The Afrobeat Diaries ... by allaboutjazz.com (Pt.XVII)

by Chris May, allaboutjazz.com

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Part 17 - Dele Sosimi: Identity

Keyboard player and singer Dele Sosimi, a member of Fela Kuti's Egypt 80 from 1979-86 and Femi Kuti's Positive Force from 1986-94, returned to London, where he was born in 1963, in 1995. A decade and a half later, he leads three bands in the city: the acoustic Afrobeat Trio with bassist Femi Elias and drummer Kunle Olofinjana, the Gbedu septet (which adds horns to the trio's lineup), and the 10-15 piece Afrobeat Orchestra (more horns, guitars and backing vocalists). Since autumn 2010, Sosimi has acted as music consultant to the London production of the Broadway musical Fela!, of whose stage band he is a key member. Sosimi also organises London's bi-monthly Afrobeat Vibration all-nighters, which present the Orchestra, guest musicians and Afrobeat DJs, and works as an educator with the Afrobeat Foundation, which he founded.

Along with Afrika 70's drummer, the now Paris-based Tony Allen, with whom Sosimi has regularly performed, and Fela Kuti's sons Femi and Seun, Sosimi has worked tirelessly to nurture and develop Afrobeat. As the fliers for Afrobeat Vibration events have it: "Afrobeat is more than a music. It's a movement." This column officially declares Sosimi a Hero of Afrobeat.

Sosimi has made two albums with the Afrobeat Orchestra: Turbulent Times (Eko Records, 2002)—reviewed in Part 16 of Afrobeat Diaries—and Identity. Both are outstanding, rooted in Fela Kuti's original blueprint but not constrained by it, and both deserve far wider currency than they have enjoyed so far.

Turbulent Times was a mostly instrumental disc which featured Sosimi's jazz chops along with those of horn players Byron Wallen (trumpet, flugelhorn), Justin Thurgur (trombone), Linus Bewley (tenor saxophone) and Tony Kofi (baritone saxophone). On Identity, Sosimi's keyboards share the spotlight with his vocals, while the arrangements continue to enrich the basic Afrobeat paradigm with infusions of jazz, Latin, traces of highlife, and funk (given the prominence of Elias' serpentine electric bass, more Bootsy Collins' Rubber Band than James Brown's Famous Flames, an early inspiration of Fela Kuti and with whom, of course, Collins played before going solo). Sosimi's horn arrangements, intricate yet unfailingly visceral, which were such a delight on Turbulent Times, are here in all their glory again. Sosimi, Elias, Thurgur, guitarist Kunle Olasoju and saxophonists Eric Rohner (tenor) and Rob Leake (mainly baritone) are the chief soloists.

Sosimi's vocals, only briefly exercised on Turbulent Times, are a revelation, like Seun's possessing an enviable degree of Fela's authority; and the lyrics (most of the tunes were co-written with Elias) stay close to Afrobeat's tradition of social commentary, sung in a mixture of Yoruba, English and Broken English. Tempos and atmospheres are mostly up, and track playing times are mainly around 10 minutes. There are two instrumentals: the urgent "Ori Oka" and the pretty, Latinesque "I Don Waka" (at 4:48 the shortest track).

Following its run at London's National Theatre, Fela! moves to Sadler's Wells for a six week season in summer 2011. Sosimi will doubtless continue to drive the stage band. His third solo album is now long overdue, and it is to be hoped that the success of Fela! will assist its recording and release without too much further delay.

The Afrobeat Diaries ... by allaboutjazz.com (Pt.XVI)

by Chris May, allaboutjazz.com

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Part 16 - Dele Sosimi: Turbulent Times

Whatever you may think of musicals, and most people either love them or hate them, the New York and London productions of Fela! are to be welcomed. Both have been distinguished as much by their house bands as by their leading actors and dancers, and, as a result, both have done Fela Kuti's legacy proud—confirming, if confirmation was needed, the Afrobeat originator's enduring power to connect.

That in itself is something to celebrate. And the shows have also boosted the profiles of the house bands themselves. The New York lineup is built around Brooklyn's decade-old Afrobeat ensemble, Antibalas—and has also included the outstanding percussionist Yoshiro Takemasa, from another fine Brooklyn group, Akoya Afrobeat—and in late 2010, Ropeadope reissued Antibalas' 2004 album, Who Is This America?. The show's London lineup includes ex-Egypt 80 keyboardist Dele Sosimi in a pivotal role (he's also music consultant to the production), and while we wait for the next Sosimi album, anyone who's yet to check out his 2002 own-name debut, the magnificent Turbulent Times, is in for a treat.

First, a little background. When he was only 16 years old, Sosimi joined Egypt 80, later becoming its music director. He was part of the band which produced the late masterpiece Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense (Wrasse, 1986), produced by Wally Badarou, which successfully reimagined the role of keyboards in Afrobeat. Other important albums featuring Sosimi include I.T.T. (International Thief Thief) (1979), Authority Stealing (1980), Original Sufferhead (1982), Perambulator (1983) and Army Arrangement (1985). He was a member of Femi Kuti's Positive Force for over ten years, before moving to London in the mid-1990s.

The with-vocals but essentially instrumental Turbulent Times picks up where Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense left off, foregrounding keyboards still further, and to brilliant effect. The cracking ten-piece band, which includes some of London's top Afrobeat musicians along with some of its best jazz players, nails all the key Afrobeat essentials—vocal and instrumental call and response, rich horn arrangements, socio-political engagement, tenor guitar licks, signature rhythms—while also nudging them into then-new territory. Each of the six tunes serves as a platform for the band's soloists: trumpeter/flugelhornist Byron Wallen) (two solos), baritone saxophonist Tony Kofi (two), tenor saxophonist Linus Bewley (one), trombonist Justin Thurgur (also in the London Fela! lineup, one), guitarist Kunle Olasoju (one), bassist Femi Elias (one) and drummer Feyi Akinwunmi (one). Sosimi himself solos, in a winningly melodic, jazz-inflected style, on most tracks (and sings, briefly but convincingly, on four of them). The combination of a red hot band, inventive arrangements rooted in the tradition but of their own time, and singular soloists given their heads is simply outstanding.

Turbulent Times is a little masterpiece, and it deserves—and in the Fela! slipstream may actually receive—a lot more attention in 2011 than it got first time around. It's an album that should be in any serious Afrobeat collection.

Another Afrobeat crusader enjoying the spillage of limelight from Fela! is artist (and, back in the day, Young African Pioneer) Ghariokwu Lemi, who designed many of Afrika 70's most striking record sleeves. Given complete creative license by Kuti, Lemi's work did more than complement the music, becoming an Afrobeat phenomenon in itself. Top galleries around the world are now interested in showing Lemi's work and a book is in the offing. Turbulent Times features a Lemi front cover (as did Akoya's 2008 Afrobomb album, President Dey Pass). There's talk of Lemi designing the cover for Seun Kuti's next album, due later in 2011, and another for Chicago Afrobeat Project.

There are plenty of well-produced concert clips of Sosimi viewable on YouTube, but the shaky, low-fi footage below, shot at one of Sosimi's bimonthly Afrobeat Vibration nights—a highlight of the London Afrobeat scene—conveys the spirit of the music well.