Knitting Factory Records, known for reissuing the Fela Kuti catalog, is set to release their second reissue by the Nigerian artists the Lijadu Sisters from their ’70s Afrodisia releases, 1977’s Mother Africa, on February 28, 2012. To get a feel for the album’s unique mix of traditional Yoruba music and Western 70s pop/rock check out the track “Bayi L’ense,” which features a psychedelic fuzz guitar track laid over talking drums.
Cousins of Fela Kuti, the Lijadu Sisters, twins Taiwo and Kehinde, were a rarity in Nigeria at that time. Not only were they female in an industry dominated by male artists but they wrote their own material, which was often political and always topical. Recorded at the famed Decca studios in Lagos, Nigeria, the hotbed of the Nigerian music scene at that time, the albums combine Afrobeat, Western and UK pop music and reggae.
Long out of print, these albums have never before been available on CD or digitally; they’ll also be available on vinyl and all formats will include the original artwork. Remastered from recordings taken off the original vinyl LPs (the tapes have long been lost), these recordings sound as urgent and timely today as they did set against the turbulent scene of Nigeria in the ’70s. The releases are as follows:
Danger (1976) - November 8, 2011
Mother Africa (1977) - February 28, 2012
Sunshine (1978) - 2nd quarter 2012
Horizon Unlimited (1979) - 3rd quarter 2012
Mother Africa, unlike Danger, which is sung in English, is mostly sung in the sisters’ native Yoruba dialect. The twins’ glowing melodies and warm harmonies are as before, but the accompanying band’s lineup and arrangements, both still co-directed by multi-instumentalist Biddy Wright, owe less to rock and funk and more to traditional Yoruba music. The core band comprises Wright on guitars, sometimes electric but as often acoustic and played in palm-wine/highlife style; talking drums; and a shekere. Wright’s brilliant mix of traditional Yoruba instrumentation with electric guitar and a Western pop sensibility make this a must-hear album.
The album opens and closes with two versions of “Osupa.” It is sung to the moon, asking her to light up the night, as she did when people sat outside their houses eating and storytelling, in earlier times. Both feature talking drum, but the closing “Osupa 2,” taken at a slightly faster pace, also includes electric guitar. Non-Yoruba speakers may not understand the words, but the song’s general ambiance - a peaceful, soothing one - is clear.
The second track, “Iya Mi Jowo” (“mother please”), is a rearrangement of the Lijadu Sisters’ original 1968 recording for Decca. It was the first song Taiwo wrote; there’s an attractive highlife lilt to the song.
“One day, when we awoke,” says Taiwo, “our mother was cold to us. When we returned from school, she was still cold. We had somehow disappointed her. I sat down and wrote the song - which says ‘whatever I have done to sadden you, mother, please, forgive me’ - at her feet. The whole thing just came out. At the end, I looked at her, and she was crying.”
“Bayi L’ense,” which follows, has a deep, funky groove which resonates with contemporary apala, fuji and waka music (waka was the female version of apala and fuji, both male preserves). The album’s fuzz guitar solo wouldn’t sound out of place on a Creem album, and there is a link to the legendary UK band: “Bayi L’Ense” is about “two-faced people” - including, but not limited to, those who used to criticise Taiwo for going out with Creem/Blind Faith musician Ginger Baker (a white man!).
“Dibe Nuwa,” sung in Yoruba and Ibo, is a plea for peace in the world. The 1967-70 civil war between Federal Nigeria and its eastern state, Biafra (the home of the Ibo people), was still raw in the national psyche, and its memory helped inspire the lyric.
The reason the Lijadu Sisters aren’t well known today, except by collectors, is that Kehinde, while the duo was touring North America with King Sunny Ade in 1980, suffered a severe spinal injury. The accident threatened to finish the Lijadu Sisters’ career, and it kept them out of the public eye until 2011, when Knitting Factory’s reissue program began.
During Kehinde’s recovery, the sisters’ were sustained by their embrace of the traditional Yoruba belief system Ifa (which has a divination strand of arcane complexity and infinite nuance), and their study of the use of herbs in healing
The Lijadu Sisters are still inseparable and living together in New York City, working with Knitting Factory Records to make their music available again. Here’s a recent video interview of the sisters filmed in their Harlem apartment, which they’ve made into a Yoruba temple: http://www.thefader.com/2011/12/05/at-home-with-the-lijadu-sisters.
