I revived Benn loxo with some Nigerian 70s rock courtesy of Soundway yesterday, so we’ll continue along a similar path with another in my long series of Original Music posts.

Today’s tracks come off one of my favourite Original Music releases that I’ve heard to date, Azagas & Archibogs – The Sixties Sound Of Lagos. The compilation features a collection of Nigerian Igbo, Yoruba and other highlife groups from Lagos. The songs have been (slightly) remastered from 45rpm records released during the early to mid-1960s.

It’s interesting to hear some good Yoruba highlife from this period, before Juju and Afrobeat took over. Most of the Nigerian highlife I know is from the Igbo east of the country, a region that for me, maybe aside from Ghana, produced Africa’s best music during the 1960s. However, it’s clear after listening to this compilation that Lagos’ Yoruban groups definitely had a good thing going as well.

Charles Iwegbue & His Archibogs – Okibo
Eric Akaeze & His Azagas – Adunni

Today we have the fifth edition of the Highlife Turntable by Benn loxo listener, ubulujaja:

For this volume of the highlife turntable I have selected three Ghanaian tracks to feature.

The first song is Meyee Owuo Den by the group Nana Takyi and his sunkwa international band. The song is off the mid 70’s release Maria. The tight interplay between the vocalists and the extended guitar playing are the things to check out. The word Sunkwa means “Cry for Life” in Twi. Sterns Music used to carry an Atakora Manu CD called Sunkwa that had the same kind of up tempo pop Ghanaian musical style.

I am still grooving on Bob Cole’s music and this track, which I found on his late 70’s release Highlife Akwantua LP, is called Amanfo. The song has the same great boisterousness that I have found in other songs by Bob Cole and the piano playing really stands out. Check-out the solo piano at the opening sequence and then the jump style call-and-response the piano gets into with the horns later in the song. As always, the backup vocals are impeccable. I think the term Amanfo refers to a Ghanaian tribe or cultural group.

The last song is Ahafo KuKuom by the great T.O. Jazz off his LP, Agyapa Ye. I liked the rootsy quality of the vocals and the punchy backbeat.

I hope you like the music.

Thanks, ubulujaja. Great music, as always.

Nana Takyi and his Sunkwa International Band – Meyee owuo den
Bob Cole – Amanfo
T.O. Jazz of Ghana – Ahafo Kukuom

Did you see this article on the BBC the other day? Am I the only one who thinks that the abundance of titles adds to the amazing flavour of contemporary Nigerian life? Seriously, earned or bought, Nigerian title-giving is just another example of the colour we often lack out West. Plus, I would love if my colleagues started calling me Dr. Chief Engineer Matt, Esquire.

Anyway, I’ve never posted any King (Chief) (Dr.) Oliver de Coque on Benn loxo before, so today we’ll hear one of his tracks grabbed off a good compilation, Lagos Chop Up.

I didn’t make up the Chief, King or Doctor part. de Coque earned his Doctor title when the University of New Orleans awarded him an honorary doctorate in music in 1994. The King title came when he was crowned the King of Highlife music by the Alaafin of Oyo. Not sure where the Chief came in, but he refers to himself using this title too.

Oliver de Coque, born plain-old Oliver Sunday Akanite, is a Nigerian musician famous for his Ogene highlife music and untiring promotion of his native Igbo culture. His break came in 1979 when his single, People’s Club Ka anyi bili be ndu, sold two million copies. He kept at it and has released a stream of successful recordings over several decades.

I picked the second track because my favourite Wolof proverb, aside from benn loxo du taccu, is danka ndanka mooy jaapa golo si nahi. It translates into “slowly, slowly, you catch a monkey in the bush.” In other words, chill-out, guy. Take it easy. It’s August. This is the Ikenga Super Stars of Africa’s advice to you in their own pidgin way.

ps- That’s the Emir of Katsina in Nigeria top-left. More pictures of African royalty here.

pps- Benn loxo reader, Kevin, is heading to Ghana. Any tips for live music venues, record shops, festivals or good things to check-out music-wise?

Oliver de Coque & his Expo ‘76 – The Tragedy Story of Two Friends
Ikenga Super Stars of Africa – Soffry Soffry Catch Monkey

More today from the seemingly endless of supply of great music on the Original Music series.

