NIGERIA – NIGÉRIA
Haruna Ishola & His Apala Group – Star Records SRPS 20 (Cassette)
%20-11%2074.jpg "MusicRepublic Nigeria Haruna Ishola & His Apala Group – Star Records SRPS 20")
%200%2078.jpg "MusicRepublic Nigeria Haruna Ishola & His Apala Group – Star Records SRPS 20")
%200%2079.jpg "MusicRepublic Nigeria Haruna Ishola & His Apala Group – Star Records SRPS 20")
For more than three decades, Haruna Ishola (1919-1983) dominated the Islamic-influenced Yoruba Apala music with his commanding voice and poetic lyrics, accompanied by nimble vocalists and backed by some of the finest polyrhythmic percussion playing ever recorded, including iyalu talking drums, agogo bells, sekere rattles, and an oversize agidigbo thumb piano.
This magnificent cassette embodies the remarkable collective precision, power, inspiration, and mellifluous lyricism of the music of one of the greatest African traditional artist of the 20th century.
Pendant plus de trois décennies, Haruna Ishola (1919-1983) a dominé la musique Yoruba Apala avec sa voix majestueuse et ses paroles profondes et poétiques, accompagnées de chanteurs et de percussions polyrythmiques sublimes, notamment des tambours parlants iyalu, des cloches agogo, des hochets sekere et un grand piano à pouce agidigbo.
Cette magnifique cassette illustre parfaitement la remarquable inspiration, précision, et lyrisme collectif de la musique de l'un des plus grands artistes traditionnels africains du XXe siècle.
Download:
Yusufu Olatunji & His Group - Vol. 18 - ORSL 1706 here
Photograph below is from Yoruba (Visions of Africa) by Babatunde Lawal, 5 Continents, 2012:
Egúngún mask, aka Egúngún Erin (elephant mask), near Abeokuta,
Ogun State, Nigeria, 20th century:
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Thanks for all the apala and fuji music over the years. If there's some other source with more of it available, I don't know what it is.
ReplyDeleteThe original tapes and LPs of the prolific Haruna Ishola are now hard to find in decent shape at a reasonable price. I got most of my albums in Benin and Nigeria in the early 1990s. The Nigerian CD reissues in the 2000s and early 2010s are sadly no longer available. Don't miss the excellent 2001 CD compilation Haruna Ishola - Apala Messenger - IndigeDisk ID495002 (if you don't already have it). I'll definitely continue posting Yoruba music, perhaps another Yusufu Olatunji Sakara album before the summer.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much, MusicRepublic!
ReplyDeleteDo you know and/or would you recommend the fairly recent Apala compilation on Soul Jazz Records?
The excellent well-curated, great-sounding compilation of rare late 1960s Apala 45 RPMs on the Soul Jazz Records should be highly praised. In addition to five tracks by the “King of Apala” Haruna Ishola, it features artists I hadn’t even heard about. You can also check out John Storm Roberts’ “Yoruba Street Percussion” CD on his Original Music label featuring 1960s Apala, Sakara, Agidigbo, Waka, etc. But I do ultimately prefer listening to side-long Apala and Sakara LPs capturing the sustained fluid and sensuous interactions between the powerful voices and awesome percussion.
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