Lágbájá - Nigeria

Before chancing on a random torrent a few weeks back, I had heard none of this music, and the artist name of Lágbájá was new to me.  But I am now a fan and, out of the selection available to me for listening and study, these are the 26 tracks which hit me the best and the sweetest and the most serious.

Here’s what I have learned:

Our most effective English translation of the Yoruba “lágbájá” would be “anonymous”. Lagos-born Bisade Ologunde adopted it as his name on behalf of the faceless and voiceless, and performs in a mask to underline his identification as: 'The man without a face who speaks for the people without a voice'.

Like his old friend Fela Kuti, he presents political and social comment using a colloquial urban blend of English and Yoruba, adding costumes and production design that make connections to the ancient tradition of Egungun – the ancestral spirits who guide the people towards peace and truth.

The music uses singers and western horns, with guitars and keyboards, over a central percussion ensemble of traditional drums, and mixes traditional Yoruba music with Afro-pop styles of juju, west-coast high-life, and Fela’s afro-beat, all blended together with large dollops of funk and jazz.

Also like Fela, Lágbájá plays saxophone – only much better.
(Thankfully.)

And I greatly respect and appreciate the triumph of Yoruba roots and the rhythm culture of interlocking interdependence over the simplifying tendencies of western pop, and how – even in his most contemporary incarnations of Quincy-Jones-standard modernity – the traditional remains central.   “Konko Below” for example, which I think for some reason might be the most recent track here, is one which flirts easily with a style cliché or two out of rap/R&B convention, yet still it is impossible to deny the Yoruba drums pulsing at its heart.

But it seems as if the current ascendancy of the hip-hop aesthetic, driven by the rise of Naija nu-stars like 9ice or 2 Face Idibia or Terry G, may have re-cast the masked-one now as old-hat.  A musicologically principled distance from the more faddishly en vogue currents, together with his pecuniary frustrations over the encroachments of technology and free-downloading, might help explain why he seems to have released little these days.

With performance success in Ghana, France, Brazil and Britain, a chance for the international market that all African artistes hunger for, and an AllMusic.com biography which has him “based in Manhattan”, he has been subject to critique based on an expatriate absence which he denies, claiming to be always home in Lagos where - also vaguely reminiscent of Fela - he has a club.

His club-concept is named Motherlan’ and aims to follow village-square traditions of being a community gathering-place for a range of artistic and devotional events like dance, and story-telling, and ceremonies in the moonlight.

There is YouTubery under the same name.
You should check it out.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Motherlan

Lazz’s Lágbájá Collection (at a dissatisfying mixture of low and lower kbps, but the brilliance of the music still shines through) 
187.2 MB 
https://mega.co.nz/#!WVAB3a4A!B9o3vg9Kh9Xai6MIPD-Q1IMQEyooh6y5zwQJUGnHkio

Terry G - G.Zuz

This one is for Lazz.   He asked for some modern Hip-Life from West Africa that fuses Hip Hop and Highlife.   I consider this recent offering from Terry G to be prime product of that kind, and it is also a good representation of the grooves that are currently rocking the club scene in Nigeria.   You will hear a strong influence of Reggae (Ragga) here, as well as Highlife and Hip Hop.  I apologize in advance for the sound quality.  The legit CD market in Nigeria has crashed, and CD collections like this one are only sold on the street.  That is where I bought this.   Some tracks come through better than others.

The history of this music in Nigeria really goes back to one individual: 2face Idibia.   By the late 1980s, young Nigerians had turned away from the popular musics of the 60s and 70s (Highlife, Juju, Fuji, Afrobeat), and were grooving in the clubs almost exclusively to foreign Hip Hop and Reggae.   2face launched a distinctly Nigerian approach that incorporates the feel and techniques of Hip Hop with local music sensibilities and Highlife.  The last two decades have witnessed an explosion of this type of music.  While young Nigerians still listen to the latest foreign Hip Hop sounds, their preferred dance music is now made in Nigeria by people like 2face, P-Square, Flavour, D'Banj, Kcee, and Terry G.  

Terry G. comes from Benue State, and cites 2face as his idol and inspiration.   He has a particularly rhythmically charged approach to modern Nigerian music that fuses rap and singing in a seamless way somewhat similar to Ragga in Jamaica.     Nigerian crowds can be very hard to please, however.   Last year, Terry G performed for his fans in Benin City.  Some were not pleased with the the length and depth of the concert.  So they rushed the backstage area and beat Terry G to a pulp.  He had to recuperate in the hospital for some time.

This is not cerebral music.  It is intended 100% for getting your backfield in motion, or as they call it in Nigeria - shake yo bum bum.    Terry G will knock you, Apako!

King Sunny Ade' - The Best Of The Classic Years

"King" Sunny Adé (born Sunday Adeniyi, 22 September 1946) is a Nigerian musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and a pioneer of modern world music. He has been classed as one of the most influential musicians of all time.

Adé was born to a Nigerian royal family in Ondo, thus making him an Omoba of the Yoruba people. His father was a church organist, while his mother was a trader. Adé left grammar school in Ondo under the pretense of going to the University of Lagos. There, in Lagos, his mercurial musical career started.

Sunny Adé's musical sound has evolved from the early days. His career began with Moses Olaiya's Federal Rhythm Dandies, a highlife band. He left to form a new band, The Green Spots, in 1967. Over the years, for various reasons ranging from changes in his music to business concerns, Sunny Adé's band changed its name several times, first to African Beats and then to Golden Mercury.

In the 1970s and 1980s Adé embarked on a tour of America and Europe where he played to mixed (both black and white) audiences. His stage act was characterised by dexterous dancing steps and mastery of the guitar. Trey Anastasio, American guitarist, composer and one of his devout followers, once said, "If you come to see Sunny Adé live, you must be prepared to groove all night."

After more than a decade of resounding success in Africa, Adé was received to great acclaim in Europe and North America in 1982. The global release of Juju Music and its accompanying tour was "almost unanimously embraced by critics (if not consumers) everywhere". Adé was described by The New York Times' as "one of the world's great band leaders", and in Trouser Press as "one of the most captivating and important musical artists anywhere in the world"...wiki

Yinka Ayefele - Everlasing Grace

It's gospel Sunday time!   Given our current detour into Africa, we decided to rock your church a bit differently this Sunday.

One of the most amazing experiences of my years living in Nigeria was going to Redeemed Church on Sundays.   The church would be packed full of people in the most immaculate homemade colorful outfits that you could imagine.   A full band, choir, and Nigerian drum section would occupy the left side of the stage.  The Pastor would come forward and say something like, "I know that some of you have been shakin' it for the Devil all week.  Now is your chance to shake it for the Lord!  Let the Almighty see what you got!   The music would start and every one of the 100s people would move, and I mean MOVE.  If you couldn't feel the spirit in the midst of all that, I don't think that you ever could.

Yinka Ayefele is one of the most popular gospel singers inside Nigeria.   He didn't start singing gospel until he experienced a near fatal accident in 1997 that confined him to a wheel chair and gave him spiritual awakening.  Yinka Ayefele is a Yorbua from the South West of Nigeria (Yorubaland), and the music that he plays is distinctly Yoruba.  Those of you who have listened to Yoruba traditional music, or the popular genres of Juju and Fuji, will find musical familiarity here.   This music also shares with current other Nigerian pop music of today the current trend of very fast rhythms that supports the latest dance steps.

So I hope that this helps you feel the spirit this Sunday, and don't forget to shake it a bit for the Lord!