Though he was born Prince Sunday Adeniyi, he would grow up to become King Sunny Ade, the best-known proponent of juju: a guitar-based style of music indigenous to western Nigeria. The Green Spots, Ade's first group, evolved into the African Beats...
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Though he was born Prince Sunday Adeniyi, he would grow up to become King Sunny Ade, the best-known proponent of juju: a guitar-based style of music indigenous to western Nigeria. The Green Spots, Ade's first group, evolved into the African Beats in 1971. The African Beats went on to record some 40 albums for Ade's own Sunny Alade Records.
Signed to Island Records in 1980, Ade established himself not only as juju's worldwide ambassador, but also as an innovator within the genre. His first Island album, "Juju Music," reworked several of his earlier hits. He added steel guitars and synthesizers to the multiple electric guitars that already characterized his brand. Furthermore, Ade adopted the spacey mixing techniques of Jamaican dub, which meshed with his Nigerian polyrhythms beautifully. The second Island release, "Synchro System," carried this hybrid sound forward (though he simultaneously released an album of different material under the same title for his Nigerian fans).
With "Aura," his third album released by Island, Ade and producer Martin Messonier devised a futuristic juju - summoning images of a Nigerian Kraftwerk - that acknowledged the textures of Michael Jackson's then hit album, "Thriller." Drum machines and digital harmonizing lent a robotic chill to the Nigerian dance beats, despite a guest harmonica solo from admirer Stevie Wonder. Ade continued in this vein for his soundtrack to Robert Altman's film "O.C. & Stiggs," in which the African Beats made an onscreen appearance. Unfortunately, neither the film nor Ade's soundtrack album were released. He was dropped by Island in 1984: the label citing diminishing sales and the inability of Americans to relate to vocals sung in Ade's native Yoruba language.
Subsequent creative insecurity and dissent among his musicians led to the dissolution of the African Beats. In the latter half of the '80s, King Sunny Ade led the Atom Park band; a compilation of their recordings was issued on Mercury as "Return of the Juju King." Following was a live album for I.R.S. in the early '90s, which documented a set at the Hollywood Palladium.
As the decade closed, Ade experienced something like a return to form when he came out with a new edition of the African Beats. The 1998 Mesa label release, "Odu," was his first studio album to achieve the balance of melodic invention, propulsive grooves, and a polished mix that had characterized the trio of Ade albums put out by Island.
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