Tell me stuff about highlife music

from Aquarium Drunkard's Year In Review 2022:

Celestine Ukwu—No Condition Is Permanent: A gloaming wonder abounds on this Mississippi Records compilation of Nigerian highlife courtesy of existentialist Celestine Ukwu and his Philosophers National band. A collection of five tracks culled from the group’s spirited 70s discography, the playing here leans into the woozier and more hypnotic side of highlife sounds—the guitars slide waywardly, the horns dip low into tranquil contemplation, and Ukwu’s voice, sometimes appearing sparsely, like an enigmatic philosopher materializing and vanishing into a buoyant, watercolor dream state. Ukwu is said to have create a thinking man’s highlife, and one hopes it takes.

new to me and what a glorious discovery, this is some of the best music I've ever heard. beautiful idiosyncratic early-70s Nigerian (Igbo, very notably) highlife. you don't really need this particular compilation, the four songs in question (as well as many of his others) are widely available on Spotify (and I’m sure elsewhere) in numerous guises as Nigerian releases.

"Okwukwe Na Nchekwube": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8JL_4C7JRs

"Tomorrow Is So Uncertain" (not on this compilation!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKUobKLVtpg

Celestine Ukwu hasn't been mentionned yet. A rare case where I'm left with the impression that the music itself is weeping.

― Nabozo, donderdag 30 april 2015 16:49

I do believe this is the track Nabozo posted back then, "Ilo Abu Chi": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1Unxu02q0s

We have a friend that lived in Ghana for a while who told us how much she enjoyed highlife music. So I played her some compilation of highlife music, and she basically said lol, what she listened to sounded nothing like what we played her. Made me intrigued!

the comp has the same name as the great track from Marijata

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RNXp9NHxmw

true hit!

that Marijata track is great, but apart from the similar title sentiment it doesn’t have much in common with Ukwu (even apart from the fact that they’re Ghanaian, not Nigerian/Igbo). don’t think it even classifies as highlife, sounds like afrobeat to me.

which is also why it’s a weird title for the Ukwu compilation. I guess for some reason they couldn’t or didn’t want to use the “Tomorrow Is So Uncertain” title, which expresses the same sentiment, but is actually a song (and album) of his - a song that’s actually on the (5-, not 4-track) compilation, unlike what I claimed in my earlier post!

again, that new Ukwu compilation is not streamable, but all of his six albums are in fact on Spotify (twice in most cases).
I playlisted them in case anyone’s interested.
the 2022 compilation has one track from the first album (“Onwunwa”), one from the third (“Tomorrow Is So Uncertain”), and three from the fourth (“Ejina Uwa Nya Isi”, “Okwukwe Na Nchekwube” and “Ilo Abu Chi”).

just fyi, if you do want to stream the new comp specifically, it is technically possible via Bandcamp: https://mississippirecords.bandcamp.com/album/no-condition-is-permanent

I didn't immediately recognize the name, but I know “Okwukwe Na Nchekwube” from Soundway's Nigeria Special compilation, which I was excited to link you all to as it's wonderful, but it appears to have gone out of print :(

(it is ostensibly on Spotify but with many greyed out tracks: https://open.spotify.com/album/02anNBQ72TFiWjpTcyvkuW)

The Philosophers National is a very good name for a band