Femi Kuti – Journey Through Life
https://amf.didiermary.fr/femi-kuti-journey-through-life/
After Legacy+ with his son Made in 2021, and a single last November, Femi Kuti is back with a self-produced album “Journey Through Life,” released in April 2025.
Femi Kuti’s [new album] marks a deeply personal chapter in the Afrobeat legend’s career. Known for his sharp critiques of political corruption and social injustice, Femi balances […]
Skata Vibration – Centre of Excellence
https://amf.didiermary.fr/skata-vibration-centre-excellence/
Skata Vibration is an eclectic four man band from Nigeria. Their music is a fusion of African rhythm and grunge rock. It speaks about inequalities, politics, love, hate, pain, pleasure and the everyday life of driven musicians living in Lagos.
Skata Vibration brings psychedelic afro-rock back to Lagos, drawing from the city’s 60s and 70s […]
The Mixed Grill – A Brand New Wayo
https://amf.didiermary.fr/the-mixed-grill-brand-new-wayo/
“Brand New Wayo – Funk, Fast Times & Nigerian Boogie Badness 1979-1983”, 15 pulsing Nigerian boogie tracks on a 2xLP compilation, released in 2011.
The years between 1979 and 1983 were Nigeria’s Second Republic, when democracy finally returned after 23 years of uninterrupted military dictatorship. It was also Nigeria’s oil boom era. [...]
Adekunle Gold – IRE (Pheelz Remix)
https://amf.didiermary.fr/adekunle-gold-ire-pheelz-remix/
Adekunle Almoruf Kosoko (1987), known professionally as Adekunle Gold, is a Nigerian singer and songwriter.
Gasper Lawal – Ajomasé
https://amf.didiermary.fr/gasper-lawal-ajomase/
“Ajomasé,” originally released in 1980 on his own label CAP, is the groundbreaking debut album by legendary Nigerian percussionist Gasper Lawal.
Mixing traditional Nigerian percussions, Rock & Jazz, he starts working on his own compositions in 1976, in his spare time or when he can access a studio, with the best musicians available [...]
#70smusic #80smusic #FullAlbum #Jazz #Nigeria #Psychedelic #Rock #AfroJazz
The resurgence of Benin sound
[Don't mix the Beninese Republic, with Benin City in Edo State in Nigeria]
Read: Musical traditions and language from Edo State have moved from the margins of Nigeria's national (and international) culture to the center.
https://africasacountry.com/2025/06/the-resurgence-of-benin-sound
Listen: Respect Ur Elders By 2Rymce
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plmB4GmCYlE (link not broken)
On AMF: Edo Funk Explosion https://amf.didiermary.fr/edo-funk-explosion/
Uselu Motor Park
https://amf.didiermary.fr/uselu-motor-park/
Edo Funk / Benin City, anyone?
Here’s “Uselu Motor Park” by the Drivers Union Dance Band & Osaro Nomayo, released in 1978. The album blends highlife rhythms with local influences, creating a lively and engaging musical experience.
David Osaro Nomayo (1956-2002), the lead figure in the band, contributes to its distinct sound and success in […]
Ibibio Sound Machine live
https://amf.didiermary.fr/ibibio-sound-machine-live/
Fronted by London-born Nigerian singer Eno Williams, Ibibio Sound Machine is a clash of African and electronic elements inspired in equal measure by the golden era of West-African funk & disco and modern post-punk & electro.
Weird and wonderful folk stories, recounted to Eno by her family as a child in her mother’s Ibibio tongue, […]
Asa – Dead again
https://amf.didiermary.fr/dead-again-asa/
Asa‘s third studio album, Bed of Stone, was released in August 2014, with a folk sound similar to her previous albums Beautiful Imperfection and Aṣa. “Dead again” is the opening track.
Its lead single, “Dead Again” was released in May, 2014, while a clip video was broadcast the same day. The song is a piano […]
Ladipoe, Maglera Doe Boy - Motho Waka
Lyric Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk1jdel7jsc
Official Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdLcAxBUXGQ
Lagos All Routes
https://amf.didiermary.fr/lagos-all-routes/
Lagos All Routes (Juju, Highlife, Apala and Fuji) is a compilation of Nigerian music from the mid-1960s through the early 1980s, often considered the ‘golden age’ of African popular music. In Nigerian pidgin English, ‘chop-up’ makes figurative reference to a bountiful feast.
‘Lagos All Routes’ refers to the fact that while the [...]
#60smusic #70smusic #80smusic #Fuji #Highlife #JùjúMusic #Nigeria #Remixed #OldAfricanMusic
Super Negro Bantous
https://amf.didiermary.fr/super-negro-bantous/
Despite their Congolese-sounding name, Super Negro Bantous were a renowned Igbo band led by Elah Elvis, recording at least seven albums for Rogers All Stars while combining highlife, soukous and folk music.
The four songs on this self-titled album are sung in Pidgin English. [...]
