What is Afropolitan Vibes?
Afropolitan Vibes is a monthly live music concert which exists as a platform for alternative music: a place where music lovers congregate to watch contemporary singer-songwriters and musicians perform mostly original works that are firmly rooted in African musical origins of Afro-beat, Afrofunk, Afro-hip-hop, Afro-pop and Highlife music. A host of talented artists gather each month to rehearse and then perform with Bantucrew on stage at Freedom Park’s Main Stage. The show is held every third Friday of each month. Show starts promptly from 8.00pm-10.30/11.00pm. Afropolitan Vibes is co-produced by Ade Bantu and Abby Ogunsanya.
Bantu
Bantu aka Brotherhood Alliance Navigating Towards Unity is a 12-piece Afro-funk-Afro-hip-hop-Afro-beat musical collective founded by NigerianGerman brothers Adé Bantu and Abiodun. The band features multiinstrumentalists and singers who perform as a collective.
Palm Wine Tradition
Palm wine is now available at all our shows. As our palm wine is always freshly tapped in Sagamu in the early hours of the morning of each show, this luscious white liquid is guaranteed to be sweet and only mildly intoxicating as it is yet unfermented. Our palm wine is served the traditional way: the wine is available to buy per gourd (to share with friends/family) or in individual calabashes. Alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks are also available for purchase at the Freedom Park bar area where we encourage you all to come join us after the show for a drink, chat and photographs.
Official After Party
After each show, we have an after party gig at the Freedom Park bar area. We have different special guest DJs who make an appearance alongside Raymond Bola Browne aka DJraybeeBrowne of Igroove Radio who is our resident DJ. This month’s special guest DJ will be DJ Lambo. Join us at the Freedom Park bar immediately after the show to party and hangout with friends.
Spread the Word
If you love Afropolitan Vibes, spread the word – tweet about us - @afropolitanvibe join our facebook page - facebook.com/Afropolitanvibes subscribe tour digital magazine - issuu.com/afropolitanvibes and invite your friends and family next time.
NEXT AFROPOLITAN VIBES SHOW WILL BE ON NOVEMBER 20TH, 2015 SEE YOU THEN! Afropolitan Vibes Magazine credits: Editor: Abby Ogunsanya
Guest artists’ photographs: Courtesy of subjects
Contact and advertising enquiries:
Guest artists profiles: Dami Ajayi Oris Aigbokhaevbolo
Show photographs Aderemi Adegbite
info@afropolitanvibes.com
Printing: John Bola
Tel: + 234-803-4937094
Graphic design and layout: Graeme Arendse
Issue 24 // October 2015
Editor’s Notes
When Ade and I started Afropolitan Vibes, we knew we were building something of significance and we were in it for the long haul. Still, it feels incredible that we are now 30 shows in! We have worked with so many incredible artists along the way and we both have a wish list of artists that we will still want to perform with the band at Freedom Park. None of it has been without its challenges; we are still producing the show without a major sponsor, but we will keep on keeping on because we believe in what we are doing and know that in time, sponsors will wake up from their slumber and see the light. This edition of the show is not just a milestone by being our 30th. There is the additional case for celebration because it is also the week of FELABRATION - the week-long series of musical events and symposiums to celebrate the life and music of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Be sure to check out www.felabration.net for the schedule of the weekend’s events. The October cover of Afropolitan Vibes Magazine celebrates both Fela and his friend Thomas Sankara, another great revolutionary who dedicated his life to striving for a greater Africa. The 13-piece Bantu collective will perform songs dedicated to both men during our October show. Enjoy the show!
In this issue
We profile our four guest artists: Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, Yinka Davies, Burna Boy and Adekunle Gold.
Contact us
You can email us with your thoughts at info@afropolitanvibes.com. We also read all comments and respond to questions on Facebook, and Twitter. We have a limited number of back issues of Afropolitan Vibes magazine. If you would like a copy, please contact us via email or on +234-803-4937094.
We feature some of our favourite pictures from the 29th edition of Afropolitan Vibes, which was held on September 18th 2015.
