Rita Ray
June 2006 - Funsho Ogundipe, Afroganic and Thomas Mapfumo
Greetings! This month I will be looking at:
Funsho Ogundipe
At last summer is here and I am loving it - hope you are lapping up all this heat. Talking of heat, I've just been listening to a cool thirst-quenching release called Afrobeat Chronicles vol.2 by Ayetoro . I've wanted to write about this outfit ever since I heard their last album Afrobeat Chronicles vol.1 - 6000 Miles And A Minute. What a title and what a record, but volume 2 which is released at the beginning of July is even better, taking us deeper into their fertile musical wonderland.
Ayetoro is the vehicle for Nigerian band leader Funsho Ogundipe's music. Funsho is a gifted keyboard player with a unique style heavily influenced by jazz and underpinned with Afrobeat. I first got to hear him live at the Fela Kuti Black President festival at London's Barbican Centre - if you remember I was raving about it a and one of the reasons was Funsho's band that held us spell bound with great arrangements, luscious tunes and funky rhythms.
I got a chance to speak to Funsho and found out that his personality was just as unique as his music. He has always been into jazz and was and is influenced by a wide variety of the greats including Fela Kuti. He would listen to Fela's music live at the Afrika Shrine and on record and work out what was going on - piecing together how Fela composed his arrangements, and where he was heading with the music. A quietly determined and driven musician, Funsho put in the hours but it wasn't until he graduated from university in Nigeria as a lawyer that he really started to play the piano.
I tell you he is a unique character with good reason - how many people would have the courage to go up to Fela Kuti, the legend and the man who opened Funsho's eyes to the beauty of his culture, country and continent and dare to ask to perform with him on the track Beast of No Nation? In case you are wondering what happened next - well, he got to play a solo, got some advice from Fela and was thereafter nurtured by Lekan Animashum , the great 'Babani' in Fela's Egypt 80 band!
He is self-taught but learned to read music when he came to London and attended an 8-week course at Goldsmith College. Very much a man of the 21st century he continues to further his development and musicianship using cutting edge tools like the internet. Funsho believes that the music Fela pioneered demands respect and global recognition and that Afrobeat is a living-evolving genre of music that embraces the rhythms of Africa and her Diaspora. He says this genre of music has infinite scope for expression and it is this belief that fuels his music.
I asked him about the new release and how it differs from volume 1. It turns out that terrific album was recorded in a day! With volume 2 Funsho has had the time to explore his musical vision in a quest to forge his own jazz-infused Afrobeat. He revelled in the journey of making the album, finding his own voice, meeting and playing with new and different musicians, and utilising instruments that you wouldn't expect to hear on an Afrobeat track - like the cello, Steinway piano or bassoon. He is creating a new contemporary Afrobeat - have a listen to the groovy rootsy, mind expanding track, 'Afrobeat.com' and savour a slice of Afrobeat Chronicles Vol.2, a lovely album coming your way in July.
Afroganic
I've just got my sweaty mitts on a very interesting piece of music from Ghana and it's not HipLife! The project is called Afroganic which is headed up by a London-based Ghanaian producer called Prof who wanted to come up with a new organic African House music that didn't use drum machines or synthesisers and that turned its back on world music.
The project started a couple of years ago in Ghana and when the word got out, there came together a group of artists and visionaries. Traditional musicians of instruments such as the one string goje, flutes, balafons; percussion instruments like the calabash and djembe, and singers from Ghana's rich ethnic diversity all cheek by jowl with modern instruments and the latest recording techniques.
The trick was to get this wealth of talent to blend into a unit that would produce a new kind of African house music and after a couple of jamming sessions Afroganic was born. Have a listen to the first single from the album 'Yani', and while you are doing that go to Afroganic.com to watch some footage of the recording sessions and find out more about the instruments used in the project.
Thomas Mapfumo
Thomas Mapfumo has just released a storming new album called Rise Up . He has been a fired up political protest singer from when he rose up against the then Rhodesian government in the late 70's and was imprisoned for supporting the resistance movement of Zimbabwe, to the present day where he sadly lives in exile in the USA for speaking out against the unjust practices of the current government in his native land.
His new release is another potent blend of Shona mbira and western instruments that support his impassioned songs about the plight of his fellow countrymen. Have a listen to the track 'Kuvarira Mukati'. He is still a fantastic live musician and will be appearing at this year's WOMAD which takes place from the 28th to the 30th of July. I'm not going to miss his performance and I hope you can make it to Rivermead, Reading to see him and what promises to be a fantastic WOMAD 2006 including Tumani Diabaté and his Symmetric Orchestra - a thing of beauty.
If I don't see you there - have a great summer.
Rita
Rita Ray's recommended CDs
Bongo Maffin - New Construction
Black Coffee - Black Coffee
Thomas Mapfumo - Rise Up
Manu Dibango - Essential Recordings
Check out my recommended CDs this month in the CD Reviews section or go to Music Search to look at our archive of recommended CDs.