Nigeria Afrobeat Special

Bongos Ikwue & The Groovies


Reviews

New Release on Soundway Records, Nigeria Afrobeat Special - The new explosive sound in 197O’s Nigeria. Soundway Records storms into 2010 with a cherry picked selection of explosive afrobeat from 1970’s Nigeria complementing the burgeoning Nigeria Special series.

Focusing on the big band sound dominated by wailing saxophones, brass solos and relentless poly-rhythmic grooves, Nigeria Afro heat Special delivers a no-nonsense collection of tracks that (bar one) have NEVER been reissued outside of Nigeria.

Set for release on February 15th, Nigeria Afrobeat Special is released as a CD digipack and triple Vinyl LP featuring five bonus tracks not available on the CD. Extensive liner notes are provided.

Nigeria Afrobeat Special is the fourth addition to the Nigeria Special series, a project initiated by Miles Cleret, owner of the Soundway Record label back in 2004. Cleret’s ambition to distinguish the blossoming music scenes of 1970’s Nigeria has lent to an indispensable series of CD and LP compilations documenting the influence of western blues, rock and disco amongst artists and musicians versed in the local musical styles of highlife and juju.

It was Fela Kutu and his musical and political ideals that formed the core of afrobeat’s message. Blending highlife, Yoruba music, funk and jazz, Fela dominated the musical tapestry of l970’s Nigeria and his influence in Nigeria and West Africa led to a craze where most of the bands of the day incorporated this new sound into their repertoires to satisfy the tastes of the audiences of the time. This compilation highlights some of those recordings that have, until now, not seen the light of day.

The collection features Fela’s rival and fellow afrobeat veteran Orlando Julius, represented by the track ‘Afro-Blues’ - amazing that this has previously managed to escape re-issue. Also featured are tracks by big names on the Nigerian scene — Eric Akaeze, Bongos lkwue & Segun Bucknor as well as a Victor Uwaifo produced cut by previously unknown artist Andrew “Madman” Jaga. The album also features a cut featuring Pax Nicholas, a singer whose album Na Teef Know De Road Of Teef has recently been made available after 30 years.

It was not just African musicians who responded and picked up the afrobeat/Fela Kuti mantel. Fela’s legacy influenced bands and musicians the world over with luminaries like the late godfather of soul, James Brown name checking Fela as a catalyst to his sound and today groups such as Antibalas and contemporaries the world over who play a version of the sound that started life in Lagos.

Appropriately, Fela’s highly sought after version of 'Who’re you' lends this set it’s lead. Originally released as a 7” in 1971, it would later be re-recorded at Abbey Road for his album Fela’s London Scene and here it is re-issued for the first time ever.

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Over the last four years, Soundway’s Nigeria Special series has given us one new album each year packed with unusual cuts from the Lagos scene of the 1970s — Afrobeat, disco, funk, and rock. With the fifth album, Nigeria Afrobeat Special: The New Explosive Sound in 1970s Nigeria, Soundway returns to the original genre of the series and in the process unearths rare Afrobeat treasures. The first cut, for example, is “Who’re you?” by Fela and his Africa 70 — but not the relatively well-known version recorded in late 1971 at Abbey Road studios; the original Nigerian 45 recorded some months earlier in Lagos. This was just Fela’s third release, and that shows in the raw energy of his voice (as well as his rather meandering organ solo).

Like many of the recordings collected on this album, ranging in dates from 1972 to 1977 (“Do the Afro Shuffle” by Godwin Omabuwa & His Casanova Dandies), the funk influence is front and center with short ostinato licks by the guitar and bass, jazzy solos, and the drum kit asserting prominence over the other drums and percussion. Some of the performances also have flashes of highlife (“We Dey Find Money” by Eric Showboy Akaeze & His Royal Ericos), calypso (“Do the Afro Shuffle” by Godwin Omabuwa & His Cassanova Dandies, which combines afrobeat percussion with a shufflebeat on the drumkit), and even a bit of Juju (“Ariwo Yaa” by Bob Ohiri & His Uhuru Sounds). Ohiri’s performance is one of the most interesting on the disc, beginning with Juju-style vocal harmonies, but immediately swinging into a west coast funk groove that wouldn’t have been a surprise coming from War. Ohiri, King Sunny Adé’s lead guitarist, clearly deserves to be better known; this short (five and a half minute) cut leaves the listener begging for more.