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Afropolitan Vibes
Burna Boy Phenomenon in Progress
Twitter: @burnaboy Instagram: @burnaboygram Dami Ajayi
B
urna Boy, real name Damini Ogulu,
has been burning airwaves with his hugely authentic sound since the release of his breakthrough single, “Like to Party”. His success story is that of precocity and early grooming. The 24 year old is the grandson of Benson Idonije, arguably Nigerian biggest music journalist and former manager of Fela and his Koola Lobitos band. Besides having a music background in the family, Burna Boy’s personal talent is prodigious and unrivalled. In contemporary Nigeria, sound engineering is at the behest of music producers also known as beat makers. The artiste has been reduced to a mere voice over the beat but Burna Boy—with one LP, two EPs and a handful of singles in preparedness for his sophomore studio album— has already patented a signature sound. His is a fusion of Fela’s original Afrobeat, Hip-Hop ethos with a hint of Dancehall Reggae tendencies; little wonder he names the Abami Eda and Sizzla Kalonji as some of his music idols. And like all individual talents who pay obeisance to tradition, his inventory of influences span across music genres from classical music to Bob Marley’s Roots Reggae to King Sunny Ade’s Juju. Add Jazz, which he probably cut his teeth on, listening to his Grandpa’s records. Burna Boy was born in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State Oil City that produced greats like the trumpeter and bandleader of the Rivers Men, Rex Lawson. His formative years comprised of
summer holidays abroad, language immersion in faraway camps and culminated in completing his High School in the United Kingdom. In his school days in Nigeria, he and his music group Def Code performed at the 50th Anniversary of Corona School at the National stadium. This foretold his future stardom but before venturing headlong into music full time, he interned briefly at the popular seaside radio station, Rhythm FM. After signing his first record label with Aristokrat in 2010, it took two years before his music began to gain traction on the Nigerian music treadmill. Following the release of “Like to Party” and an
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accompanying delectable video, Burna Boy dropped hot singles at frequent intervals. He shared the Headies Award Rookie of the Year with cross-over Fuji artiste, Dammy Krane that same year. His album, L.I.F.E—acronym for Leaving an Impact For Eternity—was released the following year with songs like “Run My Race”, “Yawa dey” and “Tonight” dotting the fifteen track album. His success was attributed to his ability to fuse seamlessly divergent sounds offering a breath of fresh air and a break from the monotony that was rife in the industry. The album was nominated for two Headies—Best Pop/R&B album and Album of the Year—in 2014.
This is 2015 and the Boy is not backing down! He has since started growing locs like his Rastafarian idol Sizzla while still pumping out definitive and delicious singles from his forthcoming album. “Soke”, one of his newer singles, channels two Fela tracks, “Lady” and “Army Arrangement” simultaneously and judiciously. To all intent and purposes, Burna Boy is a phenomenon in progress and his music is here to stay. Offer him your listening ears, kindly.
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Afropolitan Vibes
Adekunle Gold
Love, Matrimony and Photoshop
Oris Aigbokhaevbolo
Was there ever a career like Adekunle Gold’s? Starting up in the public eye as a graphic designer, he is now the poster boy for the alternative music scene. ‘I was tired of not being heard,’ he told an interviewer in the beginning. Well, he has got his wish. Now we are listening.