Today’s tracks come from the compilation, I’ve Found My Love: 1960’s Guitar Band Highlife of Ghana.

“King” Kwabena Onyina is one of the unsung heroes of Ghanaian guitar band highlife. He was well-known in his native Ghana during the 1950s, 60s and 70s for his guitar playing, great voice and catchy songwriting.

The “King” bit is a title he earned from winning a guitar competition in 1961. (You can thank the unsung hero of African music reviews, Banning Eyre, for that factoid.)

I know nothing about the Royal Brothers. Anyone care to fill us in?

Have a nice weekend.

King Onyina – Manya Me Dofo
Royal Brothers – Ohia Woa Enwu

A couple weeks ago Benn loxo reader, Andrew, hooked me up with a couple more precious Original Music compilations. Man, they’re always such a step above pretty much anything else out there covering the same eras.

Telephone Lobi is a compilation of 1960s Ghanaian danceband highlife released in 1995 by Original Music. The Lobi, by the way, are an ethnic group who speak a language of the same name in Ghana. They’re known for fiercely resisting French colonialism back in the day… with poisoned arrows. Ouch.

Anyway, for today’s post I picked a track by the Red Spots that I love, a track by the Professional Beach Melodians because they have an amazing name, and a third by Police Band #1 because they also have an amazing name plus I think we should all dance on this rainy day.

We’ve been posting danceband highlife and Original Music tracks on Benn loxo since ‘04 so I won’t bore you with the details. But remember: they’re out of print so grab ‘em whenever you can.

As it happens, the music on Telephone Lobi goes really well with another, totally different, group I’ve been into lately: Quantic. I’m really bummed I can’t make their show at the Maroquinerie on June 30th. If you’re in Paris it’s a must-see. But hey, I’ll be somewhere between Argentina and Bolivia, so who’s complaining!

Red Spots – Oya Ke Me
Professional Beach Melodians “Uhuru No. 2″ – Akwantu
Police Band #1 – Me Ye Fun
Quantic – When You’re Through

Today we have a fourth guest post by dedicated Benn loxo listener and contributor, ubulujaja:

A lot has been made about the fact Chief Stephen Osadebe was mentored by Zeal Onyia, so I thought I would contribute two tracks from his Philips LP titled Zeals Message to give you an idea of where Osadebe learned his craft and what a first class highlife trumpeter sounded like.

Zeal Onyia was a Nigerian trumpeter with impeccable credentials. In 1953 he went to Ghana and played with ET Mensah in the Tempos Band before moving on to the Spike Anyankor’s Rhythm Band. He came back to Nigeria and along with Bobby Benson, Eddie Okonta and Victor Olaiya became one of the great trumpeters of the golden era of highlife in the 60’s and early 70’s.

While he was probably widely recorded or a sideman in other bands, I have only seen a few of his solo recordings including a track on the Night and Day compilation HighLife HighUp’s, a Tabanasi release titled Zeal Rides Again, a few 45’s and 2 78 recordings on a web site dedicated to Zeal Onyia.

The first song is titled Egbe Ne Lueli and is a good example of the raw energy in a classic highlife song, with vocals followed by alternating horns and percussion solos. The drumming on this tracks is particularly tight and there is a great horn blast by Zeal Onyia midway through the song. The rhythmic chorus makes the 2nd track more afro-beat in nature, but the thready horn solo at the beginning became an signature introduction for highlife musicians and was used to great effect by Charles Iwegbue in his classic song, Ejelunor.

Zeal Onyia – Egbe Ne Lueli
Zeal Onyia – Idegbani

Benn loxo listener, curm, asked in the comments of the last post whether young people were still producing guitar highlife in Ghana. The general consensus seems to be: not much.

That said, highlife influence still pops up in contemporary releases every now and again. For example, CC Smith recently hooked me up with a copy of the Occidental Brothers Dance Band International’s latest release. This Chicago-based band led by guitarist Nathaniel Braddock has an old-school African sound that incorporates elements of highlife, soukous and rumba, plus some contemporary twists.

