Juju Music – King Sunny Ade And His African Beats, 1982

🔁🎻🪕🥁🌍 In the early 80s, Island Records offered Sunny Adé an international contract. Adé was already a star in Nigeria, but now the world was opening up. Martin Meissonnier was called in to help, adding arrangements and synthesizers to Adé’s compositions, which were superimposed on his Juju Music. In another development, Island asked Adé to shorten the traditional long tracks, classics of Nigerian productions, to fit in with the demands of Western radio stations and nightclub habits. Adé simply cut his compositions into shorter pieces, and that was it. The result, in 1982, was Juju Music, an instant worldwide success, a series of pieces with a delicate Yoruba groove, including the essential Ja Funmi, which Sunny Adé covers at all her concerts.