Dele Sosimi - You No Fit Touch Am

Wah Wah 45s are very proud to present the first full-length album in almost a decade from vocalist, keyboard player, Fela Kuti collaborator and afrobeat legend, Dele Sosimi!

You No Fit Touch Am represents where Dele is today – something of an untouchable force in the music scene that he has always been such a vital part of. The title is an uncompromising message that this man means business, and with his mammoth afrobeat orchestra on board that is definitely the case. Recorded at the Fish Market Studios in North-West London by Benedic Lamdin (AKA Nostalgia 77) the album provides a musical representation of Dele’s strong socio-political opinions, as well as delivering classic song-writing that could have come straight out of 1970s Lagos!

Born in Hackney, East London, but soon to return to his parents’ native Nigeria at the age of four, Dele Sosimi was schooled and raised in Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s shadow at the height of early 70s afrobeat. Having been chosen by Fela to join his band at somewhat of a tender age, he was still a young man when sharing Fela’s Glastonbury stage in 1984, and became both Musical Director for both Fela’s Egypt 80 and Femi Kuti’s Positive Force.

After Fela’s passing in 1997, Dele went on to concentrate on his own solo career and, with diligent patience, carved out his own afrobeat crown. In London, where he now resides, his Afrobeat Vibration all-nighters are charged with his passion, labours and his unrelenting spirit.

Following on from his first two studio albums, Turbulent Times and Identity, this third long-player is sure to cement Dele Sosimi’s position as a major player within afrobeat and beyond!

kudosrecords.co.uk

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Dele Sosimi is a man with a peerless Afrobeat pedigree. From teenage keyboard player for Fela Kuti's Egypt 80 to bandleader for his son Femi Kuti's Positive Force outfit, Sosimi has helped define the sound alongside some of its most iconic figures.

Parting ways with Femi in 1995, Dele relocated to London and immersed himself in the capital's multi-cultural vibrance, his own music rooted in the heavy Yoruba rhythms of Afrobeat.
Does such a hefty CV weigh heavily on the man? How could it with music as joyful and nimble as this. As with the best Afrobeat, and its American cousin Funk, there's a certain lightness of touch to the heavyweight rhythmic workouts. Guitar and horns darts over bass and drum while call and response and chants supply the message.

This third 'solo' album, his first for 10 years, was recorded in London with a crew of long time players and producer Nostalgia 77 (Tru Thoughts) offering a 21st century clarity to the mix. There's no silly compromises to the music here though, just a thoroughly modern sense of oomph in the mix with a suitably heavy bass presence.

Although the sound is classically Afrobeat, this is music concerned with the world around it in 2015 with mentions for ISIS and Nigeria's own Boko Haram amid Sosimi's socially conscious lyrics.
While the format has changed little since its early 70s inception, Afrobeat sounds as life affirming today as it ever has and in Sosimi, and this record, there's someone to carry it onward.

clashmusic.com 
 

There’s several things that tend to be pretty much rock-solid givens for enjoyment in my musical world. Releases on Wah Wah 45s, afrobeat bands and acts that have been booked by the Priddle family (AKA Rhythmtree Promotions). Just needed to state my biased position before I tell you why you should buy this first album in 8 years from the doyen of afrobeat, Dele Sosimi.It was with great interest and excitement that I read of the signing to WW45s of Dele and his afrobeat orchestra last year having seen Dele play twice on the IOW and also knowing the Wah Wah crew well. It had beautiful friendship written all over it and so it is that You No Fit Touch Am delivers whole-heartedly.

Dele’s musical career started at just 16 years old as Fela Kuti’s keyboard player in his Egypt 80 band, a role that evolved to musical director and re-orchestrater. He continued to work with the Kuti family as he and Femi formed Positive Force in the mid-80s and Dele relentlessly to toured the world. Fast forward though to the last few years where Dele has been based in London, infecting the capital’s scene with his energy and drive as well as educating the next generation though his foundation and his lectures at LMU. When I first encountered Dele Sosimi it was at Rhythmtree 2012 as he closed the main stage with an hour of “foreplay” (his words) as his legendary sets at the Afrobeat Vibration nights last at least four hours. The following year he blew all those attending away with a two hour set of his own compositions along with Fela classics. The live show was there completely yet he needed the quality recordings to confirm his status but here they now are and we can all enjoy the energy vibrations from this belter.

