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, Afro-funk, 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 Badagry 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 Spread the Word
After each show, we have an after party gig at the Freedom Park bar area. Your DJ for the night will be Raymond Bola Browne aka DJraybeeBrowne of Igroove Radio. Join us at the Freedom Park bar for past, present and future dance music all in the mix. If you love Afropolitan Vibes, spread the word – @afropolitanvibe facebook.com/Afropolitanvibes and invite your friends and family next time.
Next Afropolitan Vibes show will be on December 19th 2014. See you then! Afropolitan Vibes Magazine credits: Editor: Abby Ogunsanya
Graphic Design: Graeme Arendse
Contact and advertising enquiries:
Guest artists Interviews: Rayo Adebola
Cover art illustration: Graeme Arendse
afropolitanvibes@gmail.com
Printing: John Bola
Guest artists’ pictures: Courtesy of subjects
Tel: + 234-816740-1016
Show pictures: Aderemi Adegbite except overhead crowd shot by TOJ
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Editor’s Notes
We had a wonderful first outing on the Main Stage of Freedom Park on October 17th 2014 following our move from the Amphitheatre. It was very gratifying for all the team to see how much Afropolitan Vibes has grown in popularity since inception in March 2013. The ever-growing crowd at each show is testament to the fact that there is a demand for quality live music and we are proud to be at the forefront of the movement to revive live music culture in Nigeria, as we continue to look for permanent sponsors who will walk the journey with us. November 2014 is a significant month for Afropolitan Vibes Magazine because it marks the 1-year anniversary of our partnership with Graeme Arendse who does all of the incredible graphic design work for our flyers and magazines. Interestingly, being resident abroad, Graeme has never been to an Afropolitan Vibes concert. This month, to celebrate this milestone, we asked Graeme to design the front cover of our November issue of Afropolitan Vibes Magazine with an illustration based on his impression from all of the photographs, videos and the social media comments that he sees from the show. We trust that you will have fun at the show and that you will continue to spread the word about Afropolitan Vibes to everyone.
In this issue
Rayo Adebola interviews two of our guest artistes for this month: Wunmi and iMike. We reproduce the interview (edited) with Jimi Solanke, our third guest artist, by Sam Umukoro in June 2013 for his web interview site samumukoro.com. We finally got the entire band together for a photo-shoot! We print one of our favourite pictures from the shoot so that you become familiar with each individual member of the incredible collective that is BANTU. We feature some of our favourite pictures from 19th edition of Afropolitan Vibes, which was held on October 17th, 2014.
Contact us
You can email us with your thoughts at afropolitanvibes@gmail.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 +234-816740-1016.
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In this exclusive interview with Sam Umukoro, Uncle Jimi, who started his singing from the church choir and married the daughter of a reverend, shares some captivating stories of his childhood, as well as his life and times in the arts. SUI: Back in your days, people in the arts – music, dance, fine arts, drama, amongst others, were not so popular. How have you been able to manage being a stage actor, musician, and an academician (at some point)? JIMI SOLANKE: Let me confess, I ran away because my acceptance at home was very low then. I had the opportunity of going to the first school of drama, the University of Ibadan, where I got into the academy section of the arts. I became an actor, a set builder, a dancer, and choreographer, and had been with the university from 1963 till date. My consistency made people to take me seriously. But then some said that my kind of job was not worth it and even went to the point of persuading my uncle, Chief M.S Sowole, then Commissioner for the Western Region, to give me a job. I took the job but still went to places where I sang all through the night and came back early in the morning. By then, I was not able to even climb a ladder to change a bulb or touch a pipe in the ceiling. I had to run away from that job because if I dozed off on any of those ladders, I could have injured myself and that would have been the end of it. I enjoyed acting in the university and still do, but singing is my first love. That’s why I stepped back from acting nowadays. I prefer singing than acting. I am first a musician. SUI: What instruments do you play? JIMI SOLANKE: I play the guitar and at least to accompany me when SUI: How many albums have you done?
keyboard, I sing.
