Ganja, palm wine, & high life. I'm gonna dig my time in Nigeria.
Orlando Owoh is a highlife singer, composer, & guitarist.
He was born in the early 1940s in Owo, Oyo
State, Nigeria.
His music career started when Owoh was young. He began playing the bongos with
The Fakunle Major Band in 1960. He moved to Lagos & learned guitar from Fatai Rolling
Dollar. After spending three years fighting in Nigeria's
civil war, Owoh returned to Lagos,
picked up his music career & formed his own group, the Omimah Band. He
recorded his first record in the mid 60s. About this time he decided to play
highlife style. He started a new band called the Young Kenneries. Considered to
be one of the best bands in Nigeria, Owoh & his new band recorded more than
40 LPs. They gained international recognition. For more than four decades,
until shortly before his death in 2008, Owoh's ganja-relaxed voice was a
mainstay of popular culture.
Dr. Ganja’s Polytonality Blues contains four songs
from three earlier Owoh albums: sides from his Omimah Band's 1974 albums Ire
Lowo & Ajo Ko Dun Bi Ile; & two from Owoh & Young Kenneries
Beats International 1981 album Obirin Asiko, reworked in a most
innovative manner. To create a polytonality superior to even that of Stravinsky
or Charles Ives, Owoh has the two guitars & bass tuned in three different
keys. Add to this Owoh’s vocal talents, expert song composition, frenetic
percussion, & torqued guitar genius & you have a unique rendition of
highlife guitar music with massive juju percussion.
Fans of Owoh’s rugged street-style music dubbed his style
‘toye’, which is Yaruba slang for marijuana. Owoh has been called ‘King of
Toye’ & ‘Dr. Ganja’.
This release contains four medleys, four psychedelic
suites/jams.
OrlandoOwoh - Dr. Ganja's Polytonality Blues, Original Music OMCD 035, 1995.
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Tracklist -
Suite 1
- Logba Logba/Edumare Da Mi Lihun/E Se Rere/Prof Oyewole
Suite 2
- Emi Wa
Wa Lowo Re/Alun Gbere Wa De
Suite 3 - Easter Special/Baba Wa Silekin/Obinrin Asiko Lagbo
Suite 4 - Cain Ati Abel/Alhaji T'Oyo Mayan/Omi l'Eman
Chief Stephen Osita
Osadebe is one of the few bandleaders from the 1960s Golden Age of Nigerian
dance band highlife active on the music scene until his death at age 71 on May
11th, 2007. He was born in March 1936 in Atani, near the Igbo
trading city of Onitsha, Nigeria. Osadebe's musical
apprenticeship began with E.C. Arinze's Empire Rhythm Orchestra in the 1950s.
He recorded his first record, Adamma, in 1958 while still with Stephen Ameche's
band. His next recording was Lagos Life Na So So Enjoyment with trumpeter
Zeal Onyiya's band in 1959. Over the years he recorded countless 45s, EPs &
LPs, many on the Philips & Polydor Nigerian affiliates of those labels.
He is ‘Chief’ among
the Nigerian highlife musicians. Osadebe sings, plays piano, & composes
most of his songs.
Sposa 010, 1987.
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Side One – People’s Club of Nigeria (part one)
Side Two – People’s Club of Nigeria (part two)
Here are two great releases by Osadebe, often overlooked in
his discography, because they are cleverly disguised as the work of the 'People
Star in London'.
These were recorded in 1973 at a time when members of Osadebe’s orchestra left
to form Ikenga Super Stars. It was probably released under this alternate name
(Osadebe was the Nigerian People Star) due to a licensing or copyright dispute,
or possibly because these records are pirate recordings. Whatever the reasons behind all
this, these are probably some of Osadebe’s finest material. They contain
stellar jams in Osadebe's trademark style merging highlife, juju, funky
elements, psych, & more.
The People Star in London– Festac Explosion Vol. 1, Emerge EMLP 0001, 1976.
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Side 1 –
Ije Awele
Onwu Dinjo
Side 2 –
Onye Lusia Olie
Van Komesia
The People Star in London– Festac Explosion 77 Vol. 2, Chiemeka Records VOLP 0077, 1977.
