Celestine Ukwu

Celestine Ukwu - Side One.

A Nigerian LP on the Philips label I've had for a number of years, originally bought at Cheshire Street in the East End of London I think. Delightful ju ju music with xylophone and jazzy brass section. "Born in 1940, Celestine was educated musically by his uncle who taught him how to read music and play harmonium. His grandmother was a folk musician and dancer and his father, who worked as a coal miner, was a popular local performer of igede, ikpa and ode music. His mother was lead singer for a women's dance troupe. After Catholic primary school, where he excelled in drama and music, Celestine went to teacher training school for two years, dropping out in 1960 to join Mike Ejeagha's group as vocalist and maraca player. But he soon left to join a group led by Mr Picolo who were going to tour the Congo. Thus an early exposure to Congolese music had a huge impact on his own musical formation. On his return to Nigeria he briefly joined a group called African Baby Party. Three months later he moved to Maiduguri and formed Freedom Jazz Band, but then he moved to Zaria and formed The Republic Knights with Charles Jebba. But he moved again, to Onitsha, where he fronted the Niger City Starlighters. With this formation he made his debut recordings, and scored hits with "No Condition is Permanent," "Artificial Beauty," "Appolonia," and "Ije Enu." This latter song sold 200,000 copies in 3 months. After nine months he decided to start anew and with the help of Matthias Okafor who owned the Frontline Hotel, Onitsha, and who rented instruments for him, Ukwu was able to start Celestine Ukwu & His Music Royals of Nigeria in April 1962. The band was a huge success for five years. In 1967 the Biafran War broke out and the non-Biafran members of the band fled, while Ukwu recorded "Hail Biafra!" and did his bit to boost morale during the strife. In addition to singing he also played drums and vibraphone on his recordings. The band toured neighbouring countries and even went to West Germany. In 1972 students at the University of Nigeria renamed his band the Philosophers National. In 1977 at the age of 37, Ukwu died in a car wreck." Biography courtesy of www.musikifan.com Tracks are - 1. Ejim Nke Onye 2. Ima Echi

Osayomore Joseph

An LP on the Emotan record label from Nigeria (1982). One of a big stack of Afrobeat I bought in a junk shop in Stepney, East London where I lived for a while in the 70's and 80's. It may even come from Brick Lane flea market which was nearby and a regular haunt on a Sunday.

"Osayomore Joseph arouses too the same curiosity; due to his talent, his energy, his commitment, he calls back(reminds) without hesitating his elder son(brother), Fela. Its style, its musical game(set,play), draws its roots from the earth(ground) edo; but the culture and the language(tongue) edo are strongly influenced by the yoruba culture for centuries. By listening to Osayomore Joseph, we feel(smell) his(her,its) originality edo with its oriental impulses but the inheritance of Fela and the yoruba culture is quite obvious. This sensation can arrest(dread) in the evolution of the artist since its musician's stage(stadium) of the soil until its highlight of all over the world known national singer, as well as in its rhythmic game(set,play) and its instruments. The theme of the contesting, the posture of public polemicist, the rhetoric warrior or politics(policy), satyr, the irony, the stage setting and the parody, all this pulls the decoration(set) of a democratic kalakuta Republic version. Where from the subject of the walking(march), the fight, and especially the name of its firebrand-lighthouse: Osayomore Joseph Liberation Army."

Tracks are as follows -

1. Omonogie
2. Okpani Ya
3. Obo

Osayomore Joseph - Side Two

Wagadu Gu

A 12" single on the Rokel label from 1977 that I was convinced I had uploaded before but seems to have vanished from the archives. A song by Prince Nico Mbarga.

Wikipedia says -

"Although he only recorded one significant hit, "Sweet Mother," in 1976, which sold more than 13 million copies (and which is recognised as one of Africa's greatest songs), Mbarga played an important role in the evolution of African popular music. With his soulful vocals set to the light melodies of his acoustic guitar, Mbarga created a unique hybrid of Igbo and Congolese guitar playing and uplifting highlife rhythms. He formed his own group, Rocafil Jazz, to perform regularly at the Naza Hotel in the eastern Nigerian city of Onitsha.
After releasing a disappointing single in 1973, Mbarga and Rocafil Jazz had their first success with their second single, I No Go Marry My Papa, which became a regional hit. The band's inability to break past their local following resulted in their recording contract being dropped by EMI, a decision that proved ill-fortuned when the band signed with Rogers All Stars, a Nigerian recording company based in Onitsha, and recorded "Sweet Mother".
Sung in Pidgin English, "Sweet Mother" became one of the top sellers in the history of Nigerian music. In the six years that Mbarga and Rocafil Jazz remained with Rogers All Stars, 1975 to 1981, they recorded nine albums.

