Nigeria, the land of plenty

running up the hill Iragbiji is a small but lively town, in Osun state, surrounded by hills made of curvy rocks emerging from the plain and partly patched with green. It is part of Yorubaland, about sixty kilometres East of Osogbo . The heart of the town is the palace of the Oba (King of the area) next to a yellow multi-storeyed central mosque. The Oba is a muslim. the Oba of Iragbiji Chief Muraina Oyelami , a versatile artist born in 1940, is residing in Iragbiji. He is both a talented talking-drum player and a painter. He welcomed us in his house for a talk on Yoruba culture especially about the talking drums which evolved in shape overtime to the modern form of goat skin cylinder whose sound can be altered by squeezing the ropes that are tied along the circumference of the drum to produce tons and therefore allows to emulate the Yoruba language through rhythm and tonality. three sets of Yoruba drums There are actually three types of drums each playing a specific ro...

Keziah Jones and his famous hat Lagos is a city where music counts: bodies like to shake on the rhythm of percussions; churches are resonating with gospel; bars, clubs and pool parties rock at the sound of the latest tunes locally produced and heavily exported; and of course all the mobile phones serving to their owner their own selection through their earphones. But there is also the Musical Society of Nigeria ( MUSON ) which feature a school of music and is hosted in an old but well maintained building in Lagos Island, the MUSON center. african jam: Keziah Jones, Hammay Saho, Age Beeka, the Venus Bushfires, Nneka and the Muson ensemble The last week of February, MUSON produced a series of concert bringing together classical musicians playing strings, traditional percussions, chora players and a griot singer from Gambia - Hammay Saho-, a nigerian male soul singer - Age Beeka -, a nigeria female gospel singer - the Venus Bushfires - and two internationally acclaimed musicians ...

make-up for the Gods, smoke for inspiration Fela came from a well-off family of Abeokuta. Soon after Nigeria was made independent, he went to England to study music at Trinity College, classical music at first and soon turned to jazz. He played there with a band called the Koola Lobitos which was fairly successful in the clubs in London in the early sixties. He went back to Nigeria and recreated his band, gathered influence from James Brown, highlife music and developed a musical style progressively known as Afrobeat. His band was renamed Nigeria 70 at the beginning of the 70's He travelled to the US on tour and was introduced by Sandra Izsadore to the conditions of black americans and the black liberation movements with the politics of Malcolm X among others. Upon his return to Nigeria, he became more active politically. He set-up a recording studio called Kalakuta republic and a night-club not too far called the Shrine. He was opposing to the rule of Generals who had po...

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.  ...