Stop Press!!! Doctoral Dissertations

Some individuals are pursuing doctoral education with excitement. When they get to the dissertation stage, they receive untold shock. Do not take doctoral dissertation for granted. The traditional universities are stable in the way they organize their doctoral programs. Incidentally, the for-profit universities make changes to their programs at will. Doctoral students in these programs suffer   untold hardship, especially if they were ill-informed. When anyone enrolls in a doctoral program, he or she should find an external mentor to stand beside him or or her from the beginning of the journey. Some of them can be found at  Eclipse Ventures. Other guides are found at the consulting firm, Dr. Frederick & Associates.

Online universities exist to give respite to professionals who are looking to eat their cake and still have it. These professionals cannot resign their jobs just to go to school. They work, earn their salaries, and receive doctoral education. That is a paradigm shift from the traditional education format. Jumping into doctoral education while working must be calculated to include the cost of personal coach and mentor while on the journey.

Which university are you attending? What program are you enrolled in? How much is your tuiton? Are you paying out of pocket? Are you using student loans? What country are you based in? Does your country trade favorably with or against the U.S. dollar? Are you confident in your ability and resilience to weather the storm? Do you have rapport with the Chair of your dissertation committee? Do you know the difference between your institution's dissertation process and those of similar institutions? Do you truly understand the templates that your university has put in place for the specfic program that you are enrolled in? Do you know the worldviews of your committee members? Did you select them or did the university assign them to you? Are you the owner of your committee or are the committee members the owners of 'you'? Who is on the driver's seat? Every research must pass through the intersection of data collection, analysis and reporting. How comfortable are you with that activity? If you are not comfortable with it at this time, when (or at what point) will you contact coaches and mentors who understand the nuances to begin to shape your proposal even before your committee members delay your process with tough questions that may take you one whole year to answer before you can move forward in your dissertation writing?

Consider these. Call now! "Make the move right now, babe," just like Shalamar sang in their song in the 1970s.

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!

"Don't Freak Out"

Don't Freak Out...
Don't you see how you look so dreary and so bad...
Why not give yourself a chance, don't take in some more...
Go your way and leave the thing
It's not good for you
Why not give yourself a chance you've got too much of it...
Don't Freak.........
I say, Don't Freak now....
Don't Freak, wow, wow, wow
Don't Freak......
I say Don't Freak now...
Don't Freek yeahhhhhhhh.....

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.

Grace Band Performed In Raleigh, North Carolina

On the hot Sunday afternoon, June 28, 2009, Grace Band, performed at the thanksgiving ceremony organized by Dr. Jimmy Imo in Raleigh, North Carolina in the United States. The event was in honor of Sir and Lady Imo who were visiting their children. At that event, Grace Band played songs like "Don't Freak" and "Do It In The Name of Love" both written, composed and recorded by Arthur Freds. Those songs are part of the compilation in Arthur Freds' vintage album titled "Radiant Color", which is the opening (signature tune) to Arthur Freds' radio show http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ArthurFreds. Of all the very many songs performed at the events, Grace Band performed Ofege's "Nobody Fails", Oriental Brothers' "Nwada Di Nma", Herald '7's "Shooting Star" (by Jerry Boifraind). The band performed Sweet Breeze's "Palm Wine Tapper" and a highlife tune "Echendu Nweze". They also played their hit single, "Ebube" to which people danced freely. "Ebube" is also the title track in Grace Band's new release coming into the market sometime during the end of July. That album has nine tracks. One of the tracks is a 20-minute dance medley that will definitely take anybody's mind back to the Biafran days. It is a keepsake. Their own albums, "Radiant Color" and "Everybody Must Farm" are available at http://www.eclipseventures.com/page/19xnv/Shopping.html. Their new album, "Ebube" will also be availabe on that site whenever it is released in July. It will also be available on CD Baby and other downloadable sites. As a tribute, Grace Band gave copy of the hit single "Ebube'" to Sir and Lady Imo to honor them. Visit Grace Band at http://www.graceband.org.

The Radio Show - ABA MUSIC

The Radio Show featured ABA Music at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Arthurfreds. This broadacst takes place every Monday at 12.00 noon (Eastern Standard Time). Just log on and get your dose live. In the very last broadcast, The Apostles Rock Group featured so strongly that you could not afford to miss the information that came out. The songs that were played were Darlin', Radiant Color, Do It In The Name of Love, Don't Freak Out, You Won My Heart, Be My Own. All those song titles are from the album "Raidant Color" by Arthur Freds. The songs were written, composed, performed and directed by Arthur Freds except for three that were performed for him by Grace Freds. When you listen to that music, you will know rightaway that they are of the Motown era. Those songs are available together in one of Arthur Freds albums at http://www.eclipseventures.com/.
On the radio show, Arthur Freds revealed some of the things that people would not ordinarily know concerning The Apostles. From the things said in the radio show, it is clear that all the bands in Aba will be brought to the listeners. ...Who wouldn't want to know about those groups from a direct participant like Arthur Freds? Arthur Freds sat with them, had breakfast, lunch and dinner with most of those great names in Aba.