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The Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON)
staged a donors’ appreciation concert on December 6. Chief among these
donors is the MTN foundation (MTNF). It was an event that revealed the
best of the MUSON Diploma school, with mixed performances of classical
and indigenous musical pieces.

“The donors’ concert is our own little
way to showcase the product of the school and their proficiency level,”
stated the chairman of the MUSON board of trustees, Femi
Adeniyi-Williams. “At this very frugal time, you have come to the aid
of MUSON. We appreciate you,” he told the donors.

This was the fifth year of running the
Diploma School, which has produced about 90 students with 60 students
in-house, while some of the others have gone abroad to pursue further
studies in music.

Certainly, it was an event that
captured some inspiring performances from the students. The
performances by the MUSON Diploma Concert Band left one wishing that
orchestra pieces could be creatively incorporated as soundtracks in
Nigerian movies, the way it was done in foreign movies.

The band also performed in
accompaniment to a duet of ‘When You Believe’ performed by two soprano
soloists, Tobi Aregbesola and Tosin Abiodun. A Mozart piano duet,
‘Sonata in G Major’ was also rendered by two young men, Timothy Adesina
and Ayorinde Oladele.

Gentlemen’s Ensemble

We got a feel of the Negro Spiritual
when ‘Gentlemen’s Ensemble’, a group of 12 males, performed ‘Mary Had a
Baby’ by William Dawson (1899-1990), an African American composer and
professor. The ensemble also performed an ode to women titled, ‘Viva
Tutti’.

Aside from the impressive performances
of pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, Titus Ogunyemi, and more, the MUSON
Diploma Orchestra added style to their act when the ladies in the group
turned out in stiletto heels with black hoses and fishnet stockings.

We saw a solo performance of the violin
accompanied by the piano by Evelyn Acquah and soprano Chika Ogbuji’s
solo performance of Mozart’s ‘Amore Un Ladroncello’.

Muson Diploma Choir

Away from the classic pieces, the
concert went indigenous, thanks to the Emeka Nwokedi-led MUSON Diploma
Choir; which had been selected by the International Society for Music
Education (ISME) to represent Africa and to perform at its 29th
conference in Beijing, China. They stole our hearts with their
heartfelt and arresting performances of ‘Una Hear Me So’, a song done
in pidgin about the need for unity among Nigerians and ‘Jehova Emewo’,
a piece in Igbo about the grace of God.

According to Nwokedi, who conducted the
affair, some of the songs were performed by the troupe in China earlier
in the year. The choir, which got the audience excited as they trooped
onto the stage in their green and white aso-oke attires, did other
songs; two of them South African.

The female performers of the Sax and
Drum also shone at different points, but notably during the very
entertaining live performance of Lagbaja’s ‘Feyin E’. Brief and leaving
one wishing it could go on, this performance was stellar.

“When we start the highlife tune, you
are free to dance wherever you are,” encouraged Nwokedi after the mass
choir, which included all those in the Orchestra and Band, had
performed Christmas tunes from Handel and Mendelssohn.

The MTN Foundation

The comments from Marion Akpata,
director of the MUSON School of Music, at the end of the concert were
on point. She drew attention to the contributions of the MTN Foundation
to the development and exposure of the students at the school.

The MTNF financed a trip for some of
the students to go to Germany to get training and certification as
Suzuki teachers of violin for young children. “Come any afternoon and
you will see our youngest musicians with their small violins seriously
training to master their instruments,” Akpata stated.

She highlighted some of the recent successes of the students, especially the ISME conference in China.

“Our success in the ISME performances
prompted the invitation from Nigeria’s ambassador to China, Ambassador
Wali, to return to [Beijing] to celebrate Nigeria’s Golden Jubilee
which we did in October, fully financed by the Nigerian Embassy,”
Akpata disclosed.

She revealed that it was difficult to
get sponsors for some of their activities and programmes in spite of
their successes. She then passionately appealed to the government and
private sector to support music and especially the schools that were
dedicated to training the next generation of musicians.

“Music is a veritable tool for human
development, information, education as well as entertainment and
national pride,” Akpata pointed out. She also canvassed the
establishment of an endowment fund for the school.

She described it as “A fund that could bring us closer to the day
when the MUSON School of Music will be the West African Conservatory of
the Performing Arts and offer degrees in music and the other performing
arts.”

