New Africa Shrine, Revisited

Being accused by one of my readers of not keeping my blog up, I feel compelled to post today. Sometimes we take things for granted. I suppose I fall into that boat about the New Africa Shrine, which is no more than 400 meters from my doorstep in the estimation of a colleague from London, who was simply amazed at the music coming out of what is ostensibly my neighborhood bar. I haven’t been going there so often lately as the show has become repetitive for me. However, on Thursday I had a contingent of work visitors from the U.K. and U.S. who wanted to pay homage at the Shrine, despite its rough reputation among the Nigerian professionals in our office. The Shrine’s star shines much more brightly overseas than it does locally.

The three foreign guests were simply stunned by the show that Femi Kuti and Positive Force put on at the Shrine that night. The glow of first experience. The place itself, the front-row table, the band rocking its warm-up set, the full horn section, the percussionists, the dancers both on stage and in cages alongside, the crowd, Femi’s star power, his rap, his circular breathing shtick on alto. All things that have become less impressive to me after dozens of times in the same seat over the past year or so. Time to take a fresh look. I will return tonight.

I saw tenor saxophonist Dotun “Dotsax” Bankole up on stage; he sounded excellent in his one solo feature during the first set. Dotun dropped by my house yesterday for a jam. He doesn't get to showcase his talent on stage as much as he might like and always cuts loose whenever I see him privately. We jammed for about an hour and a half before he had to leave for his far-away home in neighboring Ogun State. Free association, Lester Leaps In, and Milestones were all we had time for. As last time we met, we swapped tenors; we both have silver-plate Mark VIs of about the same vintage and he swears mine sounds better because the silver plate is gone and the bare brass resonates differently. Here is a brief track of Dotun improvising unaccompanied on tenor; he is working on a new album of originals which he expects to be complete in about two months.

Femi and the band will be leaving for a summer tour of the U.S. in a couple of weeks, beginning late June. Tenor fans, look for Dotun on stage if you want to hear one of contemporary Africa's best saxophonists.

Learning to Play Afrobeat First Hand

Getting the chance to learn to play afrobeat first hand in Lagos. Had two successive days of learning side-by-side with excellent players. 

First, finally got Showboy to come by and teach me some of Fela Kuti's music. Showboy is a legend from the years he spent anchoring Fela's horn section on baritone sax, and he is an encyclopedic repository of original afrobeat which he learned directly from its inventor and master. The music is all up in his head rather than written down on charts, scores and fake sheets. You can't buy a book of Fela sheet music anywhere to my knowledge. Showboy is currently music director of Egypt 80 which backs Fela's youngest son Seun Kuti. 

Showboy was injured badly in a hit and run accident in Lagos about three years ago and can't hold a sax because of damage to his left hand. He sure can sing, though, and he taught me Dog Eat Dog and Trouble Sleeps by scatting the themes and horn backing parts while I picked out the notes on my tenor. After about 90 minutes I had both down well enough to take a break before my brain exploded. I wasn't that familiar with Trouble Sleeps so we listened to it on iTunes a few times to catch the theme. Showboy taught it to me in Eb but the recording seems to be in Db so I had to transpose to match the record. It is all in the timing and phrasing and it is a challenge to play without a rhythm section - Showboy helped me by counting out the beats and conducting my entrances. 

Then last night, Femi Kuti's tenor player Dotsax came by and we jammed freely for an intense nonstop hour. He just got his horn out and started playing and of course I didn't have my Zoom on and missed recording our jam, given the choice between playing along or messing around with the recording equipment. He's a quiet guy and didn't say a word so I had to chase him entirely by ear, which worked out pretty well in the end. Spoke through our horns. Before he left he wrote down some patterns for me to practice, but of course he wrote them in DO-RE-MI format which I now have to convert to C-D-E or 1-2-3 before I can play them since I never learned the European notation system. Something clicked and patterns suddenly made sense as Dotsax has a Coltrane kind of sound. Our styles contrast as I tend to play more melodies and backing riffs than he does but he plays a whole lot more notes than I do. And plays them very well, I might add.

Dotsax - Tenor Saxophonist Dotun Bankole

Dotun "Dotsax" Bankole

Currently featured in the tenor sax spot in Femi Kuti's Positive Force band is 36-year-old hornman Dotun Bankole, aka Dotsax. The band just returned from its summer tour of England, France, and Spain and I had the chance to catch up with Dotsax at the Africa Shrine in Lagos last Thursday during Femi's rehearsal.

We spent a couple of hours jamming on Saturday afternoon and in between the music I was able to explore Dotun's musical interests and background, on top of jamming on one of his original tunes, Coltrane's Africa, some blues and some free explorations.

The Silver Mark VI

Dotsax started on trumpet rather late in life, at age 19 or 20, and played until his trumpet was stolen at age 24. He switched to sax because he had access to one, and learned it by practicing 12 hours a day for six months. His interests started with highlife but he found himself fascinated by jazz after fellow musicians introduced him to the sounds of Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and Sonny Rollins. He's played with Nigerian masters like Peter King and attributes his current sound to the music he heard in his village growing up plus his fascination with jazz improvisation. Over the past decade he fronted his own band with his brother on keys, although the jazz scene in Nigeria is rather limited. Around nine years ago word was that Femi Kuti was looking for him, and four years ago he finally joined Femi's band full time. He's been touring and recording with Femi ever since and you can catch him and his silver Mark VI on stage at the Shrine on Thursdays and Sundays. 

In addition to his regular gigs backing Femi, Dotsax wants to develop his own original music with a group of his own that offers more room for improvisation. At our jam Saturday he showed easy fluency on tenor and instinctive harmonic knowledge, no problem ripping off interesting and coherent unaccompanied solos. He and I discussed a shared idea of recording a further fusion of jazz and afrobeat and I hope that can come to fruition in the next year. Listen to Dotsax perform a couple of his original compositions here on his MySpace site, which also contains a detailed bio.