Okudi’s Music Takes You All Over Africa

Oct 31, 2002

IF MOST Ugandan popular music was food, we would all be suffering from malnutrition. Reason? Most of it sounds so similar, like it is the product of only one inept cook!

The Gospel artist mixes traditional influences with high-tech innovation

By Joseph Batte

IF MOST Ugandan popular music was food, we would all be suffering from malnutrition. Reason? Most of it sounds so similar, like it is the product of only one inept cook!
Rarely do we get to listen to a recording of such exciting musical originality that transcends the boundaries of genre and style.
But in the past few weeks, those within the vicinity of a radio— and I mean not just the Gospel music fans, but the whole musical nation— have been perking up their ears to a glowing type of music that seems to be crafted from some place other than this poor, beautiful, land-locked country.
Instead, the joyful musical package turned out to be I Have Found a Miracle by Pastor George Okudi, one of the vanguards of modern Gospel music in Uganda, who enthralled us last year with a radiant and cheerfully commercial Things Are Already Better.
The radio people at Simba, CBS, Top Radio, Impact and Dembe were the first to sample the album’s intensity and range.
They were left bug-eyed by the musicality and originality of the pastor and have since been furiously rotating it. In so doing, they ensured Pastor Okudi returns in the big way and keeps himself at the top of the Gospel crop.
But credit should not go to the talking heads of radio, but rather to the pastor himself. He created a music dynasty since he gave up looking after cows in Teso and heeded God’s call.
Today he boasts over 20 albums, a singing ministry, his own music label and one of the most advanced recording studio in the country.
But to me the biggest plus is not his property, but his recordings that are exceptionally well produced and arranged.
Take his latest outing, for example. It is a meaty 10-track affair that draws from a wide range of African inspirations. It’s production that is truly is over the top. The fusion of the traditional elements and the state-of-the-art technology burst forth like a fresh spring.
But it is a recording where the essence of the tradition is not destroyed by the new technology. Instead, it is enhanced by it.
You will hear a bit of tradition, a bit of Zouk and a bit of reggae while some of the numbers are littered with familiar Soukous. All combine to make an excitingly original sound.
With that kind of variety, there is something for every one. In a nutshell, the new album cements Okudi’s reputation as a musician who is always exploring new musical sounds, seeking perfection.
Asked to comment on his winning formula, Okudi explains: “The difference between Things Are Already Better and I Have Found a Miracle is that the level of imagination in the latter is higher than the former. I feel the new album is good in terms of the (music) touch.
“I designed Things Are Already Better on a six-track, analog tape machine. With my new studio the sky was the limit. I was able to exploit my imagination further with synthesizers like the Roland 1880, Trinitron found in my 25-track studio that I set up in my garage in Kasubi.”
Okudi says his vision is to portray African music and since Africa does not only mean Uganda, he takes us to North, West, South Africa, before rocketing us back to his village of Wera on Moroto Road in an environment once filled with cattle before the rustlers raided Teso. He acknowledges the debt he owes that era: “Yes. The music stresses my cattle-keeping background and I’m very proud of it. But with this new album, I’m trying to look beyond the boundaries of Uganda and follow the path beaten by other African musicians like Baba Maal, Selif Keita and Yousour Ndour.
“I had better technical advancement, which gave me a lot of creativity. But even with high-tech studio I did not lose my original touch.”
One of the breakthroughs on the album is Kanemu Kanabiri, which he says he wrote in the bathroom in London. This track is one of those countless lullabies we originally sung while we still wetted our beds.
It crawls with a South African Mbaqanga feeling, especially in the vocals, which interestingly seem to share a lot of similarities with an akogo beat form Teso.
One of the sounds that brings multi-dimensional influences is Go Ye, which he joyously wrapped in a Makossa beat from Cameroon, like that which was popularised Zangalewa.
Omako is joyously wrapped in Okembe rhythm that young people in Lira and Kaberamaido groove to after a hard day’s work.
A monotonous adungu (bow harp) rhythm from Nebbi in north-western Uganda powers Amaworo Azi Mungu (The power of God) while the other gem on the album is the Pearl of Africa track, a heart-rending lament for this nation. The orientation of this number suggests reggae, but the haunting mass chorus singing in unison lurking in the background is called Edonga, a strong but now extinct rhythmic singing tradition which Iteso ancestors brought with them from the Ethiopian Highlands.
Okudi rescues this exotic beat from the scrap-heap, redefines it then reintroduces it with more verve.
Among the other elements that really make I Have Found a Miracle legitimately hot stuff are the cute brasses that weave in and out of music.
If you consider yourself a church music purist who tends to decry the use of secular instruments and rhythms, what a pity! The truth is this recording transcends that petty perspective.
The only drawback that I find is that fans may get lost in the melodies and the funkier, urbanised beats they might forget the serious messages therein. Yet, lyrically, Okudi espouses themes of salvation and redemption that have the capacity to threaten a covey of devils.
In the face of so much heartbreak, sin in the world and so many boy-meet-girl releases that project insincere love, Okudi’s album is very important in that it ministers to the heart whoever you are, wherever you are.
To paraphrase Bakayimbira and Radio Simba’s Charles Senkubuge: “May be Uganda has finally produced a music star worth mentioning and exporting.” And he is not alone. My verdict is: some folks sing about joy. Pastor George Okudi is joy. Folks, I Have Found a Miracle is a must-buy. Ends

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