Temporarily relocating to England in 1982, Mbarga became known for his flamboyant, 1970s glam rock-inspired performances. While he continued to appear with Rocafil Jazz, Mbarga also performed with London-based highlife band the Ivory Coasters and Cameroonian vocalist Louisiana Tilda. Despite launching his own Polydor-distributed record label, upon returning to Nigeria, Mbarga and the original members of Rocafil Jazz separated after several Cameroon-born members were deported. Although he later formed the New Rocafil Jazz Band, Mbarga failed to match his early success. Leaving music, he turned his attention to managing the two hotels that he owned, Hotel Calbar and the Sweet Mother Hotel.

Prince Nico Mbarga was killed in a motorcycle accident on June 24, 1997, leaving behind "Sweet Mother" as the most popular song amongst Nigerians. Sweet Mother is sometimes called Africa's anthem and has been voted Africa's favourite song by BBC readers and listeners."

Wagadu Gu - Aki Special

General Prince Adekunle

More JuJu music from Nigeria. Typical meandering jangly guitars and drums with slightly off key vocals. On Ibukun Orisun Iye label from the 1975.

Wikipedia says -


"Jùjú music, first developed by Tunde King in the 1930s, formed the basis of Prince Adekunle's music. Highlife musicians like Bobby Benson and Tunde Nightingale introduced jazz concepts and new instruments. Ebenezer Obey and Sunny Ade brought in amplified guitars and synthesizers. All these formed the basis for Adekunle's innovative and forceful new style of juju music. Afrobeat, pioneered in the late 1960s by Fela Kuti and others, was another major influence on Prince Adekunle and his band the Western State Brothers, later the Supersonic Sounds. With a cool but driving, sophisticated style, Prince Adekunle is considered one of the great artistes of Jùjú music.

Afrobeat also influenced Adekunle's protege Sir Shina Peters who created a unique high-speed "Afro juju" sound. Sir Shina Peters recalls that when he was young, he was befriended by Prince Adekunle. An agent said he should be called Prince Adekunle’s son as a publicity stunt, and that was how he became known as Shina Omo Adekunle. Although the adoption was not real, people accepted it and in a way it became real. Shina Peters and Segun Adewale, who became two of the biggest stars of the 1980s, both started their careers performing in the mid-1970s with Prince Adekunle.
Jùjú music star and Soko Dance exponent, Dayo Kujore, was another musician who owed much to Prince Adekunle, playing lead guitar on some of his classics such as "Aditu ede" and "Eda n reti eleya".
In May 2004, he was among other musicians who met to discuss ways to reverse the current decline of jùjú music, while opposing the proposal by King Sunny Ade to form a jùjú Musician's Union."

Tracks are as follows -

1. Omo Niyi Omo Nide
2. A Ki Nromo Ra Loja
3. Ma Se'Ka Iwo Ore
4. Esan Nbo Wa

General Prince Adekunle - Side Two

Ayinde Bakare

Another old highlife/juju LP from Nigeria. It has a raw earthy charm consisting mainly of hypnotic drums and chanting and tinny guitar. It has 30p scrawled on the front cover so I guess that's what I paid for it back in the 80's. The record on African Songs label would be from the 60's or 70's I would guess.

Ayinde's son says -

"My father Ayinde Bakare was the originator of Juju music, especially in Lagos in those days. They were the original creators of Juju music, not this ‘Owambe’ Juju music. They called their own music traditional, classical Juju music which was in the form of highlife. His own father was from Ajikobi compound in Ilorin. My dad was from a royal family and on account of that he was forbidden from playing music because musicians were seen as beggars and praise-singers. He father who was a trumpeter in the military brought him to Lagos. I was born in Lafiaji Oke Suna. So, I happened to know my dad as a musician. My dad had six children. I am the first.

