Solomon Ilori's African Highlife

Solomon Ilori’s African High Life

A Blue Note record from the early 1960s and early ‘worldbeat’ or ‘world music’ fused with jazz, it is a sometimes cute, high-life record with some amazing Afro-Jazz bonus tracks. As a fan of highlife, I must admit that the highlife from West African bands in Nigeria and Ghana were much better than this, such as E.T. Mensha’s band, or Fela Kuti’s Kola Lobitos. Nevertheless, some of the songs come out quite well, such as “Tolani,” featuring a competent drum choir, Ilori singing (presumably in Yoruba?), talking drum, melodic drumming solos reminiscent of some of my favorite highlife, and what sounds like a band having fun in the studio. “Tolani (African Love Song)” is presumably a love song, and although I have no idea what Ilori is saying, compared to some of the other ‘highlife’ material on the album, is quite good. The saxophone solo, far from Fela Kuti, is okay and one can tell the musician is trying to sound like a highlife soloist. His solo is ‘cute,’ “African-like,” melodic, and, at times, sounding like Eastern-inflected avant-garde with some dissonances. “Ise Oluwa,” the next track, is a Yoruba hymn to God and reflects Christianization and missionary activity in 19^th century Yorubaland. It has a very simple melody and at over 5 minutes, is a little too long, but nice for cultural value and some perspective on Yoruba religious music. But there is very little to it that is ‘jazzy,’ but Ilori does play a pennywhistle, very easy on one’s ears. 

 

As for “Follow Me to Africa,” one hears that 6/8 ubiquitious rhythm and drum and pennywhistle solos, but, ultimately, the song gets old quickly because of its uninteresting theme and repetitiveness. The drum solo gets things moving again, but otherwise, it’s a piece of ‘exotica’ that unfortunately bores. Fortunately, the more ‘highlife’-sounding “Yaba E” is adorable, Caribbean-inflected (highlife is partly shaped by calypso and Cuban son), and features nice marimba and saxophone, sounding almost like something one could hear in Haiti or Trinidad. The lyrics also work here, too, with great band accompaniment to the likely Yoruba lyrics. In addition, the chorus and back-up vocals make it a celebratory, communal effort with catchy rhythms and appropriate use of the marimba or xylophone. The saxophone solo is a work of art, a mixture of bebop and highlife. “Jojolo” also has that community-oriented, Caribbean-driven beat and marimba or xylophone. The lyrical and clean guitar sounds like something straight out of Cuba or the Congo with some American influence, and the singers and percussionists give life to the guitarist and horn section. Although definitely not ‘jazz’ per se, but quite beautiful in its own ways with playful and often simple improvisation and appropriate call and response vocals, especially on the parts of the guitarist and saxophonist, the latter hinting at Middle Eastern or North African themes in his solo at one point before giving over to the drummers. One feels like this could be at a venue in Lagos or Accra in the 1950s or 1960s, and something I very much enjoy. The last track on the album before the entirely jazz bonus tracks, “Aiye Le,” also features vocals, and an easy, deceptively simple guitar accompaniment. Eventually, back-up vocalists join in and Ilori is not alone. Fortunately, the song is less than 4 minutes, because it becomes monotonous rather quickly. 

 

“Gbogbo Omo Ibile” is the first of where things become interesting. In a jazz band with Ilori’s drummers (I think McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones may have a part in this, it definitely sounds like it), the band does indeed sound like it is going home, home to Africa. The melody seemingly quotes from “Wade in the Water,” a famous Negro spiritual, and the percussionist, especially the talking drum, add in a wave-lake texture to the piece, so the jazz band, through their percussionist accompanists, wading across the water to the land of our ancestors. The soloists here are firmly rooted in jazz, too, the saxophonist sounding bop-oriented and refined, while a brilliant jazz drummer plays in time with the African drum ensemble to give structure to the turns and shapes conjured by the sax. At times, it almost sounds like it’s trying to break free of the confines of the polyrhythmic jam, until the trumpeter’s solo asserts his presence with extended notes or shouts. To me, he sounds like Freddie Hubbard, possessing his vigor and firm breaths of joy infusing the trumpet. The pianist keeps things funky with some well-chosen chords until the drummer, sounding like Jones, solos with the drum choir. He adeptly takes advantage of the bass and larger drums, pounding and hammering, as if he is drumming for his life to ‘wade in the water.’ One of the drummers, likely Ilori, gets in on the fun, too, speaking through his hand percussion while the jazz drummer swings and, with precise, fast hands, shows the beauty, complexity, and dexterity in West African percussionists, responding to his own rhythms while the song keeps swinging.

“Agbamurero” takes the jazz band and drum choir on a more “African” route, with cowbell, call and response chants, and prominent piano. “Agbamurero” apparently alludes to the rhino, and the composition’s force, strengthened by the drum choir and chants and the ‘drum-like’ piano pounding, could easily evoke a rhino stomping through the savannah. Then the pianist and trumpet take over, exerting a more blues-rooted style that comes out as funk that somehow meshes well, particularly during the trumpeter’s ‘fully’ jazz solo. He breathes in long gasps of blues and soul, stretching the notes to form a river of aural funk on the polyrhythmic waves from the band, especially with additional help from the pianist. Thus, what we have here is a seamless fusion of hard bop with thunderous West African drumming, and a flute or pennywhistle solo that is also jazz-rooted. The drum solo here is also quite nice, and similar to some highlife band’s drum solos, though those are also highly influenced by jazz in addition to West African and Afro-Caribbean rhythms. But here everything succeeds, the cowbell, the jazz drumset, hand percussion, each contributes to something great than the sum of all its parts. Ilori and the jazz drummer play call and response, too, each one soloing and playing in tandem.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. “Igbesi Aiye,” translated as “Song of Praise to God,” is a spiritual, jazz poem for God. Like “Gbogbo Omo Ibile,” brilliant trumpet improvisation with religiously fervent piano accompaniment contributes to an ethos of divine tribute. The trumpeter, blowing away, sounds like someone chanting for God in a Yoruba ceremony, as in “Ise Oluwa,” while the saxophonist also plays in a relaxed style but with utmost gravity, bop-like at times, while holding the notes at times for exhortations. Whoever the flautist is, they perform superbly, invoking God(s) as the trumpeter did, and, for a lack of terms, calling the spirits as if located in the deep recesses of the forest. The drummer, likely Ilori, plays his drum melodically, in response to the vamp that the entire song is built on, showing off his chops at “praising God,” since no deity could avoid the infectious rhythms here. The essential cowbell rhythm, forming part of the clave and basic component of much Afro-Caribbean music, is appropriately used in this quasi-religious spiritual. For any fan of Blue Note’s “experimental” releases with “African” music, this is a must-hear. Indeed, much better than Art BLakey’s “worldbeat” releases of percussion-oriented travels in Caribbean and African music, two of the tracks, “Jojolo,” and “Yaba E,” as well as the three jazz bonus tracks, indicate fascinating, Afro-Jazz. On the strength of the last bonus tracks, with their jazz bass, West African percussion, and attention to blues, modal jazz, as well as African music forms, this is a five star release. Any fan of jazz, especially the type of jazz that was becoming en vogue in the early 1960s, such as the universal spiritualism of Coltrane’s music, fusing African and Asian spiritualties and musical influences, must listen.