Lying dormant for over thirty Years, Pax Nicholas and the Nettey Family's, 'Na Teef Know De Road of Teef' gets a renewed lease of life on Daptone Records. Toasting vocals ride over deep rolling grooves, a solid rhythm section topped off with big blows and electric keys. This is African funk just how we like it, raw and rootsy. With fantastic music plus a 'behind the scenes' story of legendary proportions, this album merits further attention. Read more for full article
With Soundway's Ghana Special and Analog Africa's Legends of Benin on heavy rotation in the cd player here at GondwanaSound, 'Na Teef Know De Road of Teef' sounds reassuringly familiar. In the quest for some background information, the Daptone Records confirmed the Ghana connection. Nicholas Ado Nettey, aka Pax Nicholas, was born in Accra, Ghana in 1954 and after starting his singing journey at the age of 6, joined a number of traditional groups as a vocalist and percussionist before Joe King Kologbo invited him to the heart of the African Funk scene, Lagos Nigeria. His website states, "Nicholas was not only talented but also lucky", Kologbo introduced him to Fela Kuti and in 1971 Pax Nicholas was on board, part of Fela's legendary band Africa 70 providing backing vocals and congas.
As a youth, Nicholas would cite James Brown amongst his heroes, now as both a member of Fela's band and resident of his independent Kalakuta Republic, his heroes were his guests. James Brown was amongst musicians, Stevie Wonder, BB King, Ginger Baker, Manu Djbango and others who regularly came to Lagos and Fela's club, The Shrine to soak up the new the heavy Afrobeat sound.
The first Fela album for Nicholas was the international hit Shakara and he went on to play on all Fela's output from 1971 - 1978 including Zombie, which would take on its own significance later in his life. During this period Nicholas always had his own side projects on the go releasing two albums for the Tabansi label with Nigeria's Matin Brothers Band, Mind Yur Own Business in 1971 and 'Na Teef Know the Road of Teef' in 1973. Na Teef was made with fellow Africa 70 musicians in the same well equipped Lagos studios of Ginger Baker, where many a Fela album was also laid down. As legend has it... Fela was none too amused with a side man using not only the the same studios and his Africa 70 musicians to produce such a strong album, that Fela has been reported as ordering him, "Don't you ever, EVER play it again!"
.......and so as legend has it, the slice of Nicholas Ado Nettey's personally styled Afrobeat lay gathering dust. That was until the second part of our story and Frank Gossner of Voodoo Funk. Living in Conakry from 2005-2008 Frank "went on countless trips to various other countries in the region, namely Sierra Leone, Ghana and Benin". His goal was, "to find as many vintage African records as possible". Currently with a network of contacts and record finding agents, club nights in New York's Glasslands and a Lagos Disco Inferno comp due for release in early 2010, Frank is a key player in the market for dug up vintage Nigerian Funk. Ironic then, that he should find 'Na Teef Know De Road of Teef' not locked away in a Nigerian backwater but in the office of Stanley Smith, owner of Smith Record Store in Philadelphia. In his Voodoo Funk blog Frank writes, "A few weeks later, I embarked onto a 3 year long digging trip through West Africa. Hundreds and thousands of records were added to my collection but the Pax Nicholas LP always remained somehow special to me".
.......and the story doesn't end here. Frank tracked Nicholas down to his new home in Germany. He witnessed the military invasion of Fela's compound, the death of Fela's mother and the subsequent destruction of the compound by fire and as a consequence, whilst playing the Berlin Jazz Festival in 1978, Nicholas and a number
of fellow musicians decided it was too dangerous to go back and quit Nigeria and the Africa 70 band along with fellow musician and drummer Tony Allen.
Tony Allen moved on to Paris and Nicholas stayed in Berlin where he continues to make music today leading his band of West African musicians, Ridimtaksi.
In one of the conversations, and ever keen to find out if there were more gems waiting to be mined, Frank asked Nicholas if there were any master tapes from those recording sessions back at Ginger Baker's studios. Apparently there were but he and his brother had one argument too many and threw the tapes at each other tangling and mangling them in the process.
Fortunately Frank had purchased a mint condition lp from his friend Stanley Smith. He described it as one of his rarest albums but not any longer.....after contacting his friends at Daptone Records and some remastering, it's now available so we can all work up a sweat.
Find out more at the following online resources - if anyone has any music by Ridimtaksi I'd love to hear it...get in touch.
Frank's Voodoo Funk Blog
Website for Pax Nicholas
Pax Nicholas on MySpace
Pax Nicholas on Facebook
Website for Daptone Records
Download a copy of Na Teef Know De Road of Teef
Pax Nicholas : Photo credit Genia Rueckert
