King Sunny Ade

singer; guitarist; percussionist; founder; business owner

Personal Information

Born Sunday Adeniyi on September 1, 1946, in Oshogbo, Nigeria; 12 children
Religion: Christian; raised Methodist.

Career

Musician and singer, 1960s-; played guitar and percussion with juju bands in Lagos, Nigeria, early 1960s; Sunny Ade and His High Society Band (later Sunny Ade and His Green Spots), founder and performer, 1965-; African Songs , recording artist, 1967-74; changed group name to the African Beats, 1974; Sunny Alade Records, founder and recording artist, 1975-; toured England, 1975; Island label, recording artist, ca. 1980-84; opened oil company, a mining company, a film stu dio, night club, music labels and manufacturing plants, a PR firm, and the King Sunny Ade Foundation, Lagos, 1980s-1990s; U.S. tour, 1998.

Life's Work

Probably Nigeria's most popular musician, King Sunny Ade (ah-DAY) became a major force in popularizing African music in the United States with a series of tours and albums during the 1980s. A concert by King Sunny Ade and His African Beats was a dazzling, kinetic experience that introduced Western listeners to the rich complexities of African musical performance. Heading up a group of 20 to 30 musicians on stage with his vocals and electric guitar, Ade sang phrases in the Yoruba language that meshed with the large battery of traditional percussion on stage, entered into dialogues with other musicians, and joined in with the dancers who brought constant motion to the ensemble. The music Ade played was called juju--a style that went back to the 1920s, but one that Ade developed further than any other musician.

Ade was born Sunday Adeniyi on September 1, 1946, in Oshogbo, Nigeria. Though descended from the royal family of Nigeria's Ondo area, Ade didn't grow up in royal luxury; his father was a Methodist church organist and small-time trader, and his mother sold bean cakes in the local market. Nevertheless, his parents were high-born enough to frown on a musical career for their son, considering music a disreputable way of earning a living. Ade was drawn to music from the start, recalling in a St. Petersburg Times interview that even though he and his schoolmate had "no other instrument than rocks." He left home for the Nigerian capital of Lagos when he was a teenager, telling his parents that he was enrolled at a local university.

Tweaked Traditional African Music

Instead he played guitar with several Nigerian pop groups and then formed a band of his own called Sunny Ade and His High Society Band, later changed to Sunny Ade and His Green Spots. The deception of his parents ended when they saw a copy of the band's first album, which featured a picture of Ade on the cover. That first album sold only a few dozen copies, but it was the first of well over 100 Ade recordings. "Africans have unlimited rhythms," Ade told the Washington Post. "In Africa everything that happens, you can bring a rhythm out of it." One of those event-based rhythms brought Ade his first commercial breakthrough as a song he wrote in 1967 to celebrate the success of a local soccer team, "Challenge Cup," notched reported sales of over 500,000 copies.

Even early on, Ade and his band found themselves in demand for performances, many of them at street festivals where Ade would take the stage at 8 p.m. and not quit until well past dawn of the next day. Ade changed the name of his band to the African Beats in 1974, but despite the English names of his ensembles, Ade sang mostly in the Yoruba language. By the mid-1970s Ade had grown in popularity and was wrangling with his label, African Songs. He formed his own label, Sunny Alade Records, in 1975 and took the first steps toward international popularity when he forged a distribution deal with England's Decca label. Ade and his African Beats toured Britain, playing mostly to Nigerian immigrant audiences at first.

Soon, however, music journalists got wind of Ade's sound and were impressed by its energy and by the multiplicity of influences Ade had woven into a traditional West African framework. Ade's music contained hints of African-American music, of Jamaican reggae, of Western dance pop, and even of country music--a characteristic feature of an African Beats performance was the prominent role assigned to the pedal steel guitar, which Ade incorporated into the band as a result of his admiration for U.S. country vocalist Jim Reeves. By about 1977, Ade had been dubbed the "King of Juju."

Found Recording Success With Island Label

Ade was signed around 1980 to Mango Records, a division of the Island label, which had helped propel reggae star Bob Marley to international popularity and was looking for a new sound with a similar upbeat appeal after Marley's tragically early death from cancer. His album Juju Music was released in 1982. Some industry observers wondered whether Ade's Yoruba lyrics would constitute a barrier to international success, but a series of concert tours of England and the United States, beginning with a successful appearance at London's Lyceum Ballroom in January of 1983, soon proved that Ade's appeal transcended language. Juju Music cracked U.S. pop charts, a rare feat for an album of African music.

