Coming to America (Shola Version, 2015)

I just heard from Nigerian saxophonist extraordinaire Shola Emmanuel, who is currently fulfilling a lifelong dream by travelling to the U.S. with horn. He spent a few weeks in Atlanta and is currently jamming away in D.C.

Shola's impression is that "Jazz Musicians work so hard but most time struggle everywhere." The more things change, the more they stay the same. I trust the U.S. meets Shola's expectations musically and he earns some lasting international recognition while there, because many I know define success by the mere act of relocation to a more developed economy.

2014 was musically fruitful for Shola, evidenced by a baker's dozen of links to YouTube videos he's done over the last year. Here is an improvisation on clarinet backed by bass which has a montage of stills in the background (pay particular attention to the photo of Shola with a certain tenorist which shows up at the 1:05 mark):

And here are the other dozen links for your listening enjoyment. Comments are welcomed and will be passed on to the musicians:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQbwnh26zAE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiUlX66ke_o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFpqbrLV_Uo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9qI1664ups

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w2Vy4LeTaM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDUqwIzdZMo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40pN4K1CAcQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjBoL1E1esk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE-h09zFQf8

http://youtu.be/RHhelh9ogAg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn36DLTXFxQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qecFHrRjU4

I'm told a new song is on the way and will post it as soon as received. Be on the lookout.

Shola Emmanuel - Paris Recording Session

I awoke in the middle of the night to a rooster call from my fancy new hand phone, a call from an excited Shola Emmanuel announcing that he had just returned from a recording session in Paris. In the fog of sleep I couldn't catch too much detail, but in the morning I found a link to a professionally-produced YouTube video in my email. Here it is, kind of a chamber-jazz thing with a French rhythm section. I am promised that there is more to come; a new album is being mixed.

The musicians in the video are:

Shola Emmanuel : Alto Saxophone

Matteo Pastorino : Clarinet

Jean-Baptiste Pinet : Drums

Rafael Paseiro : Double Bass

Recorded at Bopcity Jazz-Studio, Paris, June 2014.
Other tunes were recorded at the same session with additional musicians and instruments:

Bertrand Beruard - Double Bass
Femi Paul - Alto Sax
Michèle-Anna Artiste - Vocals

Michael Williams - Drums

Johan Blanc - Trombone

Ruairidh - Bagpipe

Shola also played tenor sax, baritone sax, clarinet, trumpet, and piano.

In this day and age where every music school student has more recordings under his belt than some of the historic saxophone legends, I truly hope that Shola's European adventure gets  him some international exposure and leads to some gigs outside of Nigeria. He is one of the only contemporary Nigerian saxophonists playing original improvised music as well as music in the tradition of the Parker-Coltrane axis, swimming against the tide of crappy hip-hop and African MTV big-sunglass videos. I've known Shola for more than six years now and he was already introduced to me as "the best saxophonist in Abuja" on day one. I will update with more video and sound files as I get them.

Shola Eml – Jazz Africa Fusion

I phoned my sax playing buddy Shola Emmanuel in Abuja a few days ago to wish him Happy New Year and he asked me if I got the link. Link to what? A mystery until this morning when his email arrived.

The link inside led to an excellent three-minute video of Shola and his music shot by French filmmaker Libero Films. I don’t know too much about the clip’s genesis – possibly waiting for TV – but wanted to get it out as soon as possible. Apparently there is a second part in the works. If you are not familiar with altoist Shola from previous posts, we first met in Nigeria six years ago and have been on the same musical wavelength ever since. He is gifted with one of the quickest ears I've ever come across.

View Shola Eml – Jazz Africa Fusion below, or watch it in your browser by clicking the link here.

Shola’s web site Rhythm and Sax has a contact form if you'd like to get in touch with him directly.

You can read about Marseille-based Libero films here (French language site).

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.

Two Original Tracks from Saxophonist Dotun Bankole

Tenor Saxophonist Dotun “Dotsax” Bankole dropped by my house the other night for a jam. He plays a 156k silver plate Mark VI which is about a year younger than the horn I've been playing lately, a 148k Mark VI that is basically bare brass, having been stripped of its silver plate a long time ago. The horns are brothers from the late 60's, although his has a high F# key and mine doesn't  Dotun really liked the resonance of my horn and we traded instruments for the evening. He is playing on a Jody Jazz metal mouthpiece which was given to him by the manufacturer while on tour in the States a couple of months ago with Femi Kuti.

Dotun was bemoaning the scarcity of jazz in present-day Lagos. There is not a single venue in this city of 17 million that features live jazz every day. I thought maybe it was just me because I have played out less this past year than in any year in recent memory, although I have been working in a city which is lauded in some media circles as one of the really happening places in the third world. Not really happening for jazz since there is practically no place to jam, even for excellent local players, and not much happening even for home-grown styles like afrobeat although the music press refers to afrobeat as being really popular worldwide – I've previously written about that paradox.