The Musical Society
of Nigeria (MUSON), in collaboration with the Consulate General of
Italy, staged a Christmas concert on December 5, 2010 at the Agip
Recital Hall of the MUSON Centre, Lagos.

The event was
tagged ‘Christmas Concert with the Italian Artistes of BelCanto
Ensemble’. BelCanto Ensemble is Italian for ‘a little group’. However,
it was not just an Italian affair as it also featured some of the
MUSON’s finest acts: Tenor, Joseph Oparamanuike, and Contralto, Fatima
Anyekema.

Soprano singer,
Rosaria Buscemi, was the lead performer while the BelCanto Ensemble, a
group of four men playing the piano, clarinet, violin, and horn played
some pieces. Alessandro Vuono was on the piano; Antonio Arcuri, the
Clarinet; Francesco Clemente played the Violin; while Massimo Celiberte
played the horn.

Oparamanuike is
well established at the MUSON as a tenor and is a member of the
organisation’s choir. Anyekema is also a rising act at the MUSON where
she studied music for two years on MTN scholarship.

First half

The ensemble began
the show with a performance that saw each instrument contributing its
own peculiar sound. They were later joined by the petite but buxom
Rosaria Buscemi, who had an energy and presence that belied her frame.

She performed with
humorous, bold, and brash gestures that elicited chuckles from the
audience. There were operatic pieces from Giacomo Puccini, who composed
the famous Madam Butterfly aria, Gioacchino Rossini and Nigerian
Kehinde Oretimehin, among others.

Anyekema and
Buscemi did a hilarious piece by Rossini titled ‘Humorous Duet For
Cats’, while Ayekema did a solo performance in contralto.
Oparamanuike’s solo act, another Puccini number, was short and
melancholy.

Buscemi engendered
the mood of Christmas in Adolphe Adam’s ‘Cantique de Noel’. She came
back on stage with Anyekema and Oparamanuike. All three were spotting
comic-looking Santa caps. They performed ‘Stille Nacht’ (‘Silent
Night’).

Second half

After a 15-minute
interval, the ensemble came back on stage. This time, they did a lively
tune which could cause even the most unenthusiastic watcher to tap a
foot. It reached a crescendo, then stopped abruptly.

The next piece was
somewhat experimental. They moved from fast to slow, then lively to
melancholy. It was like the highs and lows of life; the dramatic, the
sad, the angry, the cheerful, and then the skip in one’s walk. The
performance could be termed ‘The rhythm of life.

Oparamanuike and
Buscemi’s duet ‘O Soave Fanciulla’ by Puccini seemed like a
conversation between two lovers. The woman was coy and resisted the
man’s touch. Finally, they came together in an embrace.

Oparamanuike and
Anyekema did a beautiful duet of ‘Meri L’Omo Aguntan’, a Yoruba Opera
version of the nursery rhyme, ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ – a piece was
written by Oretimehin.

Buscemi became the
petulant little Miss in Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Glitter and be Gay’, which
ended the concert, although the three performers did one last piece as
a show of appreciation towards the audience.

The Italian
Consulate was gracious enough to make the show free and the turnout was
fair. There were secondary school students who had come in their school
bus accompanied by their teacher to see the concert. If they were
students of music, then the show would have been an eye-opener for
them.

In a conversation
with NEXT after the show, Anyekema talked about her passion for
singing. “I started singing as a child and I had been singing in
church, but I began pursuing singing professionally in 2004 when I came
to Lagos,” she disclosed.

She was discovered
by Emeka Nwokedi, one of MUSON’s finest music teachers, who had heard
her sing. She is a member of the MUSON choir. For Anyekema, who had
been a contralto for four years, this would be the first time she would
be performing with international acts.

“The contralto is just a little lower than the alto. It’s a chest range voice,” she explained.

About Oretimehin

Kehinde Oretimehin,
who composed the Yoruba Opera, revealed to NEXT that he has a lot of
works, both solo and orchestra types. He blamed lack of sponsorship for
his not having many of the pieces performed.

“The problem is
sponsors. You need to pay for the orchestra, the hall, and other
things,” he said. He further revealed that some of his pieces have been
taken abroad by some foreign performers who have taken interest in
them.

You hear the names of great composers whose eternal pieces are still
being performed all over the world today and you are in awe. So when we
find one of our own who is also doing a great job, he should be
appreciated. The MUSON is a storehouse of amazing talent and potential
that should not be ignored.

