How Fela fire me
By SOLA BALOGUN
Friday, July 16, 2004
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King Sunny Ade
Photo by Sun News
Publishing |
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juju meastro, King Sunny Ade remains one of the most talented
singers of indigenous music in Nigeria. He has for many years
carved a nitche for himself in the entertainment world. In
fact, since the evolution of juju music genre in the 1930s,
no exponent has made a more lasting impact in the genre than
King Sunny Ade.
Also known as Minister of Enjoyment or simply KSA, SunnyAde
who was born in Osogbo(Now Osun State capital) in 1946 to
a Methodist clergy actually dropped out of secondary school
and ran to Lagos to start a career in music.
He moved from a highlife band to a show band (Rhythm Dandies)
led by Moses Olaiya (who later became a successful comedian)
after which he was influenced by the then juju sensation,
Tunde Nightingale.
Sunny Ade (Chief Sunday Adeniyi Adegeye) eventually formed
his own band; Green Spots, in 1966 at the age of 20. He started
recording LPs until he ran into a contract case which dragged
him to the Law Court. Following the case, the Juju musician
and guitarist changed his band to African Beats with a new
recording company affliated to Decca Records.
As a singer, composer and guitarist, he has succeeded over
the years in taking juju music to international heights. Below
is an account of KSA’s life and foray into music:
Band
The African Beats usually tours with the typically large African
line-up of 20-30 members. The band members play a spacey,
jamming sort of Juju, characterised by vocal harmonies, intricate
guitar work, backed by traditional talking drums, percussion
instruments, and even the unusual pedal steel guitar and accordion.
First album
Sunny Ade made his first record in 1967, playing the guitar
solos himself. He however, blazed into prominence a year after
with a hit single in praise of Stationery Stores football
club which carved him a gold disc as a result of the massive
sales recorded. Since then, the musician has been in the limelight.
Search for identity
The late 1960s found KSA searching for a credible sound identity
that fused the influence of Tunde Nightingale with the techniques
of his mentor, Moses Olaiya in order to forge his own originality
and direction. Emphasis was therefore placed on melodic exploration,
simple vocal themes and accompaniment based merely on social
commentaries other than clear-cut, definitive tunes.
But it was in the 1970s that KSA really got himself together,
trying to perfect a sense of direction within the juju format.
Attention began to be focused on rhythmic integration, lead
singing began to assume a more defined and aggressive pattern
with such hits as Ekilo fomo ode, Esu biri biri, Nitori awa
wa, some of which were steeped in highlife.
Fela’s influence
In the mid 1970s, I was influenced by Fela Anikulapo Kuti's
Afro beat, evidence of which was prominent in my instrumentation
where the guitars riffed figures that were imitative of the
Afro beat legend's creations. My guitar solos were also affected
as he did not only include the tenor guitar which was Fela’s
concept, but actually lured Fela’s famous exponent of
this instrument, Sony Ohiri into joining his own aggregation
which had metamorphosed from Green Spots to African Beats.
And it was a new development for juju music. A typical Afrobeat
influenced tune from this era was Synchro System which was
predicated mainly on an Afrobeat bass movement aside from
the singing.
Audience’s favourite
By the 1980s, KSA had established a sense of direction and
reached the peak of his performing career with well choreographed
steps and the professional stagecraft that was predicated
on flamboyance and athletic movements.
Fortunately, for KSA, it was at this peak of his career that
his popularity was tested and proved by a hit parade that
was conducted by Research and Marketing Services Limited for
Radio Nigeria 2, the then leading FM Station in the country.
Ade often topped the Nigerian social music category of this
chart with such hit albums as Afefe yeye, Check E, Searching
for my Love, Juju Music among others.
Juju music before and now
When I met juju music, musicians were still sitting down,
with instruments arranged in front. I found it hard because
I knew people were not getting full value for their money.
So I started standing and dancing. I moved the instruments
backwards to allow the audience enjoy their money and gave
my boys a microphone each to dance and sing. At that time
too, they were playing only one guitar. I increased mine to
two, three, four, five and presently six. I dropped the use
of the accordion and introduced keyboards, the manual jazz
drum and now the electronic jazz drum. I introduced the use
of pedal steel otherwise known as Hawaian guitar, increased
the percussion aspect of the music, added more talking drums,
introduced computer into juju music and de-emphasised the
use of high tone in the vocals.
By1982 when Sunny Ade signed on with Island Records as a result
of attracting international audience, he was perhaps the biggest
natural phenomenon on the Nigerian music scene where massive
record sales kept him at the top of the charts. With the release
of the album Juju Music, KSA was launched onto the Western
pop scene, and his presence generated the kind of buzz associated
with a big star. He was presented as a Yoruba prince and referred
to as king.
His musicians called him chairman.
Coping with many singers, guitarists and drummers
It's more or less like a father and his children. It's like
they got used to me and we all got used to one another. When
we are in the studio, we always have the feeling that we're
playing for the audience on the stage. So it's like a family
unit. So it's not really that difficult.
It's only difficult when we used to do songs for a long stretch,
like for 20 minutes. If you make a mistake in between, you
have to come back and start all over again! But it's very
simple when you do a song for three minutes, four minutes
or seven minutes. Here, if you make a mistake, you can repeat
it or overdub it or start all over again.
Career as a percussionist
Yes, I started with percussion. At the age of seven, I would
like to follow my mother to church and they had some percussions
there where they would play traditional music. I always liked
to be in between those people playing percussion. From there,
I started touching the drums. My mother and family didn't
want me to do that though. Occasionally, I would go there
and I was very small among the percussionists then. So what
I did was to make sure some people would be covering me so
when my mother would look back, I would try to dodge her.
