WA HO HA!!!

As I have stated a few times before, I have something of a love-hate relationship with Nigerian reggae. I mean, I've actually warmed up to it considerably over the past year or so (mostly for scholarly reasons) but as I have precious little space in my personal collection (and even preciouser little money to spend on vinyl in this wintry economic climate), when I'm shopping I usually veto the Naija natty riddims right off the bat.

Thankfully, they're usually easy to identify too, since 1980s album designers took to stenciling jagged lettering and red-gold-green hues on every goddamn sleeve. Or my other rule of thumb is: "When in doubt, just avoid any LP that depicting persons with dreadlocks."

Pity me; for my prejudice almost made me pass on Pazy.*

In fact, I did pass on the record twice before I finally picked it up on a whim... Well, actually, it was a bit more of an educated process than just a "whim"; after all, my aversion is chiefly to reggae from the mid-1980s onwards and the orange-and-black EMI label on this disc suggested that it was from the 1970s... 1982 tops. And while I didn't recognize any of the musicians listed on the back (Pazy Etina? Makos? Colins Osokpor? James Etina?), none of them were credited with "Linn drum programming" or "synbass"--Jack Stone was even given as playing the organ and not "keyboards"! So yeah, I figured that if nothing else, at least this reggae record would be rootsier than the tinny Casio skank that scored much of the Babangida and Abacha eras.

Sure enough, the album does start off with a couple of decidedly tasty reggae cuts--one minute into the inaugural track, the lovely Carlton & the Shoes-esque "Comfort Me JahoJah" (never mind how it's spelled on the back cover), I already knew this was to become one of my favorite records--but soon veers off into some heavy psychfunkrock of the brain-frying variety.

Pazy and the Black Hippies - "Comfort Me JahoJah"
Pazy and the Black Hippies - "Elizabeth"
Pazy and the Black Hippies - "Wa Ho Ha"


Apart from Fuzzy (who I have assumed is the Fuzzy Gbagbi credited on the Sunny White LP) I haven't seen these guys names anywhere else. Wonder if they have any other albums.

*Ditto Muddy Ibe

...Aaaaaaaaand yet more unknown soul.

Another artist I know absolutely nothing about. The album has a bunch of great musicians on it, though: the ebullient Mambo on drums, the ever-reliable Eddy Pollo on tenor guitar, the modest Eugene Ndema on rhythm, the aptly-named Soul on bass, the whiz kid Nkono Teles on keys and the underrated Eric Kol on background vocals... all pulled together by master producer Odion Iruoje.

Not too sure what "Burden Star" means, either; I thought it was "budding star." Oh well... Either way, it's a pretty cool track, I think.

Mikebbi - "Burden Star"



(Just in case it isn't completely obvious by now: Yes, I am kinda stalling to avoid having to write, y'know, actual posts and stuff.)

A little mo' unknown soul for Friday

Another mystery artist. I know nothing of this Sunny White or the Clinks. Nor am I familiar with any of the names in the list of musicians who played on the record (with the exception of saxophonist Fuzzy Gbagi Alto, who seems to have played on the similarly obscure Wa Ho Ha, by Pazy and the Black Hippies--more on that later).

Although I'm guessing this record is from some time between 1980 and 1983 (since the credits have it being recorded at Phonodisc Studios), the title track is on some throwback 1960 Stax tip.

Ahhhh... Let's call it what it is: it's a ripoff of "Soul Man," isn't it? (Rest in peace, Black Moses!)


Sunny White and the Clinks - "Rock On Your Feet"




(Couple of pressing flaws on this one, fams)

Who is Tony Barrett?

I feel like I should know who he is... The name does activate distant bells in my head... But I don't know; a handle like "Tony Barrett" could belong to any number of obscure soul, reggae or calypso singers.

(Yes, I realize the sleeve says "Tony Barreth," but the spelling on the label, Barrett, seems more likely to be correct and so I'm going to go with that.)

I do, however, know the band that backs Barrett on this 1977 soul workout--Samuel Abiloye Esse, Johnnie Woode Olimah, Ottay Hima Blackie and Bola Prince, better known as the SJOB (or S-Job) Movement.


Tony Barrett & the SJOB - "Mocking Lover Girl"





(I haven't completely worked out all the technical glitches, but small by small we're getting back into the game.)

Please Stand By

Yeah, I've been back in the States a few days now, but I'm probably gonna lie low for a bit while I try to get a new scanner and iron out a couple of other computer-related snafus. I should have that biz squared away by some time next week.

