Sonny Okosuns: Ozi di from the Mountain Top

The outbreak of war had obviously slowed down pub-crawlers and nightlife in Lagos; and, with Igbo performing artists - Zeal Onyia, Rex Lawson, Celestine Ukwu, pop groups like the Attractions, Fractions and several other Igbo session men - who had fled Lagos back to the East, the entertainment industry of a highly themed vibes of Igbo casts disappeared and with constant blackouts as a result of the war, music and night life was minimized with Victor Olaiya, Bobby Benson, Roy Chicago and others of Yoruba origin who played occasionally.

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Q & A Interview With Elemi J. E. Agbomi

Born to ElderEmin Agbomi Ekoro and Mae Jane Ipam Agbomi Ekoro, practicing physician Elemi John E. Agbomi sits in his studio making beats with Reason and I had to catch up with him at the DEJEA Music Production while he was checking out series of his unpublished songs.

Excerpt:


You were trained in the medical field and some other areas in academia. How about some history regarding your background?

My name is Elemi John Emin Agbomi, also known as Dr. Jeeb Fabro. I was born in Adadama, Cross River State, Nigeria. I received my bachelor's degrees - BA in Physics, and BS in Biology from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock; my master's degree, MS in Operations Management from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and my doctorate degree in Medicine, MD, from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. I did my residency at Westside Family Practice and clinical practice at Akron General Medical Center. I have for over 10 years also been involved with teaching in colleges and universities in the areas of medical sciences - Medical Terminology, Human Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology, - and Management Studies in Ohio and California. I have also offered Management Consulting services to area businesses.

Any community service since you moved to California?

Yes. I have been involved in health awareness preventive workshops and educational seminars in the wake of the AIDS epidemic. I also served as a California Precinct Captain in the Barack Obama Campaign for president of the United States of America in 2008.

I'm quite sure, one day you got up and made up your mind to start recording and producing music. How did it all began?

Hailing from a family of musically talented parents and siblings, and in the past serving as a chorister in church choirs, I became a prolific producer, singer/songwriter with an extensive repertoire of yet unpublished songs. I am versed in the “sentimental songs” of the 80's and 90's or earlier era which have reinforced my love for diverse music and my talent as a producer, singer/songwriter. I hope to harness my various expertise in the furtherance of the mission of my foundation, in order to foster the empowerment of the less privileged, and ensure their achievement of self-subsistence; also in advancing an Entertainment Group which will be producing music that captivate the emotion, stimulate the intellect, entertain and heal.

What is your foundation?

My foundation is called DEJEA Foundation USA, Inc. It is a non-profit organization with a mission geared toward development of impoverished rural communities, especially in Nigeria.

Why are you making music just now?

I am a "young" or "new" artist; young only in the music industry sense that I'm just starting out and such is the proper address to neophytes of the trade. However, my passion for making good music isn't. It is almost as a birthright, which is only now surfacing! Also, I am a medical doctor whose passion for making good music is as intense as good medicine, if not over-riding! My present thrust is thus, the making of good soul-searching music that will hopefully, heal the "broken hearted".

How about the song book?

I have for over five years (since 2003) amassed over two hundred (and growing!) thought-provoking, mind-soothing songs - a repertoire that will undoubtedly placate even the traditionally hard-to-please audiophile! The work will be copyrighted in a song book titled: The Elemi Song Book" (I will keep you informed in my newsletter page when the book is completed). The book will not include the tunes; that is reserved for the yet unpublished CDs, which I hope to release periodically depending on the response I get from you, indicating your level of satisfaction. My approach is a bit different. These songs will be organized into need-specific album categories ranging from inspirational/contemplative to endearment/infatuation romance. So that when you are in a certain state of emotional need, you could find an album that will contain only hit songs which would satiate your immediate cravings!

Let's talk about your new CD "Take The First Step".

The album is really making a buzz as a motivational, soulful contemporary R&B album featuring up-tempo celebratory tracks such as "Celebrate The Passing Of Freedom Torch (to President Barrack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden); Celebrating the Legacy Of A King (a tribute to the Dr. Martin Luther King's dream); "Let's Take Time Off To Celebrate," among others. The ten track, 70-minute album with songs written, composed and produced by me, is replete with lyrics that are quite thought-provokingly soulful and reminiscent of sentimental songs of the 80s and 90s or earlier, with soothing contemporary beats that lend themselves to easy listening ballroom dancing and nightclub grooving. The themes of these songs are based on contemporary events with an artistry that seamlessly blends the tracks into a coherent album, much akin to a good story or play with suspense, scenes and plots.

