Joyous juju from the king

August 9, 2009 4:45 PM

Me Le Se and Dance Medley - live clips of King Sunny Ade and his African Beats in Seattle last month just before being inducted into the AfroPop Hall of Fame. More clips from the show ...

More clips from KEXP:
Iyi Ti Odidere Ni
Oluwa No'o Jeun Kan / Sijuade
Mori Keke Kan

Also, hear his 10 minute interview with Jon Kertzer and view a clip from the Afropop Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

In a 2005 interview, KSA talks about how as an actual king in his native Nigeria, he had to defy his family and break with tradition to become a musician. So good he persisted - he and his 20+ band of talking drummers, guitarists, vocalists & dancers were early pioneers in bringing Afropop and juju music to the world at large.

More stuff:
Juju Music - a 4 minute trailer for a documentary, which features KSA among others
Ja Fun Mi (not live) - his signature song, which means "Fight for me"
Afropop - a great resource for African music
nickyskye's awesome post on glimpses of the African Rock n' Roll Years
-You really can't go wrong with surfing any of the africa+music tags on Mefi!

posted by madamjujujive (11 comments total)

Afropop Worldwide streaming radio.

In addition to King sunny Ade, the Afropop Hall of Fame includes Youssou N'Dour, Baaba Maal & Mansour Seck, Oumou Sangare, Habib Koité, Vusi Mahlasela, the Mahotella Queens, Dorothy Masuka, Thomas Mapfumo, Dobet Gnahore, The National Endowment for the Humanities, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, Josh Mailman and Bonnie Raitt.
posted by netbros at 5:01 PM on August 9

Oops, I forget the other 2009 inductees: Harry Belafonte and Angelique Kidjo. And thanks for the post madamjjj.
posted by netbros at 5:08 PM on August 9

Bonnie Raitt?
posted by PenDevil at 6:31 PM on August 9

King Sunny Ade, one of my favorites! What a joyous post.....
posted by caddis at 6:43 PM on August 9

Bonnie Raitt?

I thought that seemed a little odd too, so I did a little poking around. From her Wikipedia entry:

In 1967, Raitt entered Harvard's Radcliffe College as a freshman, majoring in African Studies. "My plan was to travel to Tanzania, where President Julius Nyerere was creating a government based on democracy and socialism", Raitt recalled. "I wanted to help undo the damage that Western colonialism had done to native cultures around the world. Cambridge was a hotbed of this kind of thinking, and I was thrilled."

From an article on Afropop.org:

[Raitt's] new album Silver Lining (Capitol)...has a Zimbabwe connection via its cover of Oliver Mtukudzi's "Hear Me Lord," as well as a Mali connection via Raitt's collaboration with Habib Koite.

That album came out in 2002, so she's been working with African artists and music for at least several years. You learn something new every day.
posted by jedicus at 7:42 PM on August 9

Excellent.

(Showers madamjujujive's forehead with virtual money to thank her for this post).
posted by umbú at 8:01 PM on August 9 [1 favorite]

I realy like the Afropop radio show (on NPR here in Portland), sure for the music but mostly it's the way the host says his name: "Zhosh Goalieinay". He has the most agreeable accent ever.
posted by msalt at 8:10 AM on August 10

Musically, I like his more driving stuff from the 1980s. For example: Synchro System and Tolongo (1984)
posted by msalt at 1:30 PM on August 10

Is that a complete list, netbros? Because the thought of an AfroPop Hall of Fame that doesn't have Hugh Masekela in it is pretty much too horrible to consider.
posted by box at 5:18 PM on August 10

box, I got the info from World Music Central, as of February 4, 2009.
posted by netbros at 5:37 PM on August 10

Jeez, no Hugh Masekela, no Babatunde Olatunji, no Fela Kuti. Who's running this thing?
posted by box at 5:41 PM on August 10