In the mid-1980s Ade and his African Beats appeared at some of the huge midsummer music festivals common in U.S. cities, impressing listeners and critics with the intricate interplay among the large number of musicians on stage. Everything was under Ade's control. "I like to play my guitar in a rhythmic way," he told Down Beat. "I use my guitar to conduct the whole group." The 1983 follow-up to Juju Music, entitled Synchro System and produced by French studio wunderkind Martin Meissonier, introduced electronic elements to Ade's sound. That album also sold well and perhaps even exceeded Juju Music in its ultimate influence, blazing the way for future fusions of traditional African and electronic rhythms.

Ade, despite his success, never reached Marley's level of popularity, and after sales tailed off with his third Mango release, Aura in 1984, he was dropped by the label. For a time Ade even experienced problems in Nigeria as his musicians, having gotten a taste of international celebrity, demanded salary hikes. In 1989 Ade stirred controversy with the song "Wait for Me," which urged Nigerians to practice birth control and was sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Observers noted that Ade, with 12 children of his own, made a less-than-ideal spokesperson for the cause of population control.

Rumors of Death Exaggerated

Several times Ade was even rumored to have died. Nevertheless, his position at the top of Nigeria's music industry was never seriously threatened. He invested his royalties wisely and formed a variety of musical and non-musical businesses including a large Lagos nightclub, an oil company, a mining company, a film studio, music labels and manufacturing plants, a PR firm, and the King Sunny Ade Foundation, with plans to open a performing arts center and a housing complex for musicians. By 2001 Ade employed around 700 people.

Ade continued to record and to appear in the West occasionally, performing at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 1992 and touring the United States in 1998. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which ensnarled many world musicians in new immigration and visa delays, stranded Ade without key musicians in Los Angeles and caused the cancellation of his tour. A planned 2003 tour was scrapped for the same reason. By that time, however, King Sunny Ade was recognized as one of the most significant African musicians of the 20th century, with a host of reissues of his African-label material attesting to continuing interest in his infinite well of rhythm.

Works

Selected works

• "Challenge Cup," African Songs, 1967.
• "Alanu L'Oluwa," African Songs, 1967.
• "Col. Benjamin Adekunle," African Songs, 1968.
• "Sewele," African Songs, 1970.
• "Ibi Ise bari," African Songs, 1970.

• Sunny Ade & His Green Spot Band, Volumes 1-6, African Songs, 1970-1974.
• The Late General Murtala Mohammed, Sunny Alade, 1975.
• Sound Vibration, Sunny Alade, 1977.
• The Golden Mercury of Africa, Sunny Alade, 1978.
• Searching for My Love, Sunny Alade, 1979.
• Eje Nlogba, Sunny Alade, 1980.
• Ariya Special, Sunny Alade, 1981.
• Juju Music, Mango, 1982.
• Synchro System, Mango, 1983.
• Aura, Mango, 1984.
• Live Live Ju Ju, Rykodisc, 1988.
• Surprise, Sigma Park, 1992.
• Glory, Sigma Park, 1993.
• E Dide (Get Up), Atlantic, 1995.
• Odu, Atlantic, 1998.
• Seven Degrees North, V2, 2000.
• The King of Juju: The Best of Sunny Ade, Wrasse, 2002.
• Best of the Classic Years, Shanachie, 2003.
• Synchro Series, Indigedisc, 2003.

Further Reading

Books

• Broughton, Simon, et al., eds., World Music: Volume 1, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East (The Rough Guide), Rough Guides, 1999.
• Contemporary Musicians, volume 18, Gale, 1997.

• Boston Herald, June 15, 1994, p. 47.
• Down Beat, April 2001, p. 38.
• New York Times, May 8, 1987, p. C22.
• Ottawa Citizen, August 24, 1996, p. E5.
• St. Petersburg Times, May 8, 1987, p. D1.
• Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), August 16, 1996, p. L7.
• Toronto Star, May 8, 1987, p. D4.
• Toronto Sun, June 26, 1998, p. 87.
• Washington Post, July 27, 1983, p. B1; May 25, 1987, p. C3.

• "King Sunny Ade," All Music Guide, www.allmusic.com (July 17, 2003).
• "King Sunny Ade," Lycos Music, http://music.lycos.com (July 18, 2003).

— James M. Manheim