Any favorite of the tracks?

I would say all the tracks are favorites but to answer your question "Take The First Step," would be the one to pick.

And what does the lyrics say?

It's a treatise applauding and motivating anyone who is looked upon with hope, for some kind of redemption or rescue in tough times, and portrays such a character as a "Hope Superstar of Change" or a "Superhero." In the context of gloomy economy, it seemed codign for people to anticipate a panacea as characterized by the tone, response and outcome of the 2008 U.S presidential elections. The public generally want to confide in a superhero, whom in fictions, is seen as being able to afford a solution to their predicament.

Pop Culture Revolution

The Queen’s English is no longer relevant with today’s generation as a result of cultural shift. It has been way gone, resurfacing in what has evolved over time to this present, twisted generation. The new millennia generation and a technology that’s doing stuff; stuff nobody could have imagined would be happening as everything about culture changed.

But however, the Queen’s English is still valid to the so-called old guard intellectuals, and nobody cares – the “kids” changed all that, and it seems to be good, going with the flow.

In the late sixties, when all that swinging began to wane, when people no longer wanted the kind of tune that was “flying,” flying wasn’t used back then, and they had called for something different which made soul and R & B producers go with the flow as they wanted to groove all night long, and feeling it’s right and becoming the trend, recording studios changed their “gear” and format on how to produce a music the people would like. In soul, the Black Moses, Isaac Hayes brought in the street jargon putting “Groove On” and “Right On” into perspective in an era everybody just wanted to groove on and do their own thing:

If the music makes you move
And you dig the groove
Groove on, groove on
If you feel like making love
All night and you think
It’s right
Right on, right on

So, too, was R&B, reggae, ska, jazz and a little bit of funk which had a blend of the horns, serving the purpose when everybody wanted to have a good time, party and dance all night long.

But the problem, as the seventies breezed in, some of the music producers wanted to make money just pretty much so, resulting to commercializing every song being written to conform to recording companies’ standards and overheads. Folks in the hippie era really wanted to dance and there were long plays (LP), the kind of cuts not regularly seen but a tiny fraction which made some impacts on how recording companies helped bring up an era that would gradually change with time.

Early seventies songs made a whole lot of sense from its lyrics which depicted an era that started the cultural revolution through it’s defiance to the establishment and by its poetic lyrics everybody danced to. Starting with Berry Gordy Jr. who founded Motown and assembled all sorts of casts – songwriters, singers, producers, composers, and of course, arrangers – music changed as the new decade began. Every major act in Motown went through the same path with the exception of one group, the only white band that played gigs at Detroit pubs as Sun Liners, signing to Motown as Rare Earth with the rights to its own label. Back then, the lyrics were all in somewhat Standard English and made sense; unlike the evolution after that era which created funk entombed into disco, which swept across the continent, creating impacts wherever it breezed in.

And Rare Earth’s recordings as the only all white group led by drummer and vocalist Pete Hoorelbeke, was a fast-paced debut album “Get Ready,” which every recording artist at Motown had agreed to cut, indicating the beginning of a new era in the language of music. The mode of Rare Earth was something really different from the rest of the Motown class – Marvin Gaye, Jackson 5, The Miracles, The Supremes, Commodores, Edward Holland, Brenda Halloway, Martha Reeves, The Marvelettes, David Ruffin, Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers, Jr. Walker & The All Stars, Mary Wells, Stevie Wonder, Syreeta White, Thelma Houston, Eddie Kendricks, The Pointer Sisters, Billy Preston, The Spinners, The Undisputed Truth, Toe Fat and several others – Rare Earth had a pattern that attracted its own audience when everybody was dancing to that Long Play, “Get Ready.”

Rare Earth vibes would change a lot during this era; even when heavy metal invented by the British group, Deep Purple, began to crossover for the American audience coupled with their European and Australian counterparts that rocked American arenas in an amazing form.

