Sometimes the stars seem to align and you find your interests slotting right into the Zeitgeist. That's the time I find myself in right now and it's bloomin' great!
As an enthusiast for Nigerian music from the '60s and '70s and a collector of original Nigerian highlife records, the latest craze for everything Afrobeat, Fela Kuti and African has given me plenty to get my teeth stuck into. Whether it's the ever growing Felabration, the annual celebration in honour of Fela Kuti on the 7th of October, or the gigs happening across Europe by some of Nigeria's greatest musicians including Dele Sosimi, Tony Allen and Orlando Julius, not to mention the numerous club nights blasting some killer grooves from this musically rich part of the world, Nigerian, African and so-called "World Music" (what a horrible phrase) is booming in popularity.
Truly cementing Nigerian music as part of the current Zeitgeist was The Guardian and Boiler Room's joint series of videos and articles all about the scene. Nowadays there's seemingly always something or someone celebrating Nigerian music and it's been a bit of a treat for me personally. Something especially exciting has been the sheer amount of reissued CDs and vinyl albums of some of the best, and previously horribly rare, music from the country. I've already written a post about one such release, the Keni Okulolo reissue on Hot Casa Records, and another about the Freedom Sounds compilation on Soul Jazz Records.
Well, Soul Jazz just keep wanting to spoil me for some reason as they've done it again with Nigeria Soul Fever, described as a compilation of West African Disco Mayhem! As a fan of disco and funk in general, the combination of everything I love from West African music - the infectious percussion, chorus vocals, the sunny guitar playing - with classic funk and disco grooves is something pretty irresistible to me. My knowledge of Nigerian disco had been pretty much limited to William Onyeabor or the occasional funky Afrobeat or Soukous tune from the likes of Joe Mensah or Ebo Taylor.
Nigeria Soul Fever is a fantastic introduction to the vibrant and varied disco scene from the late 1970s/early 1980s in Nigeria. Spread across 3LP (or a 2xCD), the package is typically polished with liner notes and pictures giving a taste of the time and track lists giving details of each track.
Joni Haastrup is the star of the show with 4 tracks in the compilation, each one a perfect example of classic funk grooves with the addition of killer Nigerian horn arrangements, vocals and clunking percussion. They're all absolute bangers, from the dance-floor filler Do The Funkro, to the fuzzy guitar of Greetings and the sultry opener to the compilation, Free My People, that sounds like a funky disco banger that could easily have been a club hit in 1980s New York.
Many of the tracks strongly show their influences but my favourites keep that Nigerian quality. Angela Starr's track, Disco Dancing, is a great example. It's a chilled out boogie track and is clearly influenced by b-boy tracks such as (Hey You) The Rock Steady Crew by The Rock Steady Crew, which came out three years previously in 1983 in New York. It's got the b-boy effects and bass and the vocal delivery style but with some Nigerian style percussion in parts and Starr's honeyed vocals making it a tune to hum all night long.
Christy Essien's You Can't Change a Man is also heavily influenced by New York disco and has a fantastic bass line and a buzzing guitar riff throughout. Afrikana Disco by Akin Richards & The Executives probably has some of the best Nigerian flavour; with highlife type instrument arrangements, traditional instruments and that unmistakable percussion.
"Boogie boogie boogie down, Afro disco all around!"
One of the things I particularly like about this compilation from Soul Jazz is how it treats the artists as funk and disco musicians before Nigerian musicians. I find that with many compilations of African music in particular, but also other "world musics", the music on the compilation can often be only linked by the fact that it has come from Nigeria or Africa. Imagine creating a compilation of music from Britain, from Germany, from America, or, if we're honest, from any "white country". No such compilation could do justice to the diverse music scenes in these countries so why can we get away with vague compilations of music from Nigeria? I understand that these can act as an introduction to many to the music of a nation, but a little curation and direction in the content of a compilation, like we have here, makes those featured musicians into musicians to sit alongside James Brown or Nile Rogers rather than a simple foreign curio.
This compilation from Soul Jazz is a fascinating insight into the funk and soul scene emanating from Nigeria in the '70s and '80s and a true testament to the skill of these musicians is that these tunes are in demand and able to fill a dance-floor 30 years after they were made. Long live the Nigerian Zeitgeist!
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Compilation
Nigeria Soul Fever
Soul Jazz Records
Triple Vinyl LP or 2xCD out: NOW! at Sounds of the Universe
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