BLO: Step Three

(that pic is kinda messed up, ain't it? i'll have to fix it later)

With the release of their third album (their second for the year 1975), the three members of BLO were riding high. Flush with success, the trio celebrated by featuring for the first time on one of their LP covers. Poised on the roof of a sleek red coupe, garbed in body-hugging synthetic fabric finery, they appear affluent, confident, and--an appellative one would hesitate before applying to the earthy Afro-hippies of Chapter One and Phase 2--pretty fucking fly. Their seating positions spell out the name of their band, left to right: B for Berkley, L for Laolu, O for...

Wait a minute... That's not Odumosu on the cover.

And it's not just the cover; a glance at the sleeve notes confirms that Mike Odumosu does not appear anywhere on this record. In his stead, we find Biddy Wright, the nimble multi-instrumentalist who around the same period was starting to work with the Lijadu Sisters, producing for them clean and lean funk, rock and reggae tracks remarkable for their precision-tooled craftsmanship and light tinge of camp.

A stylistic chameleon, Adeniyi "Biddy" Wright had cut his teeth as the leader of the popular Lagos highlife combo Wura Fadaka in the nineteen sixties before shifting base to London after the war. There, inspired by the Osibisa phenomenon, he formed an Afro-rock band called Akido, which he led on bass and vocals.

(Six Degrees of Ginger Baker Fun Fact! The band also featured Ghanaian percussionist Niimoi "Speedy" Acquaye, who had played in the original Air Force!)

Akido's self-titled 1972 album was produced by Ronnie Lane, the bassist of The Faces (being, of course, the legendary English lad-rock band whose lineup also included Rod Stewart and future Rolling Stone Ron Wood, not the Nigerian band of the same name).

Disenchanted with the effect Rod the Mod's growing idol status exerted upon the band's musical direction, Lane quit The Faces in 1973 and formed the country-rock outfit Slim Chance, in which Wright played bass.

(Many Ronnie Lane fan histories erroneously refer to the musician who replaced original Slim Chance bassist Chrissie Stewart as "Buddy Wright" or "Buddy White," but that is indeed Biddy Wright on Lane's Anymore for Anymore album even though he does not appear in the band photos.)

Wright--billed on Step Three as "Biddy O'Wright (get it? "O'Wright"? so it's still a B-L-O album?)--not only subs for Odumosu on bass, but also contributes alto and soprano sax and the horn arrangements, with his frequent collaborators Tunde Williams and Johny Wood handling trumpet and organ/piano respectively.

If Phase 2 edged more towards funkiness than the psychedelia of Chapter One, Step Three pretty much jettisons all the trappings of "rock" altogether. Berkley Jones, who in addition to playing 1st and 2nd guitars and Moog, writes all the songs (except for Akins' wonderfully loose-limbed "Gotta Get Me A Better Head"), has clearly been digging Sly Stone and blaxploitation funk, and it's reflected in the lyrics and arrangements.

While there's not a formal production credit listed on the album other than the "Guest engineer and producer" accorded to Keith Whiting, who remixed the album at Decca Studios, London after the raw tracks were recorded at Decca's Lagos facility, it's not hard to imagine Wright's involvement having a significant influence on the sound of this record. Consistent with Wright's light-fingered production style, it was by far the most relaxed of BLO's albums to date. Even the very title of the album exudes laidbackness. While Chapter One suggested solemn ceremony and Phase 2 rigorous procedural, Step Three connoted an informal, organic move in a natural direction. The trio is easygoing and spontaneous, cheerfully flubbing lines on the Cymande-influenced "Hypocrisy" and sounding like they're improvising lyrics as they go along on "Don't Pull This From Under Me"; despite the crispness of the production, there's a demo-like quality to the album (And, in fact, "Mind Walk" was re-recorded as "Move Up" on the following year's Phase IV.) (Update: You can listen to some snippets from that album here, btw)

But the question remains: Where was Mike Odumosu during the making of this record? I used to wonder that myself until last week, when a possible answer smacked me in the face while I was digging at Looney Tunes Records on Boylston Street.

There I was, going through the O's in the Soul section, wondering why I couldn't find a copy of the first Original Dr. Buzzard's Savannah Band album (maybe because the band was actually called "Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band," genius?) when I saw this LP that I hadn't seen in years:



Osibisa's 1976 Ojah Awake, with the band also making their cover debut in lieu of Roger Dean's proggy fantasyscapes.

See the dude in all red, next to the guy with the hat and boots? That's Mike Odumosu. (Hat and boots is Kiki Gyan, we will talk about him later.)

