1 - Cardinal Rex Lawson & His Mayors' band of Nigeria - So Ala Temen - Rex Lawson's Greatest Hits - Nigeria - Flame Tree - FLTRCD531
2 - Sir Victor Uwaifo - Joromi - single - Nigeria - Philips - PF 383045
3 - Sir Victor Uwaifo - Iye Iye Oh - Guitar-Boy Superstar - Nigeria - SoundWay - SNDWCD012
4 - Sir Victor Uwaifo - Edenderio - Guitar-Boy Superstar - Nigeria - SoundWay - SNDWCD012
5 - Sir Victor Uwaifo - Guitar Boy and Mami Water - single - Nigeria - Philips - PF 383245
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It’s paradoxical that West African music fans in the UK are liable to know far more about the music of Francophone countries from the 1970s onwards than the music of the Anglophone countries, Nigeria and Ghana, from the same period. Among Nigerian musicians, Fela Kuti and King Sunny Ade are more or less household names, but after that the list runs dry; even those of us able to recite a few more names will have trouble placing them geographically or generically. Recent compilations on Honest Jon’s and SoundWay have whetted the appetite by introducing even more previously unknown names, while at the same time adding to the overall sense of ignorance and confusion. Who is who and what is what?
To the rescue comes Miles Cleret of SoundWay, honing in on one of the most frequently recurring names, Sir Victor Uwaifo, and bringing together a fascinating collection of his music from 1970-76, Guitar-Boy Superstar. The accompanying biographical note reports that he is now a Professor of Sculpture at the University of Benin City in the East of Nigeria. I wondered if it might be possible to speak to him on a good quality phone line. Yes, but only if he was willing to make the 350-mile round trip to the BBC’s office in Lagos. He was and he did and this programme is the result.
For the current issue of Songlines, Victor completed a Q&A questionnaire in which he mentioned Highlife musician Rex Lawson as a Nigerian band-leader and singer he admired, and in the programme Victor elaborates on how Rex emphasised the bottom end of his sound by placing a microphone near to the double bass. Victor’s own innovation was to introduce electric guitar and electric bass into Highlife, enabling him to match the electric guitar music coming from the US and the UK.
album cover courtesy of www.combandrazor.blogspot.com
Despite its title, the SoundWay album does not actually include Victor’s famous ‘Guitar Boy’ single from 1967, or the song that made his reputation a few months earlier, the million-selling ‘Joromi’. The versions released on recent compilations including the Rough Guide to Nigeria & Ghana are later re-recordings, but through the miracles of modern communication, Miles Cleret sent me digital copies of the original versions of both songs heard here.
album cover courtesy of www.combandrazor.blogspot.com
Several times during the conversation, Victor explained how he devised sounds, melodies and arrangements in his search for new ways to attract attention and implant his songs indelibly in the memory. He's a major composer, as well as a guitar virtuoso with formidable energy and imagination.
Still only 67, a contemporary of Mahmoud Ahmed of Ethiopia, for instance, Victor continues to play live in Nigeria on special occasions, and it would be great if he and his band could be brought over here, to help to re-establish his place as one of the great innovators of modern popular music.