Angus Young and his brother’s-led AC/DC, Rick Springfield and Little River Band from the Aussie corner; while John Lord, Ian Pace, Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore who continually bragged of wiping the floor anywhere, anytime with his guitar of a metallic Deep Purple, Queen, Led Zeppelin; the Irish group Thin Lizzy, rocked the American shores in mixes of heavy metal “contests” with its American counterparts – Aerosmith, Boston, Bad Company and a cast of the devil followers as it was then known.

This whole thing spread across the African continent, too, a rhythm in which the local folks also wanted to dance until dawn. Many popped up –Bonga (Angola), Super Eagles (Gambia), Alhaji Bai Konte (Gambia), E.T. Mensah (Ghana), Rail Band (Mali), Dark City Sisters (South Africa), Assagai (South Africa), Orchestra Baobab (Senegal), Francis Bebey (Cameroon), Thu Zahina (Congo), Prince Nico Mbarga (Nigeria), Fela Kuti (Nigeria), Sunny Ade (Nigeria), Hugh Masekela (South Africa), Miriam Makeba (South Africa), Osibisa (Ghana), Independence Matata (Kenya) and several others – in adaptation.

What had happened here, on the African coast, was that, just like everybody wanted to dance and have fun all night long, a revolution had to be in place by adapting a pattern from a collective of the West, combining it with African traditional beats and the coinage of all kinds of music genres – afro beat, kora, ikwokirikwo, juju, afro rock, highlife, ogene and imports from the Cuban music craze which swept the continent and adapting the ideals of cultural heritage.

And so the various music genres became an adaptation to commerce, ways to make and spend money by throwing parties, marriage ceremonies, and the artists signing with record labels as its folkloric core. This same kind of core was what had begun in the studio at Detroit of a series of labels that popped up at Motown – Tamla, VIP, Gordy, Soul, Natural Resources, MoWest, Manticore, Rare Earth, etc. – and Rare Earth had its own record label when Tom Baird joined the crew in production which led to the album “One World” and “Willie Remembers.” Both albums did pretty well. But prolific producer, composer and arranger, Norman Whitfield had to reverse the Rare Earth trend switching back to the Motown record label in the production of a classic Motown album, “Ma,” which made Motown a game anyone could join; but to win, you had to prove you weren’t just anyone; and the Norman Whitfield-Barrett Strong duo proved it as Motown Records and its subsidiaries began to explode.

“Tobacco Road” became an anthem and what Rare Earth had released three years earlier showed how lifestyle was sweeping all across America:

I was born in a bunk
My mama died, my daddy got drunk
He left me here to die alone
In a lane called Tobacco Road

And the Temptations’ “Papa Was A Rolling Stone,” another simply read lyric as lines of poetry depicting the hippies seventies’ lifestyle in urban America:

It was the third of September
That day I’ll always remember, yes I will
‘cause that was the day that my daddy died
Never had a chance to see him, no
Never heard nothing
But bad things about him
Mama, I’m depending on you
to tell me the truth,
Mama just hung her head and said:

“Papa was a rolling stone
wherever he laid his hat was his home
and when he died
all he left us was alone…”

Alcoholism and abandonment like “Tobacco Road” and “Papa Was A Rolling Stone,” even as throw downs on the men abandoning their responsibilities during and after a catastrophic Vietnam, most of these folks had come back confused due to the effects of the war.

But as it happened, the confusion would pass and another era would be ushered in, even as it would bear the same resemblance of the late sixties into the early seventies when some “badass cats” popped up at Philadelphia. These were just “cool cats,” the magnificent duo of songwriters-composers-producers, Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff which brought out some cool stuff from The Sound Of Philadelphia (TSOP). The Philly Sound brought a hell of music – superb producers Gene McFadden and John Whitehead; singers Thom Bell, Linda Creed, Norman Harris, Dexter Wansel, Billy Paul, Lou Rawls, The Stylistics, Sharon Paige, Teddy Pendergrass – some cool stuff that changed every concept in music of that era. And on the Eastside of a post-civil war Nigeria, rock bands emerged, too: Funkees, Apostles, One World (Ani Hofner’s Otu Uwa), Strangers (Bob Miga), Aktion 13, Wrinkars Experience, Founders 15, Heads Funk, Doves, Wings (Spud Nathan), Sokie Ohale, Jerry Boyfriend, Black Children, and numerous others keeping the vibes alive and going with the flow adapting to change, and we danced all night long.