E Go Better opens up the seven-track long player with intertwined guitars dancing away with horns blasting a welcome before the sax spirals into the first vocals from Dele and his backing singers, who promise positivity in the lyrics. This is a recurring theme throughout the album, as Dele demonstrates his happy renaissance and encourages us all onto better things. You can hear and imagine the smile on his face all the way through the record. That doesn’t mean afrobeat’s traditional themes of struggle and protest are put aside as he stakes his claim for office in Na My Turn – I’m voting Dele. The title track follows and is a poem to the hypnotic, dance-trance inducing qualities of afrobeat.

The low slung groover Where We Want To Be comes next with the most complex arrangement of the whole set. There is a particular crispness to the drums on I Don’t Care that keeps the groove bouncy whilst We Siddon We Dey Look has a dreamy, drifting quality exemplified by the horn solo (trombone I think??). The album closes with first single Sanctuary, a shuffling, building monster that in full album length shows other sides as opposed to the 7″ version I’ve been playing since last year.

You No Fit Touch Am was recorded and produced by Nostalgia 77 who has used analogue taping to capture the warmth and fullness of Dele’s killer band. I’ve only had the download to enjoy at the moment but I’m looking forward to getting hold of the heavyweight vinyl to spin all summer long, for this is pure festival fire! When I had the pleasure of speaking with Dele on Friday’s Headfunk Show his pride in the quality of this recording was obvious, as it should be. If you’ve seen him live you’ll not need much convincing to get this but if you have never sampled afrobeat before this is a perfect introduction.

headfunk.info 

The Afrobeat Diaries ... by allaboutjazz.com (Pt.XVII)

by Chris May, allaboutjazz.com

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Part 17 - Dele Sosimi: Identity

Keyboard player and singer Dele Sosimi, a member of Fela Kuti's Egypt 80 from 1979-86 and Femi Kuti's Positive Force from 1986-94, returned to London, where he was born in 1963, in 1995. A decade and a half later, he leads three bands in the city: the acoustic Afrobeat Trio with bassist Femi Elias and drummer Kunle Olofinjana, the Gbedu septet (which adds horns to the trio's lineup), and the 10-15 piece Afrobeat Orchestra (more horns, guitars and backing vocalists). Since autumn 2010, Sosimi has acted as music consultant to the London production of the Broadway musical Fela!, of whose stage band he is a key member. Sosimi also organises London's bi-monthly Afrobeat Vibration all-nighters, which present the Orchestra, guest musicians and Afrobeat DJs, and works as an educator with the Afrobeat Foundation, which he founded.

Along with Afrika 70's drummer, the now Paris-based Tony Allen, with whom Sosimi has regularly performed, and Fela Kuti's sons Femi and Seun, Sosimi has worked tirelessly to nurture and develop Afrobeat. As the fliers for Afrobeat Vibration events have it: "Afrobeat is more than a music. It's a movement." This column officially declares Sosimi a Hero of Afrobeat.

Sosimi has made two albums with the Afrobeat Orchestra: Turbulent Times (Eko Records, 2002)—reviewed in Part 16 of Afrobeat Diaries—and Identity. Both are outstanding, rooted in Fela Kuti's original blueprint but not constrained by it, and both deserve far wider currency than they have enjoyed so far.

Turbulent Times was a mostly instrumental disc which featured Sosimi's jazz chops along with those of horn players Byron Wallen (trumpet, flugelhorn), Justin Thurgur (trombone), Linus Bewley (tenor saxophone) and Tony Kofi (baritone saxophone). On Identity, Sosimi's keyboards share the spotlight with his vocals, while the arrangements continue to enrich the basic Afrobeat paradigm with infusions of jazz, Latin, traces of highlife, and funk (given the prominence of Elias' serpentine electric bass, more Bootsy Collins' Rubber Band than James Brown's Famous Flames, an early inspiration of Fela Kuti and with whom, of course, Collins played before going solo). Sosimi's horn arrangements, intricate yet unfailingly visceral, which were such a delight on Turbulent Times, are here in all their glory again. Sosimi, Elias, Thurgur, guitarist Kunle Olasoju and saxophonists Eric Rohner (tenor) and Rob Leake (mainly baritone) are the chief soloists.

