Friday

Friday

Highlife Obscurities

Note: This post was updated and corrected on January 4, 2009.

Back in the early '90s I got it into my head that I would like to become a record mogul and release my own series of African discs. So on the occasion of my second visit to Nigeria in December of 1995 it seemed like a good idea to visit some record companies there to propose licensing some music to release in the U.S.

In Lagos I met with A.J. Ejuichie of Premier Music (successor to Polygram Nigeria) and Femi Dairo of Ivory Music (successor to EMI Nigeria). They are pictured below, left and right. Executives at Leader Records and Ibukun Orisun Iye were out of town, although I purchased a lot of great music at their retail stores. Ditto for Rogers All Stars in Onitsha.



Truth be told, I have no business sense so the record company idea was basically a pipe dream. I suspect Mr. Dairo & Mr. Ejuichie realized I had no idea what I was doing although they were exceedingly friendly and gracious. Mr. Ejuichie informed me that the rights to the entire Polygram Nigeria catalog had been licensed to a company called Mossiac Music in New York City.

Mossiac issued upwards of 30 CDs in the late '90s; not only classic highlife from the old Polygram catalog but recordings by the Oriental Brothers, Igbo traditional music, even a four-CD Best of Osadebe set! Unfortunately Mossiac went under without a trace. It seems to have had zero distribution outside of the Nigerian community, not even through Sterns! I suspect that whoever was behind the mysterious "Mossiac Music" lost serious coin. Well, better him than me!

I myself have been able to obtain only a few Mossiac releases. One of these is Rusted Highlife Vol. 1 (Mossiac Music MMCD 1812), which boldly departs from the usual fare of recent highlife reissues to showcase some obscure but wonderful tracks from the late '60s and early '70s, when the old danceband paradigm was yielding to the harder, stripped-down guitar highlife style.

I haven't had time to sit down with Priscilla and do translations of the song lyrics. I'll try to do so and update this post later.

The Professional Seagulls Dance Band of Port Harcourt, led by David Bull, were formerly the Rivers Men, the backup band of highlife superstar Rex Lawson. Following his death in 1971, they struck out on their own, and scored a number of major hits, including "Afro Baby" and "Atabala Woman." An earlier posting, following the incorrect liner notes of Rusted Highlife Vol. 1, credited these tracks to Emmanuel Vita & the Eastern Stars Dance Band. The liner notes also transpose the song titles:

Professional Seagulls Dance Band - Afro Baby (Baby Wayo)

Professional Seagulls Dance Band - Atabala Woman

The late Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe was the last great exemplar of the danceband highlife sound before his death on May 11, 2007. Here are two tracks by him that have never appeared on any of his LPs to my knowledge.

Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe & his Nigeria Sound-Makers - Uwa Bu Egwu

Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe & his Nigeria Sound-Makers - Amala

Of course, you're familiar with Dan Satch & his Atomic 8 Dance Band of Aba from this post. Dan Satch Joseph (not Dan Satch Opara of the Oriental Brothers!), a former sideman in Bobby Benson's band, formed the Atomic 8 Dance Band in 1962. Although the Atomics were known to dabble in Afrobeat, "Baby Pay My Money" and "Take Your Notice" show them in classic danceband highlife mode.

Dan Satch & his Atomic 8 Dance Band of Aba - Baby Pay My Money

Dan Satch & his Atomic 8 Dance Band of Aba - Take Your Notice

The Eastern Ministers Guitar Band, like the Oriental Brothers and their various offshoots, hailed from the Owerri area. The Eastern Ministers had several huge hits, including "Nwa Ka Ego" and "Uwa Tutu Uwa Fufu [The World is Sweet and Painful]." The melody and guitar work of "Ihe-Chi-Nyerem," the Orientals' first record, were obviously inspired by the spare, rough-and-ready sound of "Nwa Ka Ego," recorded a couple of years earlier. The two groups' vocal styles are quite different, however.

Eastern Ministers Guitar Band - Nwa Ka Ego

Eastern Ministers Guitar Band - Enu Uwa

B.E. Batta and Emmanuel Vita of the Eastern Stars Dance Band were from Nembe in Rivers State. They had played with Rex Lawson's band before striking out on their own. It is quite possible that Warrior of the Oriental Brothers, in crafting his famous "shouting" singing style, modeled himself on Vita, who had a similarly powerful voice.

