King Sunny Ade and his Afrobeat orchestra on tour (and on disc)

love this dude

I think various old efforts of his are being reissued

Was there ever a proper Search and Destroy on King Sunny Ade?

If not, lets.

I've loved everything I've heard, but I don't know what any of it was as i lost it all in hard-drive crash. The Juju Music LP on Island just arrived in the post, as that seemed a good place to start.

Synchro System rules too.

The Classic Years *really* rules, esp. for mindnumbingly wonderful psychedelic guitar work

I've got a few of those twofer original-album reissues with the rounded CD cases, and those are nice, though I haven't parsed them fully. (I also got them years ago and haven't really gone back yet.)

Anyone heard that new "Classic Years Vol. 2" thing on Shanachie? Been thinking about picking that one up.

(rounded corners on the CD cases, I mean; the CD cases themselves aren't round.)

So I think it was probably the Best of the Classic Years album that I had, and it was great.

Synchro System rules too.

Yeah, but I'm not sure which versions I've heard - and there appear to be three totally different Synchro System albums too.
http://www.discogs.com/release/661002
http://www.discogs.com/release/1085671
http://www.sternsmusic.com/disk_info/CDAS89703

Which one(s) do you have?

Playing a bunch of dates with Femi Kuti, including an outdoor amphitheater in Minneapolis June 30.

seattle too but no femi kuti sad

he's at the Showbox at the Market 6/16. NYC gets these dudes separately, but both free and outdoors.

Separately for DC too, both with ticket prices. Interestingly for DC, King Sunny's gonna play at the 930 Club, and when I first saw him years ago it was at an all-night show at the same location, but when it was called the WUST Radio Music Hall. An awesome show. The publicist e-mailed me that they might add some long late-night gigs in locations where there are more African immigrants.

Fixed version of broken link above:
http://www.citypages.com/2005-04-06/music/here-comes-the-sun-king/all

About to interview him again...

Psyched to be seeing him in a few weeks at Winnipeg Folk Fest. Looks like a crazy busy tour. Still can't believe he didn't get a weekend slot; relegated to next-to-last act of Thursday night, to make way for didgeridoo-sampling-techno-hippie Xavier Rudd.

saw him at bonnaroo, fucking great show, late afternoon, dancing under a tree

Seeing him at the Triple Door, the swankest venue in Seattle, with amazing sound--can't WAIT. (Was even more psyched about Orchestra Baobab, but I'd be out of town for that anyway, plus they canceled.)

They just reissued an early 2000s cd of his, to plug on this tour.

One of the greatest finds of the last two years: a pristine vinyl copy of the OOP Aura. It's got some of the most buoyant electro-grooves I've ever heard. Please don't stop the music.

Who has seen O.C. and Stiggs?!

Synchro-System is the best.

I am going to see him on Wednesday ... can't f'n wait

I enjoyed him lots tonight but man I wish he'd actually played guitar instead of faintly picking behind the female dancers. Then again I left after he took off stage during encore one, so maybe I missed something.

Looking forward to the DC show July 17th. Spring and summer has been great in my area for live African music--Vieux Farka Toure; Amadou & Mariam; Samba Mapangala,

Who has seen O.C. and Stiggs?!
I have. I really enjoyed it the first time I saw it, too, but I guess it helped to be in a room full of friends and drunk. I tried to watch it again by myself a couple of years later and it was just unwatchable. But that's not King Sunny Ade's fault. I picked up AURA for four dollars a couple of months ago and it is good. I like Juju Music best, though.

I wish I loved Juju Music a bit more than I do. The talking drum, the skittery electric guitar, the synth, and esp. the steel guitar are all excellent, but my old early 90s CD just seems a bit thin, and doesn't envelop me and kick my ass the way, say, the best Fela discs do. I'm only a bit familiar with Aura and Synchro-System, and after that nada (and I actually sold back my copy of Live at Hollywood Palace.)

What do i need -- older, newer?

Older -- get Best of the Classic Years

It's not going to kick your ass in the way Fela does, exactly -- Juju is a bit more ethereal and less driving and angry than afrobeat.

is it a 90s cd of 70s music, or a 90s cd of 90s music?

My 90s CD? The "Juju Music" album, and i gotta confess, I don't know when that was recorded.

And by kick my ass, I mean I'm hoping for a recording that compares with seeing him in concert mid 80s: about 25 musicians onstage, mad polyrhythms and that ethereal, swirly steel floating thru.

I dunno, I have the mp3 version of Juju Music and it def kicks my ass. Esp on headphones.

This comp is pretty good, Dan.

btw juju is ideal stuff to buy via emusic, since the tracks are usually around 20 mins and you can get a whole album for only a few credits.

What years are covered on the Shananchie label "Classic Years" one? The Juju King one covers the early 80s.

IIRC the Classic Years one is almost exclusively 70s, which I think was just a period of better-sounding recording and amp technology for the purposes of music like Juju. Juju Music was an early 80s album on Island -- the one that I think sort of launched him as an intercontinental, as opposed to just African superstar. I don't enjoy it as much as the 70s stuff.

I've never heard the seventies stuff, must investigate.

It's really good, but I actually prefer the electronic trippiness that was added on Juju music ("prefer" is really too strong of a word. they're both awesome)

The Stevie Wonder harmonica on the title track of Aura is the perfect retro finish to a futurist groove.

Hello, currently stay in d UK and am a huge fan of king sunny ade. How can i get to buy a copy of his tour videos? Cheers!!!

If you're in London, tbourne, you could worse than take a trips to Sterns http://www.sternsmusic.com/about.php

Anyone know if KSA's current tour takes him to Europe? I can't seem to find any tour info on his myspace

This was one of the most mind-blowing things at bonnaroo.

He was up against Grizzly Bear, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Santigold so it wasn't too crowded either

Saw these cats last night.

the Afrobeat Orchestra?

Well, King Sunny Ade and His African Beats.

He was solid last night, but not transcendent. Similarly, Femi had to stop just as he was taking off. Maybe it was the yuppie venue or the 60 degree weather at work?

the show was good, wasn't as blown away as I'd hoped. echoing Matos, wanted to actually hear him play a little guitar -- he only broke it out for one song. Kuti's hamhanded political lyrics got to be a bit much but his, um, enchanting dancers more than made up for that.

Yeah, Nigerian Team Jiggle.

Similarly, Femi had to stop just as he was taking off.

Yeah, I noticed this -- despite the fact that I was mostly hanging out on the lawn with a bottle of wine, my ears perked up mostly toward the end of his set.

are the video screens new, or do they just light them or for "selected" shows or something? if it's the former, i seriously can't believe it took them two decades or whatever to put them up.

Had a great time at the Zoo:
http://blogs.citypages.com/gimmenoise/2009/07/review_femi_kut.php

never started it, will think about doing that this week, or go ahead and make one yourself!

The Bhundu Boys ? That's an interesting confusion. The rhythms are very different. I guess it shows how unknown the Zimbabwean body of music remains.
Palm wine music is more traditional. Juju is more hypnotic and celebratory. Highlife is more funky and melancholic and has rumba-style guitar.

I mentioned the Bhundu Boys only because we were talking about different threads on ILM and how some juju had somehow made it onto the highlife thread. I then noticed there was some discussion above about having a devoted thread, which I've since started.