Out of the frying pan and into the fire. I really asked for it. Only two weeks in Lagos but carrying the dream of playing at the Africa Shrine for a long time, and there I was blowing my horn on the Shrine's main stage with Femi Kuti's Positive Force band behind me, standing in the spot of the man himself.
"And then you woke up."
No, really. Last night I went to the New Africa Shrine at about 6:00pm to meet up with Femi's tenor saxophonist Dotun Bankole. While I was waiting around Femi showed up and introduced himself. I brought my horn; Dotun had his silver-plated Mark VI with him and took me up on stage. We assembled our horns and started blowing. It turned into a 30 or 40 minute free jam which I found really enjoyable - we had no problem communicating from the first note as we alternated trading licks, playing unison lines, riffing and laying down rhythms for each other. Dotun is an excellent player and it was a blast. He made me think, blow, and sweat hard. One of the most fun times I've ever had playing the sax, seriously.
I was told that Femi rehearses his band on Thursday nights so my expectation before I went was an informal working session with the band. Not so; the band worked through some arrangements led by the music director before Femi joined up, but after 8:00 Femi came on stage and played a three hour set straight through! It was as intense a show as Sunday night's performance, only Femi and the band were dressed in street clothes and the dancers were not made up and costumed. When Femi says his performance runs 7:00 to 11:00, he means nonstop! And on Thursday nights, admission to the Shrine is free. Where else in the world can you see an international star and his genre-leading band perform a four hour set for free?
After we jammed, Dotun asked me to sit down for a while and he would call me up on stage...I thought to join with the horn section and work out. He kept my horn up on stage and assembled it next to him. Right after 7:00 the band started playing, then about halfway through the first hour I heard my name announced from stage on the PA. The entire band broke into a fanfare. I had no clue. I put my harness on, went up on the riser next to Dotun, and picked up my tenor. He pushed me out into the spotlight, right into Femi's spot at the front of the stage with Femi's horns on their stand at my feet. I was in the man's spot facing the audience with the 12-piece band at full blast behind me. There was no choice but to blow.
Hmmm. I've been around too much to say I was terrorized, but it was definitely nerve-racking and it took me a moment to get my footing. I hung at the mike for around seven minutes, soloing over the polyrhythms and horn punctuations, and the proof is here for posterity. Not my best-ever solo, but I take solace in the fact that Sonny Rollins can't stand listening to his own recordings either. Then it was over. I want more.
Yes, I did it. I played on center stage at the New Africa Shrine with the world's very best Afrobeat band behind me. Whew.
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