Gasper Lawal, Ajomasé & Abio'sunni
http://permanentcondition.blogspot.com/
I’ve been absent from the blogosphere for something like the duration of a comet’s orbit, so today’s post is an effort to make up for lost time. Thus, a pair of records are featured, being the first two solo efforts by expatriate Nigerian drummer Gasper Lawal. Both embody every motive behind my (admittedly sporadic) commitment to this journal:
• Neither album has appeared on CD in the quarter-century since their release. “Kita-Kita,” from
Ajomasé, turned up on the epoch-marking
Nigeria 70 compilation assembled and released by Afro-Strut, a label whose demise I still lament. The combined running times of
Ajomasé and
Abio’sunni outdistanced the storage capabilities of the compact disc; it’s doubtful that either title was sufficiently popular to justify re-release in its own right. Fortunately, downloading now renders the timing problem moot.
• Both albums are filled to the brim with great playing and terrifically modern ideas (Lawal, with his 1980 debut
Ajomasé, might have formulated the Nigerian response to
Bowie’s & Eno’s Low), none of which have dated in the least. Curiously, neither record is mentioned on Gasper Lawal’s
page in the All Music Guide.