Saturday, June 27, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Remembering Eddy Okonta, the Obi of trumpet
By Benson Idonije
IF Eddy Okonta, the late great trumpeter and highlife musician were still alive, today's musicians would be learning the technique of articulating 'rhythm' as an essential musical component at his feet. While he lived, he pretty well appreciated the fact that the main essence of African music is 'rhythm' and he used it to full advantage, thoroughly Africanising his own brand of highlife in the process.
He had served an initial apprenticeship with the Sammy Akpabot Sexlet, an aggregation that revolved this same name even as it increased or diminished with time. He was there with the late Oba Funso Adeolu on auto and tenor saxophones. He enjoyed sharing solos with him while bandleader Akpabot himself provided an ideal background for highlife and dance music to blossom with his dexterity on the vibraphone, an instrument which only Akpabot could play at the time in the whole of West Africa.
As an instrument, the vibes has a special way of resonating sounds and floating them through harmonies and arrangements. But Eddy's high notes helped to put all the reverberation in check for dancing and easy listening.
Eddy later served a long term of apprenticeship with the late Bobby Benson of Africa, this time culminating in outstanding professional musicianship, with proficiency in arranging and composing. He not only put the final polish to his accomplishment with the Bobby Benson Jam Session where he stood out the way Chief Bill Friday and Zeal Onyia before him did, his artisting now reached its apotheosis in the area of improvisational design. He began to use the vast resources of his creativity to construct solos that contained revolutionary melodic language and rhythmic subtlety.
As one of the pioneering big bands in the country, the Bobby Benson Jam session offered all its graduates a well rounded musical experience and discipline as they were exposed to all dance music forms including swing, Latin American , Jazz, Afro Cuban, the ball room type that dominated the colonial era with the music of Joe Loss and Victor Sylvester, and all.
Eddy was not only involved in this unique experience, he was also part of the revolution, the formative processes of highlife which eventually led to the studio recording for the big hit, Taxi Driver, Bobby Benson's greatest.
It was not surprising therefore that when he eventually struck out on his own in the mid-fifties to form his star Aces, he had a wealth of experiences to draw from. He did not find it difficult to establish a highlife direction for himself. He immediately became the resident band at the paradise night club in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. He became the new highlife Sensation attracting people to his shows from various parts of the country who came to dance to live performances of such hits as Asili, Oriwo, Abele, Okokoko, Otajele among many others.
But perhaps the greatest attraction for the dance floor community which was usually packed, was the prolonged version of Abele, a Ghanaian hit song previously made popular by Emmanuel Tetteh Mensah, but given a rhythm treatment whose arrangement refereed a repetitive figure behind singer Nat. Buckle.
Abele had away a detailing into Oriwo, Eddy Okontas original composition whose essence was derived from rhythm, with Buckle at his very best.
The same enthusiastic fans followed him to Lagos in the mid sixties when he moved bases, playing at Central Hotel Yaba where he alternated night stands with other musicians.
I had been a fan of Eddy Okonta all the way from Ibadan but I came into close contact with him in the 70s as music producer with Radio Nigeria. I recorded him extensively for Dance and highlife music programmes.
It became extremely difficult at this time to maintain and keep a band type that Eddy had preference for, for economic reasons. Consequently, for all engagements, including radio and television shows, he relied on ad-hoc arrangements with session men. He had such a large pool to draw from that the sessions looked like 'United Nations' kinds of groups, assemblies of musicians from various backgrounds and settings who had not rehearsed enough to be able to blend together. But he had the organising ability of a good bandleaders, and the musical talent for grooming musicians on the spur of the movement, at short notice, to play whatever he wanted.
Most of his colleagues sounded boring with the same repetition of their old songs in live performances, but Eddy Okonta's evergreens were often revitalised because he introduced new elements and perspectives to a song each time he played it.
Eddy's trumpet was one of the strongest on the scene as strong as Chief Bill Friday's or Zeal Oniyia's. As a trumpeter, he played around with the top most notes most of the time, moving in and out with ease in the manner of Louis Satchmo Armstrong ad Harry James.