Sosimi's vocals, only briefly exercised on Turbulent Times, are a revelation, like Seun's possessing an enviable degree of Fela's authority; and the lyrics (most of the tunes were co-written with Elias) stay close to Afrobeat's tradition of social commentary, sung in a mixture of Yoruba, English and Broken English. Tempos and atmospheres are mostly up, and track playing times are mainly around 10 minutes. There are two instrumentals: the urgent "Ori Oka" and the pretty, Latinesque "I Don Waka" (at 4:48 the shortest track).

Following its run at London's National Theatre, Fela! moves to Sadler's Wells for a six week season in summer 2011. Sosimi will doubtless continue to drive the stage band. His third solo album is now long overdue, and it is to be hoped that the success of Fela! will assist its recording and release without too much further delay.

The Afrobeat Diaries ... by allaboutjazz.com (Pt.XVI)

by Chris May, allaboutjazz.com

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Part 16 - Dele Sosimi: Turbulent Times

Whatever you may think of musicals, and most people either love them or hate them, the New York and London productions of Fela! are to be welcomed. Both have been distinguished as much by their house bands as by their leading actors and dancers, and, as a result, both have done Fela Kuti's legacy proud—confirming, if confirmation was needed, the Afrobeat originator's enduring power to connect.

That in itself is something to celebrate. And the shows have also boosted the profiles of the house bands themselves. The New York lineup is built around Brooklyn's decade-old Afrobeat ensemble, Antibalas—and has also included the outstanding percussionist Yoshiro Takemasa, from another fine Brooklyn group, Akoya Afrobeat—and in late 2010, Ropeadope reissued Antibalas' 2004 album, Who Is This America?. The show's London lineup includes ex-Egypt 80 keyboardist Dele Sosimi in a pivotal role (he's also music consultant to the production), and while we wait for the next Sosimi album, anyone who's yet to check out his 2002 own-name debut, the magnificent Turbulent Times, is in for a treat.

First, a little background. When he was only 16 years old, Sosimi joined Egypt 80, later becoming its music director. He was part of the band which produced the late masterpiece Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense (Wrasse, 1986), produced by Wally Badarou, which successfully reimagined the role of keyboards in Afrobeat. Other important albums featuring Sosimi include I.T.T. (International Thief Thief) (1979), Authority Stealing (1980), Original Sufferhead (1982), Perambulator (1983) and Army Arrangement (1985). He was a member of Femi Kuti's Positive Force for over ten years, before moving to London in the mid-1990s.

The with-vocals but essentially instrumental Turbulent Times picks up where Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense left off, foregrounding keyboards still further, and to brilliant effect. The cracking ten-piece band, which includes some of London's top Afrobeat musicians along with some of its best jazz players, nails all the key Afrobeat essentials—vocal and instrumental call and response, rich horn arrangements, socio-political engagement, tenor guitar licks, signature rhythms—while also nudging them into then-new territory. Each of the six tunes serves as a platform for the band's soloists: trumpeter/flugelhornist Byron Wallen) (two solos), baritone saxophonist Tony Kofi (two), tenor saxophonist Linus Bewley (one), trombonist Justin Thurgur (also in the London Fela! lineup, one), guitarist Kunle Olasoju (one), bassist Femi Elias (one) and drummer Feyi Akinwunmi (one). Sosimi himself solos, in a winningly melodic, jazz-inflected style, on most tracks (and sings, briefly but convincingly, on four of them). The combination of a red hot band, inventive arrangements rooted in the tradition but of their own time, and singular soloists given their heads is simply outstanding.

Turbulent Times is a little masterpiece, and it deserves—and in the Fela! slipstream may actually receive—a lot more attention in 2011 than it got first time around. It's an album that should be in any serious Afrobeat collection.

Another Afrobeat crusader enjoying the spillage of limelight from Fela! is artist (and, back in the day, Young African Pioneer) Ghariokwu Lemi, who designed many of Afrika 70's most striking record sleeves. Given complete creative license by Kuti, Lemi's work did more than complement the music, becoming an Afrobeat phenomenon in itself. Top galleries around the world are now interested in showing Lemi's work and a book is in the offing. Turbulent Times features a Lemi front cover (as did Akoya's 2008 Afrobomb album, President Dey Pass). There's talk of Lemi designing the cover for Seun Kuti's next album, due later in 2011, and another for Chicago Afrobeat Project.

