King Sunny Adé

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King Sunny Adé

Background information
Birth name Sunday Adeniyi
Born 1946
Origin Ondo, Nigeria
Genre(s) Jùjú
Years active 1960s-present

King Sunny Adé (Sunday Adeniyi, born September 22, 1946) is a popular performer of Nigerian Jùjú music. With his band, "King Sunny Adé and His African Beats", King Sunny Adé became an international star across Africa during the mid-1980s, touring and gaining a significant audience in the United States and Europe as well. He is known as the Minister of Enjoyment.

Born to a Nigerian royal family in Ondo, Adé left grammar school to pursue his career, which began with Moses Olaiya's Federal Rhythm Dandies, a highlife band. He left to form The Green Spots in 1967. He formed a record label in 1974, fed up with being exploited by a major label. After the death of Bob Marley, Island Records began looking for another third world artist to put on its contract and Fela Kuti was just signed to Arista. Producer Martin Meissonnier introduced King Sunny Adé to Chris Blackwell, leading to the release of Juju Music in 1982. Still today, this seminal recording is often acclaimed to be one of the most important records in Africa. Adé gained a wide following with this album and was soon billed as "the African Bob Marley". Sunny Adé headlined concerts in the United States. The New York Times described one of Adé's several concerts in New York in the 1980s as one of the most significant pop music events of the decade.[citation needed] His second album under the cusp of international stardom was Synchro System which attracted many converts of world music. Soon after, Nigerian imports (mostly pirated copies) of his massive back catalog began flooding the Western market. Island, concerned about sales and Adé's refusal to include more English in his repertoire, cut him loose after his third LP, 1984's Aura which featured Stevie Wonder on the harmonica.

In 1984, he and his music were featured in Robert Altman's comedy film O.C. & Stiggs.

By the end of the 1980s, Adé recoiled back to his shell and released several albums in his native Nigeria, though many could not be compared with the Island releases. He continued to garner critical acclaim and widespread popularity in Africa. Sunny Adé's brief but seminal recordings with Island records opened the floodgate for other world music artist like Senegalise Youssou N'Dour, Malis' Salief Keita and a host of others.

In 1987, he was yet again thrust into the international spotlight when Rykodisc released a live concert he did in Seattle and was given an astonishing embrace by fans across the globe who were eager for another international album release.

He soon found an American manager, Andrew Frankel, who was sympathetic to his cause and believed in his potential; negotiated another three album record deal with the Mesa record label (a Division of Paradise Group) in America. One of these albums was 1998's Odu, a collection of traditional Yoruba songs, which was nominated for a Grammy Award. He has also become one of the most powerful people in Nigeria, running multiple companies in several industries, creating a non-profit organization called the King Sunny Adé Foundation, and working with the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria.

Adé was the first to introduce the pedal steel guitar to Nigerian pop music after becoming a fan of American country-western music. He was also the first to introduce the use of synthesizers, clavinet, vibraphone, tenor guitar and some highly sophisticated recording technology into the juju music repertoire. He is also well-known for his dexterous stage art, dance steps and mastery of the strings.

In recent times, hip hop music appears to be holding sway with the electronic media in Nigeria with massive airplays. Nonetheless, Sunny Adé's musical output has inspired a vast generation of musician's in Nigeria who believe in the big band musical set up which Sunny Adé and late Fela Kuti are noted for. The masked musician, Lagbaja is one of the very many musicians Sunny Adé's music has inspired.

Still today, Sunny Adé's massive backlog of his Nigerian releases which dates back to the 60's and 70's are now regularly re-issued by some independent record labels in America. In the social circles in Nigeria, his music is readily sought after by the rich and famous. At 62, Sunny Adé's stage presence and level of musicianship is still glorious to behold. No wonder Trey Anastasio, one of his devout followers once said, "If you must come to see Sunny Adé live, you must be prepared to groove all night".

As a testimony to Sunny Adé's creative output, in December 2007 he released a new album Glory of God.

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[edit] External links

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