Other performers collected on the disc are better known, although these specific tracks tend to the obscure. “Mind Your Business,” for example, by Saxon Lee and the Shadows International, features vocals by Nicholas Pax, Fela’s drummer and recently the focus of his own re-release on Daptone, Na Teef Know De Road of Teef. Afrobeat pioneer Segun Bucknor is here (“Gbomojo,” an instrumental piece), along with Orlando Julius (“Afro Blues,” a fantasy of polyrhythms and Motown horn lines).

Every performance swings hard, showcases tight ensemble work and imaginative, jazzy solos, and many of them incorporate traditional drums and percussion. Bongos Ikue & The Groovies go even farther, including balafon and traditional vocal styles with the electric organ, guitars, kit and saxophone. Although mostly remastered from 45s, EPs and LPs, the sound is clean and alive, and the portions are quite generous: half the cuts are more than eight minutes long, and one (Eric Showboy Akaeze’s “We Dey Find Money”) is more than 10. Listeners are thus given a good opportunity to sink into the music, experiencing full solos and dance breaks without fadeouts or silent edits. The result is a fascinating tour of early Afrobeat and Afrobeat-influenced music that satisfies from beginning to end.

By Richard Miller




Of course, hardcore Afrobeat collectors will tell you, the genre was more than just Fela Kuti-- I mean, he was very important, nobody's going to deny that, but he was only part of an evolving tradition, only part of a lively scene. Soundway's Nigeria Special series has found some remarkable stuff in the crates, mostly from what was happening elsewhere in Nigerian music in the 1970s; this fifth volume turns its attention to Afrobeat proper, and that means grappling directly with Fela's legacy.

Nigeria Afrobeat Special kicks off with an actual Fela Ransome Kuti & His Africa 70 recording: The single version of "Who're You", from 1971. It's an extraordinary record-- as promised, it's a harder, brasher take than the more familiar one from Fela's London Scene, a crazily taut, rubbery rhythm whose lyric is Fela snapping back against old-timers who didn't get his new thing. It's also the best thing on Afrobeat Special by a significant margin-- tight, cleverly constructed, and rhythmically on-point in the way that not much else here is.

That's fine if you're a Felaphile: One way to understand the impact of a major pop artist is to listen to the people who ripped them off, and figure out which parts of their work caught on with their peers. (The recent Black Man's Cry: The Inspiration of Fela Kuti compilation of international Fela covers and impersonations is enthusiastically recommended to anyone who thinks they might enjoy hearing three consecutive steel band covers of the same Fela tune.) Nigeria Afrobeat Special focuses on obscurities rather than hits; apparently, even third-rate Nigerian bands' drummers in those days were pretty great. The slowly bubbling instrumental "Gbomojo", by Segun Bucknor's Revolution, is like a Silly Putty impression of Africa 70, but it's not bad in its own right. Eric Showboy Akaeze & His Royal Erico's "We Dey Find Money" suggests that he'd figured out that Afrobeat songs were supposed to be long and include some horn parts and keyboard solos, but that he hadn't picked up on how to structure one so that it stayed interesting for ten minutes, or worked out how to keep his band playing at a consistent tempo.

A lot of the artists here were dance bands first and foremost-- calypso, highlife, whatever moved the crowd-- and in the early 70s, Nigerian clubgoers wanted to hear Afrobeat. Saxon Lee & the Shadows International, whose 1973 "Mind Your Business" is the second-catchiest tune here, were a long-running act who glommed onto Fela's grooves the way American funk groups shifted into disco a few years later. There are touches of American funk here, too: The hop-and-stomp intro of Anansa Professionals' "Enwan" could be a Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm riff.

In some ways, Fela is to Afrobeat what Bob Marley is to reggae: The outsize figurehead who frustrates serious fans by being the genre's alpha and omega to musical tourists, the father of an ongoing bloodline and franchise. There was more to 70s Nigerian pop than Afrobeat-- the earlier volumes of Nigeria Special have made that clear. But all the evidence from this reissue, as with others in the last decade or so, is that Fela and his immediate circle really did have a lock on the best of the form he invented.

by Douglas Wolk


There has never been an artist quite like Fela Kuti. A singer, composer, bandleader, multi-instrumentalist and fiery political rebel, he didn’t just shake up the Nigerian music scene back in the 1970s, but he created his own fusion style of Afrobeat, one that’s still growing in popularity alongside the legend of the man himself.

