May 14/06
Highlife and the ballet
I have to be in the right kind of mood to listen to highlife. Drunk on palm wine? Yeah, bring it on. Earphones in, on a beach, sipping a coconut? Absolutely. Slightly hung-over late Sunday afternoon with a glass of Chablis after some modern ballet? Fuck yeah.
Old-time Benn loxo listeners know the deal about highlife, so I won’t bore you with too many details. The genre is still enormously popular both in and outside of Africa. It’s easy to see why; its laid-back rhythms, simple melodies and happy feel give it a universal good-vibe quality.
Highlife music makes me think about my friend Dulue in Lagos, Nigeria. When I was but an African music pup I would pepper him with questions about Nigerian music. He’d lean-back and his eyes would glaze-over as he remembered his highlife music past: Jim Lawson, Celestine Ukwu, Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe… These are some of the older kings of the genre, while more contemporary highlife musicians usually just copy the music of the elders. That’s fine by me since the sound ages well. If I play some hard-core fuji to my kids in 10 years, however, they might look at me kinda funny.
Today’s track comes off one of the stronger highlife compilations out there, The Kings Of Highlife, put together by Wrasse Records. It’s a good survey of 1960s and 70s highlife music from Nigeria and Ghana. Paulson Kalu from today’s pick is an Igbo from Nigeria who played with the best of them during the golden age of West African highlife music. If you like what you hear you can get some of his albums at Stern’s.
Have a nice, lazy Sunday.
Tags: ghana, highlife, nigiera
May 15th, 2006 at 10:44 am
Hey Matt, that’s some great selection…I mean Paulson Kalu. I consider Okwudili his best ever, both in terms of the sounds and the lyrics. He says stuff like the rich man won’t let the poor man be; when the poor dies the rich is happy; but when the rich dies the poor starts wailing for them. Okwudili means let the judgment be with God.
May 24th, 2006 at 9:39 am
Thanks for the clip, Paulson Kalu is fantastic. I can listen to this relaxing Igbo highlifemusic for hours and Paulson Kalu is one of my favourites. He continued to play great music till the 90s, I just wished more of his music was available.
A question which maybe your friend Dulue can answer: Are there contemporary highlifemusicians in Nigeria who still play this kind of music?
May 29th, 2006 at 6:29 am
I loved !!!!!
May 29th, 2006 at 3:17 pm
Great post as ever. I’m hosting Oscar Sulley’s Bukom Mashie right now, giving you a belated mention -keep up the great work…
June 8th, 2006 at 6:42 am
I understand the passionate listeners of this music have aquired a taste of my cultures and heritage’s music and rhythm, although I must suggest that the language used to address the nature of this music be more thorough and respectful as if not for these artists Nigeria has graced upon us, most styles of music featured in the western world would be non-existent.
Bless you all, this music has brought tears in my eyes in rememberance of my late father who used to play this music to me from when I was little.
Bless you with respect and sincerity from my soul.
Chiedozie Anyaogu
August 18th, 2006 at 2:10 pm
Was really nice going thru the post.As a matter of fact, just chanced into this site as i listened to this great highlife artiste.Was curious getting to understanding his background better.This gave me a little insight.