B
orn Adekunle Kosoko to the famous Lagos family, Adekunle was raised by a music loving father. King Sunny Ade, Ebenezer Obey and others serenaded his childhood and like many future singers, he would join the church choir. But a child’s choir wish is different from an adult’s music ambition. As it goes for most families, the first is indulged; the latter is discouraged—and so it was for the Kosokos. The young Adekunle eventually made his way to the polytechnic where he obtained a degree in graphics. In hindsight, studying that course, with its combination of technique and creativity, must feel inspired. But it won’t do. The young man reached for a further collaboration, combining celebrity with graphics. On social media, he posted photos where he photoshopped his image alongside stars. Here he is hugging a female celebrity, there he is shocked by another. It was playful; yet it expressed a young person’s need for the validation that celebrity brings. Adekunle had found an outlet. Yet again, it won’t do. In 2010, he released a few songs as member of a duo called The Bridge. And then went solo, releasing ‘Let it Stop’, a plea for peace, in 2013. It is unclear when exactly the incident that changed Adekunle’s life happened. Only three things can now be said about the incident. The first is that it was connected to a girl. We can also tell
that it must have been painful. The third is that the incident gave the man something to sing about. ‘They say that all poets must have an unrequited love,’ sang Terence Trent D’Arby on Holding on to You. Following this time-honoured logic, all Adekunle needed at this stage was a soundtrack, something to record heartbreak over. (The girl who spurned his advances was called Sade, meaning the incident came with its own soul music antecedent.) The song Story of My Life by UK boy band One Direction became the soundtrack Adekunle sought. Nigeria’s pop scene is surfeit with artists who come in with a sample, something familiar for the audience to hold onto. Each time the trick is to leave enough of a personal mark on the recording. In the early days, Nigerian artistes offered a comical riff a la Maintain. Later, it was inspirational as seen with Banky W’s Ebute Meta version of Rihanna’s Umbrella. Adekunle Gold took a different route, putting a personal spin on a sound that wasn’t his originally. Unlike the others it took a while for listeners familiar with Story to make the connection. With one single employing a sample, he had announced his entry and, via a sleight-of-song, proclaimed his originality. He is possibly the only Nigerian act whose barefaced sampling has not drawn (social media) criticism. Sade (the real or fictional one) may have declined his marriage proposal but he’ll be fine.
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Twitter: @AdekunleGOLD www.adekunlegold.com
With the success of ‘Sade’—perhaps aware of the antecedents he named the song after the girl—he had transferred what made him a hit on social media to the studio. Think of ‘Sade’ as the aural photoshopping of his voice unto a song by a celebrated band. But what about the girl? No one knows. Speaking about her in an interview, Adekunle said, ‘We still speak up till this moment but I’ve actually moved on with life.’ It is the classic artist’s revenge: hand a love interest immortality and pile on the anonymity. ‘Sade’ then drew the attentions of Olamide. The rapper and his crew loved the song. They also had business with Adekunle who did some graphics work for the rapper’s YBNL label. He was signed to the label; and the song given new life via a rerecording and a tasteful music video. In July 2015, a second single, Orente, followed ‘Sade’. As with the earlier single, Orente is sung in Yoruba and English and directed a girl—an agreeable one this time. Again, a tasteful video has accompanied the song, clarifying Adekunle Gold as the crooning lover who wants to love his women, not just love them up. Who, after all, enters a pop scene chockfull of lust expressing a desire for matrimony? Before Adekunle GOLD that question may have been rhetorical. Not anymore.
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Afropolitan Vibes
Gyedu-Blay Ambolley The Originator
Twitter: @gyedublay
www.ambolley.com
Oris Aigbokhaevbolo
O
rigin stories can be confounding. They are almost always fertile ground for disputes and disagreements. This is why the first sentence of Gyedu-Blay Ambolley’s twitter bio can be construed S controversial. It reads: ‘Originator of rap (first commercial rap album release in 1973).’ Beyond the unwritten law that says pop stars must have stadium-sized egos, the Ghanaian maestro has a point. Put another way: there is a reason he has included the year 1973 in that bio. (In the popular imagination the US may claim the form but there is yet to be discovered a recording of US rap predating 1973.) It is just as important to note that the bio makes no distinction between Africa and the rest of the world. ‘Originator of rap’ is about as declarative as an artist can get. And from the start Ambolley saw no real boundaries. The song ‘Simigwa-Do’ which has cemented his claim as originator has father of funk James Brown influences. And Ambolley credits Brown as one of the American musicians to have stoked Ghana’s own affirmation of nationhood and personhood. It wasn’t long before he moved to the US himself, performing with a variety of musicians and bands. He was band leader for a number of bands including Apagya Show Band, Super Complex Sounds, Zantoda Mark III, The Steneboofs, and Gyedu-Blay Ambolley and His Afrikan Hi-Life Band. Ambolley worked in a number of genres and alongside his status as originator of rap, he is an important figure in highlife. As hip hop and highlife were blended and made into hiplife, it is plausible to say Ambolley is also a figure in the Ghana’s most successful contemporary genre. Born in Sekondi-Takoradi in Ghana’s western region, Ambolley joined his first band in 1964. It was named the Tricky Johnson Sextet after its bandleader, who had played guitar for highlife great ET Mensah. Tricky Johnson employed Ambolley after the latter sang Ray Charles’s ‘What’d I Say’. At the time the young Ambolley
