Femi Temowo at Under the Bridge-A Good Time was had by All

A Good time was had by all.

The evening of 23^rd September 2011 was for me one long dilemma, how do I sell T shirts and enjoy good music at the same time?

The answer still eludes me

Orin Meta- Life as a song in 3 movements

The occasion was the launch of UK/ Nigerian jazz guitarist’s Femi Temowo’s second album Orin Meta (Femitone), a celebration of Femi’s Yoruba roots, through a 10 song album. Orin Meta (Three Songs) is best described in Femi’s own words, “....we are but a song in three movements’ birth, life and death”. The album is based on this fundamental truism with songs dealing with birth, life and death.

This theory of a song or life in three parts is demonstrated in the album design by Emma Watts  which is the basis for the Proud to be African Limited Edition Orin Meta T shirt.

The event was held at the upscale Under the Bridge Night Club in Chelsea Village on Fulham Road with one of the finest jazz line ups to grace the stage (ok so I'm writing as a jazz fan here rather than business man but it was pure magic!) Grant Windsor was on the piano, Jean Toussaint formerly of Art Blakely’s Jazz Messengers on the sax, Troy Miller on drums, Karl Rasheed-Abel on the cello, Ayan De First and Richard Baker. Yolanda Brown was in the audience so in fact there was quite a pedigree all round.

The show started with an amazing animated video of the ‘Storytellers Psalm’, and then Femi and crew began playing but unfortunately I was stuck upstairs with the merchandise! The first live song was ‘Orin Ayo’ (a song for joys sake), followed by ‘Awon Asiwaju’ and ‘Asiko Aye’. He then played ‘Felicia’s Song’ which he dedicated to his mother and started by a Jean Toussaint solo (always a crowd pleaser!).

The second half started with ‘Like a Peaceful river’ 
with a string trio of Emma Smith, Lucy Railton and Vincent Sipprell. The penultimate song was the title song Orin Meta, with guest vocalist Xantone Blacq another Amy Winehouse alumni (keyboards) but an awesome singer in his own right as can be seen here.

Jean Toussaint

Again this track saw some amazing solo’s with a tour de force in vocal gymnastics by Xantone, I presumed all the ladies were screaming and swooning over the singing and nothing else!

The gig ended with The Drummers Call which saw Ayan De First and Richard Baker return to the stage and play us off with some excellent drumming.

In addition to the jazz glitterati on show, OHTV (Sky Channel 199) presenters Lola Ogunbadejo and Mansour Bellow along with producers Don Omope and Sam Blankson were there filming and interviewing guests and generally getting into the swing of things

The entire gig was characterised by barnstorming solos from each instrumentalist with Jean Toussaint gripping the audience with both the alto and tenor sax, Grant Windsor playing his heart out as ever and Troy Miller keeping the rhythm flowing. Karl as well as playing his cello endured Femi’s ribbing about everything from his travails at the barbers to his being single. Essentially it was like group of excellent musicians jamming in an upscale bar.

Why can’t all Friday evenings be like that?

I wish I could write more or try and describe the event better but I’m not a music writer and I don’t think I could do the set justice. I’m also no cameraman so the best I can do is try and get across how groovy the whole thing was. Unfortunately for me I was stuck upstairs most of the time selling T shirts, the Orin Meta design and Proud to be African brand were as ever raved over and we won a few more fans, I also managed to get Emma Watts the album cover designer to pose with her creation.

Emma Watts Album cover designer with shy model!

For those of you that weren’t there (unlucky!), you’ll have to catch it on Afrika Rising on OHTV or go to Femi’s next gig at The Forge on 28th October, the next London gig I'm particularly looking forward to is at one of Proud to be African Clothings favourite venues; Rich Mix on 27^th November with another brilliant artist the kora  player Sona Jobarteh.

That promises to be another excellent night, so I’ll definitely be there and hopefully there will be no upstairs for me to hide away in! Full gig list is at the bottom of the page and if you haven’t got the Orin Meta T shirt, well go to the Proud to be African Clothing website and if you haven't got the CD go to Femi's website.

So to conclude although Femi was not Born in the UK he was definitely Made in Africa, it is safe to say he fulfils the Made in Nigeria tag, and his Orin Meta album has made everyone there Proud to be African, and most definitely made me Proud to be Nigerian (got them all in there, ha!!!)

Next stop October 1^st, Naija people are you ready?