Someone would be in front of me like a human shield. My father
was a real slow, careful man, doing everything in a deliberate
way, even moving a chair. But that didn't go with the kind
of music I wanted to play. I wanted people to SWEAT. When
he died, only my mother could stop me. So I would explain
to her, 'this is the world that I want to chose. Let me go.
'
Luckily for me, I went down to another town with my brother
to places where they played music. They didn't know me there
so I was more or less like a band member. When I left school
in 1962, I left Osogbo in Western Nigeria for Lagos. In Lagos,
I joined a group in which I presented myself as a student.
When I started playing percussion, everybody was so happy.
They said it was better that I joined the group except for
the fact that I was very small. I was then 17 years old but
I told them I was 19 and a half. From there, I started playing
until I taught myself how to play the guitar. I later graduated
from band-boy to the leader of a group.
Becoming a musician
In the Western part of Nigeria, we have our cultural heritage
and many dances, traditional music and various sounds. Having
hailed from a royal family, we used to organise a festival
during Easter holidays. By that time, you can't say you're
a Christian or a Muslim. You have to play all kinds of music.
People were always interested in hearing different kinds of
music. From there, you feel like 'I want to learn how to play
percussion' because with percussion, you can play for people
to dance without any other instrument.
Also, there are traditional musicians like I.K. Dairo and
in America, we have James Brown, Brook Benton and Jim Reeves.
Those are people whose records were so common and popular
in Nigeria then. I had to think that I had no other world
than the world of music. That was what led me to becoming
a musician.
From band boy to band leader
Actually we more or less followed the steps of the previous
bands and people like I.K. Dairo. We were copy cats until
we were trying to find our own way. The first thing I did
at that time was to change the tuning of my guitar, from the
normal chord to open chord. I had to find my own name in different
music. From there, we put in more percussion to our own kind
of juju. The way I sing, I believe is quite different from
the way other musicians do. So when we started playing, they
asked 'What music is this?' Then we said 'Sunny Ade and his
Green Spot Band.' 'Oh, it's nice, can I hear more?' That's
how we came up with
what we do and people began to show appreciation.
Family and my career
None of my family members wanted it. But as the son of a man
who played the organ and a family who knows about music, it's
a heritage. So I believe so in some parts but in other parts,
I remained a rebel to the family. They didn't want me to play
music at all and that I was not supposed to play music. But
I just don't know what else I can do. I only believe in playing
music.
Influence of highlife
I would say that highlife and juju music are more or less
like friends or cousins. In my kind of music, I make sure
all kinds of music are fused together. In the world, you can
find any kind of music in my music. It's just that I sat down
to create and when you hear it, no matter what kind of music
you can think about, you will still have the feelings within
that band. Really, the aim is to send this particular music
to the whole world and let everybody have the same feeling.
But the music is very unique. When I'm playing it, I feel
happy. When people hear it, you'll see them dancing. That's
why a lot of people prefer to dance and dance always. It's
like non-stop, (laughs). I really like the music myself and
believe that (other) people do too.
Use of vibraphones, steel guitars and synthesizers
When I introduced vibraphone and xylophone, it was like returning
to the olden days. But you can't get the original (instruments)
unless you go to those people who have made it for a long
time. Then when you get it, it's too delicate to carry about.
What I do is to find an instrument to sound exactly like that,
then I introduce it into the music. When you talk about the
pedal steel, it's more or less like an African violin. That's
how it sounds like. We introduced that kind of violin before.
Then we introduced bass. A bass guitar is more or less like
a thumb piano from the old days, in a box with some metal
on top. A bass can play that so what's the use of carrying
the boxes all around? On the keyboards, my sisters introduced
accordion into it, which is almost what I can get from other
keyboards over here.
On Fela Anikulapo-Kuti
Fela Kuti was a legion in his own right. A master of his music.
Also,he was a good friend of mine, including his family. I
really don't know why he chose me as one of his best friends
among other musicians. Before his death, he used to come to
my house. But he was the kind of musician who used politics
in his music. But that was the only area where we disagreed-
he was a politician and I am not a politician. But we were
good friends.
Other musicians
With other musicians, I am also friendly with them. I am the
first President of Nigerian Musicians way back in 1982. Up
to this moment, I am sitting as Chairman of the Advisory Council.
Currently, I am the chairman of the Musical Co-operative Society
of Nigeria. I am the Patron of the Juju Bandleaders' Association.
I believe that we are always working towards the progress
of the music. Above all, I served as president of Performing
Musicians Employers Association of Nigeria (PMAN).
Nigerian music
I would say that when my music was accepted in Europe and
America, I was more or less seen like a pioneer. So people
were coming into Africa and Nigeria to make sure that the
music was being exported to the Western world and to Europe
and beyond. That's part of the changes.
People travel all over the world with their kind of music
to feel other parts of the world and to come back home. On
a daily basis, new music emerge and musicians too are springing
up in different parts of the world. People who come to Nigeria
looking for music will get more than enough because nearly
every home or town has people playing a different type of
traditional music. We have more than 300,000 different types
of music in Nigeria. It depends on the type of music you want
and if a recording company would be ready to expose them.
It's like having a sugar to a coffee or a tea.
Goals
First of all, I have the King Sunny Ade foundation, which
has been established in Nigeria. I believe that I can hook
the whole world together with this foundation, helping under-priveleged
people and helping them get work. We have a school of music
and a school of drama. That is what I'm going to do. As it
is, we're sending our music around the whole world. I believe
that I am one of the pioneers and I know that for any other
music coming after me, it is going to be easier for them to
penetrate (the market) because as you are talking to me, you
are aware of where my music comes from and who I am. |