Fela was best seen on his home turf, playing in his club The Shrine in the Lagos suburb of Ikeja, where he often didn’t appear until the early hours of the morning, and kept playing until dawn. His songs were always lengthy, and involved his trademark blend of American funk and R&B mixed with jazz improvisation, traditional Yoruba influences, chanting line-and-response vocals, extended solos on saxophone and keyboards, and then sudden furious outbursts in which he would denounce the policies of the military government of the day.

He was an exhilarating performer, and it’s only to be expected that Fela and his Afrika 70 band provide the rousing opening of an album dedicated to ‘The New Explosive Sound in 1970s Nigeria’. The track is called Who’re You?, a song that Fela released as a 7” 45 rpm single in 1971, and was later re-recorded at Abbey Road for his album Fela’s London Scene. This original version has not been re-released until now, and it’s a classic example of early Fela, mixing a driving funk rhythm with fine brass work, chanting vocals and playful improvised keyboard solos.

Fela set the pace, but others were bound to follow, and this cheerfully intriguing set also features ten of Fela’s competitors, who were never as inventive, brave or unpredictable as the great man himself, but still created some great dance music following his musical formula. There’s Eric ‘Showboy’ Akaeze mixing a sturdy R&B riff, impressive organ work and wailing rock guitar on We Dey Find Money; a light, funky work-out from Saxon Lee & the Shadows International; and a cheerful dance song from Godwin Omabuwa & His Casanova Dandies with Do the Afro Shuffle. And as a contrast to the upbeat dance material there’s Segun Bucknor’s Revolution with Gbomojo, a slow and moody saxophone workout set against a funk beat.

This collection is a reminder that Fela wasn’t the only Afrobeat star in 1970s Nigeria – but he was certainly the best.

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Tracklist

1. whore you? (original 45 version) / fela ransome kuti & the africa 70 (8:33)
2. we dey find money / eric showboy akaeze & his royal ericos (9:54)
3. enwan / the anansa professionals (5:23)
4. mind your business / saxon lee & the shadows international (9:43)
5. otachikpokpo / bongos ikwue & the groovies (8:28)
6. afro-blues / orlando julius & his afro-sounders (6:05)
7. ariwo yaa / bob ohiri and his uhuru sounds (5:17)
8. hankuri / madman jaga (4:15)
9. do the afro shuffle / godwin omabuwa & his casanova dandies (5:25)
10. gbomojo / segun bucknors revolution (8:14)
11. ole / the black santiagos (3:10)

Nigerial Special - Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds and Nigerian Blues 1970-76

Reviews

In music, as elsewhere, the talk is of convergence, and Africa appears to be where pop stars are converging in early 2008. From American hopefuls (Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer) to the British old guard (Damon Albarn’s Africa Express project, Mick Jones collaborating with Rachid Taha), it seems the sound of the djembe has never been cooler, nor the trip from Upper West Side to downtown Lagos easier.

The current enthusiasm for emo-afrobeat (Nigeriana or whatever the NME christens it) might not even see us through the spring, but this compilation, subtitled Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-6, arrives seven days after Vampire Weekend’s debut, so perhaps it is forgivable to wonder if there is something in the air that signifies more than a fad on the rise.

The dawning of the 1970s saw a Year Zero for Lagos’s artists: musicians (mainly Igbo from the east) had gone home to support the secession in Biafra, Fela Kuti had returned from America bearing funk, and other progressive minds were enviously looking to rock for inspiration. Highlife (the sprightly, guitar-led and Caribbean-influenced pop of West Africa) had to modernise to survive.

What happened next was an explosion of the imagination as the Nigerians appropriated everything they could, Africanised it and released it into a fertile marketplace. The highlife got a whole lot higher.

Although they are classics of Nigeriana, it’s difficult to imagine anything more Cuban than Opotopo’s 1976 album cut Belema, which features the guitarist Fatai Rolling Dollar, who lost everything he owned when the Nigerian Army attacked Kuti’s compound a year later. Actually, the salsa quotient is increased by the rhythms of The Semi Colon, but somehow both sit perfectly alongside I Want a Break Thru by The Hykkers, a heavy rock jam with unfettered use of the guitar FX pedals, or the reggae within Leo Fadaka’s Blak Sound.