Dad started his musical career with Tunde King. It was the same Tunde King who brought up the late Ambrose Campbell. My father’s mentor was Tunde King. They were playing a form of afro-Cuban Juju music. The music of that era was influenced by the Second World War. My father went to the warfront along with Tunde King, Nightingale and Ambrose Campbell. Most of them fought in the Second World War. It was there they were taught how to play guitar. They came back with a kind of Brazilian flavoured music.

The white men gave it the name Juju music but we called it ‘faaji’ music in those days. I was young when my dad was reigning as a star. It was his stardom that enticed me to learn how to play guitar. By then I knew Victor Uwaifo who was then a student as St. Gregory College. He was in Form Four and was living in our area. It was from him I saw a guitar book. I ordered for it from England and taught myself to play guitar. Every weekend I used to clean my father’s guitar in preparation for their going to play. That was my job: to clean the guitar with coconut oil. It was during the cleaning that I started learning how to play the guitar, using the guitar manual I ordered from England."

Tracks are as follows -

1. Ma Yowo Loro Mi
2. Ayoola Sosanya
3. Tesilimi Ayilara
4. Abo Oluwa
5. Egbe House


Ayinde Bakare - Side One

Stephen Osita Osadebe

Delightful jangly "highlife" from Nigeria circa 1975 as the LP title suggests. Another Cheshire Street or Brick Lane market purchase from the 80's. I thought I had featured it before but seems this is the first time.

Wikipedia says -

"In March 1936, Osadebe was born in Igbo town of Atani, in Southeastern Nigeria. He came from a line of singers and dancers in Igboland. His genre, Highlife encompassed Igbo musical elements. Along with this, calypso, samba, bolero, rumba, jazz and waltz were also present in Osadebe's musical style. It was in his high school years in Onitsha, a major commercial city near Atani, that Osadebe grew interested in music.
Osadebe started his career performing at nightclubs in Lagos in the southwestern region of Nigeria. He gradually worked his way up to releasing his first album in 1958. In his career Osadebe went on to write over 500 songs; half of these songs were released commercially. He had been a part of The Empire Rhythm Orchestra, led by E. C. Arinze in which he had learned much of his music skills.
As he became better established, Osadebe's style matured to include social commentary, similar to, but not as confrontational as Fela Kuti. Personal trials and tribulations was usually the main topic of his commentaries. Osadebe often extended his tracks for his audiences enjoyment, allowing room for 'people on the dance floor' to indulge in the songs.
Following the Nigerian Civil War in the late 60's, the massive exodus of the eastern peoples of Nigeria (especially the Igbo) out of western Nigeria had caused the death of the Highlife's prominence in the then capital, Lagos. During the war and after the war Osadebe maintained his scheduled live performances. Juju music and later Afrobeat took precedence in Lagos, and in the 70's James Brown and various other music forms became popular in the city. In this same decade Osadebe's career had reached its zenith. After turning 50 in 1986 Osadebe started to give priority to fatherhood and gave more of his time to his son Obiora and his other children from his wives. One of Osita Osadebe's last revered album's is "Kedu America".
Osita Osadebe died in St. Mary's Hospital Waterbury, Connecticut on the 11 May 2007 after suffering from severe respiratory difficulties."

Tracks are as follows -

1. Onu Kwube
2. Ejim Ofor Aga
3. Instrumental 1



Stephen Osita Osadebe - Side One

Fela Kuti

Two short sides on an LP in the wrong sleeve I just discovered but has been in my collection for a long time. Fela seems to be going through a resurgeance now due to the West End stage show "Fela". Some typically danceable afrobeat here from 1970.

Wikipedia says -

"Fela was born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria into a middle-class family. His mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was a feminist activist in the anti-colonial movement and his father, Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, a Protestant minister and school principal, was the first president of the Nigerian Union of Teachers. His brothers, Beko Ransome-Kuti and Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, both medical doctors, are well known in Nigeria. Fela was a first cousin to the Nigerian writer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, the first African to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.

Fela was sent to London in 1958 to study medicine but decided to study music instead at the Trinity College of Music. While there, he formed the band Koola Lobitos, playing a fusion of jazz and highlife. In 1960, Fela married his first wife, Remilekun (Remi) Taylor, with whom he would have three children (Femi, Yeni, and Sola). In 1963, Fela moved back to Nigeria, re-formed Koola Lobitos and trained as a radio producer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. He played for some time with Victor Olaiya and his All Stars. In 1967, he went to Ghana to think up a new musical direction. That was when Kuti first called his music Afrobeat. In 1969, Fela took the band to the United States. While there, Fela discovered the Black Power movement through Sandra Smith (now Izsadore)—a partisan of the Black Panther Party—which would heavily influence his music and political views and renamed the band Nigeria '70. Soon, the Immigration and Naturalization Service was tipped off by a promoter that Fela and his band were in the U.S. without work permits. The band then performed a quick recording session in Los Angeles that would later be released as The '69 Los Angeles Sessions.