Another attribute which set him apart was the propelling force of his rhythmic concept which made dancing irresistible; and it is no wonder at all that he stole the show in 1983 at a highlife might organised by the late impress and, Steve Rhodes at the Glover Memorial Hall were several other band performers.
Eddy Okonta has a lot of singles to his credit, but has recorded two albums, with the very first being one of the biggest hits in West Africa even though it failed to make the desired impact in terms of sales because of poor marketing and promotion.
Titled, Victory, Fire back To Town, the album was recorded in 1978, at a time highlife was already unpopular, with promotion, it would have surpassed the Ramblers Hit Sound which had Eddie Floyds knock on wood watered down to highlife.
Influenced by the prevailing tradition of that period, the songs, three of them, have taken on long duration, an attract which helped to shore up highlife to the level of juju music in terms of popular appeal, danceability and as a social music type.
Eddy Okonta had always had the knack for big band highlife, and on this recording session, he paraded a 17-piece band where he sang and played the trumpet.
The most attractive material, and the one which continues to recommend the album is Bisi, a girl's name, based on a melody that has been in existence for years, and has been popular with highlife since its palm-wine oriented days. It is the second track on the second side, preceded by the one he calls life, a monologue that ruminates on the elusive possibilities of man's existence. The first side is one whole groove titled Janeth 78 Nkwuto.
Recorded on Ekimogun label, the entire session was arranged by Eddy Okonta who also played trumpet and acoustic guitar, saxophonist and highlife star Etim Udo, who was at the time a polygram recording engineer also made production inputs that boosted the quality of the sound and the overall cohesiveness of the ensemble.
However, based other success of this album, phodisk records signed Eddie Okonta on for a follow up in the 80s. Titled Obi of Trumpet, the album paraded a good choice of songs which were all marred by poor production, even though the studio was supposed to offer one of the best facilities around.
Notwithstanding, this recording did not in anyway detract from the fact that Eddie Okonta was truly the Obi of trumpet.
IF Eddy Okonta, the late great trumpeter and highlife musician were still alive, today's musicians would be learning the technique of articulating 'rhythm' as an essential musical component at his feet. While he lived, he pretty well appreciated the fact that the main essence of African music is 'rhythm' and he used it to full advantage, thoroughly Africanising his own brand of highlife in the process.He had served an initial apprenticeship with the Sammy Akpabot Sexlet, an aggregation that revolved this same name even as it increased or diminished with time. He was there with the late Oba Funso Adeolu on auto and tenor saxophones. He enjoyed sharing solos with him while bandleader Akpabot himself provided an ideal background for highlife and dance music to blossom with his dexterity on the vibraphone, an instrument which only Akpabot could play at the time in the whole of West Africa.
As an instrument, the vibes has a special way of resonating sounds and floating them through harmonies and arrangements. But Eddy's high notes helped to put all the reverberation in check for dancing and easy listening.
Eddy later served a long term of apprenticeship with the late Bobby Benson of Africa, this time culminating in outstanding professional musicianship, with proficiency in arranging and composing. He not only put the final polish to his accomplishment with the Bobby Benson Jam Session where he stood out the way Chief Bill Friday and Zeal Onyia before him did, his artisting now reached its apotheosis in the area of improvisational design. He began to use the vast resources of his creativity to construct solos that contained revolutionary melodic language and rhythmic subtlety.
As one of the pioneering big bands in the country, the Bobby Benson Jam session offered all its graduates a well rounded musical experience and discipline as they were exposed to all dance music forms including swing, Latin American , Jazz, Afro Cuban, the ball room type that dominated the colonial era with the music of Joe Loss and Victor Sylvester, and all.
Eddy was not only involved in this unique experience, he was also part of the revolution, the formative processes of highlife which eventually led to the studio recording for the big hit, Taxi Driver, Bobby Benson's greatest.
It was not surprising therefore that when he eventually struck out on his own in the mid-fifties to form his star Aces, he had a wealth of experiences to draw from. He did not find it difficult to establish a highlife direction for himself. He immediately became the resident band at the paradise night club in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. He became the new highlife Sensation attracting people to his shows from various parts of the country who came to dance to live performances of such hits as Asili, Oriwo, Abele, Okokoko, Otajele among many others.
