African steel players?

Marc Stone · From: Louisiana, USA

Hey steelers,

I recently got hired to play lap in a band led by a percussionist from the Ivory Coast and featuring 3 West African percussionists/drummers and a bunch of really good New Orleans modern jazz players. I am trying to find some sonic reference points.
I have heard some of Ebenezer Obey's stuff with pedal steel and would like to check out more. Any recommendations on good recording of Obey with steel, and does anyone know the name of his steel player?

I am also trying to find some west African references, since Obey's Nigerian Juju style is very bright and major key sounding, and the music we are playing is much more on a dark sounding minor pentatonic vibe. All of my bluesy stuff works well in this context, but I am trying to push my harmonic boundaries since most of the other melodic and chordal players in the band have a Coltrane-and-beyond vocabulary.

Any suggestions? Thanks

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

The guy who started it all is Demola Adepoju (who now lives in America BTW) when he played with King Sunny Adé.

King Sunny Adé's album called Juju Music" from 1983 or 84 features Demola quite predominantly.

http://www.amazon.com/Juju-Music-King-Sunny-Ade/dp/B000003QI0

King Sunny Adé was the first Nigerian musician to bring over American electric guitars and integrate the sounds of rock and roll into his native music. He was immensely successful, and has continued to stay on top of the latest musical technology.

Demola Adepoju discovered the steel back in the early 70s. He managed to find a 6 string lap steel and teach himself to play. At the time he was playing in the equivalent of a garage band. One day at a party he brought it out and played a few tunes. Somebody hear him and brougfht him to the attention of Sunny Adé, who promptly hired him.

In I believe 1977, The 2 men went went to England where they bought 3 pedal steels, an Emmons D-10, an Emmons S-10 and a Sho-Bud S-10. (The Bud might have been an LDG.)

What they did not bring back was any kind of instructional material. Demola had to figure it all out on his own.

When he and I met in 1984 when the band toured America, he had learned how to use the A pedal and the F lever, but not the B or C pedals. Also, his Emmons S-10 was out of adjustment, so I took him to Blackie Taylor who straightened everything out. During our time together, he showed me what he was doing and I tought him a little about the kinds of things we play. I also gave him a copy of Winnie's book and some Jeff Newman instructional material.

In 1986 the band returned. Once again Demola's Emmons was out of whack, so this time we went to Blackie's, and he bought a new Deckley. At thwe time he was working on his own solo LP, and he cut some tracks here in L.A., and I played autoharp on one tune. The solo album contains both his own style, and his adaptations of the more traditional E9 playing.

In 1988, the band returned once again, and this time, Demola stayed behind after they returned to Nigeria, and attended the convention. Needless to say, he was pretty blown away by what he saw nd heard there.

Somewhere there's a photo of him and me and Scotty together.

Some time during the 90's Demola left the band and moved to America. As I said he now lives in Maryland. We've lost touch with each other though, and I don't know exactly where, or how to reach him.
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Marc Stone · From: Louisiana, USA

Wow thanks Mike. great info. I have seen Ade, but not with a steel player. I need to dig into this a little more. Is Demola's solo album available anywhere?

Mike Poholsky · From: Kansas, USA

Mike, Very interesting info. I had some King Sunny Ade recordings on cassette. Never really knew much about the steel player. Very cool music! As I remember it was pretty basic steel playing. More a case of how it was being done. It worked very well. Anyone looking to expand their steel guitar musical genre should check it out. Marc, What a cool gig! That should be fun! I would love to hear it.
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David Doggett · Posted 5 Apr 2009 11:00 am

Marc, I’m afraid you will find the King Sunny stuff similar to Obey’s juju style. But I haven’t heard Adepoju’s solo album.

I’m also trying to move (in baby steps) in the direction you are heading. Most pedal steel jazz has been swing players doing bebop, with little or no post-Coltrane stuff. I play a 12-string E9/B6 universal and find tons of good minor pentatonic stuff on the low strings in the A pedal position. It gives over two octaves of minor pentatonic, with tons of jazz chords nearby. You can hear me take a funk-fusion ride on the long version of “Funk Meditation for Peace” downloadable from CD Baby (see below).

I’m sure you know David Easley does some pretty far out stuff on C6 pedal steel. Still, that is not really what I am after. I just haven’t found any real blues/afro-based avant garde and free jazz pedal steel yet. I’ll be interested if someone joins this thread and points some out. Until then, the best we can do is listen to the horns, keyboards, and current jazz guitarists for stuff we can adapt to pedal steel. If you haven’t already, you might listen to some of Freddy Roulette’s lap R&B-blues-jazz. Even an old blues lap steeler like L.C. “Good Rockin’” Robinson can stir some pentatonic ideas for modern blues-based jazz.

Twayn Williams · From: Portland, OR

That sounds like a very cool band! What tuning are you using on your lap right now? I'd recommend listening to the indigenous music of the region and trying to imitate some of those ideas on your guitar instead of trying to keep up with those horn players Whoa!

