Akalaka / The Power, by Victor Chukwu / Uncle Victor Chuks & The Black Irokos

Akalaka / The Power

by Victor Chukwu / Uncle Victor Chuks & The Black Irokos

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Two albums, one package

Vinyl Tracklist:

DISC 1 – Victor Chukwu – Akalaka
Side A
1. Ogbu Mmadu
2. Nwanne Bu Nwanne
Side B
1. Born Throw Away
2. Akalaka – Victor Chukwu

DISC 2 – Uncle Victor Chuks & The Black Irokos – The Power
Side C
1. Onwu Uwa
2. Anya Ukwu
Side D
1. Oge Chukwu Ka Nma

Includes unlimited streaming of Akalaka / The Power via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. ... more

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Two albums on one CD

Includes unlimited streaming of Akalaka / The Power via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 7 days

3 remaining

Purchasable with gift card

£12 GBP or more
Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

£7 GBP or more

1.	Ogbu Mmadu 08:32	buy track
2.	Nwanne Bu Nwanne 08:47	buy track
3.	Born Throw Away 08:26	buy track
4.	Akalaka 08:07	buy track
5.	Onwu Uwa 07:51	buy track
6.	Anya Ukwu 07:44	buy track
7.	Oge Chukwu Ka Nma 16:36	buy track

about

BBE Music presents Akalaka and The Power, a double helping of old-school Igbo highlife from one of the genre’s acknowledged masters, Victor Chukwu.

Highlife was the music that the Igbo people made their own after the horrors of the Biafran war; music that rebuilt a sense of pride, identity and dignity. Tabansi recording star ‘Uncle’ Victor Chukwu’s super-rare, almost un-Google-able albums Akalaka and The Power are now in your hands, issued back-to-back by BBE for the first time anywhere in four decades.

These sets were probably recorded around 1977-79 at the Tabansi Studios in Onitsha, with Chief Tabansi also mixing and mastering: a 100% homegrown Tabansi product. Victor worked with a bassist, a drummer, and some brass- although he also doubled himself on tenor sax and arranged much of these glorious sessions.

The songs have an inimitable feel-good quality: happy, dignified, proud, spiritual, everything except one composition in major key. Perhaps it’s no surprise that many 70s and 80s Igbo highlife group members are today gospel singers and musicians.

Seven killer Igbo grooves combined in this first ever reissue of two impossible-to-find Tabansi LPs back to back, based around the traditional Ogene 6/8 bell ‘clave’ and brassheavy, spiritual highlife.

credits

released November 6, 2020

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BBE London, UK

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