Ответ Брайану на незаданный вопрос: как я и ожидала, ни сегодня, ни в ближайшее время у меня НЕ будет времени переводить и вообще много бывать за компом. Соотв. кто может\хочет\горит негодованием по моему поводу -- переводите, кидайте в новости, статьи и т.д.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/issue/26/19/culture2.shtmlLiving the Highlife
By G. Pascal Zachary
To watch U2 singer Bono traveling around Africa, relentlessly advocating for
debt relief alongside the secretary of the U.S. Treasury, is to be reminded
of the old connection between rock stars and African humanitarian causes.
Bono may be imbued with an Irish compassion, but he is only the latest
rocker to trumpet the cause of the African poor and afflicted. I was a
grade-school boy when the Beatles took America by storm in the Т60s, and I
will never forget my first images of Africa, which I associated with one
Beatle in particular.
The pictures showed gaunt, starving babies from a place called Biafra, which
George Harrison had taken a liking to. Biafra was created when a tribe
called the Ibo, prominent around the Niger River Delta, seceded in 1967 from
the West African nation of Nigeria. The Nigerian army, after initial
setbacks, laid siege to the Ibo who, in their desperation, appealed to the
rest of the world for help. (This had the perverse effect of prolonging the
warЧit lasted more than two yearsЧand adding immensely to the causalities.)
The plight of Biafrans captured HarrisonТs conscience and gave birth to a
new pattern in pop culture: the singer who cared about the Fate of the Earth
and then held a benefit concert to prove it.
HarrisonТs concert brought great attention to the cause of the Ibo, giving
birth to another iron law of pop culture: The defining images of the South,
or of Africa at least, are often constructed by the singers and poets of the
North ... and then fed back to the South. The frantic race by rockers to
find their own causes among the wretched of the earth almost obscures the
fact that the poor of the developing world have their own singers and songs.
The Ibo, for instance, are famously cultivated. Their members include Chinua
Achebe, author of AfricaТs most literary novel in English, Things Fall
Apart, a haunting depiction of the collision between Ibo traditions and
European imperialism. Notable for lacking a monarchy, the Ibo instead
invested ultimate power in the political structures within each village,
giving rise to a form of politics that anticipated the Уtown hallФ democracy
of New England. Participation extended to Ibo women, who became a formidable
force in public life.
The British, used to getting their way with colonial Africans, were
repeatedly stung by loud, angry and even violent protests against their
policies by Ibo women. УWhen the character of the riots themselves is
reviewed,Ф one British observer wrote, Уthe overwhelming impression is of
the vigor and solidarity of the women.Ф In recent years, militant Ibo
activists, in the face of growing tensions within an unmanageable Nigeria,
have called for greater autonomy and even revived the secessionist dream.
The Ibo, who number upward of 20 million today, have made their mark on
music as well as literature. The Biafrans knew little of the Beatles, but
they embraced a swinging bandleader named Stephen Osita Osadebe. Singing in
the Ibo language, with a sprinkling of pidgin English, Osadebe began
recording in 1958 and cemented his popularity by remaining in Iboland during
the war. The Т70s saw a transformation of Nigerian music as horn-driven
dance tunesЧbetter known as highlifeЧgave way to a funky sound influenced by
soul singer James Brown. Fela Kuti was the embodiment of Nigerian funk.
While Fela and the УjujuФ musician Sunny Ade, a member of the Yoruba people,
dominated the music exported from Nigeria to America, within the country
Osadebe thrived. He carried on a tradition of highlife associated with the
great Nigerian trumpeter Rex Lawson. Osadebe retained a strong brass element
in his bands, even when acoustic sounds went out of fashion. He remains
partial to trumpet solos of the same sort that Duke Ellington used to give
his band a wistful color.
In 1984, as Ade and Fela were giving Nigerian music a ribald and
confrontational image around the world, Osadebe retained his folksy roots,
releasing his most successful album, Osondi Owendi (Уsweetness and
bitternessФ). A social critic whose language is more polite than FelaТs,
Osadebe sings of the joys and disappointments of ordinary life, poking fun
at pretension and celebrating the importance of perseverance.
At nearly the age of 60, in 1995 Osadebe made his first tour of the United
States and recorded what counts as among the finest West African albums
available, Kedu America. Recorded in Seattle under the supervision of Andrew
Frankel and OsadebeТs Nigerian-born but L.A.-based manager Nnamdi Moweta,
Kedu contains new recordings of some of OsadebeТs classic songs. The music
is thrilling throughout. The session opens with the entire band engaged in
raucous chatterЧand then bursting into a blistering guitar line. Somebody
mutters, Уthis is very nice music,Ф and the guitar trades parts with
stuttering drums until the horns enter. By the time Osadebe joins with his
groaning, bluesy voiceЧ reminiscent of John Lee Hooker in its gruffnessЧthe
band has turned every soulful phrase in the Ibo songbook.
hile a critical triumph, Kedu failed to gain Osadebe anything like the
stature achieved by Sunny Ade. But among Ibo living in AmericaЧthere are
large numbers in places like Houston, Los Angeles and OaklandЧhe is exalted.
When he tours these cities, as he did last fall, he plays only private
clubs, gatherings of Ibo faithful who come to hear a dose of their homeland.
An Ibo group in Houston, say, rents a hall for him to perform in. Only Ibo
show up, because the performance goes completely unpublicized.
In these performances, Osadebe always sings what the Ibo call Уpraise
songs,Ф where he improvises lyrics about the people in attendance. The
connection between West African singers and their audiences has always been
intimate, with the dividing line between stage and seat blurry at best. In
response to the success of these invitation-only concerts in U.S. cities,
Osadebe last fall released Club America (for which I wrote the liner notes).
While recorded in a Seattle studio, the album has the feel of a night in an
Ibo social club, where people who spend their days trying to fit into
America unwind with their own kind.