JIMI SOLANKE: I have done about 18. I’m currently working on another two. SUI: There was an album you did some time ago with an American artist? JIMI SOLANKE: Yes, that was ‘The Path’ by late Ralph MacDonald, the Jamaican-American percussionist. A lot of American performers came to Nigeria during FESTAC, like Stevie Wonder and I touched shoulders the night he performed at the National Theatre. After on of my performances, somebody next to him said, ‘Oh that’s Jimi Solanke o’ and so he gave me his card. When the Festival was over, I decided look at it. The message read, “you need a trip out of the country, a holiday per say.’ So I took a trip afterwards; first to London, then Trinidad and Tobago, and then America towards the end of November. I had already stayed for some few days when someone called me, saying
that they had discussed with a lot of people, but wanted me to do a voice-over in Yoruba… So I borrowed my friend’s jacket and went to the studio… and they were all there; Grover Washington, Hugh Masekela, late Miriam Makeba… name them, top names, top brands artists. So they said they wanted to translate this English poem into Yoruba and then do a chant. Would you believe that was the first rap in the whole world? (Laughing) SUI: So you did the first rap in the whole world? JIMI SOLANKE: Yes, that was the first rap (Starts singing the poem in Yoruba)… Ona la, aiye lu jara… SUI: Where were you born? JIMI SOLANKE: I was born in Lagos, Lagos Island precisely. I schooled at Olowogbowo Methodist School. Now, I live in Ile-Ife and I’m happy about it. My parents had built a house in Olorunsogo, in Mushin. But, when I went to Ibadan for a job they got me at Cactus Press, I turned into a singer, singing for different kinds of bands. I never came back to say hello to them, because they never wanted me around in the first place. SUI: What was it like growing up in Lagos Island at that time? JIMI SOLANKE: It was fantastic! We could play football on the road because there were few cars then. We could play with the water in the gutter, build small boats from match boxes and race them in gutters, because thin wooden cardboards were used to make match boxes in those days. A lot of good things happened. We had fewer students in the classrooms. I started singing from church choir, at Holy Trinity Church, on the mainland. That foundation has been sustaining me. SUI: Your children seem to have followed your footsteps. Do you think this was as a result of your influence, one way or the other, or that you let them choose their career paths? JIMI SOLANKE: I left them to be free. How can I now be the chairman and decider of another person’s fate? Although they are your children, you cannot decide their fate; you can only guide them. SUI: Obviously, the arts made you famous. Has it also made you rich? JIMI SOLANKE: Yes, I’m fine. You see, I don’t want to be like the people I (had) talked about, (but) I’m wearing a Movado and they don’t buy it for three pennies. I have my own house and I’m comfortable. My children are very happy. 5
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Twitter: @akawunmigirl // Facebookwww.facebook.com/WunmiakasWunmigirl www.wunmi.com
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Chatting with Wunmi is like chatting with a friend/teacher and for almost an hour we talked about all kinds of things. From time to time she would get passionate about a subject and her voice would be very animated – it was impossible to not get drawn into her person and passion. When Destiny Calls Wunmi, aka WunmiGirl, entered into the music scene in New York as a dancer. “Music is something that was always there. I started dancing with Soul II Soul. I’ve never stopped dancing.” When I ask her what genre she’d classify her music under, she laughs and says, “I do Wunmi. People like to put it in a box but I do a fusion, Afrofusion. I have a strong underground following – that’s where I started my career as a bandleader, singer/songwriter. They appreciate the fusion of what I do.” According to her, when people first approached her to do music, she said no, she doesn’t do music. “All I saw was dollar signs in their eyes. You go to a situation where people want to make money off you, you don’t have a say. “Music was like the lover I didn’t want, and then one day I stopped screaming at it and I asked what do you want? I had to go and face the music,” she says, laughing. “I laugh because I knew what my fear was. All around me, everybody sang their RnB and with their American twang but I was always this African girl. It didn’t matter what sound you gave me, I was always this African girl. With dance, I never had an issue. I didn’t care what nobody thought. When the music came on, I was no longer there. With music, it was different. Music pursued me and I didn’t know if I wanted to reveal what I knew. When something is yours and destiny calls you, at one point you have to face that or forever live in the darkness of your own fear.” She adds that there were people who nurtured her, like Roy Ayers, the great jazz musician. “He came to Nigeria in the 70s and worked with Fela. When he met me, he took me under his wings and said, ‘I know you’.” Wunmi has toured the world, performed even in neighbouring Ghana, but this is her first public performance in Nigeria, despite her constant visits to Nigeria. “I have a good following there,” she says of Ghana, and when I ask her why she decided to come to Nigeria now, she adds, “Everything works out when the time is right. I have a single that recently came out, and my album is due next year and everyone has just been on my case. The time is right.” Slapping Someone Softly “Dancing is my first love and I know what it is to be able to express myself in dance – it’s nothing; when I say it’s nothing I mean it’s a place where I find my own peace. We say
we go to church when we’re dancing. Putting music there, putting vocals behind it, when people come to watch your show they feel free enough to dance with you, and the fact that your lyrics political or socially conscious, it makes it easier to swallow it.” I ask Wunmi how early on she decided to always pass a message with her songs. “To be truthful about it, I would not still be doing the kind of music I do if I didn’t have a message. My passion is what drives me. For me to put a pen to paper to write lyrics, it goes to that place of expression and I’m so blessed that I have this opportunity to share it with people. There’s no other way. The frustration of seeing what’s going on around every day, to sit down and write something about it is a form of relief. One of the things I love doing with my dad is sit down and have Sunday talk about politics. Everything always connects to greed, one man’s need to take it all, so I wrote greedy body.” “Music is a blessing, to be able to give it... it’s like a gift people use to get through times, good and bad. When I get on stage I know they’ll see me coming, they’ll see me dancing, along the way the words will seep in. It’s like slapping someone softly. That’s what I love about Fela – you can’t help but dance to his music yet he’s speaking things. Think about when he wrote those songs and look at where we are. That’s a major indictment.” This multi-talented woman who is also a fashion designer, tells me about her constant trips to Nigeria to find the traditional adire batik which is the only fabric she works with. She makes no bones about how close she is to her Nigerian roots. “I speak Yoruba o, mo gbo Yoruba. My songs, some of the hooks are in Yoruba. Even when I write, I hear the music in Yoruba, which is quite funny coz I had to relearn Yoruba. I’d call my cousin to ask: does this sound right?” She moves on to another subject that she is passionate about, womanhood: “On the new album due out next year, I have a song that’s about women inspiring each other. Because whenever I sit back and look back, I see that my life is by the support of other women. We do so much on this earth and the fact that we don’t share that information is what is doing us so much harm.” It’s very easy and exciting to talk to Wunmi, but it’s hard to reduce the experience into less than a thousand-word piece. She is several shades of amazing, a well-rounded artiste and a passionate person.