In any event, Dotun continues to improvise and create on his saxophone. Recently he has been working on two original tracks in the studio: Irawo Owuro and Aja Nti Ele, where he plays soprano sax rather than his more usual tenor. You can listen to these two works-in-progress here and look for and buy the CD when it is released. Click on the track names to download and listen. Meanwhile, you can catch Dotsax playing tenor behind Femi Kuti at the New Africa Shrine in Ikeja, Lagos, on Thursday and Sunday evenings.

The Genius of Fela’s Horn Lines

Now that I have about a dozen of Fela Kuti’s tunes under my belt courtesy of weekly lessons with his former baritone sax player Showboy, currently music director of Egypt 80, I have begun to understand Fela’s music much better. Although I have long been a big fan and have listened to Fela’s records for decades, placing him in my 1970's musical triumvirate alongside Miles Davis and James Brown, I am just now really appreciating the sheer genius of the lines he wrote for his horn section. Genius is an overused term and I do not choose it frivolously. 

Fela’s music is not written down anywhere - but Showboy knows all the tunes, the arrangements, the solos, the horn parts, the harmonies, the rhythms, the voicings, the vocals, and the cues by heart, since he spent so many years playing and touring with Egypt 80. He is teaching me by ear, scatting the parts while I do my best to pick them out on my horn and note them down. It is obvious to me that Fela was a tenor sax player since virtually every horn part I have learned so far falls comfortably under my fingers on tenor. Felas’s music is primarily in minor keys and the keys are, again, almost all comfortable ones for the tenor sax, not bizarre keys that test if you got As in music theory class. Although Fela started out on trumpet, played alto sax before taking up tenor, and finished his career mostly on keyboards (I understand the reason is that the cumulative effects of multiple beatings by the authorities made it difficult for him to play much sax in the later years of his life), his music is that of a tenor saxophonist. Composed on the instrument, not on paper away from the horn. 

Over the last few weeks something broke loose and I discovered the inner logic to Fela’s music, an epiphany of sorts. Lately I’ve been able to pick up tunes in minutes as opposed to hours. Last session I was on top of Power Show after only about 10 minutes. 

It dawned on me that most of the famous tunes by the undeniable greats Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane are in tenor-friendly keys as well (duh!). The great players don’t torture themselves over theory and unnecessary gymnastics. Very few of their compositions fall outside of key signatures that are basic for the way the tenor operates mechanically. I have written before about Occam’s Razor, the logic that says that given multiple possible solutions, the simplest one is always the best. Fela’s horn lines fit this rule. With all the talk of the so-called Afrobeat Revival, I've yet to find one composer who has equalled Fela’s writing for horn sections.

Seun Kuti Premieres A New Song at the Shrine

Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 performed last night at the New Africa Shrine in Lagos, their first Shrine appearance in 2013. The performance was sparsely attended; probably only 100 or so in the audience, baffling for a band that toured all over the globe last year including sell-out performances in the US, UK, Australia, and Japan. It wasn't because the tickets were outpriced either. I hardly spent ten bucks including my gate fees, drinks, and taxi money in a city known for high prices. 

Egypt 80 led off a bit after 11:00 pm with Fela’s Dog Eat Dog and then proceeded through a warm-up set of an hour and a quarter, with Showboy vocalizing and directing the horns. Seun came on at about 12:30 am dressed in red pants. The crowd was..shall we say…interesting? First a big rat ran across the dance floor, then an older woman in full-length local garb and high headdress got out front and danced wildly, at one point flinging her headdress, bag, and shoes onto the middle of the floor, collapsing, then getting back up and continuing to dance for the rest of the night. A whole lot of people were taking poor quality hand phone videos of the show, which never cases to baffle me since the quality is worse than a 1980s VHS camcorder, but nobody seems to care. 

Highlights of the set included the frenetic and always-crowd-pleasing Zombie, then Seun’s rap preceding Slave Masters, where he compared locals working for multinationals down in Lekki with slaves living in master’s house in exchange for an easier life than their brethren. 3% of Nigerians thinking everything is fine. About 2:00 am Seun rapped about Kalakuta; this week was the anniversary of the 1977 police attack on Fela’s compound that left Fela with broken bones and his mother beaten so badly that she would ultimately die from her injuries. That led into the première of a new composition dedicated to Kalakuta. Here is a somewhat fuzzy Zoom recording of the world première piece, which hopefully will spur you on both to see Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 live on tour and to buy their next recording.

Femi Kuti on CNN’s Inside Africa

There is a half-hour segment currently running on CNN’s Inside Africa series that focuses on contemporary music scene in West Africa (primarily Nigeria), a scene that I find vapid - an opinion that causes the younger locals to label me “old school”. I simply find nothing in today’s big sunglasses, machine-driven beats, and insipid lyrics to inspire me when compared to what existed a few decades ago. I mean then the musicians actually played instruments. Just my opinion, I may be wrong.

