Janka Nabay

Sierra Leone’s Ahmed Janka Nabay may be the undisputed ruler from the country’s bubu music. Bubu is definitely a centuries-old folk music with strange origins. It really is typically performed for high ceremonial reasons, like the processions kept during Ramadan, but its root base precede Islam. Nabay started his profession by playing reggae motivated by one of is own idols, Bob Marley, but he also performed bubu, whose folk type features instrumentation such as for example bamboo flutes and blowing on steel pipes (frequently car exhaust and building conduit) and handmade drums. He inserted a talent competition with his music group (whose members performed synths and utilized digital drums, guitars, and basses, aswell). Viewing the judges in the -panel become increasingly disappointed with brought in brands of reggae and Afro-pop and nothing at all from Sierra Leone itself, Nabay and his music group transformed up their reggae tune on the last minute and performed a bubu amount. They captivated the judges and gained the competition. Nabay released many cassettes, singles, and (afterwards) CD-Rs of his music in Sierra Leone, changing the forms and types of bubu, rendering it a popular design in secular aswell as sacred and ceremonial lifestyle. His recordings bought from the thousands, and he became a nationwide superstar. Nabay’s music ultimately became a politics drive in his country. Utilized by the rebels being a rallying cry, it produced Nabay a focus on. He was compelled to flee the united states for his very own safety through the mass exodus in the middle-’90s. He arrived in Philadelphia and proved helpful menial careers for ten years along the East Coastline before relocating to NY, even while looking for ways to type a bubu music group in america. He was uncovered by open public radio manufacturer Wills Glasspiegel, who received one of is own CD-Rs within a container of releases in the BBC. He searched for Nabay out and place him touching True Panther Noises, the label that released his initial American providing, the Bubu Ruler EP, this year 2010. Nabay afterwards produced the Bubu Gang with several musicians from groupings including Chairlift, Skeletons, Zs, Saadi, and even more, in Brooklyn’s underground music picture. Janka Nabay & the Bubu Gang released the An Letah EP in early 2012, and had been authorized to David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label instantly thereafter. The band’s debut full-length, En Yay Sah, made an appearance in August of this year. A crucial success, the recording noticed Nabay and his group embraced on American trips and celebrations over the next year. Ahead of their next launch, Nabay traveled back again to Sierra Leone for the very first time in 15 years. Time for NY with new materials and an exciting recording strategy, the Bubu Gang crafted Build Music, their 2017 Luaka Bop follow-up LP.