Can't hardly be mad at Odumosu for jumping at the chance to play with the biggest Afro-rock group of the day, can ya? Ojah Awake was coincidentally Osibisa's most successful album (yielding monster hits "The Coffee Song" and "Dance the Body Music") and also their last major smash. I'm not too versed in the band's history after this point, so I don't know for sure whether Odumosu's tenure with them was temporary or a more long-term arrangement. (Allmusic.com tells me that he remained with them through 1977 at least, but they get sketchy after that.)


However, I don't think Mike Odumosu ever fully returned to BLO. He appeared on the cover of Phase IV and received a vocal credit as well, but the bass duties on that album were fulfilled by Celestine Nyam, and by this time, BLO had found their new "O" anyway: velvet-voiced soul singer and keyboardist Otu Udofa, who went by the nom de disque Lemmy Jackson. At the time he met Berkley and Laolu, he was hustling session gigs in London; within the next five years, Lemmy Jackson would become the most important and influential producer in Nigerian pop music.

(Or did Jackson officially join the band on their sixth album, 1980's Bulky Backside? I don't know... He's on the cover of Phase IV, too. The chronology gets a bit confusing here... The Phases 1972-1982 sleeve features a collage of clippings from tabloids such as The Punch and Lagos Weekend, but they're not presented in any real timeline. What I can glean from the montage, though, is that apparently, after Phase IV--or maybe even after Step Three--BLO essentially broke up for a few years. During that time, Berkley and Laolu studied screenwriting and sound production in London, and then they met Lemmy Jackson, who encouraged them to put the band back together.)

(One fairly bizarre clipping has Berkley, Laolu and Lemmy returning to Lagos after a long absence, arriving at the Punch offices and attracting much attention due to their presence of their latest bandmember... Pamela Obermeyer. Yes, Rocky Horror Picture Show fans... I do mean that Pamela Obermeyer. For you RHPS virgins...



She's the Transylvanian with the afro and the skull & crossbones tiara. The only sista in the clip. You can't miss her.)

Oh well... One of these days, I'm gonna have to ask the very cool (and rather hot) Ms. May to ask her dad to clear up the exact sequence of events.

But hey, I've talked enough for now. Might as well give you the music.

>DOWNLOAD STEP THREE!<

The sun will shine on me someday...

Probably not today, though; it's colder than a witch's teat out here!

Figuratively, at least, I can say a couple of rays of sunlight have speared through the clouds for me of late. After days of fruitlessly wrestling with the whole vinyl recording conundrum, I eventually gave in, went out and bought a USB turntable. This initially annoyed me to no end: I hate spending money on stuff like that, especially since I already have a record player that works perfectly fine (except, apparently, when it comes to transmitting its output into a computer). It very quickly justified itself as a wise purchase, though... And I'll admit to feeling bit impressed with myself for actually owning a piece of audio technology manufactured later than the early 1990s! One of these days I think I'ma even up the stakes and go get me an iPod! Then I'll truly be ballin' on that George Jetson futuristic tip!

Another interesting thing that happened lately: Yesterday I exchanged a couple of emails with Melvin Ukachi, the lead singer/guitarist of Ofege! Really nice guy... He's quite pleased that y'all are still feeling those records that he made years ago when he was a small boy and hopefully, he'll contribute some stuff to this blog in the near future.

(And once again, massive big-ups to the Hurricane Man for giving me the hook-ups. Imela ooo!)

Anyway... Let's get to some unfinished business. Here's one of the albums I was supposed to have posted back in... June, I think. Sunshine by The Lijadu Sisters.

This is another Biddy Wright production recorded at the Decca Studios in Lagos and it pretty much follows the template set on Danger: Taiwo & Kehinde's songs are mostly composed of a single, repeated verse sung in unison while Biddy Wright improvises around them. This time, though, most of the tunes have a strong gospel bent to them (except for maybe the flirty "Promise" and the Wright-penned "Come and Dance").

Whereas Wright handled most of the instrumentation on Danger himself, this time around he employs a solid crew of session players including Tony Allen associate Candido Obajimi, Gboyega Adelaja (who played keyboards in Hugh Masekela's great early-70s band), and Jerry Ihejeto (who would later play bass for Sonny Okosuns and then enjoy some minor solo success on the late-90s World Music™ scene as a reggae star). Wright mostly restricts himself to manning the synthesizers (which probably seemed like a good idea at the time but hindsight is 20/20, isn't it? Oh well!).

Another interesting contributor to this record: Basil Okafor, renowned artist and journalist who writes insightfully about Nigerian politics and popular culture. He designed the album art and provided the lovely watercolor cover illustration.