After Fela and his band returned to Nigeria, the band was renamed The Africa '70, as lyrical themes changed from love to social issues. He then formed the Kalakuta Republic, a commune, a recording studio, and a home for many connected to the band that he later declared independent from the Nigerian state. Fela set up a nightclub in the Empire Hotel, named the Afro-Spot and then the Afrika Shrine, where he performed regularly. Fela also changed his middle name to Anikulapo (meaning "he who carries death in his pouch"), stating that his original middle name of Ransome was a slave name. The recordings continued, and the music became more politically motivated.[citation needed] Fela's music became very popular among the Nigerian public and Africans in general. In fact, he made the decision to sing in Pidgin English so that his music could be enjoyed by individuals all over Africa, where the local languages spoken are very diverse and numerous. As popular as Fela's music had become in Nigeria and elsewhere, it was also very unpopular with the ruling government, and raids on the Kalakuta Republic were frequent."




Fela Kuti - Expensive Shit

Fela Kuti - Water Got No Enemy

Eddy Okonta

An LP found some years ago in Brick Lane flea market. Nigerian highlife on the Phonodisk label from the 80's one assumes from the album title "Page One '81".
Side Two here with the tracks as follows -

1. Anioma
2. Adura
3. Mama Sweet Papa Super


Remembering Eddy Okonta, the Obi of trumpet
By Benson Idonije

"IF Eddy Okonta, the late great trumpeter and highlife musician were still alive, today's musicians would be learning the technique of articulating 'rhythm' as an essential musical component at his feet. While he lived, he pretty well appreciated the fact that the main essence of African music is 'rhythm' and he used it to full advantage, thoroughly Africanising his own brand of highlife in the process.

He had served an initial apprenticeship with the Sammy Akpabot Sexlet, an aggregation that revolved this same name even as it increased or diminished with time. He was there with the late Oba Funso Adeolu on auto and tenor saxophones. He enjoyed sharing solos with him while bandleader Akpabot himself provided an ideal background for highlife and dance music to blossom with his dexterity on the vibraphone, an instrument which only Akpabot could play at the time in the whole of West Africa.

As an instrument, the vibes has a special way of resonating sounds and floating them through harmonies and arrangements. But Eddy's high notes helped to put all the reverberation in check for dancing and easy listening.

Eddy later served a long term of apprenticeship with the late Bobby Benson of Africa, this time culminating in outstanding professional musicianship, with proficiency in arranging and composing. He not only put the final polish to his accomplishment with the Bobby Benson Jam Session where he stood out the way Chief Bill Friday and Zeal Onyia before him did, his artisting now reached its apotheosis in the area of improvisational design. He began to use the vast resources of his creativity to construct solos that contained revolutionary melodic language and rhythmic subtlety.

As one of the pioneering big bands in the country, the Bobby Benson Jam session offered all its graduates a well rounded musical experience and discipline as they were exposed to all dance music forms including swing, Latin American , Jazz, Afro Cuban, the ball room type that dominated the colonial era with the music of Joe Loss and Victor Sylvester, and all."


Eddy Okonta - Side Two

I.K. Dario

A Nigerian Juju LP on Decca from the 60's I imagine found at Brick Lane flea market many years ago. The five tracks on side one are as follows - Eni mi ko sen'nia - Toba ndara f'oko aya ni - Toba rije f'omo ni keji - Ojo ikehin - E huwa rere.

"Considered by many to be the "father of juju" for his many innovations, Isaiah Kehinde Dairo was born in Kwara State, Nigeria, in 1931. One story has it that his lifelong love of music stemmed from a drum that his father, a carpenter, made for him in his youth and that accompanied him wherever he went. In early adulthood, Dairo tried earning a living as a barber, a construction worker, and a cloth merchant, among other jobs. Dairo sat in with early juju bands at night, led by musical pioneers Ojoge Daniel and Oladele Oro. In the mid-'50s he formed his own group, the ten-member Morning Star Orchestra, which gained fame later as the Blue Spots.

