I.K. Dairo and His Blue Spots
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Around 15 years later, on the same day that I went to see I.K. Dairo and His Blue Spots, I dug up an old ten-inch EP in a record store on the west side. Its cover has a photo of traditional African fishermen casting a net into the water, and says Catchy Rhythms From Nigeria. While the title and image may be trite and overly cute, when it comes to juju music, they’re not completely off the mark. Juju is a music that quietly surrounds its prey; the easygoing rhythms and light guitar and singing styles gently ensnare the dancer. Not as immediate a dance imperative as, say, soukous, township jive, Afro-beat, American funk, or even the closely related Nigerian fuji, juju creeps up on the listener, gradually catching her or him in a fishnet of interlocking beats and alternating accents.
Often referred to as a father of juju, Isaiah Kehinde Dairo made electric guitar and accordion a regular part of the genre’s instrumentation in the 1950s with his band the Morning Star Orchestra, which later became the Blue Spots. Already in the 30s and 40s, juju had developed as a distinctly Yoruba blend of traditional percussion music and banjo and guitar accompaniment. As juju’s prime modernizer Dairo is also credited with including the talking drum–now an essential component of juju’s sound–and the striking vocal harmonies of the Church of the Cherubim and Seraphim.
Scheduled for around 9 PM, the music started around 11:30, which is normal for African concerts–drink a few gigantic Nigerian beers, socialize awhile, then on with the show. With the exception of one short break, the band played almost continuously for three hours. When we left at 2:30 AM the drummer and rhythm guitarist had just switched places, no doubt steadying themselves to play several more hours of “catchy rhythms.” And the dance floor was still full of willing fish squirming and squiggling into the waiting juju net.