There are plenty of well-produced concert clips of Sosimi viewable on YouTube, but the shaky, low-fi footage below, shot at one of Sosimi's bimonthly Afrobeat Vibration nights—a highlight of the London Afrobeat scene—conveys the spirit of the music well.

Dele Sosimi - An article

“What the hell has this got to do with Fela?”

It’s a Saturday afternoon and the distinct sound of a reggae bassline is booming across the Barbican’s reception area towards the corner where I am trying – in vain – to conduct a quiet interview of the man who played keys for Fela Kuti for six years. My subject is due onstage in a quarter of an hour and this is the fourth time in five minutes that our interview has been ground to a halt by friends, fans and family; this time by a band member annoyed at the inclusion of a reggae band – albeit a good one – on a roster of musicians and DJs gathered at London’s Barbican arts centre to celebrate the life, art and legacy of afrobeat pioneer, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.

Dele Sosimi shrugs his shoulders and smiles at his friend with the air of a man who has seen it all before. The talented composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist was born in Hackney (just down the road), before going to Nigeria where he went to music school and taught himself how to play piano and guitar. By the time he was a teenager, he was already touring all over Europe and the United States as a key member of Fela Kuti’s band, Egypt 80 (formerly Africa 70).

For anyone living in Nigeria in the ‘70s, afrobeat was the sound; deep funk blended with traditional Nigerian/West African highlife accompanied by a heady dose of African percussion, jazz horns and vocals. Fela Kuti perfected and popularised the genre, but when I put it to Dele that another West African artist, Geraldino Pino of Sierra Leone, is said to have actually invented afrobeat, he is quick to set me straight:

"I had the privilege and pleasure of playing with Pino and he was basically a James Brown afficionado. Fela though… Fela had vision. He went through metamorphoses as an artist. When he went to the US, it was a turning point for him. He came back different. His black consciousness peaked. He was influenced by Malcolm X, by the Black panthers, by Cleaver."

Listening to Dele talk it is evident that Fela is as much an inspiration to him now as he was when Dele taught himself to play his songs on his school’s piano. The man was legendary for having been an incredible showman and bandleader, but it is also for his audacious, revolutionary lyrics and contempt for authority that Fela is revered by a fan base that includes artists as diverse as D’Angelo, Ty, Masters at Work, Taj Mahal, Osunlade, Brian Eno, Burning Spear, Kerri Chandler and Jorge Ben Jor.

By 1984, the Nigerian military government had had enough of Fela and they incarcerated him for eighteen months on trumped up currency laundering charges, leaving his son (Dele’s childhood friend) Femi Kuti to lead Egypt 80 on their American tour. Dele became the band’s musical director and for two years he recruited and trained new band members, arranged and orchestrated Afrobeat masterpieces.

In 1986 Femi left Egypt 80 and took Dele with him. Dele became the musical director and bandleader for Femi’s new group Femi Anikulapo-Kuti and the Positive Force. During these years Dele explored and developed his own musical skills, stretching himself between Positive Force, the Afro Jazz Quartet/Quintet and by working with a French Bassoon Player called Alex Ouzounoff, to produce the CD, ‘Made In Nigeria’.

By December 1995, he had decided on his own musical path and he left Positive Force, moving to London where he started playing as a resident musician in some of London’s Nigerian venues. He formed a new group, which he called ‘Gbedu Resurrection’. “Gbedu” he says, “is like hunger, a summons that you cannot ignore”. It also used to be the name of the Shrine, the legendary nightclub on the outskirts of Lagos that Fela made famous. Gbedu Ressurection featured six or so artists and went on to play several London venues including the Africa Centre and, somewhat poetically, The Shrine (London). Things really took off for Dele however at the beginning of 2002 when he successfully released his debut solo album, ‘Turbulent Times’ in which he manages to demonstrate the piano as a centrepiece afrobeat instrument to rival the drum and horns.