B.E. Batta & Eastern Stars Dance Band - Solo Hit (Nwaocholonwu)

B.E. Batta & Eastern Stars Dance Band - Mme Eyedi

Eastern Ministers Guitar Band - Ariri Otu Nwa

Eastern Ministers Guitar Band - Uwa Tuto Uwa Fufu

As I knew nothing about the next two artists, Demmy Bassey and Burstic Kingsley Bassey, I asked Uchenna of With Comb & Razor, who told me that Kingsley was a well-known performer at the Luna Night Club in Calabar during the 1970s. His popularity never extended much beyond the Cross River area, though. Uchenna could tell me nothing about Demmy Bassey. "Bassey," by the way, is a very common surname in the Cross River-Akwa Ibom area.

Demmy Bassey - Abisi Do

I thought "Ima Abasi" sounded familiar, so I got out my copy of The Hit Sound of the Ramblers Dance Band (Afrodisia WAPS 25) and put it on the turntable. Well well, the exact same recording shows up on side two of this hit album by the venerable Ghanaian highlife orchestra! There is no mention of Kingsley Bassey in the liner notes, although a "Len Bassey" is given songwriting credit. The lyrics, according to the notes, describe a fellow who pleads with his girlfriend, ". . . all you do is kick me about and boss me around. . . Call me no names. Just work your charms on me, darling, for I love you."

Kingsley Bassey - Ima Abasi

Trumpeter St. Augustine Awuzia was from the Igbo-speaking area west of the Niger River in present-day Delta State, and came into his own (having previously been a sideman in various Lagos highlife congregations) as a soldier in the Federal Army during the Biafran war, where he led his own band. "Ashawo No Be Work," a huge hit, addressed the many "ladies of the evening" who frequented the band's concerts. The title literally means "Prostitution is Not Work":

St. Augustine & his Rovers Band - Ashawo No Bi Work

St. Augustine & his Rovers Band - Abu Special

The late Inyang Henshaw, foremost avatar of the Efik highlife sound, pays tribute in two songs to the great musician Cardinal Rex Lawson:

Inyang Henshaw - Nkpakara Wo (Tribute to Rex Lawson 1)

Inyang Henshaw - Tribute to Rex Lawson 2



The map of eastern Nigeria below can be used to locate some of the areas mentioned in this post (click to enlarge).

Airport transfers and transport to the festival site.

We have arranged some of the Lake of Stars transport through APEX rent-a-car.
Nizam is a friendly and reliable man able to arrange cars and mini buses with a driver if needed.

He will be doing transfers from Lilongwe to the festival site and back for a small price.
You could even arrange for a car to meet you at the airport and take you straight to the festival site.
...but remember, you can't enter the site until the gates are open on Friday morning!

Give him a call on: (00265) 09 950 707
or email: apexcars@globemw.net<mailto:apexcars@globemw.net>

He will be happy to help!

Airport transfers and transport to the festival site.

We have arranged some of the Lake of Stars transport through APEX rent-a-car.
Nizam is a friendly and reliable man able to arrange cars and mini buses with a driver if needed.

He will be doing transfers from Lilongwe to the festival site and back for a small price.
You could even arrange for a car to meet you at the airport and take you straight to the festival site.
...but remember, you can't enter the site until the gates are open on Friday morning!

Give him a call on: (00265) 09 950 707
or email: apexcars@globemw.net<mailto:apexcars@globemw.net>

He will be happy to help!

Calm before the storm

Saturday is here and we are working on bits and pieces but also taking the chance to rest up before next week.  It's going to be a big week - Nick, Marian, Helena (the art direction / site design team) are going down to Senga Bay tomorrow and staying there until the festival starts.  Lauren and Laura are staying in Lilongwe a for a few more days and welcoming the rest of the UK team and the UK headlining arists to Malawi. 

 

Will and Fran arrived from the UK on Wednesday and we've had a good few days catching up.  We had a lovely meal out for Fran's birthday at Claud's restaurant in Lilongwe - a fantastic place which is basically fairy light nirvana.  The food (and the coffee!) is also top notch and there was live music, which ended up being a private gig for us since we were the very last people to leave.  The band were playing amazing, inventive instruments (there was a recycled wheel, a cardboard box and a self made guitar-style instrument) - we'll post the name of the band once we've found the paper we scrawled it on!  If you are in Lilongwe it's worth checking out Claud's - and every Thursday night has live music and food and drink promotions. 