Today, emerged is all sorts of street jargons that relates to a new generation changing every aspect of language which did evolve to a whole lot of stuff, chiefly, on how we communicate. “Dope,” “tight,” “fly,” “all right,” “jamming,” “cool,” "chilling," "dawg," “bomb,” “crazy,” “feel,” and things like that are no longer street jargons but a way of effective communication in today’s world. Just like “cool” once meant something specific back in the day in jazzy tunes, appealing and profoundly generated specifically for unique standards of jazz music, is no longer the same. “Cool” now could be I’m fine, I’m doing well or it could be better as the case may be in whatever way this new generation wants it. It is now definitely their call.

The game had changed and the improvised public drunkenness in lyrics paved way for something “mellow” which in its class would lead into something acceptable as a way of being just “cool.” People wanted love and some kind of melodic tune when the class at Philly Sound and elsewhere in urban America started changing the vibes to lyrics that conforms to the day – love, hate and broken hearts. All across America, the love songs and broken hearts came strong. Pendergrass, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, O’Jays, Jimmy Bo Horne, KC & The Sunshine Band, Donna Summer, Hot Chocolate, Betty Wright, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, and even the classic rock tone of Kim Carnes had America falling in love again; with touches and touches of love tunes. You can hear it and feel it from “Sexy Thing,” “When Somebody Loves You Back,” “Do Your Thing,” “Rock Your Baby,” “Without You,” and a cast of love tunes from the numerous record labels all across America. For instance, the following line was about love, love and broken heart and America was up singing, dancing and having a good time:

Don't leave me this way
I can't survive, can't stay alive
Without your love, oh baby
Don't leave me this way, no
I can't exist, I'll surely miss your tender kiss
Don't leave me this way
(A broken man with empty hands
Oh baby please, don't leave me this way)
Aaah baby, my heart is full of love and desire for you
Now come on down and do what you gotta do
(Now come on girl and do what you gotta do)
You started this fire down in my soul
Now can't you see it's burning out of control
Come on (now) satisfy the need in me
Only your good lovin' can set me free...hey
Don't, don't you leave me this way, no
Don't you understand I'm at your command

And in between the love songs that overwhelmed the dance floors, there was another cast of musical genre which popped up and changed the way we danced. It was called funk, and the funk had varieties which rocked planet Earth. Although, there was the blending of soul, R&B and jazz which created funk in the mid seventies, evolving from tunes of the Minister of New, New Super Heavy Funk, the Godfather of Soul, Mr. James Brown; George Clinton came up with what would be known as “Pure Funk” with cats like Bootsy Collins, Phil UpChurch and the rest, which got America dancing. And America never stopped dancing. Lionel Richie in his solo act chipped in blending Caribbean, Cuban and some African juice when he asked America to keep dancing all night long:

Well my friends, the time has come
To raise the roof and have some fun
Throw away the work to be done
Let the music play on…play on…
Everybody sing, everybody dance
Lose yourself in wild romance
We’re going to party, karamu, fiesta, forever
Come and sing along
All night long (all night)…
People dancing all in the street
See the rhythm all in their feet
Life is good, wild and sweet
Let the music play on…play on
Feel it in your heart and feel it in your soul
Let the music take control…



Before this dancing, love-hate relationship was about to be going down in urban America, West Bronx, New York native, DJ Kool Herc had begun to find the break infinitely, thus the origin of rap music by cueing up two turntables, playing the other when the break ends on one, and the language definitely changed becoming an opening act that would change standard English the way we knew it. Then we saw "Rapper's Delight" and names like Big Bank Hank, Wonder Mike, Master Gee and the first hip hop single to become a top 40 hit. Henceforth, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Cav, Kurtis Blow, Sequence and a cast of rappers would follow.

The language changed.

Expectedly, it had been presumed rap music would look like its opposite, an unmeaning, unintelligible rock lyrics, rap proved its worth in a generation that changed the ways and means of music. Like this Jay-Z’s “Renegade" album which includes an appearance by Eminem:

Now who is the king of these rude
Ludicrous, lucrative lyrics
Who could inherit the title
Put the youth in hysterics
Using his music to steer it
Sharing his views and his merits
But there is a huge interference
They are saying you shouldn’t hear it
Maybe it’s hatred I spew
Maybe it’s food for the spirit
Maybe it’s beautiful music I made
For you to just cherish
But I’m debated, disputed, hated
And viewed in America
As a motherfuckin’ drug addict
Like you didn’t experiment?

