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!

The Album: Radiant Color

People have been asking after the album "Radiant Color", and I will not hesitate to talk about it. This is an album that I released around 1990. It has six tracks. I sang lead vocals on three of the songs and my wife sang lead vocals on the other three tracks. We helped out each other with backing vocals. During the band's most recent show in Raleigh, North Carolina, the three songs on which I did the lead vocals were performed. They are "Don't Freak Out", "Do It In The Name of Love" and "Radiant Color" which is the title track.The first of these songs is a funk piece. The other two are rock genre. The CD is available at http://www.eclipseventures.com/page/19xnv/Shopping.html. When the Radiant Color album CD is played, it evokes the awe of the generation in which the music was recorded. This is the album that was recorded in Olodi-Apapa at the Fuzzy Studios. The recording engineer was Fuzzy's first son. Fuzzy's second son was a backup session musician. On the day of the recording, Fuzzy was not around. I still remember how interested Fuzzy's two sons were in the songs. They put in their ALL into the recording. They clearly showed their love for the song "You Won My Heart". That love is visible in the way they played the intro to that track.

"Goodbye Yesterday, Welcome Today..." by Jimmy Cliff

Jimmy Cliff sang one of his usual hits back in the 1970s titled "Goodbye Yesterday, Welcome Today" in response to an inward prompting that he alone probably had. If it did not make sense to some people at that time, it probably began to make sense to them later. I am sure that it has not yet started making sense to some people today, even though the song is old enough to go into extinction. By the way, Jimmy Cliff's songs cannot go into extinction. I have not heard any of them in years, but I still remember their tunes, their lyrics and the moves that went with them.

Why am I talking about Jimmy Cliff's song today and now?
Everything is revolving around the economy nowadays. It appears, incidentally, that some individuals are still clinging to the glories of yesterday. The train has left the station! The reminder song for that should be "It's a New Day!". I hear this song mostly on television. Only God knows what the artist had in mind while writing that song. I believe what the artist said. It cannot be any easier - IT IS A NEW DAY (If I have to shout it).

New strategies are required.
New training is required.
New education is needed.
New opportunities are in the horizon.
New networks are needed.
Greater attention need to be paid to events around.
Personal participation in activities cannot be overemphasized.
Curiosity should increase in individuals in order to explore and learn more.
Who is it that will grow one inch if he or she stays on one type of meal all the time?
Get your answers from http://www.arthurfreds.com
The answers available are on voluntary basis.
It is also on a voluntary basis that you may get them.
The inventors that we have been learning about did not invent by folding their arms.
They were first curious.
They sought answers.
They found answers.
They shared the answers.
The world began to benefit from those answers.
What will you say when your children and grandchildren ask you in future what you did?
The ball is in your court to visit that site, become curious, click around, read all that you can read, note your questions, ask those questions either by e-mail or by phone, move yourself from point 'a' to point 'b', and let the people around you enjoy the results.
It is a new day.
Goodbye yesterday, welcome today.