Arts & Events

Nigerian Highlife singer and bandleader Okwy Osadebe, musical heir to his famed late father Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe, will perform a Berkeley dance concert with his band Highlife Soundmakers International, 8 pm (doors open at 7), Thursday, July 25 at Freight & Salvage, 2020 Addison Street, between Shattuck and Milvia.  

Advance sale tickets--general admission: $39 ($44 day of show), Seniors (65 and over): $37, Students snd youth (21 and under): $24. Prices include all fees. Please note: seating not guaranteed with an open dance floor, except accessible seating arranged on advance. freightandsalvsge.org (510) 644-2020. 

The show will be presented by on-air personality and music promoter Nnambi Moweta of Radio Afrodicia on KPFK-fm in Los Angeles. Local rehearsals for the F&S show here and one following on the 27th in LA will be presided over by longtime East Bay singer, bassist and bandleader Babá Ken Okulolo and will include locally based musicians Adesoji Odukogbe, percussionist Barry Uba and famed guitarist Eugene deCoque.  

"Highlife is not Afrobeat [the famous international sound from the 70s, 80s] per se,"commented Jackie Wilson of the East Bay's African Music Source, "but rather the more tradition-based, lilting sounds of authentic popular and vernacular music. And Okwy has beautifully preserved the legacy." 

The Afrobeat scene here produced popular bands locally from the 70s to the present, including Kotoja, the Nigerian Brothers, the West African Highlife Band ... Hedzoleh Soundz from Ghana, who in an earlier edition recorded with Hugh Masekela and backed him while touring the US, lived and played for years in the Bay Area. The more famous names internationally were King Sunny Ade and Fela Kuti, who many of these musicians played with. 

Highlife itself dates back for many decades. Okwy Osadebe's father, Osita Osadebe, who died in 2007, played with the Highlife big bands before breaking away to be part of the movement, particularly among his own Igbo people, toward a music driven by guitars and horns, moving to call and response traditional African music, showcasing the elegance of the Igbo language, their customs and values, "a culture passed down from generation to generation ... music [that possesses] the ability to transcend language and cultural barriers." 

Amid his "colorful theatrical antics" onstage, Okwy adds to the beat, the playing and lyrics those philosophical proverbs favored by his father. "Yes, Osita Osadebe's music has some spiritual connections," Okwy says.