The Inside Africa segment features a seven minute interview with Femi Kuti and some footage of the New Africa Shrine in Lagos. Click here to watch. Kudos to Femi's international publicity machine for getting him on CNN. In searching for the web link, I came across an interview with Femi where he described Afrobeat as “incredibly popular” – if that is so, he means outside of Nigeria because it is on life support here in its homeland. Fela Kuti so dominated the Afrobeat scene that his death nearly killed the entire genre; today you will be hard pressed to find live Afrobeat music in Nigeria outside of sons Femi and Seun playing with their respective bands at the Shrine. I understand that some of that crappy hip-hop so popular with the younger crowd has labeled itself Afrobeats just to confuse the issue. Afrobeats has nothing to do with Afrobeat beyond appropriating the name.

The CNN video opens with a shot of my friend, tenor saxophonist Dotun “Dotsax” Bankole, at 00:06; he shows up again a couple more times. Hope that does something good for his career as he is a solid player deserving wider exposure. I think I might have been present at the Shrine during one of the nights they were filming, as I previously noted Femi playing trumpet up on the riser with the horn section as shown in the final few seconds of the video. His yellow t-shirt looks mighty familiar too. I don’t remember seeing the cheesy CNN reporter at the Shrine, however. Throughout the segment, he wears what we used to call a sh*t eating grin back when I was growing up in the Midwest. He would have stood out like a sore thumb. You just don’t see smiles like that in Lagos.

Christmas at the Shrine

Went over to the New Africa Shrine last night to catch Femi Kuti and band one last time before the Holidays. It was one of the looser sets I've witnessed. Femi came out at about 8:00 PM without much fanfare and joined the band on trumpet. It was the first time I've seen any of the hornmen solo while Femi was on stage; he usually reserves all the solo space for himself and the horn section serves solely as backup. Both the baritone player and tenor man Dotun “Dotsax” Bankole took long solos last night while Femi climbed the riser at the back of the stage and played trumpet with the section. He then did some time on soprano sax but didn’t touch his alto at all, nor his rarely-heard tenor. The first half hour was more jazzy and improvisatory than usual but then segued into some of Femi's more recognizable tunes like Dem Bobo, which in Pidgin means something to the effect of “they deceive” (Dem bobo your mama, dem bobo your papa, in the name of democracy….). 

I did my Christmas shopping at the Shrine and picked up a nice Fela singlet. Won’t be finding one of those down at the local mall. I'm off for Penang via Dubai tonight.

Saxophonist Shola Emmanuel

In the shed with Shola Emmanuel

Nigerian saxophonist, composer, and arranger Shola Emmanuel visited me in Lagos recently. He was introduced four and a half years ago as the best saxophonist in Abuja and his skills have only improved since then. He is playing music nobody else in Nigeria is doing today. Hip hop and so-called contemporary R&B have eradicated local music like afrobeat and juju from the West African airwaves, and jazz, which never had that strong of a local scene, is low-profile. Shola is one of the foremost musicans keeping jazz alive and vibrant in Nigeria today, blending a strong grounding in African rhythms with fluid and creative improvisation.

Shola just self-produced his first CD, Nine Lessons by the Rhythm & Sax Orchestra, nine original compositions and arrangements with Shola up front on alto and tenor saxes (and trumpet on one track) over large group backings. The CD was launched at a concert in Abuja on October 21 which, by all accounts, was a sellout. Shola primarily plays alto although he pointed out to me that he, like many hornmen in Nigeria, started out on trumpet. Here is a Youtube video of Shola playing one of his originals, Into D Woods: 

We jammed for six or seven hours, part of the time joined by friend Tunde who plays alto. I played tenor and Shola split his time between his alto and borrowing my second tenor. He got a powerful sound out of the Kohlert. We mostly played out of my book which meant a heavy dose of Gene Ammons tunes, Jammin' with Gene, Treux Blue, and Happy Blues. Showboy dropped by and gave us all a workout in afrobeat; we played the horn sections of several Fela tunes and jammed through Night In Tunisia. I caught the proceedings on my Zoom recorder and have sampled two tracks for download, duets with Shola on alto and me on tenor: Caravan and Doxy, which we played in tribute to our mutual colleague, the late Dare Peter; click to listen. It is easy to identify each of us and Shola's fluent sound is apparent. 

Shola is a musician who has advanced significantly since I met him and will definitely be going places. His web site www.rhythmandsax.com is currently under construction as of this writing, but check back soon for downloads and gig notices. 

Tribute to the Late Nigerian Saxophonist Dare Peter

Nigerian Saxophonist Dare Peter

Saxophonist Shola Emmanuel came down from Abuja to visit and we jammed for a quick hour before heading off to the New Africa Shrine to hear Femi Kuti. Shola and I hadn't seen each other in four years but it didn't seem to matter, either musically or in friendship. I was taking the opportunity to catch up on hap'nin's of some of our other musician mates in Abuja when I learned some shocking news: in Shola's words, Dare is no more.

