NDIDI
Ndidi Onukwulu had recorded two of her songs, with her husband, guitarist
Sam Goldberg, for the 2004 TBS New Talent Search. She missed the deadline, but she will
be singing one of the songs she recorded, "The Water," at the upcoming TBS
Women's Blues Revue at historic Massey Hall on Saturday, November 27. She will be sharing
the stage at that time with Rita Chiarelli, Sue Foley, Dawn Tyler Watson, Jackie
and Serena Ryder backed by the popular Women's Blues Revue Band
- Lily Sazz (band leader, keyboards), Suzie
Vinnick (bass), Margaret Stowe (guitar),
Michelle Josef (drums), Sarah McElcheran
(trumpet), Carrie Chesnutt (sax), Colleen Allen
(sax). Photo by Rick Zolkower
Singer and songwriter Ndidi Onukwulu, who is new to Toronto's blues scene, recently embarked on a musical collaboration with
Madagascar Slim.
Both artists bring the contemporary rhythms of Africa to the blues. Slim's musical roots are in the Malagasy music of his birthplace, Madagascar, while Onukwulu, who was born in British Columbia, grew up listening to her Nigerian-born father play drums.
Slim, who is critical when it comes to assessing vocal ability, says Onukwulu's voice is outstanding. "I really got excited the first time I heard it," Slim says. "That doesn't happen to me often with people's voices. She really does have something special."
Ndidi (pronounced In-dee-dee) and Slim, a two-time Juno Award winner, are in the process of building a repertoire of traditional blues, combined with Malagasy and Nigerian music. "It's a new form of African blues," she says.
Onukwulu, who moved to Toronto, via New York, in 2000, was recently introduced to Slim by Derek Andrews, the president of the Toronto Blues Society, who encouraged them to work together.
Onukwulu has been writing blues songs since she was 13. "I went through a lot of pain, and I found writing about it was a way to get it out," she says.
Some of the songs she's working on currently are about being alone and on the road, and feeling down. But she says, on the flip side, others are political and about "taking on the world and trying to change it." She admires Nigerian artist Sela Kuti, a political funk performer "who influenced my thought processes." Like him, she doesn't believe in writing a song unless there's something there. "Hey, There," one of the songs she wrote for the talent search, is about growing old.
Onukwulu remembers listening to a lot of King Sunny Ade and His African Beats while she was growing up. Ade's band plays a spacey, jamming sort of juju, a style of Nigerian popular music characterized by tight vocal harmonies and intricate guitar work, and backed by traditional talking drums and percussion instruments.
Nigerians typically write about "constant struggle" in their music, Onukwulu says, which has influenced her songwriting. That theme is also present in the songs of blues artists, including Onukwulu's influences, Big Mama Thornton, Bessie Jones, R.L. Burnside and Willie Dixon.
Singing is the best way she can convey what she is trying to express, Onukwulu says. The voice is "a very powerful and affective instrument. You can express so much through your voice. People are more attuned to hearing a voice. They can hear it more passionately (than an instrument)."
Onukwulu's mother recognized her daughter's extraordinary vocal gifts early and encouraged her. "My mother thought I was pretty decent and entered me into competitions," she says. Onukwulu was seven when she began singing in regional talent contests in small towns in southern and northern B.C.
She left home at an early age and wound up in New York City to pursue her singing career. She started out on the city's open mic circuit, singing a cappella, then met up with some hip hop and blues players. "I started singing on their albums and in return they would work on my songs," she says.
Onukwulu is an eclectic performer who hasn't confined herself to blues or blues-related music, or to African-based music. After leaving New York for Toronto, she sang in a rock band, then she became the vocalist of an electronic band, Bank Machine.
Bank Machine was made up of Andrew Wedman on computer, Lyle Crilly on electronic keyboard, Josh Tussel on drums and Lucas Costello singing chants. The band created songs out of computer sounds and made one recording, the CD Stop Die Resuscitate.
Onukwulu and Slim (he is also known as Ben, but his full name is Randriamananjara Radofa Besata Jean Longin) performed together for the first time at the Distillery Historic District this summer, and afterward played some of his songs for her. Onukwulu loved Slim's compositions and was eager to sing them.
"I really feel this thing can go somewhere," he says. "She has incredible talent."
- Ruth Schweitzer