What’s next? With this kind of music that tends to be changing the way we spend our time with this new generation of ‘you feel me’ where are we heading to? And now that rappers are continuing to make meaningless songs, and some writing and singing about the death of rap, is it now over and will we be going back to old school?: the kind of stuff Gamble, Huff, Strong, Whitfield, Dick Griffey, Leon Silvers, Smokey Robinson, Creed Taylor all made? We’ll see and time will definitely tell.

"You feel me?"

The World Ends: A Conversation with African Music Archivist Uchenna Ikonne

By Oscar Paul Medina, The Hydra

As the counter-cultural movement reached its apex circa 1967 in San Francisco with swarms of people preaching peace, love, communal living, psychoactive drugs and “dropping out,” there was a similar revolution commencing in Nigeria that had nothing do with good vibes, wearing flowers in your hair, or communing with New Age mantras. Nigeria was in the midst of a brutal civil war that would end up spanning over two years and extinguish over three million lives in the process. “The World Ends” is the newest compilation of African psychedelic music released on Soundway Records that gives voice to the renaissance of music that occurred after that savage period in Nigerian history. I interviewed Uchenna Ikonne, the man who has been tracking down the music from this turbulent era, and we got to speaking about the apoliticism of the post-civil war generation, Fela as a proto-Kanye West, and some of his favorite records off the comp.

Hydra: How did you come across all the records/knowledge that are contained in the compilation? Could you relate 1 or 2 interesting stories in the process of finding these records?

Uchenna: That’s a bit of a tough question. I wish I could share with you picaresque adventures about discovering this music but I don’t think that journey has been all that interesting. I was born in the 1970s and while I was too young to have ever been a part of this scene, I grew up in the shadow of it, hanging around older guys and trying to decipher their reminiscences of the music they had rocked to in the seventies. For some reason, those memories stuck with me for years even as this music was forgotten by the masses and maybe about ten years ago I started trying to actively collect some of these lost records.

That led almost organically to me trying to document the history of the musicians who made these records and the world that influenced them. So I started doing a lot of research. I spent almost a year crisscrossing Nigeria, tracking down these guys, many of whom had quit the music game decades ago; some of them didn’t even remember the records I was talking about because this was several lifetimes ago for them. They were pretty flabbergasted, some of them, that these old records were remembered at all, let alone being appreciated by a new audience overseas.

Hydra: You say that the Nigerian army was instrumental in providing the necessary resources for these young musicians to access instruments. Could you explain how politics played a role in the music itself? I know that the music showcased in this comp is after a heavy civil war, so I wonder if the musicians were trying to escape the political realities that they had just experienced through music, or did they use the music to expand and understand their communal experience of civil war?

Uchenna: The musicians themselves were largely apolitical— like 99% of young guys who join bands anywhere in the world, they mostly just wanted to have fun hanging out with their friends, playing the music they loved, and meeting girls. But I suppose there was a subtle political component to the music. The majority of the bands that recorded during this period came from eastern Nigeria, the part of the country which had until recently been the secessionist state of Biafra, which was the primary theater in which the war had unfurled as Nigeria fought to re-absorb Biafra into the union. By the end of the war, the previously-rich region had been left devastated—physically, economically, and spiritually. Most of the indigenes had lost family members and all their possessions, and while everybody was glad the horror of the war was over, the current reality was still pretty harsh. Many of the survivors of the war testify that the music was a means of escape that really kept their spirits up.

Hydra: What are your top 3 songs from the compilation and why?

1. “Somebody’s Gotta Lose or Win” by The Hygrades: I like the rollicking, deep rhythm & blues feeling on this. The Hygrades were led by Goddy Oku—a veteran of The Postmen, who were the first rock & roll band in the Eastern region of Nigeria—and he retained a lot of that old school sensibility. So even though most of the performances of the 1960s Nigerian rock & pop bands might be lost to time because so few of them got the chance to record, this track provides some insight into what they sounded like.