Bandleader and saxophonist Dare Peter passed away last month after struggling with a long illness. I don't know Dare's exact age but he couldn't have yet reached 40. He came across as kind of a hard-nosed Rasta type with his dreadlocks and Rastaman hat, but that hard exterior was far from the full reality as Dare proved himself to be a musician of heart and integrity in the time I knew him.

Dare Peter and Ron Ashkin in Abuja, 2008

Back in 2008, I walked in to the legendary Elephant Bar in Abuja and heard Dare playing Sonny Rollins' Doxy on alto, supported by a great local rhythm section. He immediately invited me up on stage to join him (here is an audio track of us doing Doxy). That cemented a musical relationship for the rest of the year when I became his second saxophonist, playing tenor, and we played his regular Elephant Bar gig as well as going out to other venues like Silver Spoon and the Arts & Crafts Village. It was at Silver Spoon with Dare's band that I backed up Dede Mabiaku, not knowing at the time that Dede was Fela Kuti's protégé and famous throughout Nigeria. Someone in the audience dashed me a bottle of Champagne that night.

Dare was inclusive and accepting as a bandleader, giving me plenty of chance to stretch out and improvise as the ideas flowed; not competing with me, cutting me off, getting in the way, or making me feel like I was stepping on his toes. There were plenty of times where he gave me the feeling that I was being featured by the band and not just playing a supporting role. He had a repertoire that spanned from jazz to highlife to pop and often a set would progress through all three styles; I'd usually play the jazz opening set and the highlife closer but usually chose to sit out on a lot of the chick singer vocals. Playing with Dare really opened up my desire to perform.

As a musician, Dare had an easy facility on alto sax with a screaming altissimo. His signature tune was Grover Washington's Mr. Magic. Here is a video Dare playing Mr. Magic in 2008:

I've posted this before, but this time it is for posterity (more videos can be found here as well). I understand that Dare married soon after I left Nigeria and leaves behind his wife and young son. Dare Peter, Nigeria's Mr. Magic, rest in peace.

Zombie, Oh Zombie

Seun Kuti, Fela in the Background

Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 played their first post-Felabration gig at the New Africa Shrine in Lagos last night. The crowd was sparse since it was the long Sallah holiday weekend when many people travel out of the city, and besides much of the local musical energy had been spent earlier in the month. Seun and Egypt 80 had just played at the Shrine a week ago - their Felabration set didn't start until the middle of the night and I couldn't get anyone to go out into the daunting Lagos midnight to catch the show with me. What I missed last Saturday was that, unannounced, elder brother Femi Kuti sat in with Seun and their father's band, apparently the first time Femi has played with Egypt 80 in 15 years and the first time Fela's two sons played together with their father's band in Lagos since Fela's death in 1997. It was videoed by Sahara TV and can be seen on Youtube (my bandwidth here in Nigeria is terrible and I hope I will actually get to watch it one of these days). 

Last night was good for the listener as the smaller crowd made the Shrine more pleasant than usual. The show started at 11:00 pm. Showboy led the band through a longer-than-planned warm-up set since Seun did not appear until about 1:00 am. He kicked off with Fela's Zombie, his customary (and exciting) set opener. It was a good one, channeling his father on alto sax and vocals as well as in the hilarious Zombie dance. In the subsequent hour and a half I stayed around, Seun only played one other tune and had just started on a third when I left due to the late hour. He gives his band mates plenty of room to stretch out, plays a strong and confident alto, and in general has continued Fela's jazzy, improvisatory approach to afrobeat that keeps the music fresh and interesting. Having Fela's original rhythm section anchor the band doesn't hurt either.

Egypt 80's Rhythm Section - These Guys Played With Fela. No Wonder Egypt 80 Sounds So Good.

Showboy had been at my house earlier in the day for my weekly Afrobeat lesson and we worked on Zombie at my behest. I had jumped in a bit over my head; I found the tune impossible to master instantly and have been working on it for a couple of weeks just to get it under my fingers. The tempo is killer and on tenor sax, the primary lick jumps up and down across the break at high speed. Thanks to the marvel of modern digital technology, I slowed the 1977 album track down to 80% until I got my fingers moving and then sped it back up to 100% after about a hundred iterations. The instrumentals sound OK at slow speed but the vocals are just wrong! By the end of the day I got it, finally, finally. Showboy is a hard taskmaster since he was there at the creation of the original and I really had a sense of accomplishment when he smiled and said I could stop for now.

Rhythm & Sax Orchestra - Shola Hits the Big Time

Received this invitation to the upcoming Rhythm & Sax Orchestra concert in Abuja on October 21. I thought the guy holding the sax in the poster looked awfully familiar and sure enough, it is Shola, my running buddy from Abuja in 2008 with whom I had lost touch. Looks like he has hit the big time: =N=10,000 for a VIP ticket to hear him play is a long way from scuffling for bar and hotel gigs. That's about 60 bucks for a seat! I phoned Shola and we will try to get together in Lagos soon.

