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The Michigan Daily Friday, May 15, 1987 Page 11
King Sunny Ade brings Afrobeat to town
By Alan Paul
King Sunny Ade is an African
superstar. The Nigerian native
released 40 albums in a little over
ten years, selling hundreds of
thousands of each. He plays juju, a
music whose origins date back to
the '20s when guitars were first
added to traditional Yoruba
rhythms. A reknowned innovater,
Ade has made several changes in the
traditional juju style, using
multiple electric guitars, electric
bass, Western trap drums and even
the pedal steel guitar.
Ade, who performs tonight at
the Michigan Theatre with his 22
piece African Beats, which includes
six lead guitarists, is in the midst
of only his second American tour.
He spoke with the Daily recently
from his Boston hotel room.
Daily: Have your receptions
been very good so far?
Ade : Oh very good, very
good...Tremendous. Yes,
tremendous.
D: Does it make you feel very
satisfied?
A: Yes please.
D: Do you think there's been a
wider acceptance now of African
sounds and rythyms?
A: Definitely, you can judge
from Paul Simon's album. Yeah..
D: What do you think of that
album?
Records
Ladysmith Black
Mambazo
Shaku Zulu
Warner Bros
The more I listen to Paul
Simon's Graceland, the moreI tend
to seperate Simon from the artists
who are backing him. Lyrically and
tonally, Simon is still Simon, and
there is little in the printed lyrics
that suggests appreciable growth
,even from Bookends. The stars of
Graceland are Good Rockin'
Dopsie, Los Lobos, and above all,
Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the
ten-member South African
ensemble heard on the record's
biggest hits.
Ladysmith, unlike Los Lobos,
and zydeco music, was rarely, if
ever heard in America before
Simon's album, and to his credit,
} Simon has produced this record, and
is working hard to promote it as
well as his own. But it seems to
A: I would say that the album is
very good, making people aware
very much of African music as
well.
D: He has been criticized for
recording in South Africa. What do
you think of that?
A: Well, if he recorded in South
Africa by the Black South Africans
I don't think there's a problem with
that and even if he worked some
with the whites, eventually the
credit goes to the Black South
Africans.
D: You're very popular in
Africa so is it a little bit weird to
come here and not be as big of a
star.
A: Well I would say that Rome
was not built in a day. We're just
on the way. We'll keep moving on
and one day will be one day.
D : Do you do all the
arrangements?
A: Yes I do everything. My
boys, they be at my side always.
More or less we do it together as a
family. Yes.
D: Being from a royal family,
when you decided to be a musician
was that controversial?
A: Yes, the reaction came
because they didn't like me to do it
and I had to do it on my own
without letting them know until I
formed a group and cut a record
before they could know.
D: Were your early musical
influences mostly African or
Western sounds?
A: Mostly African because I
love traditional musicians and
traditional instruments including
the traditional players. I love them
very much. People like Tunde
Nightingale and I.K. Dairo they
been in the business over 50 years
ago and introduced guitar and I
followed them by introducing the
guitar and I do much for the guitar
with other musicians as well. So
later we introduced drums and
keyboards and so forth.
D: Are you still playing very
long sets?
A: Yes please. But sometimes
there are restrictions so we can not.
D: What do you think of that?
A: (laughs) Well, there's
nothing you can do. The law is the
law and a policy is a policy and
wherever you play you must follow
that. There's nothing you can do
except make it all shake.
D: Not waste a minute?
A: Well, start with very, very,
very hot numbers and be with the
people and let them be with you in
time. Yeah. If there's long hours,
you have to build it together, build
it gradually, gradually, gradually
until the middle of the night but if
it's a minimum time you have to
be very hot. No room for you to sit
down, no room for you go to the
bathroom or anything else. It's just
PLAY!
ma r -
King Sunny Ade
King Sunny Ade and His African
Beats perform tonight at the
Michigan Theatre at 8. While it is
doubtful that he will play a six
hour set as he has been known to
do, the evening promises to be
unique and fun. Tickets are $13.50
at the box office, Schoolkid's
Records, andPJ's Used Records
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
me that this record, along with a
Simon-produced Los Lobos album,
and a Simon-produced zydeco
compilation, would eliminate the
need for Graceland. Shaka Zulu is
breathtaking--the unfettered sound
of Ladysmith, singing a capella
about their lives, rather than
Simon's, is a revelation.
There is the unity of eight and
nine voices, sliding, groaning,
rasping together, and above them,
Joseph Shabalala, a tenor with a
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