But perhaps the greatest attraction for the dance floor community which was usually packed, was the prolonged version of Abele, a Ghanaian hit song previously made popular by Emmanuel Tetteh Mensah, but given a rhythm treatment whose arrangement refereed a repetitive figure behind singer Nat. Buckle.
Abele had away a detailing into Oriwo, Eddy Okontas original composition whose essence was derived from rhythm, with Buckle at his very best.
The same enthusiastic fans followed him to Lagos in the mid sixties when he moved bases, playing at Central Hotel Yaba where he alternated night stands with other musicians.
I had been a fan of Eddy Okonta all the way from Ibadan but I came into close contact with him in the 70s as music producer with Radio Nigeria. I recorded him extensively for Dance and highlife music programmes.
It became extremely difficult at this time to maintain and keep a band type that Eddy had preference for, for economic reasons. Consequently, for all engagements, including radio and television shows, he relied on ad-hoc arrangements with session men. He had such a large pool to draw from that the sessions looked like 'United Nations' kinds of groups, assemblies of musicians from various backgrounds and settings who had not rehearsed enough to be able to blend together. But he had the organising ability of a good bandleaders, and the musical talent for grooming musicians on the spur of the movement, at short notice, to play whatever he wanted.
Most of his colleagues sounded boring with the same repetition of their old songs in live performances, but Eddy Okonta's evergreens were often revitalised because he introduced new elements and perspectives to a song each time he played it.
Eddy's trumpet was one of the strongest on the scene as strong as Chief Bill Friday's or Zeal Oniyia's. As a trumpeter, he played around with the top most notes most of the time, moving in and out with ease in the manner of Louis Satchmo Armstrong ad Harry James.
Another attribute which set him apart was the propelling force of his rhythmic concept which made dancing irresistible; and it is no wonder at all that he stole the show in 1983 at a highlife might organised by the late impress and, Steve Rhodes at the Glover Memorial Hall were several other band performers.
Eddy Okonta has a lot of singles to his credit, but has recorded two albums, with the very first being one of the biggest hits in West Africa even though it failed to make the desired impact in terms of sales because of poor marketing and promotion.
Titled, Victory, Fire back To Town, the album was recorded in 1978, at a time highlife was already unpopular, with promotion, it would have surpassed the Ramblers Hit Sound which had Eddie Floyds knock on wood watered down to highlife.
Influenced by the prevailing tradition of that period, the songs, three of them, have taken on long duration, an attract which helped to shore up highlife to the level of juju music in terms of popular appeal, danceability and as a social music type.
Eddy Okonta had always had the knack for big band highlife, and on this recording session, he paraded a 17-piece band where he sang and played the trumpet.
The most attractive material, and the one which continues to recommend the album is Bisi, a girl's name, based on a melody that has been in existence for years, and has been popular with highlife since its palm-wine oriented days. It is the second track on the second side, preceded by the one he calls life, a monologue that ruminates on the elusive possibilities of man's existence. The first side is one whole groove titled Janeth 78 Nkwuto.
Recorded on Ekimogun label, the entire session was arranged by Eddy Okonta who also played trumpet and acoustic guitar, saxophonist and highlife star Etim Udo, who was at the time a polygram recording engineer also made production inputs that boosted the quality of the sound and the overall cohesiveness of the ensemble.
However, based other success of this album, phodisk records signed Eddie Okonta on for a follow up in the 80s. Titled Obi of Trumpet, the album paraded a good choice of songs which were all marred by poor production, even though the studio was supposed to offer one of the best facilities around.
Notwithstanding, this recording did not in anyway detract from the fact that Eddie Okonta was truly the Obi of trumpet.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Playboy Jazz Festival announces lineup
Photo by Jack Plunkett, APThe Neville Brothers, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, the Wayne Shorter Quartet and Kenny G are among the performers slated to appear at the 31st Annual Playboy Jazz Festival, June 13-14 at the Hollywood Bowl.