2. “Deiyo Deiyo” by The Hykkers: The Hykkers were also one of the groups from Nigeria’s forgotten 1960s rock & roll heyday; in fact, they were probably the first pop band in the country. They were known primarily as TV stars who appeared on a weekly show, playing mostly Beatles covers, so the wild, psychedelic sound they display on this record was a major change of pace for them. Actually, it was a change for the scene as a whole since it was one of the earliest records in this psych-fuzz style.

3. “Blacky Joe” by P.R.O. (People Rock Outfit): I love the rich, emotive vocal tone of the singer Stoneface Iwuagwu on this rock ballad. A lot of times when people talk about African music, the emphasis is always on rhythm and uptempo bootyshaking, but the truth is that what most Africans (and especially Nigerians) are really into is saccharine melodies and sentimental ballads. Of course, there’s also a pretty wild guitar freakout at the end of the song to justify its inclusion on a compilation dedicated to psychedelia.

Hydra: You talk about Fela in the notes and I thought it was interesting that you made Fela out to be an opportunist, which frankly didn’t surprise me. How do you think the youth of that time viewed him and his music? Were they trying to break free from Fela and his influence, much like how the Sex Pistols wanted to destroy the Beatles/ Pink Floyd? Perhaps my example is a bit abrasive, but what I would like to know is if the musicians of the scene were in a way tired of Fela and what he represented. If they did in fact continue to revere Fela and hold him in high esteem, could you explain why?

Uchenna: There was no time for them to be tired of Fela or what he represented because what Fela represented at that time was actually considered quite fresh and state-of-the-art. Even though he had been on the scene since the early sixties, his music had been considered a bit too avant-garde and as a result he hadn’t experienced much in the way of major success until the single “Jeun K’oku (Chop & Quench)” was released at the end of 1970—around the same time as the rock explosion. And what made that record unique from all of Fela’s previous output was the fact that it was produced like a rock record.

At that point, Fela had been referring to his music as “afrobeat” for a few years, but up until then it was little more than a theoretical genre tag looking for a sound to attach itself to. The funk-rock edge of “Jeun K’oku” functioned as the roux that coalesced Fela’s highlife and jazz influences and finally gave afrobeat the backbone and musculature it had thus far lacked. It very quickly became the best selling record in Nigerian music history and its phenomenal success served as a major impetus for EMI Records to not only sign more rock acts (who had been ignored by all the major labels up until then) but also to urge them to develop a more overtly “afro” sound rather than merely aping Western styles. So even though he hailed from the previous generation, Fela was—obliquely—a godfather of the afro rock scene. Of course, the young rockers probably didn’t aspire to emulate him directly: coming from a jazz background, his music was primarily horn-based while these young guys were more interested in electric guitars and organs. But even Fela himself soon traded his trumpet for an electric organ, an instrument intimately associated with rock music.

As for whether the respect between Fela and the rock musicians was mutual, it’s hard to say for sure what he truly thought about them. In general, it’s hard to tell what he thought about any musician other than himself, really. Like a lot of ego-driven genius-types, Fela liked to give the impression that the only music he had ears for was his own. He sometimes spoke glowingly of certain foreign musicians, but it was rare for him to comment positively about other Nigerian acts. But what’s important to remember is that he was, above all, a professional musician operating in a fiercely competitive environment, so he probably did not see much value in promoting or even complimenting any musician who could be considered a rival to him.

As much as he criticized the rock bands for being unoriginal and imitative of Western musicians, by the same token he also dismissed the practitioners of hardcore indigenous music styles like juju as being embarrassingly quaint and hokey. Even when esteemed Ghanaian afro rock pioneers Osibisa (whose music exerted a huge influence on “Jeun K’oku”) came to Nigeria, he lambasted them and tried to incite the audience against them. Fela was kind of like the Kanye West of Nigeria in that he was never comfortable with any situation in which he was not the center of attention!

The Search for Keni St. George and Ozo

A whole lot of interesting stuff regarding the incubation of Nigerian music and legends of the arts have popped up, and the debates has been fascinating and engaging. It is no baby talk. It is real and serious. Comb Razor who had blogged for quite some few years now, and who I did exchange correspondence from time to time on music of our era - the 70s and 80s - is now on a documentary spree, and the characters involved is really amazing.



