Live Live Ju Ju [Live]

Amazon.com
Live! Live Juju! is the King heard the way he should be--recorded live in Seattle in 1987. Considering the 20-piece band was taped through just two microphones, the sound quality is stunning, but it's the music that packs the real knockout here with the frantic and aptly titled "Drumming Interlude" boasting the percussive power of the group. There's plenty of vocal ability onstage too, as the anthemic "Africa and America" shows to great effect. The real highlight, however (apart from "Moti Mo," which appeared--as did Ade himself--in the Robert Altman film O.C. & Stiggs), has to be the opening medley that threatens to explode right out of the speakers and into your room. This is everything you could wish for in a live record, so much so that you might end up cheering along with the crowd. --Chris Nickson

From the Label
King Sunny Ade's live performances are legendary -- the beat of the talking drums, the slinky slide guitar, the whole band conspiring to get you up to dance. The New York Times' Robert Palmer described Ade's 1983 New York concert as being "one of the most significant pop music events of this decade." LIVE LIVE JUJU, a all-digital 1987 recording, is the first true document of Nigeria's juju king at his vibrant best.

Since King Sunny Ade's American debut in 1983, African music has exerted a profound influence on pop music. Artists such as Brian Eno, David Byrne, Paul Simon, and Peter Gabriel have incorporated its rhythms and structures into their own music. In 1987, Ade returned to the Americas after a three-year absence and besides touring extensively in North America, he headlined the Free Jazz Festival in Brazil and Independence Day celebrations in Nigeria. This triumphant tour thrust him back into the international limelight.

The dynamic interplay between percussionists, rhythm guitarists, and vocalists makes Juju music triumph in concert. LIVE LIVE JUJU includes definitive versions of many King Sunny standards, with the full strength of his twenty-piece ensemble The African Beats.

The package includes extensive liner notes with a biography of King Sunny by African music authority Gerald Seligman.

Tracks:

Introduction
Opening Medley: Drums/Gbe Mi Ro
Medley: E Ba Dupe F'Oluwa/Sunny Loni Ariya
Kira Kira
Moti Mo
Maajo
Ase
(Untitled)
Africa And America
Drumming Interlude
Drumming Finale

Amazon.com

Live! Live Juju! is the King heard the way he should be--recorded live in Seattle in 1987. Considering the 20-piece band was taped through just two microphones, the sound quality is stunning, but it's the music that packs the real knockout here with the frantic and aptly titled "Drumming Interlude" boasting the percussive power of the group. There's plenty of vocal ability onstage too, as the anthemic "Africa and America" shows to great effect. The real highlight, however (apart from "Moti Mo," which appeared--as did Ade himself--in the Robert Altman film O.C. & Stiggs), has to be the opening medley that threatens to explode right out of the speakers and into your room. This is everything you could wish for in a live record, so much so that you might end up cheering along with the crowd. --Chris Nickson

Customer Reviews:

A Masterpiece, A gem. Buy With Confidence.......2006-03-17

I am blessed to have the company of musicians I highly respect in my band. Rarely, one of them recommends an album as so important we should have it in our collections. This is one of those albums. I have had it a month and it has stayed in rotation on my cd player; I have not taken it out.

Sunny brings the house down.......2003-12-10

King Sunny Ade burst on the American scene much the way Marley did with his memorable Roxy concert, but unfortunately Ade has never been able to match the intensity of this performance in subsequent CD's. This is African guitar and drums at their very best, a kinetic whirlwind of rhythms that is riveting to listen to. Ade draws from a deep well of Nigerian music to put together a stellar concert that will sweep you off your feet. The music is chant-like, exhorting the audience to participate in the polyphony of sounds. It is very hard to stay seated. There is also a video of him and Ebenezer Obey for those who must see him to believe him.

Essential World Music.......2003-07-30

All too often, "popular world music" means "music of other cultures as seen through Western eyes." Happily, this is not the case with "Live Live Ju Ju." Here, the roles are reversed - King Sunny Ade artfully reinterprets several Western musical styles, some which are Africaan-inspired (jazz, blues, raggae) and some that are not (Country-Western, Hawaiian slack-key guitar) - all through the eyes of an African and his impressive band. The songs here all offer just a taste of what this man can do in a popular context. The recording itself, made on the cusp of the CD age, sounds awesome, with every nuance sounding clear as a bell.