Eye-opening as these 26 tracks are, however, there are apparently tonnes of old vinyl still waiting to be discovered: Soundway promise volumes of disco funk and psychedelic afro-rock either side of Easter. Converge this way, there is definitely something in the air.

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Lagos, Nigeria, in a lengthy 2006 New Yorker article, is depicted as a post-industrial wasteland, an environmental, economic, and social disaster, fueled by corruption, crime, and the entropy of over eight million people (and counting) vying for limited space and resources. Lagos is considered a 21st century "megacity" teetering on the brink of total chaos when it's not already embroiled in it. "As a picture of the urban future," wrote author George Packer, "Lagos is fascinating only if you're able to leave it."

Lagos wasn't always like this, nor was Nigeria as a whole. In fact, just about 40 years ago, following the end of the Biafran War, Nigeria briefly experienced a huge economic and cultural boom, its oil revenues generating billions, the nation thriving, and the country producing an impressive number of artists, writers, and musicians. As far as the musicians go, many still only know Nigeria for Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. Some are also familiar with some combination of juju masters King Sunny Adé and Ebenezer Obey, the perfectly nicknamed highlife star Christogonus Ezebuiro "Sir Warrior" Obinna of the nebulous Oriental Brothers International Band, but they still represent just the tip of a vast West African iceberg.

Fela's not included on the illuminating 2xCD Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds & Nigerian Blues, but members of his pre-Afrobeat highlife band the Koola Lobitos are, playing in the Don Isaac Ezekiel Combination. Ebenezer Obey's not here, but the man who allegedly taught him how to play, Easy Kabaka Brown, is. "There are thousands of tracks by popular and not-so-popular bands that are still yet to be issued outside of West Africa," writes curator Miles Cleret in the well-researched liner notes.

That diversity, those numbers, and those colorful yet almost unknowable names are part of the challenge in compiling any collection of African music, especially drawing from a region as fruitful as the continent's northwest chunk. It's also no doubt what keeps many from diving in and exploring on their own. But if little on Nigeria Special sticks out for the neophyte or casual fan, all the better: The comp is the perfect place to start if you want to move beyond the better known heavy hitters of Nigerian music.

What makes Nigeria Special doubly useful is that, per its subtitle, it doesn't just rely on funk or dance music. Instead, on Disc One, we get acts like the Funkees, with their soulful, organ-driven "Akula Owu Onyeara", or the trancelike, percussion-heavy "Oja Omoba" from Dele Ojo & His Star Brothers Band. St. Augustine & His Rovers Dance Band offer the unfailingly peppy "Onwu Ama Dike", while "Feso Jaiye" from the Sahara All Stars of Jos, is downright mellow in its sax, guitar and electric piano explorations.

The Nigerian Police Force Band plays Afrobeat in a more familiar mold on Disc Two, their "Asiko Ni Mi" clearly indebted to Fela. Easy Kabaka Brown's band, Opotopo, plays up the West African-Caribbean connection in "Belema". The Hykkers' "I Want a Break Thru" is wah-wah infused psychedelic instrumental rock. The (again, perfectly named) Dan Satch & His Atomic 8 Dance Band of Aba contribute the tightly syncopated polyrhythms of "Alabeke", featuring a smoking guitar solo. Any one of these tracks may be eye opening on their own. Taken as a whole, the comp itself is as revelatory as it is incessantly enjoyable. Pop history has rarely gone down so painlessly. "Thousands of tracks" yet to be issued, claims Cleret? As long as they're this beautifully packaged and presented, bring 'em on.

— Joshua Klein, April 7, 2008

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Shortly after the disastrous Biafran war and before the profits from Nigeria's oil boom were completely squandered, laundered, sequestered or stolen, Nigerian music was on a roll. By the mid '80s, the home grown recording industry would be in serious decline, but this entertaining 2CD set reminds us how vibrant things were, mining a vein overlapping that of Honest Jons' 2005 releases, Lagos Chop Up and Lagos All Routes – with the added bonus of informative sleeve notes that you can actually read, and reproductions of colourful cover art. Compiler and label boss Miles Cleret avoids the obvious juju/apala/Afro-beat scenes also very active at the time, concentrating as the title indicates on the rather psychedelic, 'western'-influenced Afro-rock and the more gentle, loose-limbed highlife typical of the period, mostly by musicians from east of Lagos. Even serious Nigerian music heads will know only a few of the bigger names such as Victor Uwaifo, The Funkees and Celestine Ukwu, but the lesser known artists are in no way overshadowed.