The 70s, however, and unquestionably were the golden age when indigenous African music exploded universally. The local ensembles all around the continent and parts of the Caribbean enclaves took their crafts to UK and other parts of Europe with the coinage of musical categories.



From South Africa, Dudu Pukwana ran from a persecuting regime and landed in london, bringing along with him members of the Blue Notes who kept the Mbaquanga, Township music flavor afloat. With trumpeter Mongezi Feza and drummer Louis Moholo, Vertigo Records signed a newly formed Assagai.



From Ghana, Teddy Osei, Mac Tontoh, and Sol "Rhythm Man" Amarfio joined hands with their Caribbean colleagues - Wendell Richardson (Antigua), Spartacus R (Grenada)- in what would be coined Afro rock and the birth of Osibisa with a horn-driven Afrocentric funk.



And from Nigeria, many played the London gigs; and starting from the Eastside bands, Funkees, comprising of Harry "Mosco" Agada, Jake Solo and Sonny Akpan, took the bold step of relocating to London for more enhanced studio rehearsals, recordings, gigs and jam sessions.



And as that kind of popular culture became the trend, Ozo trooped in. I first heard the Ozo group, while a teenager and hanging out with my buddies when the humming sound of the single "Anambra" echoed from the DJ's box, and what I usually do in such occasions having a feel for a music I haven't heard yet, is ask who the artist(s) is/are, before a trip to the record shop for purchase.



Ozo had been rare among vintage Nigerian music from the 70s Afro Rock until lately when You Tubers began putting the acts on display. Save for "Listen to the Buddha," I haven't seen any live performances yet.



And as time passed by with the collection of music in our era - the age of crossroads and uncertainties - coupled with evolved music over time and technology, we tend to preserve the archives by keeping up to date the classics by way of music scholarship.



And growing up with the 70s Funkees, Apostles, Matata, Hugh Masekela, Osibisa, Afro Funk, Tee Mac, Thomas Mapfumo's Halleluja Chicken Run Band, Baba himself - I mean the Chief Priest Fela Kuti who coined Afro Beat; and many other casts of fine musicians at the time, and after much debates by commentators, musicologists and bloggers, Ozo seemed to have been off the radar.



On November 8, 2007, I had blogged "The Search For Ozo & The Rest" after my chit-chat with Mike Egi who had compiled a collection of old-school jams, "Flashback I & II".



Commentaries followed the blog post and still pouring in as I write. And as the comments swooped in, big time 60s/70s guitarist, Dele Olaseinde, who had been part of the 60s Clusters and early 70s sessiom man for Ofo The Black Company helping produce "Allah Wakbarr," propped founder Larry Ifedioranma as a great composer and musician. Olaseinde talked about his studio recordings with Ozo. "I was in Ozo in the early 1980s. We recorded many of the tracks at Utopia Studios in Belsize Park and Rak Studios in Charlbert Street with Ray Shell (later of Starlight Express fame) and John Mizzarolli. I probably still have many of the albums and 12" records plus a lot of rough takes on cassette," Olaseinde wrote on my blog, April 16, 2009.



"Very, very interesting to what you are revealing. Can you please shed more light because Ozo was one of my favorite groups back in the day. What happened to Keni St. George?" I responded.



"I haven't seen Keni in over 25 years. I did some session work for Ozo and a couple of other of Keni's bands. We even made a video for two tracks "Anambra River" and another track called "Skintight." I still have the VHS tape - not much to look at these days. I was really shocked to learn that J.J. Belle had passed away in 2004 - he was such a fine guitarist," wrote Olaseinde.



And telling Olaseinde "I do not know of anyone that knows the whereabout of Keni," Olaseinde responded: "Ambrose, this is a great idea and it is good to see younger people like yourself interested in Afro rock music of the early seventies, and helping to keep the music alive. There are many stories you will find quite interesting and I still play some of the songs on my guitar at home and marvel at the chord sequences and song structures. I currently work in the arts and creative industries development and I have a band called the River Niger Orchestra."



Many wondered about the whereabouts of Keni St. George. Academy Records founder, Mike Davis, had this to say about Keni: "I too have been looking for Keni St. George, as I would like to licence an Ozo song for a compilation I'm producing. If anyone could put me in touch please let me know."