In the meantime, check out this video by my current favorite Nigerian MC, M.I.:



It's actually almost a year old, but it's new to me... I've had a somewhat ambivalent attitude toward Nigerian rap over the past decade and a half, and I guess I still do. But I'd say 2008 has been the year that hip-hop truly came of age in Nigeria, for better or worse. M.I. is part of the "better," I think; his whole style reminds me of stalwarts of the "Golden Age of Hip-Hop" that molded me--Brand Nubian, YZ, Ed OG, Chubb Rock, Masta Ace... and dare I even invoke the God Rakim Allah?

I'm going to be posting a bit more about Naija hip-hop in the near future.

(Part of) Today's Haul

I fear I shall never get the grime out from under my fingernails but I'm still pretty pleased with the day's take.

I haven't gone through them all, but so far I am most excited about finding a heretofore unknown William Onyeabor LP called Good Name, from 1981. My bad... Did I say 1981? It's actually from 1983. 1981 is the release year of Great Lover, the other rare Onyeabor LP I found. Take my word when I tell you Good Name is easily the most INSANE of all his records. Pure psychedelic synth madness!



And then there is this album by Ken Eme/First Flight:



I feel pretty sure that me and my friend Enyi are the only two human beings on earth who remember this record and I've been looking for it for... twenty-four years maybe?

First Flight never really made much impact outside of Calabar (or even within it), but we loved to watch their music videos on TV after school because they wore fly-looking space boots and had some really cool elctric boogie dancers (including a midget in Raphael Cameron pants).

There are a lot of records from my childhood that I remember being really hot and funky, but turn out to be disappointing when I listen to them today (I still love them for sentimental reasons, of course). I half expected this to be one of those records, but NOPE! it's full of that lean, glossy Jake Sollo boogie sound and I'm pretty sure heads are gonna dig the hell out of it, so stay tuned, true believers!

Ah well... It's started raining and that always messes with this server, so I better publish this while I can. More to come later...

(Sorry about the crappy pics, yo... NEPA is on half current so I couldn't get any good light on them.)

Now... Let's see if I can even remember how to do this...

Man, my blogging days feel almost like a distant memory of a past life... Hard to believe it's been just over two months!

Didn't mean for it to happen that way, though; it's not like I elected to take the summer off or anything... For two or three weeks in June I got a bit bogged down by the 9-to-5, a couple other extracurricular projects I was working on, and certain developments in my private life, and next thing I knew, With Comb & Razor had fallen off the map!

I was surprised and encouraged that so many of you cared enough to check up on me and let me know you miss seeing new entries on this page, though... (Sorry I haven't been able to reply everybody, by the way...) For real, I'm aware that the blogoverse is a ruthlessly competitive market with the collective attention span of a fruit fly so I think I half-expected to be forgotten by mid-July!

Oh yeah... On the subject of being forgotten, I just noticed today that the Village Voice has up a new piece on the wave of music blogs dedicated to digging up obscure grooves from Africa and beyond, and you think my humble efforts over here might've merited even a cursory mention?

I know it's probably not cool for me to imply that I actually care about this kind of thing, and it is extremely petty for me to even mention it at all (especially since I am genuinely happy to see my peoples Frank, John B. and Matt get some shine) and and I truly do this for the love and not the laurels, but dubya tee eff, man... what's a brother got to do to get a little love? I mean, the Naija blogosphere has continued to refuse to acknowledge me, but I kinda understand that since most of its denizens were barely even a tingling sensation in their daddy's groin by the time most of the music I generally post about was current, but if my blog can't rate even minimal face time with the trendy hipster contingent at least as token esoterica, why don't I just hang up my Blogger account now and get a new hobby (or better yet, one of those "life" things I hear folks going on about)? Like, is there even any point in my bothering to soldier on in this thankless racket?

...And a small voice from deep within whispers, "Yes... Yes, there is." E'en in the darkness of obscurity, Comb & Razor toils on, going the distance to bring you the best in cool and rare Nigerian music and pop culture oddities!

Speaking of which: Part of why I've been silent the past month or so is because I've been in Nigeria since early July and most of my time has been taken up by record digging. And malaria. But mainly record digging. It takes up a lot of time and energy, though. I tell ya, I was planning to chronicle some of my vinyl-hunting adventures, Voodoo Funk-style, but really... A lot of it is just not that interesting. Just a lot of driving around, and talking, and explaining over and over exactly what you are looking for (and sometimes why you are looking for it), and breathing in enough dust and mold to fell an army of Cossack horsemen.