That the MTV
Africa Music Awards is one of the continent’s biggest music events was
made apparent by the calibre of people that attended the award show on
December 9 – from media moguls like the Murray-Bruces and Tajudeen
Adepetu to showbiz impresarios like Keke and D1. There were also
celebrities from across the continent and some parts of the globe,
apart from those that were nominated and/or performed.

The event started
with the red carpet and cocktails that took place by poolside of the
Eko Hotel and Suites. It was a chance for the media and celebrities to
mingle. There were music and small screens on which the nominees’
videos were played. Guests were soon asked to move to the Expo Hall
where the main event was to take place.

Unlike most award
shows organised within the country, the MAMAs set itself apart as one
that was made for television broadcast. The countdown clock affixed to
the wall of the hall meant that the already rehearsed performances and
award presentations were not allowed to exceed their allotted time
slot.

However, a lot
more attention was put into the broadcast quality than the live event.
The speakers within the hall produced poor sound, especially around the
VIP area, leading guests to continually ask, “Who is performing? Whose
name just got announced?” Still, it held on to a party-like atmosphere,
with lots of screams from the crowd at the bottom of the stages.

The show opened
with an explosive performance by American rapper, Rick Ross, which got
the crowd singing along and waving their hands in the air. As usual,
there were a lot of group performances that cut across different genres
of music and featured various stars on the same stage. Among the
collaborations was a rendition of Banky W’s ‘Lagos Party’, featuring
South Africa’s Big Nuz, Angola’s Cabo Snoop and Paul G, and Democratic
Republic of Congo’s Barabara Kanam. Nigeria’s female rapper, Sasha, got
to perform alongside her American counterpart, Eve, who was also the
host of the show.

Tuface Idibia’s
performance of two of his songs ‘Only Me’ and ‘Implication’ was
show-stopping and crowd-inclusive. After rendering ‘Only Me’ on one of
the two stages, he was literally carried by the crowd to the second
stage where he performed ‘Implication’, backed by two ladies dressed as
sexy policewomen.

There were also
performances by American stars, T-Pain, Rick Ross, and Chuck D of
Public Enemy. Chuck D was also on hand to announce recipient of the
MAMA Legend award, which was awarded to Miriam Makeba who died in
November 2008. She would be the third posthumous recipient of the
award. Previous recipients were Fela and Lucky Dube.

Among other award
presenters were: ex-Super Eagle, Daniel Amokachi, who got on to the
stage to the cries of ‘The Bull’, a sound that was initially mistaken
for boos. D’Banj and rumoured girlfriend, Genevieve Nnaji, also served
as co-presenters, presenting the award for Artist of the Year to Tuface
Idibia.

In past editions
of the shows, the award categories and nominees list had come under
much criticism for putting artistes under the wrong genres and pitting
them against the most unlikely competitors. An example would be in 2008
when 9ice won against ‘The Game’ for Best Hip-Hop. This year, MAMAs
took a safer route by focusing more on geography, language, and overall
performance than genres.

As expected, ‘the
Nigerians’ took the highest number of awards with Mo’Cheddah winning
Brand New Act, P Square Best Group, Sasha Best Female, and TuFace
Idibia who went home with Artist of the Year and Best Male. Other award
winners included: Daddy Owen (Kenya) – Best Anglophone; Cabo Snoop
(Angola) – Best Lusophone; Big Nuz (South Africa) – Best Performance;
Liquid Deep (South Africa) for Song of the Year; and Fally Ipupa (DRC)
who, like Nigeria’s Tuface Idibia, was the only other artist who got
two awards, winning for Best Video and Best Francophone.

The show ended with the appearance on stage of all presenters and
performers after a ‘command performance’ of the song ‘Win’ by T-Pain,
Rick Ross, Da Les and Tuface. The “partying” however’ continued with an
after-party at popular nightclub, Tribeca.

Not quite two weeks
after his presence at the London debut of the Fela! Musical, Femi Kuti
was back at the Barbican, with his Positive Force Band to give the
Western world a taste of his new album, ‘Africa for Africa’.

Billed to start at
7pm, the audience was kept in breathless anticipation for a whole hour
while they valiantly persisted through several tracks performed by
British rap group, ‘Sound of Rum’.

Finally a shout of
Arararara galvanised the crowd to near euphoria as the Positive Force
jogged onstage in their matching African attires. And the anticipation
in the hall rose to fever pitch as the 10-member band began tuning up.