October

28^th The Forge Camden - Tickets

November

16^th  606 Club (LJF)

25^th  Pavillion Theatre, Brighton with Soweto Kinch Quartet

26^th  Modern Jazz Club, Cambridge with Soweto Kinch Quartet

27^th   Rich Mix, London with Sona Jobarteh

28^th  The Drum, Birmingham with The     Olatuja Project

30^th  Pizza Express, Dean St London with The Olatuja Project

December

1^st    Djanology Theatre, Nottingham with Soweto Kinch Quartet

4^th   CBSO Centre, Birmingham with Soweto Kinch Quartet

5^th  Warsaw, Poland with Michal Urbaniak

Proud to Be African at Book Slam South

7pm at Clapham Junction on a Tuesday. I’d never heard of Book Slam before but the blurb on the website had said something about turning up and joining the queue, typical Naija cynic that I am I was thinking “Queue? What kind of literary event in Clapham on a Tuesday will have a queue?”

Well as they say if you don’t know now you know. And now I know! I turned up and the queue was round the corner!

A clue should have been the line up, which was what drew me in, the crème de la crème of new African talent; first off Inua Ellams erstwhile spoken word artist, playwright, graphic artist par excellence, and then Chimamanda Adichie, Chinua Achebe reborn as a proud modern Igbo woman and author of 'Half a yellow sun', 'Purple Hibiscus' and 'The thing around your neck' along with Lem Sissay and Nick Mulvey. 

Hmmmm

Maybe the round the block queue makes sense now!

Getting inside I found a lively amphitheatre turned into a restaurant cum bar come spoken word theatre, it was standing room only by the time my queuing ass had gotten in!

I must at this point declare an interest, as loyal Proud to be African fans should know, Inua designed the iconic Proud to be African logo (that I call PTBA2) as well as the Born in the UK, Made in Africa series, he also did me the honour of wearing a black PTBA T shirt on the night and he did the label proud as he gave the first reading.

I had to reveal my bias as I didn’t want anyone to think my praise was a ‘backhander’ but his opening set the scene for an excellent evening, starting with a recital of ‘Ash Skinned’ from the 14^th Tale, moving on to the brilliant 'Twenty five', which ends with the immortal line "........Annie is fine, Annie is doing ok"”, he finished off with ‘The Boys of Plateau Private School’ a dedication to his nerdy days hanging out with his friends at the above mentioned Plateau Private School.

As mentioned above ‘Ash Skinned’ is from Inua’s play ‘The 14thTale’ which is playing at Tara Studio. This is the second run of the play which garnered rave reviews and sold out when it ran at the National Theatre in early 2010. I’ll be there next week so wait out for the blog post from that. 

After a drink and chop break Lem Sissay the MC then introduced Chimamanda Adichie, who had graciously signed my 2 hastily purchased copies of ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’, you see being a calculating, hard nosed Igbo man I had actually planned to take my existing copies of her books to be autographed but as I got there liver failed me and like a star struck 12 year old I meekly bought fresh copies of books that I already own for signing!

Anyway I digress; after effortlessly falling my hand Ms Adichie took to the stage and after giving a shout out to all the natural haired black women in the audience (thereby alienating all the unnaturally haired black women in the room much to my amusement!) she then gave a fascinating reading of her new short story 'Quality Street'.

As I’ve mentioned before the presentation by Ms Adichie at TED kind of encapsulates a lot of the thinking behind PTBA and this story again revolved around the generational and geographic disconnect by those of us abroad and those still at home. Kind of reminded me of how when I go home I turn up my nose and getting exasperated at everything for the first few days until I acclimatise back into life but it was again put across by Ms Adichie far more eloquently than I could. My best effort at capturing this disconnect is the Born in the UK Made in Africa series of T shirts and hoodys but then again how does that compare to The first half was rounded up by a brilliant performance by musician and guitarist Nick Mulvey whose haunting rendition of ‘Look at Miss Ohio’ captured the audience.

As it was past my bed time (e.g. 9pm!) I was compelled to leave missing Inua’s reading in the second half of ‘Fragments of Bone, Candy coated Unicorns and Converse All Stars’ and Ms Adichie’s second part of her story

As much as I kicked myself for missing the second half, I had a strange warm, fuzzy feeling in my gut that wasn’t just a combination of hunger and indigestion but a genuine feeling of pleasure at the abundance of literary riches I’d experienced, I’d met Chimamanda Adichie and made like a 12 year old school boy, I’d heard Inua Ellams perform at his brilliant best. A good evening of African literary excellence it made this African man very Proud!

PS see you at Under the Bridge for Femi Temowo's album launch on Friday 23rd September

Femi Temowo teams up with Proud to be African Clothing!!!

Another day another event, or maybe not, as this one is special to Proud to be African Clothing as PTBA actually has a stake an interest in it. I’m talking about the launch of acclaimed jazz guitarist Femi Temowo’s second album Orin Meta (Femitone) . For those that need telling who Femi Temowo is, shame on you, please go and ask somebody!

