Trumpet King Zeal Onyia Returns

When Louis Armstrong toured West Africa in 1961, he dubbed Onyia ‘the highlife hep cat of Nigerian jazz trumpet.’ One of the founders of West African highlife, Onyia, who died in 2000 at the age of 66, began his career playing with Bobby Benson's band in Lagos in the 1940s before moving to Ghana in the 50s to play with ET Mensah & The Tempos. He then spent time in London where he played the jazz clubs with Ambrose Campbell's West African Rhythm Brothers but by the early 60s he was back in Nigeria running his own jazz combo and providing stiff competition for Fela Kuti's pre-Afrobeat band Koola Lobitos. After studying classical trumpet in Germany during the 70s he returned once again to Lagos, where he recorded this classic highlife album with the Tabansi Studio Band in 1977 or 1979 (sources differ on the date).

The Igbo people call the style agadi-akwukwo (old-school) and the six tunes here ooze with nostalgic evocation of a simpler age in which rock'n'roll and the Beatles might as well never have happened. The opener ‘Zeal Anata’ combines village chants with swinging jazz trumpet before the album proceeds through the breezy upbeat carnival sounds of ‘Eluem Asaba’ and ‘Zealinjo Nnoa’ (Welcome) to the cracking, stop-start rhythms of the closer ‘Egwu Olili’.