
In all my interviews I get asked about this lady a lot and
The other day she invited me up on stage at her gig at the bataclan,her band learnt “kpafuca” and rocked it,i also freestyled on one of her songs in yoruba.
I used the lyrics from an old traditional war song,which fela also covered and in turn remade into a song called “garan garan”,it is the fela version of this that i sing on the”demo” cd on the nigerian wood album.
Is was a great night and a real pleasure to share the stage with another nigerian who is also doing her thing.
she obiously has a lot up her sleeve lyrically,aurally and sonically
You see Whilst asa is a small shy and bookish looking character,her dreadlocked demeanor along with the physical sureness of her gait makes her come across as something much more world weary.
Her political songs, about metaphorical prisons,her songs about the big city,and her ease with traditional yoruba oral poetry set to music,ask the inevitable questions about how she got to speak so old whilst so young.
and here is a question for you:Functionally what type of music is it when an african(male or female) picks up the acoustic guitar and not a drum or a goje or an mbira,and begins to speech/sing of a particular worldview?is it soul,reggae,funk,traditional music,hip-hop,blues?
This is what I think:
The most important fact about asymmetric time-line patterns found in the music of peoples of african descent worldwide is that their mathematical structures are cultural invariables,i.e:their mathematics cannot be changed by cultural determinants..
They are immune to all social cultural or enviromental influences.
One can change time-line patterns,instrumentation,accentuation,speed,starting point,and the mnemonic syllables used to teach it,but not its mathematical structure.
Any attempt to change that dissolves the pattern.
For this reason time-line patterns are formidable diagnostic markers for detecting historical connections between certain new world africa disapora musical styles and those of distinctive language zones on the african continent
Ha!





November 14th, 2008 at 2:08 am
J’ai assisté au concert d’Asa au Bataclan, c’est magique. Une voix magnifique, une intimité partagée avec son public, et un feeling transcendant ! Et l’apparition de Keziah Jones un vrai bonheur… Ce qui m’a donné envie d’aller le voir lui aussi en concert le 13 novembre…Mais voilà, j’en reviens, un peu déçu…. (cf critique du même nom)