In addition to the Neville Brothers and Sharon Jones, Saturday's lineup will feature a 50th anniversary salute to Miles Davis' class album "Kind of Blue" by Jimmy Cobb's So What Band. Also performing on the festival's first day with be Summer Storm featuring Norman Brown, Wayman Tisdale and Eric Darius, the Jon Faddis Quartet, the Jack Sheldon Orchestra, the Pete Escovedo Orchestra featuring Sheila E., Esperanza Spalding, Cos of Good Music, the New Birth Brass Band and the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts Jazz Ensemble.
Besides Shorter's quartet and Kenny G, the festival's second day will boast Patti Austin, King Sunny Ade, the Dave Holland Big Band, Monty Alexander's Jazz & Roots, Oscar Hernandez and the Conga Room All-Stars, the Anat Cohen Quartet, Alfredo Rodriguez and the North Hollywood High School Jazz Ensemble.
Besides Shorter's quartet and Kenny G, the festival's second day will boast Patti Austin, King Sunny Ade, the Dave Holland Big Band, Monty Alexander's Jazz & Roots, Oscar Hernandez and the Conga Room All-Stars, the Anat Cohen Quartet, Alfredo Rodriguez and the North Hollywood High School Jazz Ensemble.
As always, Bill Cosby will serve as master of ceremonies.
Tickets, $20-$145 per day, are available at Ticketmaster locations, at www.ticketmaster.com, by calling 714-740-2000 or by downloading a ticket form www.playboyjazzfestival.com.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Rewinding Back That Heavy Metal Invented By Deep Purple
Ever since bassist Roger Glover, vocalist Ian Gillan, organist Jon Lord, drummer Ian Paice, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore with managers Tony Edwards and John Coletta invented that heavy metal stuff from the “Machine Head” album following “Made in Japan,” heavy metal music has come a long way from its origin in the late sixties as was ushered in; and had made sex, drugs and alcohol an era that commenced how mission statements determined the way we do the stuff that we do in what eventually became popular culture.I was going through my music library (I do that quite often, not bored though) and discovered I haven’t listened to any Deep Purple cut in a while. I looked and asked myself, what happened to “Woman From Tokyo” and “Smoke On The Water?” Some brilliant guitar works by Ritchie Blackmore who had bragged he could wipe any floor with his guitar and a powerful lyrics of an arrogant Ian Gillan coupled with the organed magic of Jon Lord just to know how I got my humble self into all these mess and starting something I couldn’t finish ending up probably losing my hearing from attending heavy metal concerts.
Growing up among brothers who were music freaks, Deep Purple was a household name which meant every thirty-three and a half inch vinyl disc of Deep Purple’s heavy metal storytelling was in the house which was kind of crazy to adopt back in the day. But it happened anyway, and hey, what else can I say when it wasn’t my call as a kid? I couldn’t have called it, regardless. Could you imagine a black dude being embedded with some heavy metal stuff? Or what is it with these, Gosh, Igbos surviving a pogrom on Yakubu Gowon’s Genocidal campaign who thought they knew every stuff about rock and roll and how they invaded the pubs in Europe in the early seventies?
And, perhaps, a lunatic asking too many questions about what was going on between Gillan and Blackmore on why they couldn’t get along in the making of “Who Do We Think We Are” album conceived as a result of the band’s turmoil. No, actually the rift between Gillan and Blackmore erupted when Blackmore felt the guitar was the most important approach to a Deep Purple success.
Gillan and Blackmore had too much to offer when the process of brewing heavy metal took off. Gillan had some powerful chords. Blackmore was a wizard guitarist. Both were talented and Deep Purple had devastated Europe topping charts in every category. I was also losing my head upon hearing “Woman From Tokyo,” an album marketed by EMI Records, the Gramophone Company then based at 20 Manchester Square; and the news was spreading just fast in my hood when record shops blasted all that stuff from what Gillan and Blackmore had put together even though they were at loggerheads in jam sessions.
So what is heavy metal and how does it differ significantly from ordinary rock music? The answer is not far-fetched. Rock (soft) is very mellow and enduring, and you won’t be about to lose your head. It wouldn’t move you in knowing how the brain works. Rock is also a liberal thing (I’m not trying to be political here) compared to hardliners, I mean when you hit the stuff real hard to bring the best out of it and the outgoing president George Bush knows that very well. You can also ask the clowns at Aerosmith, UFO, Blue Oyster Cult, Motor Head, AC/DC, Van Halen, Saxon, Paul Stanley’s KISS, Boston and Judas Priest who thought he was the maddest of all heavy metalists.