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Side A –
Mbaukwu Boys Special
Side B –
Ogomu Egbunam
Ngozy Ka
Meringue Alto
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Ambrose Campbell was born Oladipupo Adekoya Campbell in Lagos, Nigeria
on August 19, 1919. He was the son of a church minister. He started out by
singing in the church choir. In his teens, Campbell
worked as a printer in central Lagos.
He found excitement at night by sneaking out to where palm-wine was sold:
stalls under the moonlight where seamen & servants gathered to sing &
play music, to drink the sweet, cloudy beverage. Coming from places as far away
as Liberia, Guinee, & Cameroun, these
men carried with them diverse cultural traditions. They also brought Western
ideas picked up on their travels. Influences were exchanged & combined as
they played. When he was old enough, Campbell
joined them, singing & playing a tambourine.
Campbell left Nigeria & moved to Liverpool
in the midst of World War II in the early 1940s. He subsequently moved to London where he assembled a band, the West African Rhythm
Brothers, Britain’s
first-ever black band. Campbell sang &
played percussion & gradually learned the guitar (under the tutelage of
Lauderic Canton from Trinidad). He teamed up
with bongo-player Ade Bashorun from Lagos,
guitarist Brewster Hughes, from Ibadan in
Western Nigeria, trumpeter Harry Beckett & reed player Willy Roachford from
Barbados,
& pianist Adam Fiberesima, an Ijo from the Niger delta of Nigeria. The group made its first public appearance in London at the May 1945
celebrations in honor of VE Day. They performed in Trafalgar Square &
Piccadilly Circus as their fellow Londoners celebrated the Nazis’ defeat.
In 1946 the West African Rhythm Brothers toured the U.K. in support of Les Ballets Nègres, Britain’s first
black ballet company. Campbell & his band
played in the jazz venues of London’s West End,
including a club called Abalabi on Berwick
Street in Soho,
which was owned by a fellow Nigerian, Ola Dosunmu. Ola Dosunmu & his
English wife later opened another club on Wardour Street called Club Afrique.
Ambrose & the Rhythm Brothers performed there too.
Ambrose was a celebrated figure in bohemian Soho. His friends & contemporaries included British
jazz greats Ronnie Scott & Johnny Dankworth. Campbell
moved to America
in 1972 where he continued to be involved in music. He performed on Willie
Nelson’s One for the Road. He received a gold disc for his recording.
Campbell returned to the UK in 2004. He settled
in Plymouth. He
died on June 22, 2006 at the age of 86.
Sadly enough, He never received any credit or payment for
his work with the West African Rhythm Brothers. He commented on this during one
of his rare interviews. All he could say was that he felt elated that so many
had been privy to his musical ingenuity. He had no regrets about how millions had
been milked away from his hard work. He believed music was for sharing, not for
selling.
Honest
Jon’s Records HJRLP21, 2006.
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Side A -
West African Rhythm Brothers - We have It in Africa
West African Rhythm Brothers - Oba Adele
Nigerian Union Rhytm Group - The Wind in a Frolic
West African Rythm Brothers - Iku Koni Payin
Ayinda Bakare And His Meranda Orchestra - Ibikunle Alakija
Side B -
West African Rhythm Brothers - Omo Laso
West African Rhythm Brothers - Calabar-O
West African Rhythm Brothers - Emi Wa Wa
Lowo Re
West African Rhythm Brothers - Iwa D'Arekere
West African Rhythm Brothers - Ominira
Side C -
Nigerian Union Rhytm Group - The Memorial of Chief J.K.
Randle
West African Rhythm Brothers - Mofi Ajobi Seyin
Nigerian Union Rhytm Group - Unity
Nigerian Union Rhytm Group - Oratido Soso
West African Rhythm Brothers - Ayami
West African Rhythm Brothers - Oba Ademora II
Side D -
West African Rhythm Stars - Late Ojo Davies
West African Rhythm Stars - Geneva Conference
West African Rhythm Brothers - Ele Da Awa
West African Rhythm Brothers - Aye Wa Adara
West African Rhythm Brothers - Lagos Mambo
West African Rhythm Brothers - Odudua
West African Rhythm Brothers - I Am a Stranger
Enjoy,
NØ