Upcoming Gigs:
6/2/2012 Sol Power Allstars @ ESL
The Sol Power All-Stars:
Stylus.Meistro.Deep Sang
with Hermon Farahi on percussion
The Sol Power All-Stars are bi-monthly residents, 1st Saturdays at Eighteenth Street Lounge in Washington, DC
Booking:
info [at] solpowerdc [dot] com
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Nigerian funk rock BOMBS
Soundway Records just unleashed a one-two-three combination reissue bomb onto the masses. First up is MonoMono’s debut LP, Give the Beggar a Chance from 1972. The title track is the lead track on this here mix and, in my opinion, is the strongest of the set. I scored a copy in Nigeria, and out of about 50 LPs I brought home, it probably gets the most play. A lot of Nigerian LPs have a lot of filler with one or two good tracks, but this LP is front to back tasty afro funk rock goodness. Lots of organ and fuzz guitar. It’s funny — I thought someone drew the little red lightning bolts on my copy. Turns out that’s the original design!
Layipo - MonoMono (VINYL ONLY BONUS TRACK) by Soundway
Next up is MonoMono’s second LP — Dawn of Awareness. I was lucky enough to find a copy of this a few months ago at the DC record fair and goddamn, it cooks. This one is a little more American blues rock oriented, but is still undeniably an African record at its core. Mine has a different cover (but I think I have the South American pressing?). I assume the reissue art is the Nigerian original, but I could be wrong about that.
Finally, we have Joni Haastrup’s solo offering (he was MonoMono’s band leader), Wake Up Your Mind. This LP, from 1978, is a much slicker, polished disco funk affair. I prefer the gritty MonoMono sound, but check this one out for yourself.
Cop all three, on LP, CD, or digitally, (the two MonoMono LPs come with a bonus 12”) over at Soundway Records.
Also be sure to check out this really good interview with Joni Haastrup on PRI’s The World. Joni talks all about the birth of Afro beat, MonoMono and the Nigerian funk scene. So dope!
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Comb & Razor Sound
I told myself I wasn’t going to make another post about another West African comp. But this one is just too dope. The Comb & Razor blog is probably one of the best on the interwebs for information, music videos, and just general entertainment / knowledge about Nigerian disco / funk / R&B from the 70s and 80s. Updates are infrequent, but where else can you find dope Harry Mosco videos from 1980s Nigerian TV? If you know where, please let me know.
Anyhow, the curator of the blog, Uchenna, is an American-born Nigerian. He spent most of the 80s living in Nigeria, and has been back and forth between Naija and Boston for most of his adult life. He was a huge disco fan growing up in Nigeria in the 80s and brings a first-hand point of view to his new comp, Brand New Wayo, that I think many of his competitors’ products lack. Obviously, the music speaks for itself — a good compilation of songs is just that — but it is nice to hear that someone that lived this stuff in its heyday is putting forth the effort to bring his favorite rare releases to light. This is not a dis to all the European and American diggers working hard and honestly to compile and license forgotten tracks from long-forgotten artists — without the Soundways and Struts of the world, who knows if Comb & Razor ever would have released this. But it is nice to see a comp of Nigerian disco compiled, licensed and release by someone that lived it.
Check out a short interview with Uchenna here
And be sure to cop the vinyl here
And check out the title track from the comp and its bad bad break.
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Meistro - Jigawa Groove
I spent the summer and fall of 2009 in Kano, Nigeria working on a reproductive health communication project. I was there obviously to work, but my primary non-work objective was to find some dope Nigerian records. Kano is a huge sprawling city in the far north of the country, near the border with Niger. At one time Kano had a thriving nightlife. In recent years, however, it’s become increasingly conservative and religious (Kano state is one of several in Nigeria that has adopted Sharia). So, there are no real nightclubs, live music, or anything that resembles nightlife at all. In its heyday, however, bands, clubs, and discos were the norm. So I knew there were records there. I just had to find them.
Finding records, never mind playable ones, is difficult in Nigeria. There was (and still is) a very thriving
music industry and lots of records were produced, but today vinyl is pretty much a forgotten medium. Finding a working turntable is very rare. If you are lucky enough to find records, they are usually buried in someones humid storage room. Covered in grime. Exposed to elements. Rotting away. That’s not always the case, and sometimes what looks completely unplayable might just need a little warm water and soap and is good to go. But that’s if you are lucky. More often than not though, what you see is what you get: a scratched up filthy record is just that. An unrestorable piece of recorded history.
I did have some luck though, all in the last few weeks of my stay. My first score was in a tiny cd and DVD shop in Dutse, the captial of Jigawa, Kano’s rural neighbor-state to the north-east. A young guy ran the shop (30?) and for some reason he had a few hundred records, literally collecting dust. I never asked him where he got them, but I assume they were handed down to him, belonged to his parents or something like that. Regardless, he had no interest in holding onto them. I picked up a bunch of nice highlife, some afro-rock, and some reggae. Honestly, I was pretty satisfied with that haul and would have gone home a happy digger if that was it. But there was more. The woman I stayed with in Kano had a sister and brother-in-law who were both famous nightclub dancers back when Kano had anything that resembled a nightlife. One night, over at their house, we got to talking about Nigerian music in the 70s. He showed me his LPs. He didn’t have a ton, but what he had looked great. They were just sitting in his garage and he insisted I take whatever I wanted. He also told me he had “many boxes” of 45s, but sadly could not find them. Oh well. I copped some more afro-rock, some nice disco, and some funk. But again, there was more. The day I WAS LEAVING Nigeria, I went on a 
walk near my house and discovered Ali’s Record Shop. I must have walked by it several times before, but for some reason I never noticed it. Ali had thousands of records. Most were bad American exports, but in between the Herb Albert and Kenny Rodgers, I managed to find, among other things, some Fela, some crazy Nigerian proto-house / techno funk, and some mooged out funk and reggae. Ali knew the time and paid a pretty penny for them, but I was happy to do so. In fact, I left a lot of gems behind and would have spent A LOT more Naira had I discovered Ali earlier in my stay. I could go on and talk about the moral dilemma of digging for records in the developing world, but I think I will save that for another post. It’s time to get to the music.
Long story short: I made a mix of all the bangers. It was on Soul Strut late last year, so it might sound familiar if you frequent that site. Want to hear it? Here is goes:
(edit: to download, click the little arrow on the right side of the player…)