When I ask if he was surprised by the album’s reception, he shakes his head and says, "Afrobeat is becoming more and more accessible, more listened to. People who didn’t originate it are playing it now. Groups like Afrodizz and Kokolo Afrobeat Orchestra in New York." Dele acknowledges the role of his former bandmate, Tony Allen, in raising afrobeat’s profile. "Tony's crossed over a lot. He is more household now. That’s the thing about afrobeat: when you want to cook, he’s like water. Tony is like water - the essential ingredient. Especially to many hip hop DJs." We talk about some of the artists using Tony’s beats, including rappers Common, Ty and Breis, the last of whom will be performing on the last day of the Barbican’s Freestage performances. Dele animatedly starts playing a Tony Allen drumbeat using his arms for effect and his mouth for sounds before adding that Allen played a central role in the development of the music. Referring to the more subdued sound of Egypt 80 in comparison with Africa 70s danceable funk grooves, Dele says that “After Tony left, [Fela] did not seem to trust the drummer's role too much anymore. The drums became more subdued. When Tony played you could hear him accentuate Fela's sound. There was a rapport". I ask Dele if there has ever been a reunion of Africa 70/Egypt 80 members. He responds in the negative: "It hasn't happened yet... but I'm praying that it will. It would be nice to jam with them again."

At the moment, Dele is releasing his second album ‘Best Bet’, and he mentions an EP of six Afrobeat poetry tracks he is producing for a poet named Ikwunga. He has just finished compiling the 3-CD Essential Afrobeat compilation for Family recordings. The compilation features all of afrobeat’s central players, such as Tony Allen, Femi Kuti and of course Fela, while also highlighting modern interpretations of afrobeat by the likes of Quantic, Masters at Work, and Daft Punk, as well as featuring work from newer afrobeat outfits like Afrodizz, funk masters like James Brown, and numerous funky Africans including Manu Dibango and Salif Keita. As Sosimi puts it, "The compilation is authoritative. This is where Afrobeat has come from, where it has been, where it is going."

As was the case when he was with Positive Force, Dele splits his musical time between three outfits: the Afrobeat Acoustic Trio, the six-piece Gbedu group, as well as an Afrobeat Orchestra of with a ever-changing line up of at least ten players. In 2003 the Orchestra was fourteen men strong and they played to audiences at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, and at the X.traX showcases in Manchester.

Our 15 minutes are up and Dele proceeds to the stage to show me what he is all about, delivering a performance that his mentor would surely be proud of; engaging the audience, dancing behind the keys, singing, laughing and drawing out impressive performances from his band. By the end of their set, he has everyone on their feet. It is very difficult not to get caught up in the man’s passion and enthusiasm for his music.

Source

Dele Sosimi - Turbulent Times

Biography

His career began when he joined Fela Anikulapo-Kuti's Egypt 80 (1979-1986). Then he created Positive Force band with Femi Kuti, with whom he performed from 1986 to 1994. In both bands he was keyboard player, also musical director taking care of re-orchestrating and arranging music as well as handling the recruiting and training of new musicians.

Based on Afrobeat, Dele's music is a blend of complex funk grooves, Nigerian traditional music (including hi-life), African percussion, underpinning the jazz horns and solos from other instruments, as well as rhythmical singing.

His keyboard work can be heard on Fela's several albums, as well as Femi's ones. Dele has also performed often with Tony Allen.

Following his first solo album Turbulent Times, he was invited to select the tracks for the 3-CD compilation "Essential Afrobeat" (Universal, 2004). He was producer and co-writer of "Calabash Volume 1: Afrobeat Poems" by Ikwunga, the Afrobeat Poet (2004). He is a central member of the Wahala Project. He has also featured on British rapper TY's album Closer and his Turbulent Times is featured on The Afrobeat Sudan Aid Project (2006). His album Identity has been described by Songlines magazine as “A sizzling set from London’s Afrobeat leader”.

His performances include The Montreux Jazz Festival, Joe Zawinul's Birdland (Vienna) the Treibhaus (Innsbruck ), Paradiso (Amsterdam), Bimhuis (Amsterdam), Oerol Festival (Terschelling, Holland), the Ollin Kan Festival (Mexico City), Canada Afrobeat Summit (Calgary, Canada), Sensommer Int Musikkfestival (Oslo, Norway), Festival Musicas Do Mar and Festival Musicas do Mundo (Portugal), Festival Art des Ville - Arts des Champs (France) & the London African Music Festival, Hot Club in Lyon and Cave à Musique in Mâcon (France.