Highlights are multitudinous, but the first track that really catches the attention on disc 1 is the surging Amalinja, by The Don Isaac Ezekiel Combination with its insistent sax work. The Funkees weigh in with the funkily chugging Afro-rock Akula Owu Onyeara, boasting prominent bass, searing vocals, wah-wah guitar and noodling organ. Dele Ojo and His Star Brothers band are rootsier; Oja Omoba being a percussion-rich treat, while the swinging highlife of The Harbours Band's Koma Mosi may be the model for King Sunny Ade's Easy Motion Tourist. Other standouts include gloriously mellow highlife from St. Augustine & His Rovers Dance Band and The Sahara All Stars of Jos, whose “Feso Jaiye” floats along on a languid groove decorated with sweetly muted trumpet, sax, sublime vocal harmonies and what sounds like a vibraphone. To close, there’s a smouldering Afro-jazz instrumental by The Tony Benson Sextet, featuring the kind of luminous organ solo that might have been ground out by The Spencer Davis Group or suchlike a few years earlier.

Disc two opens with the slinky, Fela-influenced Asiko Mi Ni by The Nigeria Police Force Band. The bass-line strongly suggests Dave and Ansel Collins' reggae smash Double Barrel (from two years earlier) and the organ solo is straight out of bedlam. Opotopo's jaunty Belema features Fatai Rolling Dollar, who recently made a comeback working with Tony Allen, and then there's Dan Satch & His Atomic 8 Dance Band of Aba, who sound like they learnt a thing or three from New Orleans funkmeisters The Meters. Two other highlights are Collins Oke Elaiho & His Odoligie Nobles Dance band – whose hypnotic Siminyi-Yaya features yet another monster bass line and an infectious vocal hook – and The Hykkers’ Afro-rock instrumental I Want To Break Thru, with its wonderfully crazed guitar grooves.

One could go on, but there wouldn’t be room to write even half the bands' names. This compilation pulls off the trick of being a fine place for the curious novice to start, but also of great interest to specialists.

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Tracklist

01. The Anambra Beats - Ayamma
02. Celestine Ukwu & His Philosophers National - Okwukwe Na Nchekwube
03. The Don Isaac Ezekiel Combination - Amalinja
04. The Funkees - Akula Owu Onyeara
05. Dele Ojo & His Star Brothers Band - Oja Omoba
06. The Harbours Band - Koma Mosi
07. The Semi Colon - Nekwaha Semi Colon
08. Sir Victor Uwaifo & His Melody Maestros - Osalobua Rekpama
09. St. Augustine & His Rovers Dance Band - Onwu Ama Dike
10. The Sahara All Stars Of Jos - Feso Jaiye
11. MonoMono - Ema Kowe Iasa Ile Wa
12. Tunji Oyelana and The Benders - To Whom It May Concern
13. The Tony Benson Sextet - Ugali
14. The Nigerian Police Force Band 'the Force 7' - Asiko Mi Ni
15. Godwin Ezike & The Ambassadors - Torri Wowo
16. Opotopo (easy Kabaka Brown) - Belema
17. Dan Satch & His Atomic 8 Dance Band Of Aba - Alabeke
18. Popular Cooper & His All Beats Band - Arraino
19. Collins Oke Elaiho & His Odoligie Nobles Dance Band - Simini-yaya
20. Bola Johnson & His Easy Life Top Beats - Buroda Mase
21. The Hykkers - I Want A Break Thru'
22. George Akaeze & His Augmented Hits - Business Before Pleasure
23. Shadow Abraham With Mono Mono Friends - Omo Yen Wu Mi
24. Leo Fadaka & The Heroes - Blak Sound
25. Osayomore Joseph & The Creative 7 - Eguae Oba
26. Etubom Rex Williams & His Nigerian Artistes - Akpaison

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