![\"Nigerian](\"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/09\/06-09-10-LISTN-Fela-Sowande-811x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>Fela Sowande (1905 \u2014 1987) with his fiance, Amer\u00adi\u00adcan sopra\u00adno Mil\u00addred Mar\u00adshall, in Regen\u00adt\u2019s Park, Lon\u00addon, 13th Sep\u00adtem\u00adber 1936. Sowande is work\u00ading as a the pianist and Mar\u00adshall is singing in the Lon\u00addon pro\u00adduc\u00adtion of Lew Leslie\u2019s musi\u00adcal revue, Black\u00adbirds Of 1936<\/em>.<\/p><\/div>\n Nige\u00adria has pro\u00adduced some of the great\u00adest musi\u00adcians of the world. Prob\u00ada\u00adbly best known are juju<\/em> mas\u00adter King Sun\u00adny Ad\u00e9 and the great jazzman Fela Aniku\u00adlapo Kuti. But in an ear\u00adlier gen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion, Fela Sowande loomed quite as large. Sowande was suc\u00adcess\u00adful in pop\u00adu\u00adlar music, as a band\u00adleader in the ear\u00adly High\u00adlife scene, as well an accom\u00adplished jazz per\u00adformer. He was also a fine clas\u00adsi\u00adcal organ\u00adist and choral con\u00adduc\u00adter. His largest body of work is church choral and organ music. Migrat\u00ading to Britain, he achieved instant fame as a con\u00adcert pianist with a per\u00adfor\u00admance of Gershwin\u2019s Rhap\u00adsody in Blue<\/em>, and sub\u00adse\u00adquently per\u00adformed in duets with Fats Waller. He even\u00adtu\u00adally returned to Nige\u00adria as a teacher, and then lived his last years in Ohio, where he is buried.<\/p>\n <\/span>But it\u2019s as an orches\u00adtral com\u00adposer that he made his most last\u00ading impact. His work, which infused the Eng\u00adlish orches\u00adtral style with African melodies, rhythms and har\u00admonies, fell out of fash\u00adion after the 1950\u2019s, and he was neglect\u00aded. But here in Cana\u00adda, Sowande remained a famil\u00adiar name because of a sin\u00adgle radio show. Gilmour\u2019s Albums<\/em> ran on CBC<\/span> radio for an amaz\u00ading 40 years.\u2026 52 weeks a year, with no repeats. The show was an eclec\u00adtic mix\u00adture of jazz, opera, cham\u00adber music, broad\u00adway tunes, and folk mate\u00adr\u00adial (and the oblig\u00ada\u00adtory Old Cana\u00addian taste for wail\u00ading bag\u00adpipes), drawn from the per\u00adsonal record col\u00adlec\u00adtion of jour\u00adnal\u00adist Clyde Gilmour. The show end\u00aded on Gilmour\u2019s retire\u00adment in 1997. Dur\u00ading much of that forty-year run, Gilmour used the final Akin\u00adla<\/em> move\u00adment of Sowande\u2019s African Suite for Strings<\/em> as a sig\u00adna\u00adture tune. Con\u00adse\u00adquently, that piece has remained with\u00adin the stan\u00addard orches\u00adtral reper\u00adtoire in Canada.<\/p>\n I have two record\u00adings of the African Suite<\/em>. One is a 1975 vinyl by the New Sym\u00adphony Strings, direct\u00aded by Trevor Har\u00advey, and the oth\u00ader is a recent CD<\/span> direct\u00aded by Mario Bernar\u00addi with the CBC<\/span> Van\u00adcou\u00adver Sym\u00adphony Orches\u00adtra. The work is high\u00adly enter\u00adtain\u00ading, with sev\u00aderal strik\u00ading moments. There is not only the famil\u00adiar Akin\u00adla<\/em> pas\u00adsage, but a won\u00adder\u00adful lul\u00adlaby, which Sowande said he over\u00adheard sung by an neigh\u00adbour \u201cin the still\u00adness of an African evening\u201d. That alone tells you the age of its incep\u00adtion, because the last thing you would attribute to his native Lagos in recent decades is \u201cstill\u00adness\u201d!. African cities are qui\u00adet in day\u00adtime, but rise to a din\u00adful fren\u00adzy in the evenings. But Sowande was born in 1904, and left for Eng\u00adland in 1934.<\/p>\n Sowande is deserv\u00ading of a seri\u00adous revival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nige\u00adria has pro\u00adduced some of the great\u00adest musi\u00adcians of the world. Prob\u00ada\u00adbly best known are juju mas\u00adter King Sun\u00adny Ad\u00e9 and the great jazzman Fela Aniku\u00adlapo Kuti. But in an ear\u00adlier gen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion, Fela Sowande loomed quite as large. Sowande was \u2026<\/p>\n