SONNY OKOSUNS OZIDIZM (Nigeria/1972)

  

  Sonny Okosuns was born on 1st January 1947 in Enugu. He entered showbiz in 1964 as a sole actor/singer In 1965, he attended the 1st Commonwealth Arts Festival in Great Britain. In 1966, Sonny attended the first All-Negroes Arts Festival in Dakar, Senegal. Later the same year, he formed his first amateur group The Postmen in Enugu.

    In 1968, he worked in the design Section of NBC/TV. Lagos. In 1969, he joined Victor Uwaifo'band as second guitarist. In the same year, he attended the 1st All African Cultural Arts Festival in Algeria. In 1970, ha acted in a films shot in London entitled "The Cinemas of Ramond Fark" or "Mau Mau Strike at down."

    In 1971, he formed his first professional band called Paperback Ltd. which later disbanded to form OZZIDI.

    This is Sonny Okosun's first album called OZIDIZM containing the music of the ancient Ishan Folklore re-orientated.

                                                                                                                    FESTUS RUPEE

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Sonny Okosun: "Papa's Land" (Nigeria/1977)

Sonny Okosun was born in 1947. He was one of the leading Nigerian musicians from the late 1970s to mid '80s. His first band, The Postmen, was formed in Enugu in 1965. In 1969 he joined Melody Maestros, a band led by Victor Uwaifo from 1972 to 1974 he led a group known as Paperback Limited and then formed a new band, Ozziddi. From then on, he released several albums either with Ozziddi, or solo recordings.

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His 1977 song, "Fire in Soweto", became a major international hit. He was featured in the anti-apartheid album Sun City and his song "Highlife" was in the soundtrack of 1986 film Something Wild His mainstream success started to fade in the late 1980s, but he continued his career as a gospel musician under the name Evangelist Sonny Okosun.
He died aged 61 on 24 May 2008 at  Washington DC.

Sonny Okosun: "Holy Wars" (Nigeria/1978)

In 1976, Okosun created Ozziddi band (Ozziddi means message) channeling influenses like afro-funk, soul and reggae. About this period, Okosun said: "I was trying to talk about what was happening to black people." This second album with Ozziddi was recorded in London in 1978.

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En 1976, Okosun crée l'orchestre Ozziddi qui veut dire "message", mélangeant des influenses telles que l'afro funk, la soul et le reggae. A propos de cette période, Okosun dit: "J’essayais de parler de ce qui arrivait au peuple noir". Ce deuxième album avec Ozziddi a été enregistré en 1978 à Londres.