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BANTU 1. Damilola Williams (Vocals) 2. Isaiah Odeyale(Trombone) 3. Dotun Bankole (Saxophone) 4. Opeyemi Oyewande (Trumpet) 5. Abiodun Oke Wurasamba (percussions) 6. Akinkunmi Olagunju (Talking Drums) 7. Ayomiku Aigbokhan (Vocals) 8. Olufemi Sanni (Guitar) 9. Peter Sadibo (Bass Guitar) 10. Babajide Okegbenro (Keyboards) 11. Ireoluwa Ayodele (Vocals) 12. Ade Bantu (Vocals) 13. Dare David Odede (Drum)
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Twitter: @MikeAnyasodo // Facebook: www.facebook.com/mike.anyasodo.9
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iMike won the Project Fame 2009 edition but his foray into music began way back in 1996 when he used to rap and produce music.
“Back then, my aunt’s boyfriend had this DJ store and I used to go there to record karaoke just like that. Then I started producing and I used to sing at concerts,” he says. “E be like spirit wey dey possess pesin. Music is like that.” Before Project Fame, iMike worked as more of a producer than as a singer but even then it wasn’t an easy life for him, yet he chose to stick by his chosen path. He talks about a period marked by sleeping in the studio, and mornings spent sweeping the studio then days spent honing his skills as a producer. “I think I got better than my boss and then people started coming to me more than they went to him, so he kicked me out of the studio. Immediately I left, I went to another studio, started producing again, then one man came there and asked me to come to his studio and that’s where I met Harry Song.” According to him, his career had highs and lows at that point and then, along came Project Fame. Project Fame and the Price of Fame On why he decided to enter into the contest, he says, “I love music, I believe I know music and I just decided to give it a shot. I’m a die-hard person, I don’t just give up.” Despite winning one of Nigeria’s biggest music competitions, iMike says life after Project Fame hasn’t been easy and sometimes he feels like he’s living another person’s live. “I have to be two people. When I’m in public, I have to pretend, but when I’m in the house I try to be myself. Even if someone from outside comes to the house, I have to pretend again.” I ask him what form the pretence takes, and he breaks into pidgin English, “As I dey now, I like to speak pidgin, I love pidgin die. I just dey speak am dey go, I dey free well. See me now, you’re
interviewing me and I’m trying to polish my diction make you dey alright small. Or maybe you want to sit at a bar, have a drink, you can’t do all that anymore.” Inspiration and the Nigerian Industry iMike, who describes himself as an ambivert, says that all of life inspires him, adding that he needs a measure of serenity to create music. “I like it to be quiet, I like to be alone, and sit in a bit of darkness.” As far as he’s come, iMike hasn’t forgotten where he started from – he still produces music, even his own songs. He adds that some of the old musicians who inspired him in his hey days are Christie Essien Igbokwe, Onyeka Onwenu, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Ras Kimono, and Victor Uwaifo. Working in the Nigerian music industry presents its own unique challenges but not all artists see things that way. iMike does, revealing his thoughts about the industry without fear. “I think the Nigerian music is growing rapidly but I’m sorry to say, the music is no longer music. Everybody is hustling right now. You see some people dey do other business, dem wan use music cover am. Like I said before, music be like water, it accommodates anything.” I ask him what he thinks is the reason for that, and he says, “We don’t really have enough sponsors. Some people want to venture into the music business but they are scared because they don’t understand it. People are not educated enough about the industry to venture into it. And for those that really understand it out there, it’s kinda hard.” But he doesn’t believe that things will be like that forever, in fact he is convinced that time will change all that.
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