Yoruba Odyssey

In recent years Nigerian music has become synonymous with the globalised Afrobeats of the likes of Burna Boy and Wizkid. That single additional ‘s’ brings with it a world of sonic difference from the original Afrobeat of Fela Kuti, Tony Allen and company, and it’s a joy to come across a record that unashamedly celebrates the glory days of Nigerian funk in the 1970s and 80s with such untrammelled exuberance. Lead vocalist, guitarist and keyboard player Adédèji Adetayo started singing in a church choir in Lagos before he was ten and recorded his debut album as a bandleader in 2012. Yoruba Odyssey is his third full-length release and the follow-up to 2017’s Afreekanism.

The album was recorded in just three days in Lagos at the legendary Afrodisia/Decca studio, where Kuti, King Sunny Adé and others once worked, and features Adédèji backed by an eight-piece brass section, half a dozen percussionists and call-and-response backing vocalists on a fizzing set of progressive jazz-funk simmering with classic Afrobeat and Yoruba tropes in tight but expansive arrangements with lyrics in Yoruba, English and Pidgin full of traditional riddles and proverbs. Away from such robust Fela-like workouts on ‘Oruku’ and ‘Shyphiliezation’, variety is provided by excursions into Afro-soul (the lilting ‘Lagos Blues’), gospel and township synth pop (‘Tales of Agege’). An unexpected delight.