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.

Sean Bergin Has Left Us

Sean Bergin in Amsterdam, 2008

Belated sad news that Amsterdam tenor saxophonist Sean Bergin passed away on September 1. Sean was a great player and I got to know him a bit back in 2008. That year I was working in Nigeria and had a regular transit through Amsterdam Schiphol on my journeys back to Malaysia. One trip through, I stopped off for a lesson with composer and former Willem Breuker Kollektief tenor saxophonist Maarten Van Norden, and Maarten told me about this great locally-famous tenor player who had a regular Sunday afternoon gig. He suggested that I stop by to hear him after our lesson. 

I walked from Maarten's place to De Engelbewaarder (translation: The Guardian Angel), a lovely little canal-side bar at Kloveniersburgwal 59. Sean Bergin was playing with a piano-bass-drums trio and he sounded fantastic on his beat-up bare-brass Mark VI tenor. Great beer and great music. Blue Monk sticks in my mind, with a couple of local horn players sitting in. I chatted a bit with Sean; I recall that he was having reed problems and I offered him a reed out of my case, a 2-1/2, which was too soft for him so he declined. Sean played at De Engelbewaarder every Sunday and I stopped by a couple more times through the coming months to hear him. I brought Jackie by to listen during the summer of 2009 when she was in Holland riding with Coby and Marlies Van Baalen, but unfortunately Sean was on hiatus that Sunday and we missed out. 

Sean was one of those unsung local heroes who didn't build much of a following outside of his hometown but sure was a great, no, world class, player. He had recorded with Mal Waldron, a piano player who at one point had called Eric Dolphy as a sideman, so his musical abilities put him up there in good company. When I saw Sean, it didn't look to me like his music career had been too remunerative, though. Deep in my mind I had hoped to schlep my tenor to Amsterdam some Sunday afternoon and jam with Sean along the canal, but now that chance is foregone. Sean Bergin, RIP.

I'm getting tired of writing regrets and obituaries.

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.

New Acquisition - Kohlert '55 Tenor

During my recent trip to the US I picked up a Kohlert '55 tenor sax, a nice original lacquer horn in about as good a shape as you can expect from an instrument going on 60 years old. Pads are new and it plays easily from top to bottom.

Post-WWII Kohlerts were made in Winnenden, near Stuttgart in what was then West Germany. My '55 was actually made in 1956 and sports rolled tone holes, left hand bell keys, and a non-articulated G#. Not that many were made - Kohlert produced about 14,000 instruments of all types in 1955 and 1956 - so I imagine only a few hundred of these still exist, if that many. Kohlerts have a reputation as great R&B and rock 'n' roll horns and I will soon find out...I haven't had it out of the house yet.

Welcome to the family.

Again, A Bad Day for Tenor Sax Fans

This hasn't been a great week musically. Earlier in the month I wrote that I am almost afraid to read the jazz news these days. Then in comes the report that David S. Ware passed away from kidney failure on October 18. Another player I will not get the chance to hear live; fortunately his recorded legacy is substantial. 

Never a mainstream player, he hit the scene in the late 70's with the Cecil Taylor Unit and I first heard him playing his own music on Birth Of A Being (1977), an LP I came across while going through my collection in storage last summer. He is classified in the press as a "free jazz" player although I find that classification a misnomer that is often used pejoratively. For example, his allmusic.com biography makes the following statement which I find idiotic: "unlike a good many free players, Ware does not base his style on any particular technical shortcoming or theoretical misunderstanding." I don't know who these other players are the writer is referring to. I don't know of any free jazz players who base their playing on technical shortcomings or theoretical misunderstandings. Pure bunk, I'm sorry. 

Regardless of classification, though, David definitely had his own conception of improvisation; his New York Times obituary quotes him as saying “I’m not interested in chord changes”. The press is full of hype about him although I doubt it ever paid off big in material terms. The best place to find out about David is on his own web site, davidsware.com. 

David, may you rest in peace. Thanks for not compromising your musical values.

Oh yeah, his death distracted me from writing about the other reason this week has not been great for me musically. Despite all the anticipation and buildup, this year's Felabration in Lagos has been a disappointment. It has been impossible to find out exactly who is playing when and as a result I missed out on most of the music. I went over to the Shrine three times this week and struck out each time. Next week the schedule gets back to normal and I am hoping to catch Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 at their regular end-of-month gig next Saturday to make it up.

Another Great Has Passed - John Tchicai RIP

I'm almost afraid to read the jazz news this year. Heard yesterday that saxophonist John Tchicai has passed away in France at the age of 76. One more great I will never have the chance to see perform live. Not much in the press yet but here is an obit from the Washington Post. 

He was one of the creators of the so-called "New Thing" in the early 1960s and recorded on John Coltrane's seminal Ascension as well as with Albert Ayler (New York Eye and Ear Control), Archie Shepp (New York Contemporary Five) and Roswell Rudd (New York Art Quartet). Maybe the only European player to record with Trane (the media always noted how he was born in Denmark of a Danish mother and Congolese father). He was one of the few accomplished players who was equally adept on soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones. 

John Tchicai didn't sound like anyone else and there aren't any music schools teaching the John Tchicai style, so we will have to be satisfied with his recorded legacy (which is fairly prolific but all on smaller labels). It is the greatest compliment to say that a musician stayed true to his creative self for his entire career, and that can truthfully be said about John Tchicai. Rest in peace and we will continue to listen to the sounds you created while you were here. The sound is timeless.