SEGUN ADEWALE AND HIS YO-POP DREAMS

As we make digitally available for the first time some of Sterns Music's first ever releases we take a look back at those exciting times in the early eighties.

Sterns did not have the resources of Chris Blackwell's Island Records, but that did not deter the UK's first fledgeling record label devoting itself to popular African music from throwing everything we did have at the time into the mix. Stunning cover art from Kofi Ankobra, the son of radical white South Africans who grew up in Ghana and had studied art at Oshogbo, Nigeria, coincidentally the birthplace of Segun, and performances in the UK and Europe that were road-managed by Charles Easmon.

Keeping a 21-piece group on the road, comprising musicians who'd rarely been outside of Nigeria let alone to Europe, was a work of art in itself and the stories are legion. Needless to say it couldn't last, and despite the best efforts of Don Bay, Robert Urbanus and Charles at Sterns, it didn't. Nevertheless the two albums that Sterns released from this time – here, for digital release for the first time, each with extra tracks previously unreleased outside of Africa – are a testament to the energy of the times and surprisingly but gratifyingly, sound as fresh today as they did then. With current interest in West African music, it's good to note that at least as regards Nigeria, it hasn't always been “Fela! A New Musical”


In his own words co-founder of Sterns Music Charles Easmon dips into the past and remembers those heady days touring with Segun Adewale:

"Back in the early eighties, Nigerian juju music made its way into the international arena with the 1984 Island Records release of Synchro System by King Sunny Ade. European and US tours soon followed.  Back in Lagos, a new generation of musicians with a harder sound was rising to challenge the masters, King Sunny Ade, Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey, I.K.Dairo, and Prince Adekunle.

First among these was Segun Adewale. Prior to going solo, Segun had started with Adekunle’s band, left with singer Shina Peters to form the highly successful Shina Adewale, and finally split to do his own thing.

On signing with Sterns in 1984, Adewale’s rising popularity at home was due to the development of his own style, which he branded yo-pop (Yoruba Popular Music), a funkier, tougher sound.  In his own words, “ It took me a lot of time to put the new sound together. I studied funk, highlife, reggae, and rock. I was looking for something that could cross all the lines to make my music accepted in other parts of the world. When you don’t understand our language, but can dance to our rhythms, you are doing alright.  But the main thing we do is capitalize on the guitars (6 in all).  We’ve got wicked strings.  And my strikers, they strike bad.” Yo-pop at its best is captured on these 2 albums Play for Me and Ojo Je, re-released by Sterns digitally for the first time in July of 2012.

I had the good fortune to tour manage Segun and his 21-piece band on their first UK tour.  It gave me an insight into the world of juju music. The band was led and musically directed by the lead talking drummer, simply known as Captain, and there was a disciplined hierarchy below him. A guest of honour at our performance at Queen Elizabeth Hall in Edinburgh was the Nigerian Consul to Scotland and the embassy staff.   He came backstage prior to the performance, bearing gifts – a crate of whisky, a crate of brandy, and 6 crates of beer.  The imbibing of the gifts did not start until we were on the bus on our way back to London. Segun himself spent the entire journey fast asleep on the back seat. Meanwhile someone sang a line in Yoruba, someone else started a body beat.   One by one, they all joined in, and kept the singing going all the way to London. On arrival, I asked Segun how he had managed to sleep through it, he said it was no problem and that what I did not realize was that from a spontaneous beginning, a brand new song had been created, that juju music was all about transforming the energy of happiness into music. Sure enough, the new song was played for the first time to the public at our next show.  

Inspiration, spontaneity, fluidity, flexibility, and joy are all in the juju mix, and it is that which gives these classic albums their timeless quality."


Play for Me now available to download on iTunes:
UK US

Ojo Je now available to download on iTunes:
UK US

Moussa Ngom and KSF Productions - Senegal

Moussa Ngom on iTunes US UK

With the international success of Youssou N'Dour, Senegal is well-known as a source for some of the most exciting and creative music that Africa can offer. But beyond the awareness of established stars such as Youssou, Baaba Maal, Ismaël Lô or Thione Seck, what's perhaps less well-understood is just how important to the internal economy and identity of the entire Sene-Gambian region, is its music as a commercial enterprise.