Ok well since its you and since it’s me your  asking 

Femi Temowo is a critically acclaimed musician who has worked with late soul singer Amy Winehouse and saxophonist Soweto Kinch to name a few, he’s also a genuine nice guy which is always a good thing! He studied jazz at Middlesex University and joined UK Jazz/Hip-Hop artist Soweto Kinch’s brand new quartet when he graduated which went on to win many awards including a Mercury Music Prize nomination, BBC jazz award for best new group and several Mobo awards.

Femi’s slick and melodic guitar sound and style has seen him cross generations and genres playing with the likes of George Benson, Courtney Pine, The Roots, Omar, Roachford, Amy Winehouse, Jason Rebello, Eska Mtungwazi, Terri Walker, Jean Toussaint, Don Blackman, Michal Urbaniak and so on.

Orin Meta (‘Three Songs’ in Yoruba) is influenced by the song culture of the early Yoruba people combining aspects of jazz and Yoruba music, instruments and song form creating a fusion of lush jazz harmonies and subtle inflections of Yoruba rhythm that evokes a feel of Africa at its most timeless.

To mark the launch the Femi decided to put the album cover design on a T shirt. The multi coloured motif of 3 faces is unique and evokes the principle of 3 as per the Orin Meta theme and complements the Proud to be Africans ethos of the balancing and combining of worlds, the physical and the spiritual, the African and the diaspora.

On the front of the T shirt is the unique image by Femi Temowo and Emma Alexandra Watts and photographed by Adil Sharif on the back is the Proud to be African roundel (known as PTBA2).

In keeping with the spirit of the album and the design the photo shoot had the 3 theme going on as the pictures show, fortunately none of the photos of me trying to pose have survived, as it was considered that a bad tempered unshaven individual scowling at the camera was not the image we were trying to portray! In the photos we have Femi, Ayeesha and Robert, on the album we have the pure joy of African musical tradition mixed with jazz (very much Born in the UK, Made in Africa!) and on 23^rd September the album will be launched at Under the Bridge, Stamford Bridge, Fulham Road, London, SW6 1HS,  tickets start from £10.00 general admission to £20.00 from here, T shirts can be bought on the night or in advance at Proud to be African Clothing's website.

Looking forward to seeing all the PTBA fraternity there

Chidi

Photo shoot with Femi Temowo

In preparation for Nigerian jazz guitarist Femi Temowo’s new album launch on 23^rd September 2011, we had a photo shoot at North Acton with the Orin Meta T shirt based on his album cover.

First issue for me was getting there, I mean North Acton? There are some places that I believed only exist on the tube map!

Second issue is the wind; I swear there is a dedicated and hardcore wind blowing straight at you as you leave the tube station

Third issue is that one way system, I mean if you ever want t design a system for a Naija man to walk round and round in circles this is it. Because obviously western civilisation will collapse and the whole myth of manliness crash around my heels if I asked directions so I wandered around for a good half hour trying to figure out, where I was and where I was trying to go.

After wandering around the one way system we finally linked up with Femi, Adil (the photographer), Bobbie and Ayeesha at the studio.

While I skulked at the back while Adil worked his magic, Femi and the crew got involved. I was mightily disappointed in Adil that he didn’t invite anyone to “Love the Camera” or shout “You’re a tiger, you’re a tiger, grrr, grrr!”  ala Austin /powers, I was informed somewhat gently that sane photographers don’t act like that!

Bobbie (Femi’s brother and a spoken word artist) started out as the most reluctant model yet by the end was so relaxed and composed that we actually had to keep reminding them that we had other shots to get in!

Hopefully some modelling agencies will get to see these pictures as there is a definite career there waiting to happen if Bobbie lets me publish them, (for the record I will only be charging 10% finders fee for life and in perpetuity, enforceable throughout the universe!!)

The beautiful Ayeesha and the newly discovered Bobbie kindly agreed to model some of the new ‘Proud To Be Nigeria’ and ‘Born in the UK Made in Nigeria’ T shirts, sweatshirts and hoodys. I’m really loving this collection not just because it is ‘Made in Nigeria’ themed but because I have finally branched out into different colours and a wider variety of sizes.

In contrast the Limited edition Orin Meta T shirts are black with the Orin Meta design on the front and the Proud To Be African (PTBA2) roundel logo on the back, the beautiful design on the front is unique to the album and was influenced by the Orin Meta (Yoruba for three songs) concept

Femi  described by Time Out Magazine as “One of Europe’s finest and most sought after guitarists” has played with Soweto Kinch, Amy Winehouse, George Benson to name a few releases his second album on Friday 23^rd September 2011 at Under The Bridge, Stamford Bridge, Fulham Road, London, SW6 1HS tickets are available from http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?region=gb_london&query=detail&event=461161. The limited edition Orin Meta T shirts are available from http://proudtobeafrican.co.uk/index.php/shop/orin-meta.html