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was listening to Charles, James Brown and Sam Cooke. The sound from the US had penetrated his consciousness. Those influences are perceptible on his first recordings. Brown, however, remained Ambolley’s main influence. And that influence, according to Ambolley, went beyond the personal. ‘James Brown changed the face of music in Ghana,’ he said at a lecture a few years ago. ‘Before James Brown we had strictly highlife bands playing. But when James Brown came in everybody was crazy for that style of music. Other bands started springing up. Now, most of the bands that sprung up from that time forgot about the highlife music because of the influence coming from the western side with James Brown, Wilson Pickett and all of them.’ After his time with the Tricky Johnson Setxtet, Ambolley came to Nigeria with the Uhuru Band, which was the president’s travel band. He was bass player for the band and had an opportunity to record. The result ‘Simigwa-Do’ was perhaps the very first time rap was recorded commercially. As his twitter bio makes clear, it is a fact that the musician takes seriously. Ambolley’s connection with Nigeria runs deeper still, connecting with Fela, whom he credits as a ‘great influence’. He formed a band the Apagya Show Band with Fela’s classmate Ebo Taylor. Together they experimented with sounds, trying to rival the popularity of the western sound sweeping Ghana at the time. Ambolley later played in the shrine. As highlife began its western Africa sweep, Fela and his Koola Lobitos band travelled to Ghana, where an incident with a hotel cook caused the afrobeat man to switch from the saxophone to the trumpet. Having led a long, rich life, Ambolley is witness to several events in the West African music scene. That rich life has also provided Ambolley with plenteous material. So far he has recorded 27 albums. When he performs Ambolley delivers more than music. He offers experience. Here is an artist for whom the description musician may be understating the facts. You may, however, call him the originator. That should bring a smile to his face.
Afropolitan Vibes
Issue 24 // October 2015
Yinka Davies D is for Diva
Y
inka Davies is arguably one of Nigeria’s finest female vocalists. With a big and sonorous voice that gives energetic performances and an effervescent presence, she is gifted as well as very genial in person. Born in 1970 at Ebute-Metta, Lagos, her music career began with observing her late father, an aeronautic engineer with the `Nigerian Air-Force, who was also a lyricist and composer. Her father’s recognition of her love for music and the arts in general, lulled her into receiving training in this field of endeavor. She began her career in the arts as a thespian, trained in choreography but, as fate will have it, music came calling when she joined the Sam Uquah managed Caution Band in the late 80s. This band also had later heavyweights musicians like Sam Ukposo and Alex O. Soon enough, her energy transported to the Colours Band to be the female vocalist with
Twitter: Iamyinkadavies Facebook: facebook.com/Yinka-davies Dami Ajayi
Bisade Ologunde, popularly known as Lagbaja. In that same year, 1992, she was recognized with Best Upcoming Act award from FAME Music, in recognition of her powerful voice, current exploits and future possibilities of her genuinely authentic sound. Unfortunately, she was set back after she sustained a compound limb fracture that needed surgery but Ms Davies, being the phoenix, immediately crept back up into the stage mining her own material as well as collaborating with notable acts like the late Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, Sir Shina Peters, Mike Okri, King Sunny Ade, Evangelist Telemi and Vitus Eze. Her music has been described as Afrobeat as well as Jazz; she also acquiesces to the hybrid, Afro-Jazz as valid description of her soul-styled powerful music that borrows a lot from American Jazz whilst staying loyal to the African roots by way of indigenous musical instruments, the use of Yoruba language as well as appraising culturally relevant themes. With two critically acclaimed studio albums— Emi n’lo (2002) and Black Chiffon (2010)— under her belt, she has spread the gift of her music globally at music festivals all over Africa and Europe. She plays regularly with her 5&6 bandsa nd also gives back to the society by being the only female judge on Nigerian Idol. Things are also rosy on home front; the 45-year-old vocalist is blessed with two adult sons.
SEPTEMBER 2015 Edition
Afropolitan Vibes
Issue 24 // October 2015
FELA ANIKULAPO KUTI (1938 - 1997) A BRIEF DISCOGRAPHY