The most harmonically challenging non-pedal tuning you'll likely to find is the Leavitt tuning. You gotta think more like a pianist rather than a horn player with that tuning though.
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Michael Johnstone · From: Sylmar,Ca. USA

I was in Nigeria for a few weeks surounding the holiday season of 1979-1980 shooting some documentary music stuff with Leon Russell. While I was there I heard a bunch of different bands(not King Sunny Ade)playing what sounded like Jamaican Reggae except with steel playing little repetitive figures. It was always lap steel though. I didn't get to see King Sunny but Leon and I did get to see Fela Kuti play and were guests at his place. I could write a book about that trip.

Fred Eddie-Quartey · From: Illinois, USA

Hi Marc,

The Ebenezer Obey albums with best representation of steel guitar in his band are those released between 1981 and 1986. They are:

Joy of Salvation - 1981
What God Has Joined Together - 1981
Celebration - 1982
Austerity - 1982
'Ebun Pataki' (Precious Gift) - 1982
Ambition - 1983
Singing For The People - 1983
The Only Condition to Save Nigeria - 1984
Satisfaction - 1986

These albums were released on the Obey label and often pop up on eBay.

Ebenezer Obey's steel player was Yinusa Dauda. There is very little on the web about him. He was a member of Obey's Inter-Reformers band from around 1980 to 1988 or '89. He was replaced by Funsho Odukomaiya, who remained with the band until it was dissolved in 1995. Yinusa played a Sierra D10 but without using the pedals or knee levers. He played only the rear neck of his guitar but given the range he had, I doubt that he tuned it to C6.

Mike,

I believe Demola left King Sunny Ade's band earlier than 1990. The African Beats band underwent a re-org in 1984 and featured Abiodun Fatoke as the steel player on 'Gratitude', the new band's first release of 1985. After that, Abiodun Fatoke had become a regular touring and recording member. Demola's debut album, 'Olufemi', was released in 1984. He's also pictured on the front cover of his album playing the Deckley steel S-12 you mentioned. Before Ademola left the African Beats I often saw him play an Emmons P/P S-12.

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

Kevin Macneil Brown · From: Montpelier, VT, USA

The great Congo-Zaire guitar master Docteur Nico played steel on a few recordings, as did Sekou "Diamond Fingers" Diabate of Guinea. In both cases, very individualized approaches to the instrument. I can dig deeper and get you track titles if you are interested.
Also worth exploring is Greg Liesz's work with Bill Frisell on the INTERCONTINENTALS

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

Fred, I'm not sure when Demola left King Sunny Adé's band, (I know why, but it's not relevant to this discussion. Suffice to say a woman was involved.) But he was with them when they toured America in 1988, and I played the autoharp on one song on his solo album, and I'm pretty sure we did the session in '86.

Dates aside, Demola was the guy that introduced the steel into Nigerian music, and the mere fact that he could be replaced, says something about his impact.

I just learned that his visa expired several years ago and the was sent back to Nigeria. I hope he's doing well over there.
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Fred Eddie-Quartey · From: Illinois, USA

Hi Mike,

As you had the opportunity to record with Demola you're in a better position to know what his status was at that time. I guess both Demola and Abiodun toured with the African Beats between '86-88. I saw them here in Chicago, in 1987 and '88 and Abiodun Fatoke was on steel. I guess the lineup changed depending on the show or venue.

Abiodun Fatoke was a percussionist when Demola joined on lap steel. Along the way, I'm sure he picked up steel while Demola was still in the band.

As you mentioned he influenced many other Nigerian steel players. Ebenezer Obey, King Sunny Ade's main rival/competitor, added a lap steel player about a year after Demola joined the African Beats. Obey's first steel player was not as accomlished as Demola. A year ,or so, after Demola and KSA added pedal steel, Obey soon hired Yinusa Dauda on pedal steel.

It was interesting to hear each new album from either Obey or KSA, with the steel up-front, playing intricate solo arrangements. One could also hear a marked contrast in styles - Demola was generally more reserved in tone and style while Yinusa was more brassy and agressive.

David Easley · From: New Orleans, LA, USA

You guys might be interested in this cut from a young piano player from Prague. It's called "A Little Something". It starts out very simply, almost country, then it gradually builds up to more and more dissonant stuff and then to a big pentatonic lick that, to me, seems reminiscent of Babatungi Olatungi although I wouldn't call this an African group by any means. She instructed me to solo right on through the horn parts and on into the end. She allowed me to post her song on my myspace page for a little while.

http://www.myspace.com/davefeasley

"A Little Something" By Beata Hlavenkova.
There's also a song of mine called "Uganda"

chris ivey · From: california (deceased)

any somalian steel pirates out there?

David Doggett · Posted 14 Apr 2009 9:41 pm

Yeah, that's good stuff, David E. Both seem to be headed in the "dark pentatonic minor, post-Coltrane" direction requested. I love that stuff. Lot's of other good stuff on your site too.