THE LIJADU SISTERS - SUNSHINE (Afrodesia, 1978, DWAPS 2046)

Jimmy Lee Adams - Rhythm and lead guitars
Candido Obajimi - Drums
Jerry Ihejeto - Bass guitar
Gboyega Adelaja - Electric piano
Biddy Wright - String ensemble, synthesizers, congas, electric piano, guitar
Aras Adeyemo & Solomon Omikunle - Trumpets

All songs except "Come and Dance" written by Lijadu Sisters
"Come and Dance" written by Biddy Wright


Download the zip from MEGAUPLOAD or preview and download each track from DIVSHARE.*

(Bear with me today, peoples... I probably won't use DivShare again after this.)

Ah, whaddaya know? In the time it's taken me to type this, the sun has come out after all....

Addendum: Whoa! When I was linking up those Basil Okafor articles above, I came across a related link that alerted me to the fact that Cyprian Ekwensi passed away last Sunday! How did I miss this?

TOO MUCH BEAUTIFUL WOMAN was actually dedicated to him and I had really hoped that he would get to see it.

Damn. I'm bummed out. (And coincidentally enough, the sun has disappeared again.)

*Did those DivShare files even work for anybody? They didn't for me... Alright, I'm through with 'em! Download track by track right here:

SIDE A

1. Come and Dance
2. Promise
3. Set Me Free

SIDE B

1. Sunshine
2. Reincarnation
3. Turbulent Waters

The Lijadu Sisters in Danger!

Alright, fam... This is basically my first attempt at ripping tracks from vinyl, so I hope it doesn't suck.

I had to use Final Vinyl, which doesn't give you as much latitude when it comes to manipulating the levels, and to make it worse, I had to run the audio directly from the turntable without the benefit of an intermediary amplifier.

To top it all off, for reasons I won't get into, I can't hear anything through my left ear at the moment, so I can't even tell you for sure if this thing came out sounding halfway decent! So let me know... If it sounds muddy or tinny, I'll re-do it with Audacity or something.




What we have here is the Lijadu Sisters' third album, from 1976, as produced by the talented Mr. Wright, as in Biddy. I'm not gonna talk too much about this one except to say that this is probably my favorite of all the Lijadu Sisters' records. It's pretty simple in formula and execution: most of the songs are basically one verse repeated over and over in almost trance-like fashion while Biddy and the band (well... Biddy is most of the band, isn't he?) improv tasty keyboard licks and low-impact guitar heroics around them.



The track that I've noticed being picked up most by podcasts and other compilers is "Life's Gone Down," but my pick for best cut on the album is "Amebo." That's a common term used to describe a gossip, derived from the name of a character with such tendencies on the classic sitcom The Village Headmaster.

(That's got nothing to do with anything, but I just thought I'd mention it. Oh well... Here's the credits:)

Biddy Wright: Lead and rhythm guitar, tenor saxophone, percussion and bass guitar
Ade Jolaoso: Bass guitar
Johnny Wood: Keyboards
Felix Shittu: Alto saxophone











All songs written and arranged by the Lijadu Sisters
Production by Biddy Wright
Recorded at Decca Studios, Abule-Oje, Lagos, Nigeria

> DOWNLOAD IT! <

EDIT: Damn, I messed up... Track 3 is actually called "Life's Gone Down Low." Do me a favor and correct that when you download it because I don't wanna have to re-upload the whole thing just to fix that one track title.

EDIT AGAIN: Yeah... It's been brought to my attention that (just as I suspected) the recording of this album is kinda effed up. So I've disabled the link. I'll let you know when I fix it.

Sorry!

Update 06/25/07: The link is back!

Also, I haven't been indicating what labels the records have been on for a while, have I? I know that info is important to a lot of people, so I'll do that from now on. This album came out on Afrodesia, which was an imprint of Decca West Africa.

Who says a highlife band can't play rock?!

Well, not "rock" in the balls-out, yeh! yeh! yeh! sense--you'll find no searing solos here, no raucous drumming, no ecstatic abandon; but with its butter-rich production (courtesy of the late, great Biddy Wright), Johnny Woode's groovy organ lines and Godwin Ironbar's soulful vocal delivery, the album does represent an attempt to bridge the gulf between the old-school highlife orchestras and the youth-driven Western pop music that had enthralled the kids' imaginations in the post-war era.

The always-tasteful Biddy Wright was an apt choice to shepherd a project such as this, having been well familiar with both worlds--he led the beloved Lagos highlife dance band Wura Fadaka in the 1960s and then rocked out with Ronnie Laine of The Faces in the 70s. Ironbar himself is credited as writer, arranger, lead vocalist, guitar soloist and conductor of the fine cadre of musicians on this record. He sounds a bit Victor Uwaifo-inlfuenced to me, but maybe that's just because they both sing in the Edo language and embrace soul music accents in their highlife.

