Music of Many Colors
‘Nigeria Special’ is consistently surprising, enlightening, and danceable
By Chris Morris
I’ve been listening to African music sporadically and unsystematically since 1986, when I underwent an epiphany after interviewing Fela Anikulapo Kuti and witnessing his now-legendary performance with Africa 80 at the Olympic Auditorium. Fela’s music was my doorway into the continent’s sounds, and in the years since I’ve turned my scattershot attention mainly to the blues- and funk-derived styles of West Africa – largely the guitar-driven product of Mali, Senegal, and Nigeria.
The latter nation, Fela’s homeland, has always been the richest melting pot of all, and the nation whose funk-embracing music is the most familiar to Western ears. A hearty shot of obscure but stimulating vintage material from the region can be heard on Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-6, a generous and consistently lively new two-CD set.
The package is the work of Soundway, a Brighton, England-based label devoted to charting some of the murkier backwaters of world music. Compiler-annotator Miles Cleret has brought together 26 choice yet virtually unheard singles and album tracks from the period following the end of the Biafran war, an era of political and musical transition for Nigeria. Highlife – the lighter indigenous dance style, which dated back to the 1950s – was on the wane, and a new, heartier form of Western-influenced soul/funk was coming to the fore, much of it spawned by the brawny, outspoken work of provocateur Fela.
It can be said with some assurance that only the complete connoisseur will recognize any of the names on this collection; the Don Isaac Ezekial Combination, comprising some former members of Fela’s band, is the only unit that might possibly be a blip on the average geek’s screen. The songs, performed in a variety of Nigerian dialects, were originally issued on labels created by the English majors for the African market, such as EMI Nigeria and Decca’s Afrodisia.
Don’t let the no-name nature of the performers stop you. Nigeria Special is a consistently surprising, enlightening, and, yes, danceable set that will set you digging deeper into the West African treasure chest.
At its best, the compilation is a textbook illustration of cross-cultural pollination in action. For instance, on Bola Johnson & His Easy Life Top Beats’ “Buroda Mase,” from 1971, one hears musicians of the airy highlife school attempting to incorporate James Brown beats into their style. (Brown, via Fela, left a huge footprint on Nigeria’s sound of the period.) Or check the Nigerian Police Force Band’s “Asiko Mi Ni,” where the keyboardist breaks out of a chant with a burst of jazzy organ delirium seemingly lifted from Larry Young’s out-there excursions with the Tony Williams Lifetime.
Younger, more aggressive musicians were driving routes of their own: My favorites here are the Hykkers, whose tough 1972 guitar instrumental “I Want a Break Thru’” is a chunk of wah-wah insanity, and that group’s successor the Funkees, a stone heavy Afro-rock unit whose members attempted in sound and style (check the promo photo) to channel newer U.S. bands like Sly & the Family Stone.
Nigeria Special is the most informative and aurally satisfying work of musical documentation you’re likely to hear this year. If your thirst for solid-sending West African sounds isn’t entirely slaked after you finish with it, a couple of recent two-CD collections from the cool, sketchy Vampi Soul label will fill the bill.
Orlando Julius’ Super Afro Soul charts the evolution of the influential bandleader’s group from highlife in the ’60s through a sortie into Afro-beat in the ’70s. (Favorite track: “James Brown Ride On.”) Tony Allen’s Afro Disco Beat brings together four powerful, essential ’70s LPs by Fela Kuti’s great drummer, always a percussion force to be reckoned with and most recently a member of the U.K. super-band the Good, the Bad & the Queen. You want African roots? Check these: they’re as deep as they come.
Chris Morris hosts Watusi Rodeo on Indie 103.1 every Sunday at 9 a.m.
Published: 03/19/2008
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