Though highlife was the most popular form of band music in West Africa at the time, Dairo and his band released a long succession of influential singles that, by the end of the Nigerian Civil War in 1970, helped establish juju as the premier Nigerian sound. Dairo changed the tenor of juju by introducing the accordion and talking drums to the orchestra and singing in a variety of regional dialects, which widened the rural appeal of the music. When his appeal began to wane at the end of the 70s, he gave up performing, turning first to managing clubs and a hotel in Lagos, then to a ministry in the Cherubim and Seraphim church movement. In 1990 he recorded his first album in 15 years with a re-formed Blue Spots band."

Bob Tarte.

Tracks are as follows -

1. Eni mi ko se'nia
2. Toba ndara f'oko aya ni
3. Toba rije f'omo ni keji
4. Ojo ikehin
5. E huwa rere


I.K.Dario - Side One

Charlie Gillett - Ebenezer Obey/ Joe Hagan

Continuing homage to late great DJ Charlie Gillett - a Foreign Affiar from Capital Radio back in the early 80's with guests Ebenezer Obey and Joe Hagan. Some great choices of music from all including much Nigerian Ju Ju and tracks from Ebenezer's latest album at the time.

Wikipedia says -

"Obey, whose full name is Ebenezer Remilekun Aremu Olasupo Obey-Fabiyi, was born in Idogo, Ogun State, Nigeria of Egba-Yoruba ethnic background. He is of the Owu subgroup of the Egba. He began his professional career in the mid-1950s after moving to Lagos. After tutelage under Fatai Rolling-Dollar's band, he formed a band called The International Brothers in 1964, playing highlife-juju fusion. The band later metamorphosed into Inter-Reformers in the early-1970s, with a long list of Juju album hits on the West African Decca musical label.

Obey began experimenting with Yoruba percussion style and expanding on the band by adding more drum kits, guitars and talking drums. Obey's musical strengths lie in weaving intricate Yoruba axioms into dance-floor compositions. As is characteristic of Nigerian Yoruba social-circle music, the Inter-Reformers band excel in praise-singing for rich Nigerian socialites and business tycoons. Obey, however, is also renowned for Christian spiritual themes in his music and has since the early-1990s retired into Nigerian gospel music ministry.

"


Ebenezer Obey - Foreign Affair

Apola King

Another LP from the archives I found many years ago. This album on the TYC label from Lagos Nigeria was made back in the 60's or 70's - not really sure when. Typical highlife guitar band of that era.

"Idowu Animasawun as many would know had a Muslim background. Among many of his achievement in life was a household name in juju music. He was popularly known as “Apola King”. His stage artistry was a delight and so he had many followers.He is maried to Evangelist Debora Oluwafunmilola Animasawun who is a graduate of the Polytechnic Ibadan, she retired from St Annes School, Molete Ibadan.Nigeria in 1992. She is also into Drama Minitsry and Missions she is the Director of Special Projects in World Hope Ministries ."


Apola King - Side One

General Prince Adekunle

More Nigerian Highlife by General Prince Adekunle and his Western Brothers from an LP on Orisun Iye Records recorded in 1973. Pretty typical of it's type - a medley of several songs on side two comprising of Iwa Re, Otito Ni Yio Leke, Tika Lo Soro, Teni begi Loju and Egbe U.N.C.O. ( London).

Wikipedia says -

"General Prince Adekunle is a Nigerian Jùjú musician. He is of Egba origin, from Abeokuta in Ogun State. Prince Adekunle has been a major innovator and force in the jùjú music scene, with his distinctive driving Afrobeat style. Famous musicians such as Sir Shina Peters and Segun Adewale started their careers playing with his band, the Western Brothers. Although he toured in England in the early 1970s, he did not become well known outside Nigeria."


Prince Adekunle - Side Two

Celestine Ukwu

Another Brick Lane find from many years ago. Unusual to see a xylophone player as the leader of a Nigerian guitar band. This LP on the Phonogram label came out in 1975.
Pleasant enough highlife with jazzy tinge the xylophone gives it.

