Nigeria, the land of plenty

who's wearing the hat? Lagos Jazz Series is back in Lagos, an interesting mix of jazz directions produced in a couple of venues in the course of a week. Well, this year the line-up was disrupted by the killings of Radisson Blue in Bamako, Mali which caused American artists to cancel their trip until further notice. An unfortunate confusion between Bamako in Mali and Lagos in Nigeria. While both are in western Africa, they are worlds apart. Lagos has not seen any terrorist acts or at least not in recent years. Occasional armed robberies may happen but these remain rare and police is now doing a much better job to prevent them. chinese vibe from the Collective Fortunately, not all artists were coming from the US and two big artists made the day on November 27th over a collaboration. First Seun Kuti and Egypt 80. Seun is the younger son of Fela. He is keeping alive the flame of his father Fela Kuti by perpetuating Afrobeat, pretty much in the way his father left it a...

Freedom park, the jail turned into a happening place Lagos jazz festival 2015 Among the nice things happening in Lagos, there is the Jazz festival, which took place this year at Freedom Park in Lagos Island, on the premises of a former jail. The rugged walls still hold the place together; inside the large courtyard is planted with trees, flowers and concrete. Three stages happening to play simultaneously at times, each one trying to hide the noise of the others. Stage number 2 of "jazz in the mega city!" The program, split over 3 days, went crescendo from amateur to professional and from mainstream and traditional music to real jazz on the last day. Nearly all artists were from Nigeria, except a group from South Africa which left one wonder why it had been invited. The vast space was far from full perhaps as a result of entry fees (though modest), fuel scarcity and perhaps lack of advertising. What is more jazz is perhaps very abstract to local taste.  ...