RTP-area local music and culture

[John Iwaniszek <not AT hotmail.com>]

I first heard the mighty King Suny Ade on a tape I bought in Lexington 
Kentucky when I was between institutions of higher learning.  Never in my 
wildest dreams did I think that I would experience his exotic sounds live, 
and certainly not in a space so intimate as the Cat's Cradle.

That summer, in 1982, I played the tape for a friend, the gentle Nigerian 
giant Chris Ameche.  He fell to the ground and laughed.  The word "juju" 
never sounded so resonant as it did coming from that man in that tomatoe 
field a quarter century ago.

Nothing I could write will convey the power and eloquance of King Sunny 
Ade's sound.  His words are strange and his gestures add nothing to help 
interpret what his songs are saying.  The only thing that I know for 
certain is that the music causes me to move and it can only be because the 
music comes from something that powers all people in a similar way.