CD Reviews: Dele Sosimi: Identity (Helicon)
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Posted by: editoron Wednesday, October 22, 2008 - 08:42 AM |
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By John Stevenson
Identity - sporting an arresting portrait of Sosimi’s twin sons on the CD’s front cover - is the anxiously-awaited follow-up to Turbulent Times, which carried Afrobeat in a decidedly adventurous direction at the beginning of the millennium.
In point of fact, adventure and a quest to arrive in new places, has always been the goal of Afrobeat’s avatars. Founder Fela Kuti was the ultimate explorer, having experimented with the funk of James Brown, the modal experiments of Miles Davis and hypnotic indigenous Yoruba grooves. And that’s just the music. The lyrical content addressed political and economic injustice at home in Nigeria and across the world, unafraid to grapple the nettle of controversy, asking for answers to the thorniest of questions, and landing the musical maverick, time and again, in the proverbial soup!
Sosimi’s sophomore album retains this essential inquisitorial spirit.
It’s a fitting homage to Gbedu with nine meaty tracks. Numbers such as “Ori Oka” and “Omo Mo Gba Ti E” are about eleven minutes apiece: Some of Fela’s tunes were extended vamps that often exceeded the 20-minute mark.
Which brings us quite aptly to the album’s declaratory title.
“Ojoro”, argued like a musical advocate before an executioner’s firing squad at Bar Beach, is a mid-tempo manifesto of sorts. Sosimi informs us of his musical persona. It may be said that Dele’s Afrobeat approach is a stylised (and some may say adulterated) version of the extended vamps and no-holds-barred lyricism of Fela, but everything, including Afrobeat, is subject to the laws of evolution. Sosimi stakes his claim for having his own identifiable sound. It’s down to his critical listenership (the real jury) to accept his thesis.
While the political/social justice quotient is always present (finding delightfully kinetic expression on tunes such as “B.B.E.N.Y”, “Local Champion” and “Wahala”) there is an equally personal side to the CD which lends a refreshing uniqueness to this London-resident Nigerian composer/vocalist/keyboardist. The anthemic “E Jus Dey Go” warning its audience not to fritter away precious time, and ”Omo Mo Gba Ti E”, unfolding like the opening gambit in a romantic game of Ayo, provides us with another glimpse of Dele Sosimi’s fertile musical mind.
But lyrical content is best buttressed by a solid instrumental foundation.
The CD stands out in this department: There’s a tremendous wealth in Sosimi’s kinetic and percolating electric keyboard work, Femi Elias’s astonishing skills on electric bass guitar, and the dynamic horn section of trombonist Justin Thurgur, trumpeter Tom Allan, tenor saxophonist Eric Rohner and baritone/alto saxist Rob Leake. The combined percussion of Lekan Babalola and Maurizio Ravalico is as piquant and as delicious as Akara cakes eaten on a cool harmattan night. Not to be forgotten is plectrist Phil Dawson’s stunning riffs.
With Identity, Dele Sosimi tells the world who he is and what he’s about.
It’s OK, dude.
We hear you loud and clear.
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