Based in London, Dele Sosimi is an educator and instructor in Afrobeat (via his Dele Sosimi Afrobeat Foundation, and as a Visiting Lecturer in Music and Media, London Metropolitan University). Dele performs in one of three formats, each as compelling and funky as the others – a 15- piece Afrobeat Orchestra (featuring a 5-piece horn section and dancers), a 6-9 piece band (the most frequently used format) or a trio/quartet (with bass and drums/percussion).

Sosimi is abetted by a group of musicians. Afrobeat is given a virtuoso treatment by a core combination of Femi Elias (bass), Kunle Olofinjana (drums),Phil Dawson (rhythm guitar), Maurizio Ravalico (percussion), Justin Thurgur (trombone), Tom Allan (Trumpet) & Eric Rohner (Tenor Saxophone).

Source

Review

The shadow of Afrobeat innovator Fela Kuti still looms large, even though he died less than six years ago. Fela single-handedly championed a unique admixture of Pan-Africanism, highlife, funk and jazz (among other ingredients in the music's entrancing stew) for well over three decades, despite hostile military regimes and economic austerity in his native Nigeria.

Longtime Kuti (Egypt 80) keyboardist /vocalist Dele Sosimi is perhaps one of the best placed musicians to skipper the good ship "Afrobeat" into decidedly jazzier and more instrumental waters. This, of course, contrasts with the more strident political and Pan-Africanist tasks of Femi Kuti, Fela's musically talented son.

Sosimi's most recent CD, "Turbulent Times" (Ekostar, London) contains six fine tunes. The compositions reflect the ways in which this relatively young pianist has imbibed the jazz tradition, along with Fela's evident influences. It should always be borne in mind that the sine qua non of jazz - collective and individual improvisation - has its roots deep in Africa's musically fertile soils. This improvisatory impetus finds its most potent expression on "Turbulent Times".

Sosimi's spare, economical approach to his instrument bears some similarity to that of South African pianist, Abdullah Ibrahim. Full of catchy vamps and repeated motifs, ardent hard- and post-boppers won't find any reference points here: Afrobeat is not, strictly speaking a bebop derived art.

Aided and abetted by a rhythmic core of cannily percussive electric bassist Femi Elias and powerhouse drummer Feyi Akinwunmi (an heir-apparent to Tony Allen) Sosimi creates some of the most betwitching grooves in modern African music. Its little wonder that Afrobeat patterns are sampled by DJs from Mushin to Manhattan!

Check out the rollicking intensity of the title track (E get as E be) featuring Dele's deep voice; the percussive masterpiece "Big Cat Fat Cat" (showcasing Feyi's enthralling stickwork); and the mellower numbers like "Di Godfada" and "I No Like". These are African music gems.

Mention must be made of Sosimi's crack horn section: Byron Wallen on trumpet/flugelhorn (check out Wallen's masterly solo on "Gbedu 1", Tony Kofi on baritone sax, Linus Bewley on tenor sax, and Justin Thurgur on trombone. Guitarist Kunle Olasoju is credited as being an "Afrobeat guitarist" --- and he lives up to the description, with a wonderfully agile and rhythmic style. Richard Ajiliye provides an important percussive presence on the album.

"Turbulent Times" no doubt represents the leading edge of African jazz.

Source



Tracklist

1. Turbulent Times
2. Gbedu 1
3. Phaze 2 (What Next)
4. Big Cat Fat Cat
5. Di Godfada
6. I No Like

Dele Sosimi - Identity

Information

In The Begining...

Dele Sosimi, whose career began when he joined Fela Anikulapo-Kutis Egypt 80 in 1979, stands out as one of the most active musicians currently on the Afrobeat scene worldwide ..Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was the founder of the style of music known as Afrobeat. The music is a blend of complex but highly danceable funk grooves, Nigerian traditional music (including hi-life) and African percussion underpinning the jazz horns and solos from other instruments, as well as rhythmic singing.