Femi, onstage, was
a delight to watch. Dressed in a multi coloured African attire, he
hurried onstage, rubbed his hands together as if in pure delight before
bending over his keyboard, shaking his head appreciatively as he
pounded the keys and issued forth the opening strains of ‘Truth Don
Die’.

The already
standing crowd seemed to surge forward as his mellow voice stole
through the instrumental sounds: “Na yesterday him talk, him wan to
travel for the world, to teach the people him word the true word of God
make people stop to lie say na lie spoil the world.”

Witnessing Femi’s
quiet opening and the energy with which he danced, he seemed both
intense and frail, and one could only wonder how he would last the
evening, as his physical appearance seemed not quite able to contain
the passions that streamed through his being. But the musician
surprised, and continued to do so, during the almost two-hour
performance, backed by his dancers cum back up singers.

‘Politics in Africa’

After his popular
opening track, Femi introduces songs from his new album. “I’ll be
concentrating on the new album. I’ll save the rest of my political
views when you have warmed up to me.”

But divorcing Femi
from politics was like taking away his voice. ‘Politics in Africa’ and
other politically critical songs followed in quick succession.
Including ‘Obasanjo Don Play You Wayo’, his take on the EFCC; and ‘Make
We Remember’, a song urging that the messages of his late father and
other black political activists should not be forgotten.

Femi sang, danced,
and played as if an internal inferno burnt under his skin. He belted
his music in a frenetic hurry. Where Fela had brandished his sax, Femi
showed almost more affection for his keyboard, vibrating his whole body
as he urgently picked out the notes; though when he briefly turned his
attention to his sax, it was with equal fervour.

Having never seen
him in performance before, I had always been wont to think that Femi’s
achievements had had a lot to gain from the legacy of his father. This
performance changed my opinion. He might have learnt from the master
himself, but his accomplishments were all his. Kora awards, World Cup
showcase, and a feature in the international videogame, Grand Theft
Auto IV, seemed paltry reward for his talent

But the music soon
streamed together into one long political complaint. Diversity seemed
not to be the strong suit of this new album. And even though his stage
presence and enthusiasm were infectious, the music soon became
predictable. That was before Femi turned his scathing tongue to history
and the developed world.

“It’s impossible to
understand the gravity of the slave trade, he said, “500 years is about
seven generations. Africans blame themselves for the slave trade,
that’s wrong information,” Comparing the transatlantic trade to the six
years of anti-Semitism, Femi would have us believe that the holocaust
was a lesser evil which benefitted from visual records. “What is six
years compared to 500?” he asked.

To have jettisoned
from memory the centuries of undocumented Jewish persecution in his
attempt to absolve Africans of their historical wrongdoings, seemed to
induce a brief disagreeable silence in the crowd, except of course for
some Nigerian fans who whooped in appreciation of his logic.

‘Beng Beng Beng’

While Femi might
have raised eyebrows mid-performance by his cavalier dismissal of one
of the worst times in world history, he soon had the audience dancing
to his tune yet again as he commenced a sexual enlightenment monologue
heralded by the beginning instrumentals of ‘Beng Beng Beng’.

“It’s impossible to
talk about politics without talking about sex. Who here has been
practicing my theory: Don’t come too fast?” asked Femi to appreciative
hoots by the audience, many of whom had been shouting out requests for
the song since he came onstage.

Femi led his avid
listeners into a sexual scenario of a girl’s first sexual experience:
“That girls have always been ahead of us (men) is a scientific fact
that has not been proven yet. So when a girl seems remorseful after a
sexual encounter, the boy thinks he’s had her cheap. He doesn’t
understand that he gave her bad sex – so gentlemen, don’t come too
fast!

“When you are
approaching or losing control, press the brake, reverse back,” Femi
admonished, eliciting raucous laughter before launching into the song
which is till date perhaps his most popular, despite having been
restricted from Nigerian airwaves soon after its release.

“The time is 12
midnight my brother, the girl lay on top my bed now…,” the audience
sang along as they gyrated to the popular track.

Says Robin Denselow
of The Guardian, UK, “Towards the end, he switched from politics to sex
with ‘Beng Beng Beng’ and a mildly risqué chat about relationships that
was more entertaining and original than much of the political protest.”

And one could not agree more.

