David Byrne’s Luaka Bop has announced the new compilation The Muslim Highlife of Alhaji Waziri Oshomah. The seven-song record is part of the label’s World Spirituality Classics series and it arrives September 23. Today, the label has shared a music video for lead single “Jealousy.” Watch it below and scroll down for the album art and tracklist.
A devout Muslim born into an Afenmai/Etsako family in southern Nigeria, Waziri’s work fuses devotional music and the sounds of local folk, pan-Nigeran styles, and Western pop. Waziri began integrating his faith into his compositions after his parents disowned him for fear that he had strayed from the teachings of Islam. His music, sung in English, Etsako, and other local languages, conveys Islamic values such as humility and modesty.
Waziri started a band in 1970 as the Nigerian Civil War raged on; he and his group would travel to gigs by foot, carrying equipment on their heads. “When we played, we didn’t have professional amplifiers,” he said in press materials. “We used a locally built amp that was powered by ordinary torchlight batteries.”
The tracks on The Muslim Highlife of Alhaji Waziri Oshomah were recorded between the mid-’70s and mid-’80s. The album is the third installment in the World Spirituality Classics series, following 2017’s Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda and 2019’s The Time for Peace Is Now.
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