In 2022,
Luaka Bop released
The Muslim Highlife of Alhaji Waziri Oshomah as the third volume in its "World Spirituality Classics" series. It offered a career overview of one of Northern Nigeria's greatest musical innovators, gathering music from across his career. This handsome
Vol. 1-5 (1978-1984) collects the five individual "Volume" albums recorded and released during his mid-career period, combined with a copy of The Journey So Far, a limited-edition book written and designed by his children celebrating his life and musical legacy.
Oshomah's discography with his
Traditional Sound Makers accounted for ten albums before initiating the series, and nine more were released concurrently. Given the deeply spiritual nature of
Oshomah's music, it's interesting to note that he began recording these albums just before a hajj pilgrimage, then, inspired, he continued after returning.
Those familiar with the
Muslim Highlife of Alhaji Waziri Oshomah will recognize a few of these selections.
Volume 1 opener "Forgive Them Oh God Amin - Amin" weds prayer to dance music; its sweet, funky grooves are redolent with bumping bass, swinging horns, organic percussion, and lyric guitars across nine minutes. "Igwegi Baba" joins highlife to jazz horns behind
Oshomah's gritty souled-out vocals. Two of the three tracks on
Volume 2 offer curious titles that sound like business directories. "Alhaji Yesufu Sado - Managing Director, Alhaji Y. Sado & Sons Ltd." claims side one with slowly loping, interlocking guitar and bass grooves as a spacey organ pulses above drums and percussion framing chanted vocal refrains. Organ is the driving instrument on
Volume 3's "Eyemaya Erayemare," meeting tenor saxophone and percussion, framing fingerpicked, breezy electric guitars. They erect an airy yet indestructible foundation for
Oshomah's assertive lyrics. Later, "I Forget Not Mother" combines highlife and R&B, uniting male and female vocals with a tenor saxophone playing accents atop a circular ensemble vamp.
Volume 4's opener, "Iyere: Mecca London," is psychedelic in its use of reverb, overdubbed organs (lead and rhythm), and syncopated drums. The vamp is constant over nearly ten minutes; members weave in and out, soloing on saxes, brass, guitars, and basses, under and alongside
Oshomah's funky, resonant singing.
Volume 5 makes prominent use of a drum machine. Programmed subtly yet insistently, it creates an extra-textural dimension allowing the human drummers and percussionists room for more spontaneous interplay. "Ame-Ogiegie Udo-Ogiegie" is a celebration of trancey polyrhythms (organic and electronic), bluesy guitars, and meaty horns as
Oshomah and his chorus singers improvise. "Wegieme Khayeya" weds hypnotic, summery funk to syncopated group singing amid wafting organs and percolating drums.
Vol. 1-5 (1978-1984) is solidly consistent. Unlike other legacy reissues from the African continent from the '70s and '80s, these albums were professionally recorded and mixed; their sonic presentation matches the quality of the music on offer. For anyone remotely interested in historic Nigerian music, this box is an essential acquisition. (During the first few months of 2023,
Luaka Bop also reissued all five volumes for individual purchase.) ~ Thom Jurek
