Wednesday, May 15, 2013

King Sunny Ade - Suku Suku Bam Bam (sound file, information, & comments)

Edited by Azizi Powell

Update: December 31, 2018

This pancocojams post showcases two sound files of King Sunny Ade performing "Suku Suku Bam Bam".

Information about JuJu music and information about King Sunny Ade is also included in this post.

The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

****
INFORMATION ABOUT JUJU MUSIC
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B9j%C3%BA_music
"Jùjú is a style of Nigerian popular music, derived from traditional Yoruba percussion. The name comes from a Yoruba word "juju" or "jiju" meaning "throwing" or "something being thrown." Juju music did not derive its name from juju, which "is a form of magic and the use of magic objects or witchcraft common in West Africa, Haiti, Cuba and other South American nations." It evolved in the 1920s in urban clubs across the countries, and was believed to have been created by AbdulRafiu Babatunde King, popularly known as Tunde King. The first jùjú recordings were by Tunde King and Ojoge Daniel from the same era of the 1920s when Tunde King pioneered it. The lead and predominant instrument of Jùjú is the Iya Ilu,"' talking drum. Some Jùjú musicians were itinerant, including early pioneers Ojoge Daniel, Irewole Denge and the "blind minstrel" Kokoro...

Jùjú music is performed primarily by artists from the southwestern region of Nigeria, where the Yoruba are the most numerous ethnic group. In performance, audience members commonly shower jùjú musicians with paper money; this tradition is known as "spraying."
-snip-
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-african-custom-of-spraying-money.html for one pancocojams post on the custom of "spraying". Links to other pancocojams posts on that subject are included in that post.

****
INFORMATION ABOUT KING SUNNY ADE
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Sunny_Ad%C3%A9
" "King" Sunny Adé (born Sunday Adeniyi, September 22, 1946) is a popular performer of Yoruba Nigerian jùjú music and a pioneer of modern world music. He has been classed as one of the most influential musicians of all time.[1]

Adé was born to a Nigerian royal family in Ondo, thus making him an Omoba of the Yoruba people.[2][3] His father was a church organist, while his mother was a trader. Adé left grammar school in Ondo under the pretense of going to the University of Lagos. There, in Lagos, his mercurial musical career started…
Sunny Adé's music is characterised by, among other instruments, the talking drum - an instrument indigenous to his Yoruba roots, the guitar and his peculiar application to jùjú music,[6][7] that would easily put him in the same class as guitar musicians like Santana. His music is in the age old tradition of singing poetic lyrics ("ewi" in Yoruba) and praise of dignitaries as well components of Juju (traditional African belief) called the Ogede (casting a spell). Hence, Adé's music constitutes a record of the oral tradition of his people for posterity.

Sunny Adé was the first to introduce the pedal steel guitar to Nigerian pop music. He was the first to introduce the use of synthesizers, clavinet, vibraphone, tenor guitar into the jùjú music repertoire such as dub and wah-wah guitar licks.

...[The] seminal recording [Juju Music in 1982] is often acclaimed as one of the most important records from Africa. Adé gained a wide following with this album and was soon billed as "the African Bob Marley".

****
FEATURED SOUND FILE
King Sunny Ade - Suku Suku Bam Bam



walizono2002, Published on Jul 27, 2015

Sunny Ade & His African Beats - Suku Suku Bam Bam
Album; Sunny Alade SALPS 5 - Vol. 3
Year; 1976
-snip-
This sound file replaces the one that was previously embedded in this post. Here are the comments that I added after that previous sound file:

"Suku suku" is pronounced “shoo-koo” “shoo-koo”.

I wonder if there's any connection between the phrase "Suku Suku" and the name for the Cuban "sucu sucu" genre of music, if not the music itself. Click http://www.cubanow.net/articles/what-was-sucu-sucu-cuban-music for information about that Latin musical genre.
-snip-
Here are some comments from another sound file of King Sunny Ade - Suku Suku Bam Bam that is no longer available.

Outreachat, 2009
"Good new version; but the true collector's item is the 1976 original, from where this excerpt, "Oro Igbagbo" (Matters of Faith) comes. Sunny Ade's reprises of his earlier music are tending toward a more stable orchestral tempo, in contrast to the raw energy of his old self; the original "Suku suku bam bam" was unique in its extremely tight control, so early in his career, at age 30. Only "E kilo fomo ode", 1974, could boast the same orchestral discipline at the time. Hollywood Walk of Fame? Wow!"
**
Agogoja Ti ndun kango kango, 2010
Guys/Gals
This is not the original Suku Suku bamu bamu. This was remix for international market not for 9ja version.
Please, I plead to anyone with original to post it and I will donate handy some of money to your favorite high school in Yorubaland
-snip-
“9ja” = naija (a contemporary way of saying & writing “Nigeria”.

**
planetolusola, 2010
"Good translation temiwale88. KSA also said:
"Oro Igbago lo mumi gori oke lo
Mobo lowo ota, tomi se bi ore simi"
"It is the words of faith that send me into high retreat, I'm finally free from my enemies who appears as friends to me"

KSA is the ultimate Yoruba linguist, always using verbs and proverbs to instruct. He is the ultimate 'Afilu komo lede'
-snip-
Unfortunately, the comment that this is in reply to no longer exists.

****
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
Thanks to King Sunny Ade for his musical legacy. Thanks to the other musicians in these recordings. Thanks also to the YouTube publishers of these sound files.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

No comments:

Post a Comment