It is great to see the progress he has made over the past four years. I met Shola the first week I was in Nigeria, at the Nigerian PGA tournament at the IBB Golf Course where I had been invited to sit in with the band. Shola was introduced to me as the best saxophone player in Abuja. Over the next six months or so we jammed innumerable times at my hotel room, at his house, and at various gigs. I've got a bunch of our rehearsal recordings in the can and even went so far as to write out the lead sheet to one of his compositions, which I've got in my book as Shola's Blues.

If you are in Abuja in late October and have the chance to see him perform, go for it. Here's a photo of Shola sitting in on keys with Dare Peter's band at the legendary Elephant Bar in Abuja back in November, 2008. Note the horn case hanging from his shoulder.

Shola Emmanuel on keys at the legendary Elephant Bar in Abuja, 2008. George on drums.

Amayo from Antibalas Guests with Femi Kuti's Band

Femi Kuti's regular Sunday night performance at the New Africa Shrine featured a special treat last night - vocalist Abraham Amayo from Antibalas sat in with the band during the warm-up set. Antibalas is a Brooklyn, New York based afrobeat orchestra that gained notoriety during the Broadway run of the Fela! musical. Amayo can really sing and he didn't move like an American. I googled him this morning and now it makes sense - he is of Nigerian descent although born in the UK and domiciled in the US. He may be the most capable guest artist I have seen at the Shrine these last few months. His two songs actually received applause from the usually stoic regulars at the Shrine. Have a listen. 

In researching Amayo and Antibalas (a very good afrobeat band, but incontrovertibly a US-based revival band), an irony became apparent - Antibalas made the front page of the New York Times Arts section about a month ago while at the same time, in its home country of Nigeria, afrobeat is virtually nonexistent outside the walls of the New Africa Shrine. Many of the artists and musicians who formed the style are lingering in obscurity and poverty. The NYT article spoke of afrobeat's "momentum" - which must be happening outside of Nigeria because it ain't much happening here. You have to wear big sunglasses, drive a huge car, and do hip-hop to be deemed a successful musician in Nigeria these days. Afrobeat is considered strictly "old school." Once again, the West has 'discovered' and co-opted a unique ethnic art form while back at home, the art form is on its deathbed. 

Catch this quote from the NYT article: “Now every town we go to in the States, Canada or Europe has its own local Afrobeat act,” he [the band's trombonist] said. “Or two or three or four.” Are you kidding me? I'm still looking for one place in Lagos other than the Shrine to hear live afrobeat. With so little interest in playing afrobeat among Nigeria's young people, I wonder if it will survive the decade as living culture in its homeland. Highly questionable. I really don't know what can be done about it since 42.8% of the Nigerian population is under the age of 15, which means they were born after Fela's death and have little or no exposure to his music. May be that afrobeat is something you will only hear from revival bands in Brooklyn in the future.

Fela's Legend Lives On - Seun Kuti and Egypt 80

Seun Kuti at the New Africa Shrine - Fela's Musical Legacy

Yesterday was the last Saturday of August, time for Fela Kuti's youngest son Seun to bring Egypt 80 to the New Africa Shrine for his monthly midnight gig. 29-year old Seun and the band just returned from touring Europe and Japan a few weeks ago and this was their first Lagos gig in three months. The 500 Naira gate fee at the Shrine is one-tenth or less of what international fans pay to see Seun on tour.

Another Direct Link to Fela - Showboy Leading Egypt 80

I came in as Showboy was putting the band through a meticulous sound check; as a saxophonist he balances the horns particularly well so each instrument's part can be picked out cleanly from the audience. The warm-up set started just after 11:00pm with Showboy leading the group through about half a dozen numbers lasting 90 minutes. Seun came out at 12:30am and started wailing on alto sax; like brother Femi he has mastered circular breathing. I stayed until 3:00am and Seun was still going strong when I left, having removed his shirt right before I split which makes him look uncannily like his father. 

Seun gives lots of solo room to his musicians and there is plenty of improvisation by the horns. Egypt 80's current standout soloist is the baritone saxophonist, following in the tradition of Fela's band's being anchored by a strong baritonist. Showboy held down that chair until his accident three years ago. Click to hear Mister Big Thief performed live on Saturday night. 

Seun continues his father's political activism. The topic of the night was the new 5,000 Naira note announced recently by Nigeria's central bank. The largest note is currently 1,000 Naira; most Nigerians I talked to think the new large-denomination note is a bad idea and expect inflation to follow rapidly. Why is a 5,000 Naira note even needed when 90% of Nigerians live below the poverty line and the minimum wage is 18,000 Naira (just over $100) per month? Corruption is rife, commonly thought to be more widespread now than when Fela was alive, and the corrupt typically keep large stashes of cash packed away in Ghana Must Gos. The new notes will make it more convenient to store and transport large amounts of cash. 