If I recall, several tracks from this record (along with Jackie Mittoo rock steady instrumentals) were frequently used as theme and interstitial music on NTA stations in the 1970s and 80s, especially "Ukpona Mie" and the "Let's Get It On"-citing "Okpenobodi."

(This is another VG+ record that's sounding a bit weird when ripped... I wonder if it's time for me to replace my stylus or something. I'll have to look into that... Let me know if it bugs you any and I might try ripping it again later.)

GODWIN IRONBAR & HIS HIGH-LIFE ROCK EXPONENT - GODWIN IRONBAR (DECCA RECORDS, WAPS 255, 1975)

SIDE 1
1. Ukpona Mie
2. Okpa Do
3. A Ti Se

SIDE 2
1. Okpenobodi
2. Izenegbonta
3. Ovbiogwe

DOWNLOAD ZIP

Taiwo & Kehinde (with a 'K')

I suppose we can forgive Mr. Baker for butchering the given name of one of the Lijadu Sisters; he most likely had not met too many Yoruba twins at that point. You see, the Yoruba people (due to a genetic predisposition that has yet to be fully explained) have the highest birthrate for twins in the world, and they're all named Taiwo ("TIE-woe") and Kehinde ("KEH-yeen-DAY"). The protocol is that the firstborn twin is named Taiwo ("s/he who tastes the world first") and the secondborn is Kehinde ("s/he who follows behind") but Kehinde is actually considered to be the older twin (as the position at the "back" of the womb suggests having gone in first) who waits for Taiwo to go out first and make sure that it is safe to emerge into the world.

Although they exist as two separate physical bodies, the twins are believed to share the same soul. Their individual personalities are aspects of a single inteligence, and that entity is complete only when Taiwo and Kehinde come together with their spirits, their hearts, their voices in harmony.

*******

Last time, I mentioned that BLO broke up after Phase IV while the members studied in London. Thing is, they didn't exactly "break up," since they continued to play together; they just weren't releasing music under the BLO shingle. These were the days when the Nigerian music industry had that major label dough and a lot of artists were being flown to London to mix--or even just to record--their albums. In this context, Berkley Jones, Laolu Akins and Lemmy Jackson became three of the most in-demand session men, playing on albums by the likes of Christy Essien, Sonny Okosuns, Kris Okotie, and the Lijadu Sisters. The latter act, of course, was an act with whom BLO had a considerable amount of history, having been bandmates in Tee-Mac's Afrocollection and Ginger Baker's Salt:



In fact, according to Akins, BLO's formation was spurred by the Lijadus' decision to leave Salt and venture off on their own.

It was, perhaps, quite natural for Taiwo and Kehinde to feel more comfortable with each other than in the midst of a bigger ensemble. They had been singing together since childhood, often doing session work and performing in local festivals. In 1969, they cut their first album as a duo, Iya Mi Jowo and after the Salt tour they released Mother Africa. Their relationship with producer Biddy Wright was a fruitful one, yielding the impressive LPs Danger (1976) and Sunshine (1978). I'm not sure why they opted not to reprise the collaboration on their next album; instead they turned to their old Salt cohorts Berkley and Laolu (along with syudio stalwart Odion Iruoje).

Where the Wright-produced albums featured breezy, melodic Afro-pop (that frequently leaned more towards the "pop" than the "Afro"), Jones, Akins and Iruoje plant the twins firmly in a world of rhythm. With their luminescent voices dropped into a dubby juju soundscape, surrounded by pitch-dark basslines and the incessant chatter of talking drums, the twins sing back mostly in Yoruba (as opposed to the English of the Wright albums), making full use of the language's percussive and tonal properties. And somewhere on the horizon, Lemmy Jackson chips in with buzzing clavinets and stately piano riffs that fall somewhere between the church and the supper club.

The result is the Lijadu Sisters' most successful and widely-known album (which was reissued in 1984 by the US label Shanachie, and was a college radio favorite through the decade).

The Lijadu Sisters - Horizon Unlimited (1979)

CREDITS:
Keyboards - Lemmy Jackson
Gube (bass drum) - Tony Adeleye
First Talking drum - Soji Adenle
Maracas - John Akanmu
Second Bass Drum - Ladi Oguntunwase
Rhythm Guitar - Alao/Tunde Peters/Glenis Martins
Lead guitar - Frederick Ramm
Drums - Laolu Akins
Drums - Buttley Moore
Ekwe & clefs - Friday Jumbo
Bass guitar - Richard Archer

Produced by Berkley Jones/Laolu Akins/Odion Iruoje
Recorded at Decca Studios, London

>DOWNLOAD IT! <