It's been totally worth it, though... I can't wait to share some of my amazingly awesome finds with you all. Unfortunately, I only have my Numark portable turntable here and it's not USB-ready, so ripping vinyl is a bit of a toughie. I'll try running it through a pre-amp, but I fear that it will end up with that crappy sound I got when I tried that back in the day. Also, my scanner seems to have broken in transit and I haven't even confirmed that I can upload music to my site yet, so the new posts with new music might have to wait till I'm back stateside.

Thankfully, I prepared a contingency plan for circumstances such as these, and I have a bunch of old-but-never-posted entries sitting in the vault, ready to go: my interrogation of the legacy of Nigerian flautist Tee-Mac, reminiscences about 1980s funk musician Rick Asikpo, an interview with Theadora Ifudu, my long-delayed five (or six)-part exploration of why 1984 was "The Year Nigerian Music Started to Suck," and some other stuff. I might also put up a transcript of a University of Mainz-organized seminar on highlife music I attended recently, featuring highlife legends Ebo Taylor, Stan Plange, Peter King and Chris Ajilo.

Anyway, I'm off to look for more music... Hit me up with any requests y'all might have and I'll see what I can do, eh?

We're back in business, my people...

My poor blog has been left to seed, hasn't it?

I gotta start posting again, yo...

Next week.

Promise.


(Just wanted to let y'all know that I'm not dead)

This song been in my head all week: Joe Arroyo - "Rebellion (No le pegue a la negra)"

Of course, this song is in my head like 60% of the time, anyway.

Feels like an eternity since I've blogged with any regularity... It's been a lot of work, a bit of play... and some other stuff.

Hope to be back soon with more niceness.

Oliver de Coque (1947-2008)

Just heard the news.

More to come as I learn it.

R.I.P.

Thanks to John B. for furnishing us with this mp3 of Oliver's biggest hit, "Identity"

"Nebo" "Neighbour" "Highlife"

Sorry I was so slow on the uptake identifying this song when N.I.M.M.O. mentioned it in the comments... Of course I remember "Highlife" (I too used to think it was called "Nebo"); this song was everywhere back in '83!

"Highlife"

Also, I apologize for my silence over the past week or so; Internet's been on the fritz at the Comb & Razorcave, but we're all good now.

This Song Been In My Mind All Week

The Sylvers - "Wish That I Could Talk To You"

> S I G H <

Africa will never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never surrender!

American disco music has taken over Africa. During the days of Victor Olaiya, the Uhurus, the Ramblers dance-bands there was jazz music from America. Then there was pop music. It never gave us musicians a chance to move out. And you know with Africans, anything that comes out of England is a gas. Then during the time of Victor Uwaifo and Fela there was this soul music.

I always remember that one day Victor Uwaifo printed some handbills saying that no one should listen to soul music. But I think that soul music is like our aladura (praying) songs--it's a spiritual music. But they came down and took the business from us.

Now these days we have funk, but I'm not lying low and I won't let it take garri from my hands. So I have decided to create my own type of African disco music. Believe me sincerely, it is catching on like wildfire. This music we hope to export to America and England.

--Sonny Okosuns, quoted in West African Pop Roots by John Collins

When Sonny Okosuns started his music career with The Postmen in 1966, the chief models for his look and sound were overseas rock & rollers like Cliff Richard and Elvis Presley. However, by the beginning of the 70s, as he fronted Paperback Limited, he found himself becoming increasingly dissatisfied with merely recycling Western pop and desired to play more African music.

The rock-loving, postwar youth audience was not really trying to hear a lot of that stuff, though. As Okosuns explained to Gary Stewart, the kids loved when he did the "copyright" tunes, but zoned out when he tried to introduce new, indigenous-inspired sounds: "I got all the youth, you know, who were so much interested in undergound [rock], but I lost them when they started listening to the kind of music I was playing. I wasn't playing the ... Jimi Hendrix kind of music or the Who or the Kinks kind of music.... That's what the youth wanted to hear.... I was in the crossroads. I was winning one way but losing in many ways."