The new 5,000 Naira note will feature a picture of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Fela's mother and Seun's grandmother, a noted women's rights activist. Seun said that nobody consulted the family about this. Ironically, Funmilayo died as the result of being thrown of a second-story window at Kalakuta by Government forces in 1977. The family never received compensation nor even an apology. Seun told the audience that he prefers justice for his grandmother and they can keep the money.

Femi Kuti's PhD from Kalakuta

PhD from Kalakuta

Femi Kuti Playing Alto 

Went to the New Africa Shrine last night to hear Femi Kuti and his band play their regular Sunday night gig. It was more crowded than usual since Ramadan just ended. It is Sallah in Nigeria; Monday has been declared a public holiday and nobody had to get up early for work for a change. Femi was full of energy and he and the band played for nearly five hours without a break. The floor was packed by the end of the set.

And a Bit of Trumpet

Femi took the opportunity in the last hour to recount some of his life story first-hand. He and the Kuti family are celebrities in Nigeria and there is way more written about their personalities and personal lives in the local press than there is about their music. Femi is often maligned as uneducated and even illiterate and it is well known that he and Fela didn't exactly see eye to eye. But although Femi did not finish secondary school and many of his school mates went on to university to become doctors and lawyers, he is far from illiterate. Femi told the crowd last night that he "has a PhD from Kalakuta" and went on to say how his father in fact made him read plenty of challenging and thought provoking books. Femi has done well for himself regardless of his foreshortened formal education and the fact that the Shrine has survived for so long as a people's venue is testament to his success. And the fact that he is talking openly about his relationship with Fela shows that he has mellowed some after the big 5-0, as some of us old souls predicted.

Now You See It

Now You Don't

Musically, I found it rather strange that Femi plays his alto with the mike jammed way down into the bell. I've never seen anyone play that way before except as an occasional effect. Maybe it is a function of the band's volume - it gets pretty loud in the Shrine - and his preference for the mix, a way to get the sax heard above the thunder. Look at the adjacent photos and you'll see what I am talking about.

Fela Kuti's Last Song, Never Recorded

Continuing the interview with Rilwan "Showboy" Fagbemi from August 9, 2012:

Ron: Last time you were here you told me about Fela's last song, never released. 

Showboy: The last song that we were working on, none of us up until today knows the name, because that was when Fela told them that they should not call him Fela, they should call him "Part of the Case". And you know, that sound, that last track that he was writing we played the instrumental but none of us got to listen to even one line of the song, so nobody knew what he was going to put in as a song, but the music was like afrobeat, jazz, and highlife, it was 3-in-1 mixed up. It started in afrobeat, it went jazzy, the third part was highlife, then it came back to afrobeat. So the day we conclude, we completed the whole instrumentation, from the beginning of the instrumental to the end, Fela was dancing very happy on stage, like man he has got what he was looking for. 

So after that rehearsal that day, Fela said, "Man this song is so hot. Let us rest." We played the full instrumental from the beginning to the end, he danced, danced, danced, danced, danced then he said "Great!" He stopped. He said, "Let us go and rest." And that is the rest he is resting 'til tomorrow. Nobody knew what was there, nobody knew what was coming on, on the song any more. Nobody knew the name of the song, the title, nobody know it, because he never uttered a word. All that we knew was we played the instrumental from beginning to the end, he gave everybody their part, we did the body, we did the tail end, we did the intro, we did the solo backing, and what we were waiting for. And it was very, very unusual of Fela when he is writing a new song, when we are practicing a new song, he often brings in singers to start some part with us from the beginning, before we get to the middle of the song. But on this track he did not put anything, not even a single word, from neither him nor the singers. 

The day we just complete the full instrumental, the music, Fela said, "Let us rest", and that is the rest that Fela is resting 'til tomorrow. 

Ron: Were you recording here in Lagos? 

Showboy: We have not recorded it. We were rehearsing at the Shrine. We didn't record it. I believe if he had completed it and added the lyrics Fela don't just record. Before you see Fela go to the studio with any song, the band has played it for over a year. 

Ron: So it is just gone in the air? 

Showboy: Yeah. 

Ron: Nobody did a sound check? 

Showboy: No. It can only be played by the Egypt 80, and no one else. And when I say Egypt 80, I mean we that played with Fela until death. We are the only people who can bring up that music. 

Ron: You mean it's here (points to head), you don't have a chart? 

Showboy: Yeah, yeah, yeah, he gave everybody their parts, he gave everybody their part. 

Ron: When you say he gave everybody their part... 

Showboy: He wrote everyone's part (scats the theme, then the sax section part, then the trumpet part). That was so bad, man. 

Ron: So why don't you recreate it with Egypt 80? 

Showboy: If we want to bring it up we can bring it up, as an instrumental, we could play it instrumental. That music was baaaaddd. We should. He deserves it. It was part of my vows. The day we buried Fela, I made a vow, I am going to keep this thing going, at least I will keep that as my own contribution to the on-movement, to the moving forward of the band, because if we did not take the step we decide to take, the decision, there would be no Egypt 80 today.