 

On Thursday we had a press conference with the Malawian media at the Sunbird Capital hotel in Lilongwe.  It was very well attended - with representatives from The Nation, The Daily Times, The Guardian, Zodiac, Capital Radio, Joy FM, MBC and TV Malawi.  We're trying to gather soundfiles from the radio interviews which took place with Mr Harry Gibbs and Lauren and Laura. 

 

Yesterday we went back to the site again to check the progress of the build.  Things seem to be going swimmingly - the main stage is very nearly there and the plans for the second music area (The Lucky Bean bar) have evolved again to be even more spectacular.  It should be a great place to be - nice big bar, lots of shady trees to dance under and a massive staircase down to the beach (so we can have a split-level dancefloor).  By the way it is really HOT here now - so pack your sun accessories: sunglasses, hats (the more eclectic and ridiculous the better), paper parasols to keep the midday sun off, picnic rugs and beach mats so you can sit (the sun bakes the sand and it also gets hot!). 

 

We had a glorious sing-song in the back of Harry's pick up truck last night (basically howling at the moon and the stars) as we rode back from Senga Bay to Lilongwe.  We managed to catch a gig at Harry's Bar and Umunthu Theatre - Born Afrikan supported by some other reggae bands.  It was great bouncy fun, with a medium-sized but very committed crowd.  There is a sense of people here saving themselves for next week though - when, of course, LOS 2008 is going to land in all its glory.  The lineup is now basically finalised so we'll publish some stage times soon, but be warned these may be subject to change over the next week!

 

We really hope this is going to be the best year EVER!

 

Laura, Lauren, Nick and Helena. xx

Lake of Stars International Music Festival
http://www.lakeofstars.org
proud to be supporting the Microloan Foundation
http://www.microloanfoundation.org.uk/

Calm before the storm

Saturday is here and we are working on bits and pieces but also taking the chance to rest up before next week.  It's going to be a big week - Nick, Marian, Helena (the art direction / site design team) are going down to Senga Bay tomorrow and staying there until the festival starts.  Lauren and Laura are staying in Lilongwe a for a few more days and welcoming the rest of the UK team and the UK headlining arists to Malawi. 

 

Will and Fran arrived from the UK on Wednesday and we've had a good few days catching up.  We had a lovely meal out for Fran's birthday at Claud's restaurant in Lilongwe - a fantastic place which is basically fairy light nirvana.  The food (and the coffee!) is also top notch and there was live music, which ended up being a private gig for us since we were the very last people to leave.  The band were playing amazing, inventive instruments (there was a recycled wheel, a cardboard box and a self made guitar-style instrument) - we'll post the name of the band once we've found the paper we scrawled it on!  If you are in Lilongwe it's worth checking out Claud's - and every Thursday night has live music and food and drink promotions. 

 

On Thursday we had a press conference with the Malawian media at the Sunbird Capital hotel in Lilongwe.  It was very well attended - with representatives from The Nation, The Daily Times, The Guardian, Zodiac, Capital Radio, Joy FM, MBC and TV Malawi.  We're trying to gather soundfiles from the radio interviews which took place with Mr Harry Gibbs and Lauren and Laura. 

 

Yesterday we went back to the site again to check the progress of the build.  Things seem to be going swimmingly - the main stage is very nearly there and the plans for the second music area (The Lucky Bean bar) have evolved again to be even more spectacular.  It should be a great place to be - nice big bar, lots of shady trees to dance under and a massive staircase down to the beach (so we can have a split-level dancefloor).  By the way it is really HOT here now - so pack your sun accessories: sunglasses, hats (the more eclectic and ridiculous the better), paper parasols to keep the midday sun off, picnic rugs and beach mats so you can sit (the sun bakes the sand and it also gets hot!). 

 

We had a glorious sing-song in the back of Harry's pick up truck last night (basically howling at the moon and the stars) as we rode back from Senga Bay to Lilongwe.  We managed to catch a gig at Harry's Bar and Umunthu Theatre - Born Afrikan supported by some other reggae bands.  It was great bouncy fun, with a medium-sized but very committed crowd.  There is a sense of people here saving themselves for next week though - when, of course, LOS 2008 is going to land in all its glory.  The lineup is now basically finalised so we'll publish some stage times soon, but be warned these may be subject to change over the next week!

 

We really hope this is going to be the best year EVER!

 

Laura, Lauren, Nick and Helena. xx

Lake of Stars International Music Festival
http://www.lakeofstars.org
proud to be supporting the Microloan Foundation
http://www.microloanfoundation.org.uk/