As the rhythm keyboard player for Fela Anikulapo Kutis Egypt 80 band, Dele worked and toured extensively with Fela around the world. During Felas incarceration in 1984, Femi Anikulapo-Kuti Felas son and Deles childhood/school friend - took over the reins temporarily and led the Egypt 80 band and Dele had a chance to develop his arranging skills as its musical director, re-orchestrating and re-arranging as well as handling the recruiting and training of new musicians for the band. Dele played keyboards on the following Fela/Egypt 80 hits (among others): Parambulator, Power Show, Original Sufferhead, Customs Check Point, MOP 1 (Movement of the People), Give Me Shit, I Give You Shit, Authority Stealing, Army Arrangement, Government Chicken Boy, ITT (International Thief Thief) and Teacher Dont Teach Me Nonsense.

In 1986, Dele and Femi left Egypt 80 to form their own band called Femi Anikulapo-Kuti and the Positive Force, for which Dele was the musical director and bandleader. He was again responsible for recruiting and training new band members, as well as performing on rhythm keyboard and featuring as the keyboard soloist. The band toured the world extensively and played in several of the major jazz festivals including Montreux, the North Sea Jazz Festival and the Montreal Jazz festival. The Positive Force was also invited to perform at the Jazz Club of Nigeria Festival alongside other renowned musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, Randy Weston, Toshiko Akiyoshi and Didier Lockwood. They produced the albums No Cause for Alarm, Mind Your Own Business and Wonder Wonder.

Dele at this time also developed other musical influences and interests, working and playing with an Afro Jazz Quartet/Quintet and through a collaboration with French Bassoon player Alex Ouzounoff, producing a CD titled Made In Nigeria, courtesy of the French Cultural Centre, Lagos, Nigeria.

Dele left Femi Anikulapo-Kuti and the Positive Force in December 1995 and moved to London where he set about forming a new group. The resulting project reflected Londons multicultural environment, with a strong influence of jazz and shades of deep funk and latin music, but all underpinned by the heavy grooves of Afrobeat's Yoruba rhythm with Dele’s vocals very strongly in the Afrobeat tradition. Dele’s first solo album “Turbulent Times” (2002) featured the cream of the resident Afrobeat community on the label Eko Star. Dele has also recently selected the tracks for a 3-CD compilation entitled “Essential Afrobeat”, with Family Recordings (Universal), released in October 2004, and he also was producer and co-writer of “Calabash Volume 1: Afrobeat Poems” by Ikwunga, the first Afrobeat Poet, also released in 2004. He is also a central member of the Wahala Project, which released the single Wahala in 2006; the track also appears on Puma’s 2006 Soccer World Cup Compilation CD Africa Plays On . His new Album IDENTITY has attracted reviews from the Limited edition preview release in Holland this Summer.

Live appearances in 2006 have included, amongst others, Mexicos Ollin Kan Festival and Novi Sad-Serbias Etno Fest and in 2007 Brent Respect Festival, City Of London Festival, Oerol Festival, Terschellings & Paradiso, Amsterdam Holland, Mayor of Londons Africa Day Festival @ Trafalgar Square.

Dele performs in one of three formats, each as compelling at funky as the others a fifteen-piece Afrobeat Orchestra (featuring a five piece horn section and Afrobeat dancers), a nine-piece band (the most frequently used format) or a trio (with bass and percussion).

Sosimi is abetted by a group of musicians, most of whom have either played with him on previous records or have gigged with him on the live circuit. They all have chops to spare and the communication between them is near telepathic. Afrobeat is lovingly given the virtuoso treatment by a combination of Femi Elias, whose Bass growls, twists, turns, pulsates & grooves, Kunle Olofinjana on drums who meshes perfectly with Elias and like a dream machine the groove never lets up. The gear changes are seamless, no accent or punctuation is missed, Phil Dawson who delivers tasty, funky rhythm guitars and some truly exquisite solos from a wide range of angles, again revealing the endless possibilities of what can be done with this music, Maurizio Ravalico on percussion adding colour and The horns - delivered with laser-like precision by Justin Thurgur on Trombone, Tom Allan on Trumpet & Eric Rohner on Tenor Saxophone.

Source



Review

With this album, his sophomore offering, Dele Sosimi, ex-Fela sideman and former musical director of Femi Kuti, has delivered a confident, passionate, elegant and intelligently crafted answer to Afrobeat’s real identity crisis, and he has done this without losing the swagger and the grit that is Afrobeat.