"Celestine Ukwu began his musical career during the 1960's with Michael Ejeagha's Paradise Rhythm Orchestra in Enugu, capital of the former Eastern Region of Nigeria. He left four years later to launch his own band, the Music Royals. Following a hiatus caused by the Biafran war of independence from 1967-70, the Music Royals were resurrected as the Philosophers National, who distinguished themselves with a series of sparkling, subtle highlife releases during the 1970s. Ukwu's signature tune is undoubtedly 1970's "Igede (Pt. 1)," an instrumental piece based on Igbo folklore. Its haunting melody was the basis for the tune "Elozekwana Nwanne Gi" by Enugu chanteuse Nelly Uchendu on her 1978 LP "Aka Bu Eze" (Homzy HCE 012). Ukwu's crowning achievement was arguably 1975's "Ejim Nk'onye," which combined Igbo poetry with passages of instrumental brilliance. Sadly, Ukwu perished in an automobile accident in 1977, depriving Nigerian music of one of its shining stars. Titles in this discography for which there are no track listings are taken from Ronnie Graham's "Sterns/DaCapo Guide to Contemporary African Music."


Celestine Ukwu - Asili

The Ramblers Dance Band (Re-Up)

A Highlife LP on the Decca label from West Africa recorded in 1969.

The sleeve notes say-

"It is over a decade now since Decca started recording local artists in West Africa. During this stretch of time dance bands have sprouted and wilted away to die in the true tradition of musicla groups. Somehow one band has satyed around longer than most; it seems to have succeeded where others have failed. The Ramblers Dance Band, nearly eight years old, have introduced glamour to the West African Highlife scene. the band have provided it's dance fans with their highlife tunes, while for those who prefer to listen it has supplied the necessary innovations to the traditional forms."


"From its early development in Ghana through the 1970s, Highlife was Africa's first big popular music trend. Evolving from the the music of society bands and military marching bands, Highlife music re-africanized these contemporary instrumental ensembles, adding local percussion, indigenous rhythms and crafting local lyrics around powerful local themes. Highlife, named for the lifestyle of the high society Africans who were its early patrons, was the first major popular music trend in West Africa. Some of Nigeria's early highlife luminaries Bobby Benson, Cardinal Rex Lawson, EC. Arinze, Stephen Amechi, Inyang Henshaw, Celestine Ukwu and many others are still revered to this day. Though highlife lost some of its national power during the Civil War years, Highlife Heavies like Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe and Oliver DeCoque remain powerful National forces. Recentely a young generation has worked to put highlife back on the map."

Discover more about Nigerian Highlife HERE


Ramblers Dance Band - Ekombi

Ramblers Dance Band - Agyanka Dabre

Ramblers Dance Band - Ama Bonsu

Ramblers Dance Band - Nyame Ne Nyhehyee

Ramblers Dance Band - Nyame Mbere

Ramblers Dance Band - Alome

Ramblers Dance Band - Knock On Wood

Sir Victor Uwaifo

A record in the wrong sleeve Ive just discovered. It's not by Apola King Idowu after all but Sir Victor Uwaifo who comes from Nigeria. Some splendid Afrobeat from 1975.
Amazing claims on his website-

"RESEARCH AND DISCOVERIES:
Sir Victor Uwaifo, a research scholar, discovered the structural rightness in sculpture that stands without a supporting base. Most of the works which adorn the Revelation Tourist Centre in Benin City were done personally by him.
Sir Victor Uwaifo designed and constructed a functional sculpture of Aeroplane House, now the largest man – made sculpture in Africa and second to the Tower of Liberty in New York, USA.
Victor Uwaifo stands out tall as the first artisit in igeria to sculpt a motorized giant kinetic sculpture also the first in Nigeira “The Dancing Chief” in form to Oba Akwnzua II Cultural Complex, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.



SPECIAL INVENTIONS:
The maestro not only plays the guitar with his fingers which is normal, but also with his jaw, his toes, his teeth, from behind his neck and back which are unusual, then, he spins the guitar 360 degrees suspending in the air with amazing speed faster than sound in a phenomenon.

He invented the double-neck guitar with 18 strings fashioned after the Mammy-water esoteric encounter in 1967 while looking for inspiration during a late night outing at the Barbeach, Lagos.



A VISIONARY:
A man full of dreams and accomplishments, Victor Uwaifo is the founder of the Revelation Tourist Center which stands as the key to the historical events, horrors tragedies, the Good, the Bad, the Ugly and the Beautiful.



OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS:
Sir Victor Uwaifo 50 years of music and stage performance was celebrated by N.T.A. with a golden jubilee award and broadcast live to the world in 2006.