Showboy Remembers Fela Kuti

Continuing the interview with Rilwan "Showboy" Fagbemi from August 9, 2012:

Showboy: It remind of when, as I was saying, I was the last person who saw Fela among the musicians. I was the last person who spoke to him in the whole Egypt 80 before he died. Why is it like that? Because I walked into his bus after our last concert in Warri and I had this argument with Desmond Osawari, he was the organizer of the show, he was the promoter of the last show Fela did in Warri. And he was telling me on stage, he was telling me "Man, this man is dead." I said "Why are you talking like that?" He said "This is not the Fela I saw two weeks ago at the Shrine", that "these people have done something to him." And truly, Fela did not last four weeks from that day until he passed away. 

Ron: I gotta show you something. On Monday I wrote this. 

(Opens Crazy Bent Brass Tube to the August 6 posting entitled "What Would Fela Think? Nigeria 30 Years Later", written just three days prior to this interview. Showboy had not seen it yet. Showboy proceeds to read it aloud) 

Showboy: It's true. Ho! Just part of what I was just saying... Yeah, I was just talking because I was part of it. I have been around him and I know what he has been singing about, talking about in the last three four decades, man. It all comes true. He told us Government of Crooks. He told us Country of Pain. We are still in pain! My people are still in pain! Getting worse and worse. Can you imagine? 

When he told us about water, they were telling us that in 1990 we would have water. Truly, in 1990 they started digging roads all over the country, that they were going to pass water everywhere. Up until today as we are talking there is no water. Water, problem. Food, problem. House, wahalla [Hausa for trouble]. Imagine. 

Ron: Now the State government is making his house a museum, supporting Felabration... 

Showboy: Imagine, no, you see, these people who are coming into this, now, it is because they have been following him and you know, they want the world to know that it is not everybody in Nigeria, the Nigerian Government, who are stupid, that at least there are some sensible ones. Because if today the Lagos State government comes out, they are sponsoring, it is because it is right, it is what this guy deserved, that this man deserved to be taken care of, his house should be a museum. Ever since Fela died, who comes out to talk for the people? Nobody, because everybody is afraid. They don't know what is going to happen. 

Because, you know, if Fela was thinking about making his own money, really a millionaire, Fela would sing and play commercial music, and before you know...Fela don't even accept Government contracts to play for the Government. Mmmm, he won't. Because I remember something happened, I think in '86, between '86 and'87, there was this concert that was arranged at the National Stadium. A guy came to Fela, one of Fela's friends and told Fela that they are organizing an African Children's Concert at the stadium, blah blah blah, blah blah blah. Fela told him, "Ah, that is very interesting, if there is a concert for the African children I would like to be part of this." He now dropped an advance payment of 250,000 Naira. So he left. 

48 hours, I think 48 hours to the show, another Fela's friend came and told Fela "We heard you are performing at the stadium for the African Children's Concert, but the ticket is one thousand five, two thousand." Fela now asked them that, "What did you say?" He now sent someone to call the promoter. So when he called him, he now asked him that "How many African children can afford 1,500 Naira to come watch me, Fela? Instead of you to do the ticket 50 Naira, 100 Naira, you are now charging 1,500 Naira per ticket. In that case, you must pay me one million before I partake in that show, or else forget it, the 250,000 you brought, I thank you, you are my friend, I appreciate it, it is money for my weed but not for the concert. Why should African children pay 1,500 to watch me, for what?" And that is why he never took part, he never played in that concert. 

And because every concert we played for the children or for students, was completely different from a concert we played in a stadium or a dance hall. Those were shows sponsored by promoters, but shows that involved students, that's when you get the cheapest rate from Fela.

Fela Kuti's 1984 Arrest, as Told by Showboy

I had the opportunity to speak again at length with Rilwan "Showboy" Fagbemi, Fela Kuti's former baritone saxophonist and current music director of Egypt 80, in Lagos on Thursday evening. We continued the series of interviews we started back in June, recounting the untold history of Fela and his band.

Showboy: You know why I say it is a conspiracy? When Fela turn back to Nigeria, Fela was on a European tour and was supposed to go to America from Europe. He now called a meeting with the group, said "Man we have seven days, shall we spend the seven days in Europe and go to America from Europe?" And as the group has spent about three months in Europe, some of the band's members did not leave enough money with their family, so they really wanted to come back and take care of business here before they continued, before they proceed to America. 

So when they came back, on their way back, Fela was arrested, and the money they are claiming they found on Fela was not Fela's money; Fela does not wear a coat, I don't think you've ever seen Fela in a coat. The coat belonged to somebody who was around Fela, the magician, Professor Hindu. He was the one that was wearing the coat. So when they got to the airport, because of Fela, they started this general search of everybody at the airport. When they started searching, then Hindu walked to Fela and said "Fela, I have some money in my coat, I brought it back from Europe-O." Then Fela collected the coat and held it that maybe he would be exempted from the searching. But when they checked the coat they discovered money, they discovered £8,600 or something. And that was what Fela was arrested for. 