People die. However, the understanding
of this finality to human sojourn on the planet never was able to
remove the sense of panic or loss that usually accompany the passage of
an acquaintance. It is worse when it happens to a close friend or
associate. Or to an artiste whom you spend most of your growing up
years adulating.

Every epoch has significant milestones
and, for a certain category of Nigerians, especially those from the
southwest part of Nigeria who are now in their late 30s to early
forties, that defining aspect of their youth was the exciting musical
rivalry between Sikiru Ayinde Barrister and Kola ‘Kollington’ Ayinla –
who were locked in love-hate battle for supremacy as the authentic
voice of Fuji, a music genre both claimed to have invented.

His greatest fan

I was always a Barrister fan, partly
because he was a more accomplished singer (Ayinla has a racier band)
and also because he came to my attention way before Ayinla did. Of
course, they initially struggled in the wake of the larger image of two
older giants in Yoruba music, King Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey, who
branded their own music juju music.

As opposite to Juju, Fuji is more
traditional Yoruba in conception and rendition and probably hacks back
to older forms of performers of Agidigbo, sakara, gudugudu, juju and
Apala music. With its percussion loaded with dundun (Ayinla settled for
the harsher (and harder) bata) talking drums, agogo (gong) and sekere
(beaded calabash), Fuji draws its listeners to waist wriggling and feet
shuffling dances that will amaze anyone raised on western music.

Barrister dominates his band though;
his voice cutting through the layers of the beat to deliver in message
in sometimes high-pitched tone. Most of his fans love his song; a mix
of evocative and pithy Yoruba sayings, wise sayings and sometimes
ribald. He was also a believer in using the medium of his song to teach
and his songs are usually laced with stories drawn from local lore or
tales that would be familiar to readers of Arabian Nights tales.
Barrister was a master story teller, a modern day griot with the gift
of a dynamic band behind him.

Rendition for Omowura

In some ways, Barrister’s music is a
more grounded version of the fare served by Ebenezer Obey, whom he
takes as his mentor. Ayinla was closer to Sunny Ade. But it was a mark
of the vibrancy of these two men that they gradually eclipsed their
mentors, as Fuji music became the dominant music form in Yorubaland,
with Sunny Ade (and occasionally Shina Peters) still holding the fort
for Juju music. Incidentally, Fuji music and Ayinde came onto theirs
after an earlier struggle with the older Apala music. In fact, the
earliest promoter (inadvertently it must be said) of Barrister was one
of the most popular Apala musicians, the late Ayinla Omowura. The eegun
Magaji (big masquerade) would denigrate the upstart fuji artiste in his
songs and warn him to stay in the shadows. Ayinla’s death, at the hands
of one of his band boys thrust Barrister into one his earliest
controversies as he was accused of being behind it.

His soulful rendition about Ayinla’s
death – and his plea of innocence – won Barrister more fans. It is also
an album that fans of the recently deceased musician should listen to
when they feel moved to mourn their idol.

From its ajiwere days, when Barrister
performed as an itinerant musician who entertains people during the
music month of Ramadan, the music evolved in scope and depth to draw in
from several traditions, including samba and reggae. Perhaps one of the
strengths of Fuji was its inifite adaptability and power to inject
other music forms in its growth. Younger Fuji artistes now rap and
freestyle to attract younger listeners, thus assuring that the music
form would survive for longer.

Fuji soldiers

Barrister, along with Kollington were
former soldiers and both embarked on their career after their
demoblisation. They were both civil war veterans, stories of which
found their way into Barrister’s songs. Name any human emotion and
experience, and barrister probably sang about it in his evocative ways.

Love, marriage ( and the imperative of
family planning), poverty, tribulations, democracy and good governance
– and death. He also drew on his deep knowledge of the Koran to enrich
his music, reciting verses from the muslim holy book to underpin the
message of his song. He was accepted ny all nevertheless as his fans,
Muslims, Christians and traditional religionists embraced the messanger
along with this message.

His music ran into a little difficulty
after a brief falling out with his lead drummer, Oyadolu in the 1980s.
After flirting with another Ibadan musician, Sawaba Iyanda, during
which that gained a little limelight, Barrister reunited with Oyadolu
and the music continued. Until death did them apart.

One of Barrister’s prayers was that the calabash decorator might
die, but that his products do not perish. Barrister is now sadly
departed. His songs lives on in our hearts and our ipods. May Alhaji
Agba meet the favour of his maker.