It was with this dilemma in mind--how to appeal to audiences desiring the latest sounds from foreign without surrendering his African identity--that Sonny formed Ozziddi in 1974, pairing folkloric lyrics, rhythms and melodies with cutting edge rock arrangments to enormous success. Sonny's friend Fela Ransome-Kuti arrived at a similar resolution with his development of afrobeat--but where Fela stubbornly stuck and continued to purvey his patented style long after its soul, jazz and Latin elements fell out of favor, Okosuns never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never surrendered. He kept searching for new ways to keep his African music competitive with the current hot sound, be it rock, reggae, makossa or calypso.

By the time that I personally discovered Sonny, he was in his "Ozziddisco" period, so for me this sound remains the definitive Sonny Okosuns sound. Back then, I thought it was just some dope dance music, but listening to it now, I realize how cannily crafted it is. It can blend in easily with any of the disco stompers of the day, but it doesn't ape disco; the essentially "African" character remains intact.

"Tire Ni Oluwa"
"Tell Them"

Both of these tracks are from the 1979 album 3rd World, which I just now realized was entirely produced by Eddy Grant.

And speaking of which... I was able to get an mp3 of Eddy Grant's "Papa's Land" remix (courtesy of Naijajams--thanks, Bobo!) so I'll post it here, along with the original version.

"Papa's Land" (1977)
"Papa's Land" (1979)

In a mannish mood

It's not like Sonny was just all anti-apartheid all the time, holy war, Africa for Africans, liberation for the people, fight the power 24/7/365...

"Sherry Koko"
"Steady & Slow"


He sang other songs, too.

(Nota bene: Me posting the above candid shot of Sonny with Onyeka Onwenu is not in any way, shape, or form meant to insinuate that they slept together. I just couldn't find another suitable photo today, alright?)

Among friends

I should probably mention at this juncture that the above photo showing Sonny Okosuns having a larf with Christy Essien-Igbokwe, Jonny Woode (I think... or is that Lemmy Jackson?) and former Biafra leader Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, was--like Tuesday's and Wednesday's header photos--taken from Sonny's personal collection as featured on his now-defunct website, Sonnyokosuns dot org. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to right-click on 'em right before the site went down, and I only post them here only to pay respects to the man. If I offend anybody by doing this, please let me know and I will remove them.

The other day, a YouTube viewer named jahlivid left this comment on that Sonny Okosuns clip from Konkombe: The Nigerian Pop MusicScene I uploaded last year:

A true Nigerian Ambassador. In Zimbabwe and indeed Southern Africa, barring your great foobtballers, Sonny Okosun is widely known. I remember when he came to perform in Harare with Onyeka Onwenu, a true legend he was. His song Fire In Soweto, to this day, remains truly inspirational. A song that forged ahead a revolution and a quest for justice, dignity, freedom and self-rule in our region. To a true son of the soil, Dr Okosun I salute you.

That comment made me think: While Sonny was relatively low-key during the last fifteen years or so of his career, since he changed tracks to gospel with the Songs of Praise LP, there was a time when he was the musical ambassador of Nigeria. Bigger than Fela, King Sunny Ade, Olatunji or anybody else.

Sonny was the first Nigerian artist to fully embrace the possibilities of reggae in his sound, but rather than just aping Jamaican riddims, he broke down the reggae beat and re-constructed it in his own image, investing it with a deeply "African" sound that entranced even the dreads in the land of reggae's birth. Okosuns performed with Toots & the Maytals and Jimmy Cliff, and Peter Tosh was also an admirer and a friend. When Tosh visted Nigeria in 1982, he spent three weeks in Okosuns' Lagos home, where he wrote the songs that became his classic Mama Africa album.

Sonny also maintained that Bob Marley had written him a letter expressing his desire to record Sonny's song "Holy Wars." I'll admit that this story always sounded unlikely to me, since (apart from early efforts like "One Love," which was an adaptation of Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready") Marley was not really known for covering other people's songs. However, he was not averse to borrowing others' riddims and singing his own lyrics over them, and it is possible that he might have wanted to do this with "Holy Wars," since during that period he had been very vocal about his desire to infuse his reggae with a deeper African sound--a desire that fueled the creation of the album Survival in 1979. That album featured the ode to "Zimbabwe," which Marley performed at the nation's independence celebration in 1980. Okosuns also took the stage at that event and performed "Holy Wars," among other songs.

Sonny was also friends with the great Eddy Grant, with whom he collaborated in 1979 on some lean, crossover-ready reworkings of earlier Ozziddi hits "Fire in Soweto" and "Papa's Land." My intention was actually to post those Eddy Grant-produced tracks here, along with "Holy Wars," but as luck would have it... er, I couldn't find them. They're somewhere in the crates.

