About
Born into Yoruba royalty in Nigeria, King Sunny Adé has spent the last 45 years defining and transforming the Nigerian music known as jújù, bringing that sound of traditional Yoruba praise music and talking drums overlaid with guitar and keyboard to audiences worldwide. That ambassadorial work comes not only from his myriad albums (he has produced dozens), but also from his live performances, which transport the energy and traditions of Nigeria to his countless fans. Over the past half century, King Sunny has lived up to his noble beginnings, a musical icon adored across the globe as one of the most recognizable names in African music. “I’ve been given flowers, been given handshakes, standing ovations. Those things, even money cannot buy it. It’s love,” Adé told NPR in 2009.
Jújù itself is the syncretic product of Western and Nigerian traditions: from church hymns to Yoruban traditional music, from sea shanties to ballads sung by musicians traveling the Nigerian countryside. Born in the early 1900s, jújù imported the sounds of ukulele, banjo, and guitar into Yoruban percussion. By the 1960s practitioners had added in lead, rhythm, and bass guitars, as well as ganga, conga, clave, sekere, and agogo. In the following decade still more came in: synthesizer, steel guitar, and vibraphone.
King Sunny Adé emerged on the Lagos scene in the 1960s as a member of Moses Olaiya’s Rhythm Dandies. Before the decade was out he had founded his own group, the Green Spots. The 1970s saw him fronting the African Beats, an enormous group including singers, percussionists, dancers, and guitarists, featuring the addition of the distinctive tone of Hawaiian steel guitar, the musical innovation that would win him the greatest accolades worldwide. Today he remains a towering figure in African music, re-emerging from a hiatus to tour internationally to great acclaim.
The festival performances of King Sunny Adé & His African Beats are presented in collaboration with the Nigerian Association of the Merrimack Valley.
Videos:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=osNAy1DNkOQ
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fIzasVGSck