THE much-anticipated two simultaneous albums from Africano-musician, Lagbaja are now ready for release.
Titled ‘ Paradise ’ and ‘Sharp Sharp’, the albums were released into the Nigerian market on Monday, May 4, 2009.
As is characteristic of Lagbaja, all tracks on both albums have various slants and characters, but the common denominator remains the traditional African drums. Lagbaja’s saxophones also feature prominently on the new recordings; and it’s the first time since ‘Cest Un African Thing’ (1996) that the saxophone is taking such prominence on Lagbaja’s studio recordings.
Listeners will hear Lagbaja doing remarkable sax solos on ‘Paradise’ and ‘Sharp Sharp’ – songs like “I Rho Whe”, ‘Bling Bling Panda’ and “Sobolation” and have the saxophone blazing while tracks like ‘Paradise’ and ‘Sharp Sharp’ actually have the saxophone in the intro section of the songs dueting with the lead vocals.
The traditional African drums- the mainframe of the Africano-genre- is also conspicuously present throughout both albums. And, interestingly, most of the songs were recorded live. Lagbaja is an advocate of live music; believing musicians should play their instruments as opposed to the recently prevalent practice of completely ceding music production to the computer.
The albums were recorded in Lagos at Motherlan’ Studios; and in the USA at Bennett