Victor Uwaifo, the Living Legend, twanging of the guitar in quick successions, the up-and-down strokes by hand on the strings have exceeded 5 million kilometers accumulated length measured at an average speed of 10 strokes per second and combined with the movement of the left had to and fro on the guitar neck are long enough to go round the planet earth. "

Discover more revelations at his website HERE.


Sir Victor Uwaifo - Okokoko Sasakosa

Sir Victor Uwaifo - Amuwa Ekassa

Sir Victor Uwaifo - Ilobi Ekassa

Eddy Okonta

An LP found some years ago in Brick Lane flea market. Nigerian highlife on the Phonodisk label from the 80's one assumes from the album title "Page One '81".
Here's the first side in all it's pressed off centre glory.


Remembering Eddy Okonta, the Obi of trumpet
By Benson Idonije

"IF Eddy Okonta, the late great trumpeter and highlife musician were still alive, today's musicians would be learning the technique of articulating 'rhythm' as an essential musical component at his feet. While he lived, he pretty well appreciated the fact that the main essence of African music is 'rhythm' and he used it to full advantage, thoroughly Africanising his own brand of highlife in the process.

He had served an initial apprenticeship with the Sammy Akpabot Sexlet, an aggregation that revolved this same name even as it increased or diminished with time. He was there with the late Oba Funso Adeolu on auto and tenor saxophones. He enjoyed sharing solos with him while bandleader Akpabot himself provided an ideal background for highlife and dance music to blossom with his dexterity on the vibraphone, an instrument which only Akpabot could play at the time in the whole of West Africa.

As an instrument, the vibes has a special way of resonating sounds and floating them through harmonies and arrangements. But Eddy's high notes helped to put all the reverberation in check for dancing and easy listening.

Eddy later served a long term of apprenticeship with the late Bobby Benson of Africa, this time culminating in outstanding professional musicianship, with proficiency in arranging and composing. He not only put the final polish to his accomplishment with the Bobby Benson Jam Session where he stood out the way Chief Bill Friday and Zeal Onyia before him did, his artisting now reached its apotheosis in the area of improvisational design. He began to use the vast resources of his creativity to construct solos that contained revolutionary melodic language and rhythmic subtlety.

As one of the pioneering big bands in the country, the Bobby Benson Jam session offered all its graduates a well rounded musical experience and discipline as they were exposed to all dance music forms including swing, Latin American , Jazz, Afro Cuban, the ball room type that dominated the colonial era with the music of Joe Loss and Victor Sylvester, and all."


Eddy Okonta - Otanjele

Eddy Okonta - Sweet Sherry

Eddy Okonta - Enjoyment

King Sunny Ade

I can't believe I haven't uploaded any King Sunny Ade sides before as I have several of his LP's - mostly released in Africa. He was picked up by Island Records in the 80's for a brief period but soon fell out of favour despite the success of other "world music" artistes such as Salif Keita and Youssou N'Dour etc.
This LP on his own Sunny Alade Records label from the 80's is a good taster of ju ju music at that time and features some wonderful lap steel guitar and talking drums.
I saw him at his first? London concert around 1987 at the Hammersmith Odeon and he and his band were truly wonderful - the live experience far superior to the records.

Wikipedia says-

"Born to a Nigerian royal family in Ondo, Adé left grammar school to pursue his career, which began with Moses Olaiya's Federal Rhythm Dandies, a highlife band. He left to form The Green Spots in 1967. He formed a record label in 1974, fed up with being exploited by a major label. After the death of Bob Marley, Island Records began looking for another third world artist to put on its contract and Fela Kuti was just signed to Arista Records. Producer Martin Meissonnier introduced King Sunny Adé to Chris Blackwell, leading to the release of Juju Music in 1982. Many music afficianados are quick to point out that Sunny Ade's brand music of Juju could not be ignored by anyone at the time, and they were not surprised that Chris and his crew decided to launch an attack on the world music scene with a very brillian artist such as Ade. Any first timer that listens to Sunny Ade's brand of Juju music will be attracted to the rhythm section. Till today, this seminal recording is often acclaimed to be one of the most important records in Africa. Adé gained a wide following with this album and was soon billed as "the African Bob Marley". Sunny Adé headlined concerts in the United States. The New York Times' Robert Palmer described one of Adé's several concerts in New York in the 1980s as one of the most significant pop music events of the decade[citation needed] and Ade as "one of the world's great band leaders"[1] His second album under the cusp of international stardom was Synchro System which attracted many converts of world music and it deservedly earned him a grammy nomination in the folk/ethic music category. Soon after, Nigerian imports (mostly pirated copies) of his massive back catalog began flooding the Western market. Island, concerned about sales and Adé's refusal to include more English in his repertoire, cut him loose after his third LP, 1984's Aura which featured Stevie Wonder on the harmonica. Sunny Ade has said in the past that his refusal to allow Island to meddle with his compositions and over-Europeanise and Americanise his music were the reasons why Island decided to look elsewhere.

