Consumer Guide Album

Dele Abiodun: It's Time for Ju Ju Music [Super Adawa, 1985]
Juju strikes some as an odd place to have begun selling Africa to white people--subtle, discursive, hard to dance to. But in Nigeria it's just pop music. The funk and pop fusions claimed for this old-timer, who toured the U.K. way back in 1974, still sound more like shadings to me, but he's absorbed Martin Meissonnier's (not Sunny Adé's) production philosophy. In its tuneful construction and clean, hot mix, this item recalls Synchro-System, only it has a ruminative side that's very Nigeria-specific. Maybe that makes him ingenuous. Or maybe it means he knows his market. A-