Description: Agu Risky – Ozobemezi - Very Rare Nigerian Highlife Archival Sleeve 1st Pressing Import Play TestedLook for my other Rare African Records Agu Risky is Lucky AbelleRare nigeria afro highlife lp on sound of nigeria!!! record is close to vg+, plays with slight crackles in some parts and with a few clicks, but nothing too bad, plays very nice. Comes in the original picture jacket!!! cover shows some wear, got creases, small tears and an unglued top seam, but still nice, almost vg!!! don't miss this!!! Highlife is a music genre that started in present-day Ghana in the 19th century, during its history as a colony of the British Empire and through its trade routes in coastal areas. It describes multiple local fusions of African metre and western jazzmelodies. It uses the melodic and main rhythmic structures of traditional Akanmusic, Kpanlogo Music of the Ga people, but is typically played with Western instruments. Highlife is characterized by jazzy horns and multiple guitars which lead the band and its use of the two-finger plucking guitar style that is typical of African music. Recently it has acquired an uptempo, synth-driven sound.Highlife gained popularity in the genre "Native Blues" prior to World War II before production was shut down.After the war its popularity came back within the Igbo people of Nigeria, taking their own traditional guitar riffs and the influence of the Ghanaian highlife big band performing ideas, mixed and perfected it to form Igbo highlife which became the country's most popular music genre in the 1960s.Highlife has remained a part of popular music for Ghanaians and their diaspora globally through its integration with religious institutions and the positive effect it had on immigrating Ghanaians leaving their homeland.Among the Igbo people, Ghanaian highlife became popular in the early 1950s, and other guitar-band styles from Cameroon and Zaire soon followed. The Ghanaian E. T. Mensah, easily the most popular highlife performer of the 1950s, toured Igbo-land frequently, drawing huge crowds of devoted fans. Bobby Benson & His Combo was the first Nigerian highlife band to find audiences across the country. Benson was followed by Jim Lawson & the Mayor's Dance Band, who achieved national fame in the mid-'70s, ending with Lawson's death in 1971. During the same period, other highlife performers were reaching their peak. These included Prince Nico Mbarga and his band Rocafil Jazz, whose "Sweet Mother" was a pan-African hit that sold more than 13 million copies, more than any other African single of any kind. Mbarga used English lyrics in a style that he dubbed panko, which incorporated "sophisticated rumba guitar-phrasing into the highlife idiom".After the civil war in the 1960s, Igbo musicians were forced out of Lagos and returned to their homeland. The result was that highlife ceased to be a major part of mainstream Nigerian music, and was thought of as being something purely associated with the Igbos of the east. Highlife's popularity slowly dwindled among the Igbos, supplanted by jùjú and fuji. However, a few performers kept the style alive, such as Yoruba singer and trumpeter Victor Olaiya (the only Nigerian to ever earn a platinum record), Stephen Osita Osadebe, Oliver De Coque, Celestine Ukwu, Oriental Brothers, Sonny Okosun, Victor Uwaifo, Agu Risky and Orlando "Dr. Ganja" Owoh, whose distinctive toye style fused jùjú and highlife.
Price: 49.99 USD
Location: Portland, Oregon
End Time: 2023-12-18T18:53:35.000Z
Shipping Cost: 3.92 USD
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Item Specifics
All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Artist: Agu Risky, Lucky Abelle
Speed: 33 RPM
Record Label: Sound of Nigeria
Release Title: Ozobemezi
Material: Vinyl
Catalog Number: Sound Of Nigeria Records – SNRLPS 002
Edition: First Edition, First Pressing
Type: LP
Format: Record
Record Grading: Very Good Plus (VG+)
Release Year: 1988
Sleeve Grading: Fair (F)
Record Size: 12"
Style: Ukwani Highlife
Features: Import, Original Cover, Play Tested, Archival Sleeve
Genre: World Music, Highlife, African
Country/Region of Manufacture: Nigeria
Number of Audio Channels: Stereo