Between Moore Black in Australia and Me in the United States

Moore Black: Honestly I was too young in the seventies.

Me: [AT THAT TIME, I WAS THE 2ND KEYBOARDIST FOR THE FRIIMEN MUSIC COMPANY (SOME PEOPLE CALLED IT FRIIMEN ROCK GROUP). FROM THERE I BECAME THE 1ST KEYBOARDIST FOR SWEET UNIT. WE LATER CHANGED IT TO ROCK OF AGES. I PLAYED KEYBOARDS AS A SESSIONMAN FOR VOICE OF THE CROSS AND TONS OF OTHER GOSPEL ARTISTS THAT STARTED TO COPY VOICE OF THE CROSS. THEY WANTED ME TO ALSO PLAY FOR THEM, AND I DID.]

Moore Black: However, in the early eighties I went to Abo Mbaise to learn music under Wahehe Njoku of the Rock Of Ages.

Me: [WAHEHE WAS THE BAND LEADER OF MY GROUP - SWEET UNIT. HE AND HIS FRIENDS SAW ME IN LAGOS WHEN I CAME WITH MY FIRST BAND - FRIIMEN - FOR A RECORDING AT DECCA STUDIOS. THEY TOLD US THAT THEY WERE PLANNING TO RETURN TO THE EAST, AND WOULD LIKE TO FORM A BAND. THEY WANTED ME TO BE THE KEYBOARDIST FOR THE BAND THAT WOULD BE FORMED. MY MUSIC MENTOR, BENI TUDUMEY WHO WAS THE 1ST (MAIN) KEYBOARDIST FOR FRIIMEN ENCOURAGED ME TO FORM THE BAND WITH WAHEHE AND THE OTHER GUYS. WHEN THEY RETURNED TO ABA IN THE NEXT YEAR (JANUARY OF THAT YEAR 1977), THEY SAW ME AND WE FORMED THE BAND]

Moore Black: It was tough for me, for I didn't like the fact that I was relegated to loading & unloading the instruments.

Me: [IF YOU WORK WITH WAHEHE, YOU WILL HEAR 'NWII', BUT BUT YOU WILL SURVIVE ALMOST ALL SITUATIONS. WAHEHE HAD SO MUCH LOVE FOR HIS GUITAR]

Moore Black: So I left (but when I look back now I regretted leaving) & few years later I went to
have some voice lesson from Ogugua "Stone Face" Iwuagwu.

Me: [STONEFACE WAS A HUGE STAR ALL THE WAY FROM ENUGU BEFORE THE GUYS PLAYING FOR HIM SEPARATED AND LATER BECAME 'SWEET BREEZE', JUST LIKE 'THE STRANGERS' WHO WERE PLAYING FOR BOB MIGA SEPARATED AND BECAME 'ONE WORLD'. STONEFACE IWUAGWU MOVED DOWN TO ABA AND WORKED WITH US WHEN I WAS WORKING WITH NTA, CHANNEL 4, ABA, IN THE PROGRAMS DIVISION, UNDER PAL AKALONU, AND JAMES IROHA 'GIRINGORY', WHERE ALSO I TOOK PART IN PAL AKALONU'S NOW SOUND AS A MUSICIAN, AND TOOK PART IN JAMES IROHA'S MASQUERADE AS A MINOR ACTOR]

Moore Black: I made several demos (unreleased) in the eighties before I left Nigeria in
the early nineties for Europe.

Me: [WELCOME TO THE INTERSECTION. I HOPE YOU WERE NOT ONE OF THOSE GUYS THAT I MADE DEMOS FOR, BUT THEY WERE NOT NOT FULLY READY TO COMPLETE THE PROESS... I SOMETIMES USED SUNNY ENANG'S STUDIO AT UMUNGASI FOR DEMO WORKS. WE STAYED ALL NIGHT LONG WORKING WITH SOME DEMO ARTISTS OR MIXING SOME TRACKS... ONLY GOD KNOWS......]

My Chance Virtual Meeting At The World Igbo Congress

After reading some mails being exchanged by participants at the World Igbo Congress and the Igbo Forum, I could not help sending the readers to the following two places:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ArthurFreds

http://frederickn.blogspot.com/

Anything that we can do must be done to bring ABA back to where it was. All those musicians fell in love with Aba so much so that they returned to Aba, even as Aba is almost dead. I join them to believe that Aba will come back to life again, and Unicoco, Ambassador, Rex, Crystal Park, Enitona, etc. will bring in revenue to their owners. I have been working on projects that could provide me with funds for reactiving the music and art life of Aba, but funds are usually difficult to raise. I still have the hope I will contribute my ideas, labor and time to re-energize Aba. Please don't make me to begin to mention names of my personal colleagues who played the Wings, Apostles, Action, Original and Super Wings (after the old testament of the Wings), Friimen, Sweet Breeze, Sweet Unit (later Rock of Ages), Doves, etc. We need to award scholarships in the names of these individuals and in the names of their music groups. We need to roll out the red carpet for all of them, at least, once in their lifetime. Let us just pray!