I was obliged to take a taxi home from last week’s appointment. Taxi drivers don’t always make the best company, but this time I was lucky. The driver was a nice friendly chap with an infectious laugh, and when I had settled into my seat he asked me if he wanted him to turn the music down. I said no, it was fine. It wasn’t loud anyway. After a little while I realized that I really liked the music (which I hadn’t heard before) so I asked him to turn it up a bit. He smiled into the mirror, turned up the volume, and thereafter started humming and singing along. I made a note of the name of the band and the record in the hope that I could find it on YouTube, which I did.
Here we are then. This is Juju Music by Nigerian musician King Sunny Adé and his African Beats. Apparently it’s quite a famous record – it was released way back in 1982. I love the complex polyrhythms so typical of African music, and there’s some fine guitar playing on it too. I’ve been listening to it off and on over the whole weekend, so I thought I’d share it here. Enjoy!