Ron ! · Posted 15 Apr 2009 6:31 am

Bob Simons · From: Kansas City, Mo, USA

Wow! Thanks for the great info..."straight from the horses mouth!" I always loved KSA...currently hooked on Baba Maal from Senegal (no steel guitar,though...)
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Bob Hoffnar · From: Austin, Tx

I recorded with a Nigerian band a couple years ago but I never heard the recordings and lost track of the guys. I was on the road at the time. Great music. I loved it. It was a blast once I got into the modular rythmic cycles. There are some Africa players I end up on stage with at a place called Zebulon in Brooklyn. Its always a joy. There is something very light hearted and deep about playing with those guys.
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Marc Stone · From: Louisiana, USA

Hey everyone,

thanks for all of the responses and info. Sorry it took so long to respond, but I was consumed with getting through our festival season here in NOLA. Jazz Fest ended Sunday, and I finally have a little down time.

I tried to check out as much stuff as was recommended by you guys. I didn't have time to cruise ebay or vinyl stores, so I wound up getting a lot of the King Sunny Ade stuff, both the early stuff without the steel and the Juju Music album with Demola. Beautiful stuff, his steel is really eerie. Love the kind of hollow tone on some of the tracks. i also really dug the earlier KSA stuff from the 60s and 70s, especially some of the dark and funky tracks. His guitar playing on that stuff reminds me in some distant way of Albert Collins.

I found a bunch of Dr. Nico stuff online but wasn't able to discern where I would find steel and didn't have time to do much more digging.Kevin - if you have some more info, that would be great, I would love to hear that stuff.

Fred- thanks for all of the Ebenezer Obey info. now that I have some time I will be able to grab some more of that stuff. i had some Obey records in the past, definitely want to get some again.

Twayn - It's a really fun gig. I tried Leavitt once upon a time. It didn't do much for me at the time, but I was new to steel. But if I want to have those kind of possibilities I might just move to PSG on this gig. Right now I am using an 8 string tuning that is regular Dobro G in the middle with a 5 (D) on the bottom and a 6 (E) on the top, so it reads D G B D G B D E low to high. I am going to experiment with some other tuning ideas, I came up with a pentatonic based thing I am going to put on my other 8 string for a while and feel it out. I don't have to play a lot of chords on this gig, so it gives me a lot of options.

Dave D - yeah, Easley is the cat. I've been seeing play for more than 10 years and I still have found few musicians on any axe (and we have a few good ones here in New Orleans) that blow me away like he does. He can do anything in any style on a steel, including stuff that just sounds physically impossible, and make it soulful.

Dave E - wow, love that track and the other stuff I checked out on your myspace. Hope you had a great Jazz fest and are doing well. Are you around town?

So after all of this I realized that more than studying anyone else's thing, more than adapting what I do to try and speak on a harmonic level with people who have a vocabulary light years beyond my own, what the bandleader wanted me to do was just do what I do, which is really simple and blues based. He kept telling me to "be free, be free". Sounds good to me. He just wanted me to put that flavor here and there and in some nice in between places, and take a solo once in a while. In other words, just play some nice steel and have fun (and play loud, which, hey, twist my arm). On most tunes I don't have a rhythmic part, although on one of the more major sounding tunes I did do a G major finger picking thing trying to emulate a kora. Mostly I get to just float, which is a little against my nature after playing lots of rhythm guitar in bands for 20 years (that long, ouch). But I think I'm getting used to it. It's also my first gig where I was just hired to play steel, so I'm trying to get a handle on the instrument while also trying to get a handle on a very different style of music than I have ever played. It's a nice challenge.

It's way too much fun to sit in the middle of all of those amazing rhythms and thundering drums, with an incredible vibes player playing really intense harmonies, and great horn players, and a great fretless electric player, and just play.

Here is a link to video of the band, which is called Fatien Ensemble. http://videos.nola.com/times-picayune/2009/04/jazz_fest_profile_on_seguenon.html

The video was shot in the morning at New Orleans Center For Creative Arts, and I didn't really have time to tune up, so forgive the squirrelly notes here and there. The plan was to film us in rehearsal, but our vibes player was out of town and we couldn't get in our regular room, so this was kind of a quick staged thing for the camera in an available room. Also, we are missing the vibes player and the 2 other drummers, who make up a huge part of the sound. The band usually has a dun dun (bass drum) and djembe player also. You also don't hear the horns in this segment, but the video at least gives a small taste of what is going on.

the leader of the band is Seguenon Kone, from the Ivory Coast. he is a master drummer and dancer, builds all of his instruments, and is one of the nicest people I have ever worked with. I hope we get to record it soon, it's definitely something different.

thanks again for all of the info everyone.

Twayn Williams · From: Portland, OR

There's no video at the link.
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David Doggett · Posted 5 May 2009 3:57 pm

It took awhile to load, but I saw it. Nice music, Marc. Smile

David Easley · From: New Orleans, LA, USA

Hey, Marc. Yeah, I'm mostly around town this summer, though I've got a bunch of short trips coming up. This jazz fest I was over in Germany with Coco Robicheaux. I'm glad to see you've got such a cool project going on. I've always loved all sorts of African music. Talk about roots, eh?

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