#70smusic #FullAlbum #Highlife #Nigeria #Soukous #Vinyl #OldAfricanMusic
Tunde Williams – Mr. Big Mouth
https://amf.didiermary.fr/tunde-williams-africa70-big-mouth/
From “Tunde Williams plays with the Africa 70” – Mr. Big Mouth released in 1977.
[…] Tunde joined Fela’s Koola Lobitos as a trumpeter in late 1967, and remained with Fela through 1978, when he and several other bandmembers left the group acrimoniously following the Berlin Jazz Festival in September of that year. In Afrika 70 […]
Fela Kuti – Expensive Shit
https://amf.didiermary.fr/fela-kuti-expensive-shit-water-no-get-enemy/
The song refers to an incident in 1974 in which the Nigerian police planted a hemp joint on Fela Kuti in order to arrest him for narcotics charges. As the police converged upon his compound, Fela ate the joint. He was taken to a police station, so that they could “test” him for THC the […]
Fela Kuti – Waka Waka
https://amf.didiermary.fr/waka-waka-fela-ransome-kuti/
“Waka Waka” and “Se E Tun De” on this 45T from the sixties by Fela Ransome Kuti and His Koola Lobitos.
There’s a live version on the 3-disc set Highlife: Jazz and AfroSoul (1963-1969) below.
A collection of recordings made between 1963 and 1969 that provide unique insight into the beginnings of Kuti’s craft. […]
#60smusic #Compilation #FelaKuti #Highlife #Jazz #Nigeria #AfroJazz
Lagos Baby 1963-1969
https://amf.didiermary.fr/lagos-baby-1963-1969/
Some of Fela Kuti’s earliest recordings, with the Koola Lobitos band, are featured on the compilation Lagos Baby: 1963-1969, but the music he played at the time stretches from mostly fairly classic Highlife music to variations of jazzy-bluesy Highlife… […]
Tunde Nightingale & His Highlife Boys – Omo Lafiah / Araba
https://amf.didiermary.fr/tunde-nightingale-his-highlife-boys-omo-lafiaji-araba/
Earnest Olatunde Thomas, known as Tunde Nightingale, was a Nigerian singer and guitarist, best known for his unique Jùjú music style, following in the tradition of Tunde King…
Sahara All Stars of Jos
https://amf.didiermary.fr/sahara-all-stars-band-jos/
The Sahara All Stars of Jos were based in the Havana Nightclub, in the central plateau town of Jos, a city in the North-Central region of Nigeria, far from Lagos. Dan Satch Ayo who led the band, had played with Dr Sir Warrior, a Nigerian Igbo highlife musical prodigy, guitarist, one of the pioneers of […]
Nigeria Disco Funk Special
https://amf.didiermary.fr/nigeria-disco-funk-special/
“Nigeria Disco Funk Special: The Sound Of The Underground Lagos Dancefloor 1974-79” is a compilation released in 2008.
M.anifest – Simple Love
https://amf.didiermary.fr/manifest-simple-love/
Follow a ballet dancer as she navigates her way through crowded streets and a market in slow-motion in “Simple Love,” a short film by M.anifest in 2018, with dancer Angelica Kankam.
William Onyeabor – Atomic Bomb
https://amf.didiermary.fr/william-onyeabor-atomic-bomb/
Atomic Bomb, by the “mysterious” William Onyeabor, pioneer of electronic music in Nigeria…
William Onyeabor, pioneer of Electronic Music in Nigeria, has a fascinating story…
Watch the documentary below…
https://amf.didiermary.fr/william-onyeabor-pioneer-electronic-music-nigeria/
Little is known about William Onyeabor, and that’s the way he likes it.
Sure, you might hear something about him if you go to Enugu, a rural and isolated town in Eastern Nigeria, where he lives in a hidden palace in the woods. As a crowned […]
Ghetto Blaster live (rare)
https://amf.didiermary.fr/rare-ghetto-blaster-live/
The Ghetto Blaster adventure starts in 1983, when two French musicians (Romain Pugebet and Stéphane Blaes) asked Pascal Imbert to produce them. He decided to go with them to Lagos, Nigeria, by car in order to make a record with the musicians he knew there.
This trip from Paris to Lagos was filmed as a […]
Anything You Sow – William Onyeabor
https://amf.didiermary.fr/anything-you-sow-william-onyeabor/
“Anything you sow” is one of the reissued albums by William Onyeabor, the pioneer of electronic music from Nigeria.
"Anything You Sow" was his last album before he gave his life over to Christ, turning his back on his musical output.
A 9xCD box set that collects the entirety of Onyeabor’s recorded output was released […]
Oliver De Coque & his Expo 76
https://amf.didiermary.fr/oliver-de-coque-expo-76/
Oliver Sunday Akanite (14 April 1947 – 20 June 2008), better known by the stage name Oliver De Coque, was a Nigerian Igbo highlife musician, composer and guitarist and one of Africa’s most prolific recording artists spanning over four decades of the highlife music scene. His extensive use of Igbo traditional rhythms and the fusion […]