So for now, just handle these tunes here:

"Rain"
"Amen"

and you can at least listen to the "Fire in Soweto" redux here:



Oh yes... Another Sonny Okosuns collaboration of note: In 1985 when Little Steven Van Zandt of the E Street Band organized Artists United Against Apartheid to record the benefit single "Sun City," Sonny was the only African musician to participate. Watch for him at 4:28 and 5:18 in this video:



(Man... I am the only one who gets really queasy when watching 1980s charity track videos? I know I can't be!)

Elder Steve Rhodes (1926-2008)

sigh

Man.

I'm gonna have to skip the Okosuns post tonight. Tomorrow, we'll talk a bit about Nigeria's foremost music historian and performer of legend, the late Elder Steve Rhodes.

Rest in peace, baba.

This Song Been In My Mind All Week: Shola Allyson-Obaniyi - "Eji Owuro"

Well, more like 24 hours, really.

I just got hip to her yesterday and I have since been unable to stop thinking about this song:


I really like her voice and the melody... She sounds kinda like she's influenced by my girl Yinkas Davies. The tinny, rinky-dink production pretty much cheapens the whole deal, though.

Can someone tell me more about this Shola Allyson-Obaniyi chick?

(Today's Sonny Okosun post is coming later... Kinda swamped today I am.)

My people, wake up

It was in the 1970s and 80s that Sonny Okosuns achieved his greatest success, forcefully projecting through his music a message of African unity, pride, resistance to oppression and sympathy for the struggles for independence raging across the continent. The repressive apartheid policy in Southern Africa was the central target of his attacks, so much so that in 1978, his Fire In Soweto LP was officially banned by the government of South Africa.

Over the years, various critics (myself included) have occasionally questioned whether his persistent railing against repressive governments in South Africa, Mozambique, Angola, etc. might have been something of an opportunistic publicity ploy. After all, Naija was not exactly the New Island of Utopia either, but Sonny never went out of his way to indict any of Nigeria's brutal military dictators or civilian kleptocrats on wax. If anything, he was pretty chummy with a lot of the leaders.

But regardless of all that, Okosuns' music did do a lot to raise awareness among the masses as to what was going on in Africa. Speaking for myself, being a kid at the time, I didn't know anything about the situation in South Africa. Hell, I didn't even know that there was a situation in South Africa until Sonny told me. First time I heard the word "apartheid" was in the song "Fire in Soweto." I didn't know where the hell Soweto was or why there might be fire there, didn't know that there was any sort of unpleasantness going down in Namibia--I found out about all that stuff because Sonny Okosuns' sang about it. I'm sure many people my age (and even older) might offer a similar testimony.

Okosuns' music was the rallying call for the groundswell of support for South Africa that swept across the continent, so much so that in 1978 his Fire in Soweto LP was banned in South Africa. His songs stayed on repeat as Nigeria, at great expense, took the leading role amongst African nations in advocating for the end of apartheid and the liberation of black South Africans.

Today, thirty years later, black South Africans are free... Free to kill immigrants from other African countries, with a special emphasis on Nigerians.

Ain't that a bitch?

"Tell My People"
"Fire in Soweto (original version)"

Please wake up.

You want to live in the moon?

I've got an elephantine backlog of entries to put up, so I hope I get the chance to post 'em all this week.

And of course, we will be paying ample tribute to the late Sonny Okosun(s), so stayed tuned for that. As I mentioned before, I had already prepared a tribute post of sorts, surveying his career through the 1970s and 80s, but it hinged on the whole "Help"/Perry Ernest issue.

I'll have to get back to that discussion at some later date as I don't feel like questioning the man's artistic legacy right now. Whether or not he really wrote "Help," he wrote many, many other great songs that continue to resonate in their hearts and souls of those who heard them.

Here is one of them:

Sonny Okosuns - "Revolution"

"Made in Nigeria" Part 6 is up on Boogieheads Radio!

Yes, I stay bigging up Boogieheads because it's one of my favorite podcasts and Obafunkie jR is a really cool dude to boot.

I just started listening to the latest show, which is chock full with that gritty, hard as shit 1970s funk and afrobeat for those of you who find the 80s boogie a bit too rich to digest. So far, so funky... I'm grooving to some of that early, deeply soulful Christiana Essien right now. I notice we got some Tee Mac coming up, and also Founders 15.

Check it out, y'all.