Afrobeat is an iconoclastic music. It is essentially the creation and vision of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, who took hard bop, the modal experiments of Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock, the Afrocentric black power sentiments prevalent in the free jazz movement, fused it with James Brown, took it back to its Nigerian roots and put it all on the one.

Ojoro – Ojoro is a left-jab, right-hook and total takedown of a riposte, aimed at certain elements in the music industry. In classic Afrobeat/hip-hop “battle-rap” mode, Sosimi tackles the question of authenticity and personal identity within a musical genre. Bass, drums, keyboards and guitar enter together in rumbling, measured groove; then the horns crisply swagger in and Sosimi dispatches all questions about identity with a lyrical broadside that lets you know that even though he has his roots, he also has his own style, game and ways, and though rooted in Afrobeat, this is a new music. It is a thrilling emancipation declaration.

Tho Ro Way Ya Hand – Afrobeat has always been in the paradoxical position of being art music with a popular following, worldwide yet underground. This track exemplifies that phenomenon. It kicks off with an intricate celebratory fanfare, played in unison by the horns and the rhythm section. The band then locks into a groove of seismic potency. The funk is fat and angular and, yes, so is the Afrobeat. And while I was mulling over the harmonic complexities of the track, my five-year old daughter was singing the hook: “Throw away your hand.” Afrobeat populism with the antidote frees your mind and boots your sacroiliac into gear.

B.B.E.N.Y. (Best Bet) – is a tale of a Friday evening encounter with a mad dog on the murky streets of Lagos, the dog being a metaphor for the ills and injustices of contemporary African life inflicted on the people by the very agencies charged with their protection. Delivered to a mean, moody head-butting groove of such percolating intensity, you are liable to have your hands stuck to the repeat-button. The bass and the drums imply hip-hop without losing sight of Afrobeat. Could this be the new funky drummer/rap payback for the 21st century?

E Jus’ Dey Go – Dealing with the persistent and tyrannical flow of time, it is a call to wake up and stop squandering potentials and opportunities, be they personal or national. Starts with a bass solo over chord changes (a first in Afrobeat) and is underpinned by a groove that is in no hurry to go anywhere. The bass tastefully slapped and muted bubbles unhurriedly, the music bright and sunny unfurls leisurely, revealing an aural landscape that has not been heard in Afrobeat before. There is a deliciously lyrical keyboard solo from Sosimi. Like taking a stroll along the palm-lined marinas of Lagos in the 1960s, in a nation where the future was an open book and the possibilities endless. Maybe it is a prophecy of future possibilities if we all heed the call to “wake up yourself, wake up your mind”.

I Don Waka – A bright, tuneful upbeat and evocative slice of high life-infused Afrobeat (major and bubbling over, in contrast to minor, moody and underground). The music flows majestically like a river. This is music without worries, music without cares, music to sway to. With a sweet, sweet trumpet solo by Tom Allan and some thoughtful interventions by Olofinjana.

Local Champion – A thinly disguised swipe at American world hegemony. Set to a bullyboy of a groove, capable of turning the UN security delegates into butt-shaking groove fiends, with a meditative solo from Sosimi and a fine solo from Justin Thurgur on trombone.

Omo Mo Gba Ti E – is an unabashed lovesong without the slightest trace of lyrical misogyny but the chest-thumping machismo of the music should ensure that the supplicant and the object of desire will be making babies before the track is over.

Ori Oka – is an instrumental invocation on which the musicians stretch out over a laid back groove that nevertheless manages to project heaps of attitude; with fine solos from all the musicians.

Wahala (Identity Mix)– is a fine update on classic Afrobeat grooves and themes. Dealing with the vagaries of life in modern day Nigeria, but again the harmonic palette is richer and more expansive. The horns boppishly deliver the main riff and the scintillating guitar hook is deployed for its melodic lift rather than just being a mere rhythmic foil. The horns are further used to create atmospheric and rhythmic textures beneath the soloists during the solos

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Tracklist

1. Ojoro 9:29
2. Ya Hand 7:01
3. B.B.E.N.Y 10:09
4. Local Champion 9:14
5. I Don Waka 4:50
6. Omo Mo Gba Ti E 11:00
7. E Just Dey Go 5:31
8. Ori Oka 11:17
9. Wahala (Identity Mix) 8:15