Combining local Nigerian folk styles with pan-Nigerian highlife and Western pop.

Luaka Bop is releasing a new compilation of Alhaji Waziri Oshomah songs, titled The Muslim Highlife of Alhaji Waziri Oshomah, this September.

Born into a Muslim Afenmai/Etsako family in southern Nigeria, Alhaji Waziri Oshomah combined devotional music with the sounds of local folk, pan-Nigerian highlife, and Western pop.

Against the backdrop of the Nigerian Civil War, Oshomah launched his own band in 1970, often walking miles to get to gigs.

“When we played, we didn’t have professional amplifiers,” he recalls. “We used a locally built amp that was powered by ordinary torchlight batteries.”

The Muslim Highlife of Alhaji Waziri Oshomah features seven tracks recorded between the mid-1970s and mid-’80s.

It marks the third instalment in Luaka Bop’s World Spirituality Classics, following the label’s The Time For Peace Is Now compilation.

Pre-order The Muslim Highlife of Alhaji Waziri Oshomah from Phonica Records in advance of its 23rd September release; check out the artwork and tracklist below.

Tracklist:

2. Jealousy

3. Alhaji Yesufu Sado Managing Director

4. Omhona – Omhona

5. Ovini Omoekeke Alhaji Inu Umoru

6. Okhume Ukhaduame

7. My Luck feat. Madam Hassanah Waziri and Her Velvet Voice