But while Senegal is hailed as one of the most stable nations in Africa, this stability has not meant that its music is immune from the very same problems that beset the industry globally. Producers have flourished and more recently wilted with alarming regularity as they try to keep pace with changing trends and technologies. One of the important record labels which emerged from Senegal’s home-grown music industry was KSF Productions.

The high-point of KSF Productions was probably during the 1990s and in that time they were responsible for some classic and influential recordings that helped forge a unique and proud West African sound. Recordings that, to date and despite their manifest success within the region, have had very little exposure outside.

A perfect example are the two releases from Moussa Ngom, 'Circulation Lamp Fall' and 'Gal Gui’ with which we kick off our exposure of this deep catalogue.

Born in The Gambia, Moussa was already a member of the group Sangamarr in the late 1960s when he was invited by his older brother Laye Ngom, to join Guelewar in the late 70s. Guelawar had picked up the torch of success from Gambia’s Ifang Bondi and with a psychedelic tinge to their music and the scarcity of original legitimate releases, have been ensured cult status amongst today's bloggers and crate-diggers.

But Moussa moved on and the mid-1980s found him in the company of fellow vocalists Momodou Maiga and the magnificent Omar Pene as a member of Super Diamono during perhaps their most dynamic and successful period. History is hindsight and in those days, based on the music alone, it would have been a brave bet that chose between Youssou's Etoile and Omar Pene's Diamono for future international recognition.   

Moussa left Super Diamano in 1988 and courtesy of an anonymous commentator on YouTube we pick up the story around 1995 when:


“Moussa made an historic decision to link up with the Ensemble Lyrique Traditionnel du Senegal. These musicians were the resident traditional orchestra at the National Theatre Daniel Sorano in central Dakar.

The recording featured high resolution digital recordings of some of the best players of traditional instruments in Senegal. No one had heard the bass balafon sounding like this before. It simply blew the whole of Senegal away. Everywhere you went by taxi with the radio on you heard the track Circulation Lamp Fall as you attempted to navigate the 'emboutilage' of the Dakar traffic.

It started a trend for other modern musicians to record in the same traditional style that continues up to the present day as an acoustic counterpoint to the modern electric 'marimbalax' style."

Moussa had begun his career singing the 'kassak' songs performed at traditional male circumcision ceremonies and he once remarked that it was only after returning to this traditional style that he had his first hit, 'Circulation Lamp Fall', on his own ticket.

Today Moussa Ngom's status in Senegal is assured and he has been awarded one of the highest honours in the country, the 'Chevalier of the National Order of The Lion'. Like the more well-known, at least in the West, singer Cheikh Lô, Moussa is also a Mouride or more specifically a 'Baye Fall', a follower of Ibra Fall a.k.a. Lamp Fall ('the light of Mouridism').

Les Baye Fall huile sur toile (c) Mary Baird-Smith

The Mouride are a Sufi brotherhood with their headquarters in Touba a couple of hundred kilometres inland from Dakar, although devoutly Muslim the Baye Fall sect smoke marijuana and can abstain from work just so long as they walk the hot dusty streets chanting praise to Lamp Fall while collecting money for the cause. With their long Rasta-like locks or 'strong hair', wooden bowls for donations and wearing a patchwork of multicoloured cloth known as N'diaxas, they are a visible presence on the streets in Senegal and Moussa reputedly adds to this patchwork by wearing odd shoes. Always the same style, but in contrasting colours.

In another parallel, intentionally or otherwise, of Rastafarianism, Moussa is regarded as a spiritually-inspired musician but with a strong political consciousness. Perhaps there is no equivalent in our popular music of the West, but what is clear is that Moussa Ngom's music is deeply felt, deeply rooted and immensely popular.

Iain Scott with thanks to Paul Hayward & Mark Hudson