KONKOMBE: THE NIGERIAN POP MUSIC SCENE (1979)

(Jeremy Marre, 1979, approx 60 min, digital)

From street singers to international superstars, English documentarian Jeremy Marre’s KONKOMBE: THE NIGERIAN POP MUSIC SCENE reveals a multifaceted landscape of music and politics in 1970s Nigeria. Commissioned for the globe-spanning “Beats of the Heart” music documentary series, KONKOMBE brought an awareness of contemporary African music to Western audiences at the dawn of the 1980s, spurring some of the decade’s most exciting musical crossovers and hybrids. It also serves as a vital record of legendary performers like I.K. Dairo, King Sunny Adé, and Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti, and a probing examination of the linguistic, religious, economic, and political factors that shaped their sounds.

Especially noteworthy is presence of The Lijadu Sisters, a trailblazing duo who pushed back against the culture of sexism in the music industry to create some of the most politically daring –and funkiest–records of the 1970s. According to Rolling Stone, "the Lijadu Sisters helped lay the foundation for African music’s global resonance today. As pioneers of Nigerian pop, the continent’s most impactful music industry, they diversified the sound and disrupted men’s dominion over it."

In conjunction with a new reissue campaign dedicated to the Lijadu Sisters’ long-unavailable catalogue, the Block Museum is partnering with beatsoftheheart.tv and Chicago-based record label Numero Group to present KONKOMBE: THE NIGERIAN POP MUSIC SCENE.

Presented in partnership with beatsoftheheart.tv and Numero Group, and with thanks to Eric Welles-Nyström.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Block Museum of Art, 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, United States