Nkem Njoku & Ozzobia Sound’s one and only album, Ozobia Special, is an early 80s Igbo Highlife masterpiece, drawing on Ghana Highlife as well as traditional Ogene 6/8 bell tempos.
Nkem Njoku’s only album as leader, this LP epitomizes the feel-good, gospel-tinged party atmosphere of Igbo Highlife, with John Kante’s soukous guitar scales interweaving the sharp sax/ trumpet line-up, which includes the legendary Ray Stephen Oche, whose two scarce albums with his band Matumbo are big afro-jazz collectors’ items, reissued several times over the years.
Percussion section includes the prolific Smart ‘Friday Pozo’ Thompson, whose session credits read like a ‘who’s who’ of contemporary West African music and include many gigs on Tabansi artists’ albums.
The razor-sharp production sound, as so often on the best Tabansi Highlife and boogie sessions, is down to multi-keyboardist Jake Sollo.
credits
released May 1, 2020
Arranged By, Composed By, Lead Vocals, Percussion – Nkem Njoku
Backing Vocals – Judith Ezekoka, Kenny George
Bass – Isidore Modjo
Drums, Percussion, Congas – George Atomba
Engineer [Assistant] – Emma Kalu, Remi Njoku, T. Death
Engineer [Recording, Remix] – Abe Aaron, Tom O'Leary
Guitar – John Kante
Percussion – Chukwudi Nwafor, Friday Pozo
Percussion, Engineer [Assistant] – Candido
Piano – Sonny Enang
Producer, Arranged By, Engineer [Recording, Remix], Synthesizer [Prophet "V" & 1] – Jake Sollo
Saxophone – Ngoma
Trumpet – Kofi Adjololo, Ray Stephen Oche
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