There have been a lot of bad highlife, rumba and African salsa revival bands, particularly synth-based ones in the mid-80s, but the Occidental Brothers pull it off. The guitar work is spot on and they lay on some subtle effects to get that 1960s recording feel to the music as well.

This kind of contemporary throwback to classic West African music also serves as a nice tribute to one of its pioneers, Nigerian highlife legend Chief Steven Osita Osadebe. He passed away last week at the age of 71. The influence of his music obviously lives on.

Occidential Brothers Dance Band International – Komokosaka
Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe – Onu Kwulunjo

Lately I’ve really been into the Bokoor Beats compilation by Professor John Collins.

Professor Collins has been active in the Ghanaian music scene since the late 60s. He’s not a Ghana native but has lived there for over 30 years and continues to be an important member of the musical community.

Over the years his Bokoor Studios in Accra has recorded hundreds of afrobeat, electric highlife and palmwine musicians. He’s worked with people you’ve heard here before, like TO Jazz. His own Bokoor Band also had some great releases in the 1970s, including one of the tracks I’ll post today.

Bokoor Beats is a collection of some of these remastered releases. You can grab it on Calabash – a definite must have for afrobeat, highlife and palmwine fans.

Bokoor Band – Onukpa Scwarpo
TO Jazz – Onam Bebe Basa

Last night I went to a great Cowboys Fringants show at the Elysée Montmartre. A little blast from home.. though there weren’t exactly many Canadian flags in sight.

Most of you are probably familiar with many Québecois’ ill-fated struggle for independence from Canada. As a friend put it last night, “I totally understand why they want to leave, but at the same time I really hope they stay.” That pretty much sums up my feelings on the matter, especially as (one of the few) English Canadians who can speak French well. Either way, after two referendum losses it doesn’t look like Canada is going to lose Québec any time soon. Tant mieux…

The Igbo people of the Biafran region in south-eastern Nigeria also had a hard go at separation, but they didn’t exactly get the benefit of referendums and peaceful dialog. Instead, the Biafran war for independence was one of the more gruesome conflicts in recent African history.

Biafra actually existed as a self-proclaimed independent republic for about three years, from 1967 until 1970. It never got officially recognized by enough countries, however, and Nigeria had the big-guy backing of the UK and the Soviet Union.

Nigeria eventually reclaimed the territory by blocking all access to supplies, notably food. Thousands (maybe millions – no one really knows) died as a result of the blockade and the Biafrans were forced into surrender.

It may seem a bit extreme to do a musical pairing of Igbo and Quebecois music, but the two cultures share a lot in common: a history of feeling repressed by a very culturally different majority and an ongoing, low-level fight for independence.

I don’t know the name of the Oriental Brothers track. Can anyone identify it?

Oriental Brothers – Unknown
Les Cowboys Fringants – Les Etoiles Filantes

Today we have a third highlife installment from Benn loxo listener, ubulujaja:

“Lord Bob Cole (who may also have been known as Bob Johnson) was a Ghanaian comedian, songwriter, and actor who was a veteran of the Ghanaian Concert Party scene of the 1950’s where highlife music was mixed with comic dramatizations of local events. I first heard his music on the 1970’s C.K. Mann and Bob Cole release Osode: African Hot Highlife Rhythms and started making an effort to track down anything I could by him. The song Kekerebtire is a Nzima song off a Decca 45 release probably done in the mid to late 60’s. The structure of the song is classic highlife with the opening horns blast and interwoven guitar and percussion solos, but the punchy nature of the vocals make the song stand out and are delivered with a sort of vaudevillian boisterousness that must have characterized the concert party scene. For more information on the Ghana Concert Party Theatre you should check out Catherine M. Cole’s book Ghana Concert Party Theatre.

I don’t know much about Muchacha Imuzor as there are no liner notes or list of performers on any of the LP’s I have managed to find, but he did a number of good Ukwauni styled highlife records in the 70’s for the EMI Label. The song Anazo Eze is a 16 minute track off an LP of the same name. His vocals have a distinctive urgency that bring together the rhythms of the guitar, percussion instruments and chorus to make a solid Ukwauni praise song.”

Thanks as always for the post, ubulujaja.

Bob Cole and his Music Makers – Kekerebtire
Muchacha Imuzor – Anazo Eze