Ron: What year was that? 

Showboy: I think in '84, 1984. So when they now arrested Fela, the police officer who was in charge of the arrest, he now called the Presidency and told them "Ah, I have arrested that radical". They now told him "If you do not have any case, if you do not have anything incriminating against him, you better release him under 24 hours." What they were expecting to find was marijuana, but as they did not find anything incriminating, they now held on to the money, that the money was not declared when he was coming in. 

And don't be surprised, the same people who said that Fela did not declare this money, they later provide a paper which signifies that the money was declared. So there was complication. The judge didn't know what to do. The day he was supposed to give judgement, in between the case, he has to receive another phone call that came from above. I believe his life was threatened, and the life of his family, that you have to jail that guy, man. And he has no option than to put Fela in jail. 

When he now jail Fela, this same judge now arranged to see Fela in hospital in Benin. That was where he went and declared to Fela that "Man, you were not guilty, I was under pressure, I was instructed to put you behind bars. And as a judge, if I don't tell you the truth, I will never forgive myself. I came for your forgiveness, forgive me. You did not commit any offense. You were jailed because I had the order to put you behind bars from above." 

And you see, when all these things were happening, there was already change of government. The people who jailed Fela were no longer in power. There was a new president in the person of Babangida. And when Babangida heard that the judge had gone to beg Fela in the hospital, he hadn't any option but to order the release of Fela immediately, after spending about 18 months in prison. 

And you see, there was natural hatred. He wasn't just put to jail. How many of these politicians that have squandered our money, that have wasted the better part of our life in this country, have been jailed in Lagos and are taken around Nigeria's prisons from one state to another the way they did to Fela? They were transferring him, because being a man of the people, in every prison they take him, there are dozens of people who are coming to see Fela. Outside the Government, inside the Government, people were coming to see Fela. The problem is that if you come and visit him in Lagos today, the first day, the second day, the third day they will tell you he is no longer here, he's been transferred. And before they know people have got information about his whereabouts, where they have transferred him to and they start going there; before they know it they have transferred him again. So they were taking him from one prison to another. 

And that is why I said it was a serious conspiracy at the highest level on the Government's part. You know, this was the mouthpiece of the poor masses of this country. This was the only man that tells it the way it looks like to the Government, that why are my people deserve this, why are you giving them this? What has Fela sung about in this country that is not OK, that has been put into place until today? How many years? 15 years 'til today since Fela's death. My people are still suffering about accommodation, we have accommodation problem, we have light problem, we have job problem, a lot of people are getting hungry, hungrier and hungrier every f-ing day...

What Would Fela Think? Nigeria 30 Years Later

It is 2012, more than 30 years on since Fela Kuti released such landmark titles as ITT, Original Suffer Head, and Power Show, weaving political content into killer rhythms that just could not be ignored - neither by music fans nor by the authorities. In 1982, Fela was at the height of his international fame and toured the world as a star. But in his home country of Nigeria, Fela's activism was highly controversial in its day and led to his being constantly harassed, savagely beaten, repeatedly imprisoned and worse. Why? Fela used music as the weapon of the future to attack repression, corruption, squalor, and poverty in the Lion of Africa, one of the world's leading oil producing nations where, by his estimation, every black man should be a millionaire (or so the billboard says at the New Africa Shrine). 

30 years on and the military dictatorships of the 1980s are history, replaced by elected civilian rulers. Oil has continued to flow, bringing an estimated $500 billion into Nigeria's coffers since independence. The centrally-planned economy of the past is gone, replaced by privatization and private ownership. Nigeria is now classified as a middle income economy by the World Bank. GDP growth has been robust for decade. 

Last week I attended a workshop in Abuja and learned some startling statistics underlying the current state of development. The poverty rate in Nigeria has actually DOUBLED in the last 30 years. 42% of Nigerian children suffer from malnutrition. 80% of women and girls in the 8 northern states are illiterate. There are 100 million Nigerians living in extreme poverty. That is today, 30 years on, in this "middle income" country, not 1982 under the kleptocratic military dictatorship. Not to mention that 60 to 65% of Nigerian households still cook with firewood, leading to the world's fastest deforestation rate, even though the country is listed is the world's tenth largest oil producer. 30 years on from Tony Allen's NEPA and No Accommodation for Lagos, power outages are still chronic, housing is perpetually short, there is no sewage, no potable water, poor health care, collapsing public education...and the UK's Guardian newspaper estimated in late July that £196 billion (over $300 billion) in oil wealth has flooded out of Nigeria into offshore bank accounts since the 1970s, which is more than 60% of cumulative oil revenues. 

Fela departed this world 15 years ago. You better ask yourself, what would Fela think about today's Nigeria?