WHAT IT TOOK FOR US TO GET THERE...

2009-03-18T07:40:16-04:00

These days the listener is bombarded with sounds that range from trash which, once played, is forgotten the next moment and the kind of music that, once played, stays forever, it is heard by generations to come.

Well, the truth to tell is that I have been gravitating towards the second kind all my musical life. Equally, everybody who has played with the band, and they were not few, shared the same passion with me, otherwise they didn't stay, after a few sessions they never came back.

To produce what we did, where we did, i.e. in Nigeria, guys, is not at all simple! That's the reason why both me and everyone else in the band are proud that this thing came out of Nigeria. First of all because this kind of music has never been played before in Nigeria and second and equally important, it shows the tremendous talent and potential that Nigerian musicians have. This record is a living proof that Nigeria is capable of producing music as powerful as this, and all of us in the band know that it is powerful because we have given our whole selves in order to make it. Nigeria can produce good music and it does. When one talks of Babatunde Olatunji, of Haruna Ishola, of Sunny Ade, of Fela Kuti, of Orlando Julus, doesn't one talk of Nigeria? How many aeons must pass before the music of these people is forgotten?

But, to come to the crux of our matter, I want to say something about how the CD was produced:
After the rhythm section was set up, and that happened very quickly, although we changed a few drummers, the main problem were the horns and the lead vocals. It took us nearly nine months of rehearsals to finally find the correct musicians for these instruments. Our pain, disappointment and impatience were growing as the time was passing. But nobody thought of abandoning the task. We played Ojotto Village and Latino and Ashake hundreds of times with many different musicians. And all this with daily problems that are non-existent in Europe and America, i.e. little or no electricity, sometimes no water, traffic jams that lasted for four-five hours and musicians who were often unable to come to the rehearsalfo r lack of transport money... I think you get the picture.

I had previously recorded the same CD in New York with some top Afrocuban musicians and wanted to keep the best performances by those musicians and mix them with the new version that was to be recorded in Lagos. When the time drew close to enter the studio there was a general fever, which we could all feel as we were all living together in the same compound. Horns were practicing themes in one side the percussionists were brushing up their skills and the days were filled with music from different sources.

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WHAT IT TOOK FOR US TO GET THERE...