This is lovely.
Brand new, rambunctious, rootsy, spiritual brass-band music from Lagos, with singing, drums and home-made percussion.
Obadikah is a group of old friends who play together in the Cherubim & Seraphim and Baptist churches of the Ikeja and Isale Eko districts. A couple of them were founder-members of the Eko Brass Band; they’ve played with pretty much all the key Nigerian reggae artists.
The tunes are mostly traditional Yoruban melodies, often sung at bed-time. The songs are mostly original, sung in Yoruba (though Jomido is an Egun song from the Badagry area of Lagos state).
Better sound than the first volume, and presented in the fine style of this label, with a 44-page booklet full of great photos, low-down and interviews.
The first album, straight no chaser, from 1973 — superlative Beninese Afrobeat.
A staggering third helping of raw Benin funk. Check YouTube for a totally knockout film of the band performing the second track, Houzou Houzou Wa.
Two albums repackaged — Super Afro Soul and Orlando’s Afro Ideas 1969-72. Sublime Nigerian soul, jazz and funk grooves.
Addo-Nettey was a conga player and singer for Fela’s Africa 70 when he cut this heavy afro-funk album in 1973, with the Martin Brothers Band from Portharcort, for the Tabansi label.
The full Analog Africa treatment at last for the star of their Legends of Benin compilation, back in 2009. A thrilling, utterly unique blend of Agbadja, Cuban fon, jerk, highlife, and other African rhythms, sung in Fon, Mina, Yoruba, French, English, and Spanish,
Warmly recommended.
The royal music of the Ganda, Nyoro and Ankole peoples, lost when the palaces were burned down in 1966, and many of the musicians killed, and their instruments (some of them over four hundred years old) destroyed.
Aka SJOB Movement, spun out of Sonny Okosuns’ set-up: Samuel ‘Spark’ Abiloye, Johnnie Woode Olimah, Ehima ‘Blackie’ Ottah and Prince Bolarinwa Agba.
Militant funk, deep and rootsy.