It makes it very clear Deep Purple invented heavy metal because before the above-mentioned lists of “hardliners” there was Deep Purple and “Rat Bat Blue,” a scenario where worn-out pub-crawlers pick up loose chicks for the night which takes one aback to Suya Spot, Phoenicia, Club 22, Ritz Hotel, Gondola Night Club, Hotel Bobby’s Caban Bamboo, Suru Lere Night Club in-housed by flutist Tee Mac, Lloyd’s Night Club, Astor Night Club, the local Blue Horse off Kirikiri Road, Durbar Hotel Night Club and Pool Sessions and all that bad spots that had made the Chief Priest, Fela, look like a saint, never minding body and soul being one (ask Leon Isaac Kennedy).
However, Deep Purple, without much ado, and that instrumental “First Day Jam” when the making of “Who Do We Think We Are” began in the Summer of 1972 in a villa outside Rome invaded by a crowd of flirting Italian broads following a remarkable success of the “Machine Head” album, gets every credit for the genesis of heavy metal.
And I’m now feeling pleased listening to “Woman From Tokyo,” “Mary Long,” “Super Trooper,” “Smooth Dancer,” “Rat Bat Blue,” Place In Line,” “Our Lady,” “Painted Horse” and that moving instrumental “First Day Jam.”
And thinking about it, “who do I think I am?” I love music, that’s all!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Femi Kuti: Ist Album in 7 Yrs
FEMI KUTI Day By Day
(Mercer Street Records; November 18th, 2008)
First studio album in seven years by reigning King of Afrobeat
Not content to merely follow in his famous father, Fela Kuti's footsteps, Femi Kuti continues to expand his musical palette with his latest studio release, Day By Day, a hybrid of Afro-pop, jazz and urban influences. The album has been a long time coming: seven years since his last studio album Fight To Win and four years since the live Africa Shrine, on which he recorded early versions of three of the songs on this new album. On November 18, Day By Day will be released on American shores by leading independent label Downtown Records' newly launched imprint, Mercer Street. The label, Mercer Street, was created as a vibrant outlet for eclectic adult-oriented and world music artists.
Femi's sabbatical from recording surprisingly allowed him to learn a lot more about being a musician. Femi learned to play piano properly and returned to the trumpet, his first instrument, which he gave up in favor of the sax. The benefits are immediately apparent on Day By Day. Femi says, "Listen to 'They Will Run' and 'Better Ask Yourself,' they are more jazz than anything I've done before. That's the effect of playing the trumpet coming out."
As the album launches into opening track "Oyimbo," the benefits of recording with Positive Force, his 17-piece band, become immediately apparent. Femi might shun the 24-minute diatribes favored by his father - indeed "One Two" could be the shortest Afrobeat track ever – but in many other ways Day By Day is a return to the glory days of Nigeria's big bands, of wailing organs, frantic poly-rhythms and behemoth horn sections playing against each other. Yet now the palette is broader. "Do You Know" and "They Will Run" are undeniably Afro-jazz. "You Better Ask Yourself," and "Eh Oh" carry the air of lost messages from Marvin Gaye or Curtis Mayfield. And then there is the title track, infused with gospel, suffering and ghostly echoes of work songs.
As with all Femi Kuti releases, stay tuned for remixes of these new tracks from internationally renowned DJs. Femi is currently recording the music video with fellow Downtown Records artist, Brett Dennen, for his single titled, "Make You Crazy" due for release this fall. Check back on JamBase for January 2009 live U.S. dates.
Day By Day Track List:
1. Oyimbo
2. Eh Oh
3. Day By Day
4. Demo Crazy
5. Do You Know
6. You Better Ask Yourself
7. One Two
8. Tell Me
9. They Will Run
10. Tension Gripp Africa
12. Let's Make History
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Shannon's "Let The Music Play"
Another great 80s hit which drove the hippies nuts. I enjoyed it and the best generation, I think.
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