On January 1, 2010, one Hannah made an anonymous post on my blog: "Hi guys, Keni St. George is my father. I'm his daughter Hannah. My family haven't seen Keni for around 14 years now but we have lots of his records including "Listen to the Buddha." If you leave me your email details I will see what I can do in terms of getting copies. I will check this site soon for any replies."



I left my email address, and some others left theirs, too, with links. I never heard from Hannah again, and do not know of any that heard from her. I ignored the post thinking of it to have been a handle. As it happened, Hannah was not a handle. Hannah is Keni St. George's daughter.



As my quest to locate Keni continued, I bumped into the daughter of one of Keni's bandmates. She is Chantelle Tracy Cummings, daughter of Vernon Cummings, one of the founders of the group, Ozo. Through Chantelle, Vernon popped up, and thus begun our e-conversation:



Me: I heard you played in the group, Ozo, in the 1970s. I would like to have a brief moment with you, if you don't mind.



Vernon Cummings: You are asking about Ozo. I was one of the founding members of Ozo until 1978. What do you want to know about Ozo?



Me: I want to know who and who made up the group and how it was formed in the 1970s, I believe. I am curious about Keni St. George whom I believe was your buddy when you wrote "Anambra." Have you seen Keni ever since? I blogged a post on Ozo in 2007 and every reader of that post wanted to know more.



Vernon Cummings: Ambrose, yes, Keni and I were buddies long before Ozo. We had a group called Danta, at the same time there was a group called Osibisa who were our rivals. We signed to CBS-Epic label. We had a few singles released, not long after the band broke up. Keni went off to work on a ship. He came back after about a year and we got together with the guys from Danta to form Ozo. Keni wrote "Listen to the Buddha" and with the help of a manager who Keni knew, we got a deal with DJM Records. "Listen to the Buddha" was released in 1976, followed by the album of the same name. To our surprise, the single was a hit in the States. It went on at No. 90, I think, on the Billboard top 100. We went on to tour Britain. Sorry, we didn't get to tour America. The good thing about the album is the track I wrote was a big hit among the clubs in New York. The track is called "Anambra" and up to today there are so many comments about that song. All the arrangements and most of the drums was done by me. When Ozo broke up, Keni reformed Ozo with some new members and re-released versions of Anambra which was released in Europe and I think Africa. He did send copies. That was about 10 years ago. Never heard from him again. He has disappeared, unless you know where he is. If you do, let me know...One love!



Me: Vernon, you mean you never had any contact with him for the last 10 years? There's one Hannah who claims to be Keni's daughter and that they haven't seen Keni for 14 years now. Are you aware of his daughter or any of his children?



Vernon Cummings: Ambrose, yes, I know of his daughters and their mother, Sue. Do you know how I can get in touch with Hannah? She would know me as Chubby, that's the name I was known as in the business.



Me: Ozo was a well known group in Nigeria, especially with the release of "Listen to the Buddha." Was the group also known in your native land of Guyana?



Vernon Cummings: Ozo was not known in Guyana as far as I remember. I didn't know we were so popular in Nigeria. After the release of the second album "Museum of Mankind," the band toured the UK during 1977. The single "Museum of Mankind" was not a hit. The record company began to lose interest upon a rubbished mangement. The managers didn't know how to manage a band and wouldn't listen to us. So at the end the band broke up.



Me: When Ozo broke up and Keni reformed Ozo, did you have any relationship with the new members in terms of session time and doing gigs together?



Vernon Cummings: I moved from London to the country and started a new life supporting my family. Keni reformed Ozo with new members and re-released the the albums with some new materials and the single Anambra in a different version. He sent me copies. As far as the members of the new Ozo, I didn't know any of them, but they sounded good. One love!



Me: Besides Osibisa you said were your rivals, there were other bands, too, that played gigs within the London metropolis. There was Matata from Kenya in which your fellow Guyanaian, tenor saxophonist, Colin Dyall was a member. There was also South African Dudu Pukwana-led Assagai. Did you get to meet them? How about Colin Dyall, ever met him?



Vernon Cummings: Ambrose, I knew these bands that was around at the time, but I regret that I didn't get to meet any members of those bands.



The search for Keni St. George and Ozo continues!