Saw "King Sonny Ade" last night....

[Worf101]

And I'm still floored. I'm pretty jaded when it comes to live music and musicians since I also play for money but I've never been as awestruck by a band as I was last night. Now remember I've seen Springsteen, James Brown, PFunk, Prince and numerous others over the years and only Prince came close to making me feel as I did last night. First of all I was in the 3rd row center so I was closer than usual perhaps that's part of the reason this show hit me so hard but that can't be all of it.

The band was enormous. seven percussion players alone playing everything from maracas to American traps. It was obvious from the opening where they came out one by one and began drumming that the driving force of the night was gonna be the drums. Tight, tight tight. And over the tightest druming I've heard since Olatunge layer pedal steel, three guitars, keyboards, bass and at least 6 folks singing tight African harmony. And when that wasn't enough he bought out 3 hefty, african girls who had butts that wriggled like cats fightin in a burlap bag. Amazing.

Amazing dynamics, stopping on a muscial dime all the choreogrphy of Ade and two background singers. Everybody got up to dance from the second song till the end of the night. Black, white, red, yellow or brown, it didn't matter, young, old, gay or straight everybody was on the floorr writhing uncontrollably (and trust me some of these folks wouldn't know rhythm from rhyme but it didn't matter) it was orgasmic. I mean it. nothing short of religious.

If this band is in your town, do yourself a favor and see a living legend. Not a word of English sung, but you don't need to know, you just need to feel... Letting the drums wash over me during an extended percussion groove... I could (to quote Worf) almost "see it all as it once was". The "tribe" of humanity in al itls various hues, transported by the drums, the drums the drums., from time immemorial. From when the first men beat on a hollow log or stretch skin over a log and beat it with thier hands...

Da Worfster

[Davey]

Hey Worf, sounds liek a great experience. I saw his "troupe" one time on TV, probably on PBS, and was floored too. Great performances all around, as you say. I only have a couple of his albums, the classic JuJu Music on vinyl that I love and a recent one called Seven Degrees North from a few years ago that I never got into much. I remember talking to someone here back when that one was kind of new, but King Sunny Ade is an artist that doesn't come up much. Lots of great African dance and pop music, but I tend to go for the slower, more bluesy stuff myself, like Baaba Maal and Ali Farka Toure and a bunch of others. But it's all still good and fun to mix up. That Youssou N'Dour Set album from the early 90s that I've often mentioned is another great one in Afro-Pop with some hot rhythms and a great band in the Super Etoile de Dakar and big dynamics and some very good production from Michael Brook and Daniel Lanois. Definitely worth grabbing if you like upbeat afro pop. Still sounds great. I've also seen film of his band and they're a blast too, very much like you describe. I think a few people around here have seen them.