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#非洲流行　#非洲打击乐

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欧美

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艺人介绍

by Jason AnkenyThe leader of Britain's first-ever black band, the West African Rhythm Brothers, Ambrose Campbell was a revolutionary force in world music more than two generations before the phrase was first coined. Celebrated as the father of modern Nigerian music by no less an authority than Afro-beat giant Fela Anikulapo Kuti, he is also the unsung pioneer from whom all of contemporary British black pop originates. Born Oladipupo Adekoya Campbell in Lagos, Nigeria, on August 19, 1919, he was the product of a strict Victorian upbringing and educated by his preacher father in the family's compound -- as a child, he also sang in the church choir. But at night the teenaged Campbell snuck out to play music with the seamen and servants who populated the palm-wine stalls along the Lagos waterfront; despite protecting his identity with the alias "Ambrose," his father learned of his transgressions and kicked him out of the house.

Campbell found refuge in the home of Nigerian nationalist leader Herbert Macaulay, working briefly as a printer before setting sail on the Elder Dempster Line, a convoy ship dispatched to England following the outbreak of World War II. After jumping ship in Liverpool, Campbell settled in London, assembling a small group of fellow Nigerians to play music each night in his St. Pancras flat -- dubbed the West African Rhythm Brothers, the group made its first public appearance at the May 1945 celebrations in honor of VE Day, performing in Piccadilly Circus as their fellow Londoners celebrated the Nazis' defeat. "Imagine four or five drummers and two or three guitars and these voices singing African chants," Campbell later recalled. "People didn't know what was going on, but they joined in." In 1946 the West African Rhythm Brothers toured the U.K. in support of Les Ballets Nègres, Britain's first black ballet company -- praised by the likes of George Bernard Shaw and Aneurin Bevan, they made their first television appearances by the end of the decade. While day-job demands conspired to keep the lineup in flux, over time the roster solidified, embracing members of Nigerian, Barbadian, and Trinidadian descent. While Campbell's sweet, lilting vocals remained at the forefront, guitarist Brewster Hughes, trumpeter Harry Beckett, reedist Willy Roachford, pianist Adam Fiberesima, and bongo player Ade Bashorun comprised the musical core, collectively summoning elements of juju, calypso, mento, and swing to create a shimmering, tranquil sound untethered to either place or time.

Circa 1952, the West African Rhythm Brothers were named the regular headliner of the Nigerian-owned Soho nightclub the Abalabi, becoming the darlings of London's jazz cognoscenti -- saxophonists Ronnie Scott and Tubby Hayes and drummer Phil Seaman were among their most vocal fans, and novelist Colin MacInnes later based the character of Cranium Cuthbertson in his best-selling City of Spades on Campbell. Ultimately, the West African Rhythm Brothers signed to Emil Shalit's proto-world music label Melodisc to cut a series of 10" 78-rpm discs that document the birth of a new African music forged and shaped by the immigrant experience. Their fame grew when the Abalabi relocated to the more upmarket Wardour Street area and reopened under the name Club Afrique, and throughout the remainder of the decade they remained the personification of African music and culture for a postwar Britain slowly acclimating to its increasingly multiracial status. Following creative dissension with Brewster Hughes, Campbell formed a new band in 1961 and toured Italy, returning to London to form a production company with lawyer and political advisor Lord Arnold Goodman. He also released his lone major-label effort, Highlife Today, on Columbia in 1968. But in 1972 Campbell abruptly relocated to the U.S. at the invitation of record producer Denny Cordell -- in Los Angeles, he befriended the blue-eyed soul man Leon Russell, who installed him as a percussionist in his touring band. Campbell and Russell (who dubbed the Nigerian his "spiritual adviser") remained collaborators long after both cut ties with Cordell, touring Australia and the Far East before Campbell settled in Nashville in 1982 in the wake of his contributions to 1979's million-selling Russell/Willie Nelson project, One for the Road, remarrying and starting a new family.

Few of his old friends and fans knew of his time abroad, however -- in Lagos, newspapers even reported Campbell's death, and government leaders called for a three-minute silence in his memory. (He eventually returned to Lagos long enough to set the record straight.) Aged 84, Campbell finally returned to the U.K. in 2004, settling in Plymouth and recording new music in a home studio built by his grandson. A year later, the Honest Jon's label compiled Melodisc's vintage West African Rhythm Brothers recordings as the third volume in its acclaimed London Is the Place for Me reissue series, which charts the emergence of Britain's native black music traditions. Campbell died on June 22, 2006.