In 1984, he and his music were featured in Robert Altman's comedy film O.C. & Stiggs His music was also featured in one of Richard Gere's movie "Breathless".

By the end of the 1980s, Adé released several albums in his native Nigeria. He continued to garner critical acclaim and widespread popularity in Africa. He featured prominently in Manu Dibango's 1994 star studied "WAKAFRIKA" album."


King Sunny Ade - Osupa Mi Tole etc.

I.K. Dairo & His Blue Spots

A Nigerian Juju LP on Decca from the 60's I imagine found at Brick Lane flea market many years ago. The five tracks on side one are as follows - Eni mi ko sen'nia - Toba ndara f'oko aya ni - Toba rije f'omo ni keji - Ojo ikehin - E huwa rere.

"Considered by many to be the "father of juju" for his many innovations, Isaiah Kehinde Dairo was born in Kwara State, Nigeria, in 1931. One story has it that his lifelong love of music stemmed from a drum that his father, a carpenter, made for him in his youth and that accompanied him wherever he went. In early adulthood, Dairo tried earning a living as a barber, a construction worker, and a cloth merchant, among other jobs. Dairo sat in with early juju bands at night, led by musical pioneers Ojoge Daniel and Oladele Oro. In the mid-'50s he formed his own group, the ten-member Morning Star Orchestra, which gained fame later as the Blue Spots.

Though highlife was the most popular form of band music in West Africa at the time, Dairo and his band released a long succession of influential singles that, by the end of the Nigerian Civil War in 1970, helped establish juju as the premier Nigerian sound. Dairo changed the tenor of juju by introducing the accordion and talking drums to the orchestra and singing in a variety of regional dialects, which widened the rural appeal of the music. When his appeal began to wane at the end of the 70s, he gave up performing, turning first to managing clubs and a hotel in Lagos, then to a ministry in the Cherubim and Seraphim church movement. In 1990 he recorded his first album in 15 years with a re-formed Blue Spots band."

Bob Tarte.

Osayomore Joseph

An LP on the Emotan record label from Nigeria (1982). One of a big stack of Afrobeat I bought in a junk shop in Stepney, East London where I lived for a while in the 70's and 80's. It may even come from Brick Lane flea market which was nearby and a regular haunt on a Sunday.

"Osayomore Joseph arouses too the same curiosity; due to his talent, his energy, his commitment, he calls back(reminds) without hesitating his elder son(brother), Fela. Its style, its musical game(set,play), draws its roots from the earth(ground) edo; but the culture and the language(tongue) edo are strongly influenced by the yoruba culture for centuries. By listening to Osayomore Joseph, we feel(smell) his(her,its) originality edo with its oriental impulses but the inheritance of Fela and the yoruba culture is quite obvious. This sensation can arrest(dread) in the evolution of the artist since its musician's stage(stadium) of the soil until its highlight of all over the world known national singer, as well as in its rhythmic game(set,play) and its instruments. The theme of the contesting, the posture of public polemicist, the rhetoric warrior or politics(policy), satyr, the irony, the stage setting and the parody, all this pulls the decoration(set) of a democratic kalakuta Republic version. Where from the subject of the walking(march), the fight, and especially the name of its firebrand-lighthouse: Osayomore Joseph Liberation Army."


Osayomore Joseph - Omonogie

Osayomore Joseph - Okpani Ya

Osayomore Joseph - Obo


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The Original Super 5 Of Africa

Sadly this Tabansi label LP has parted from it's sleeve at some point before I bought it. Not much to be gleaned about The Original Super 5 Of Africa on the internet. I think they are from Nigeria. This record was released in 1977.


Super 5 Of Africa - Veamama

Super 5 Of Africa - Super 5 Of Africa


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