VA - The Rough Guide to the Music of Nigeria & Ghana (2002)

With 400 ethnic groups in Nigeria alone, The Rough Guide to the Music of Nigeria & Ghana (from the Rough Guide series) covers a vast canvas. So it's no wonder--and probably a sensible idea--that Fela Kuti, the Nigerian singer best known in the West, should not be included (on the grounds that his records are ubiquitous anyway). What is included here is dominated by that quintessentially mid-20th-century style known as highlife, best exemplified by its undisputed king E.T. Mensah. With his old-fashioned diction and immense charm, Mensah rides along on a gracefully Westernized instrumental sound. King Sunny Ade, who displaced him (and who was briefly picked up by Western promoters as a potential West African Bob Marley), prefers hard-driving rhythms and clean a cappella choruses. But on this superb CD charm is the key element, with a multitude of variations on local rhythms and instrumental combinations. Check out the two-string gourd molo, as played with brilliant panache by Captain Yaba; or revel in some of West Africa's best-loved party tracks, including those by C.K. Mann and Eric Agyeman. There's up-to-the-minute stuff from expatriate bands in America, and a wonderfully atmospheric gig with the most recent highlife king, Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe. --Michael Church