garbage and Pop Will Eat Itself. "Torero!" was in 1992 covered in Turkish under the title "Yetti Artik" ("That's it" in Turkish) by Tarkan, one of Turkey's biggest stars both domestically and internationally. The song was included on his debut album Yine Sensiz ("Again without you" in Turkish).
Mambo is a musical form and dance style that developed originally in Cuba, with further significant developments by Cuban and Puerto Rican musicians in Mexico and the USA. The word "mambo" means "conversation with the gods" in Kikongo, the language spoken by Central African slaves taken to Cuba.
Modern mambo began with a song called "Mambo" written in 1938 by brothers Orestes and Cachao López. The song was a danzón, a dance form descended from European social dances like the English country dance, French contredanse, and Spanish contradanza. It was backed by rhythms derived from African folk music.
Contradanza arrived in Cuba in the 18th century, where it became known as danza and grew very popular. The arrival of black Haitians later that century changed the face of contradanza, adding a syncopation called cinquillo (which is also found in another contradanza-derivative, Argentine tango).
By the end of the 19th century, contradanza had grown lively and energetic, unlike its European counterpart, and was then known as danzón. The 1877 song "Las alturas de Simpson" was one of many tunes that created a wave of popularity for danzón. One part of the danzón was a coda which became improvised over time. The bands then were brass (orquestra tipica), but was followed by smaller groups called charangas.
"Mambo No. 5" is a mambo and jive dance song originally recorded and composed by Cuban Dámaso Pérez Prado in 1949.
The song's popularity was renewed by German artist Lou Bega's sampling and vocal version of the original, released under the same name on Bega's 1999 debut album A Little Bit of Mambo.
Lou Bega's cover was a hit in the United Kingdom, and Australia, where it reached number-one in 1999. It stayed at number-one in Australia for eight weeks, ultimately becoming the best-selling single of 1999. It also topped almost every chart in continental Europe, including Bega's home country, Germany, and set a record by staying at number-one in France for 20 weeks (longer than any stay at the top spot ever on the US or UK charts). The song reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US on November 2, 1999, giving Bega his only Top 40 hit in the US.
With its worldwide success, the song became the subject of a 7-year copyright trial between Prado's estate, Peermusic, and Lou Bega's producers. Bega had only used riffs (which by German law cannot be registered for copyright) from Prado's original and written the entire lyrics, so Bega's producers went to court in order to gain access to all the song's proceedings from Peermusic representing Prado's estate. However, after 7 years the Federal Court of Justice of Germany ruled in favor of Peermusic and Prado's estate in 2008, based upon the fact that Bega's producers had sought a royalty agreement with Peermusic prior to releasing the song. Because of Bega's significant contributions to his version, the court's final ruling declared it a new song co-written by Prado and Bega.