Is Jazz Urhobo Music? II
In part one, I talked about scat originating in Urhoboland, then known as Otọr Urhobo. ‘Djueta, scat, was never introduce into Uhuoro’ojevwu merely because it sounded good, or words were lacking. The words of song in Uhuoro’ojevwu were subversive in the utmost. Leaders, Big People, practices, attitudes, wrongs, and oppression had it rough. Fela Kuti was to catch hell for singing inconvenient truths and lambasting the immoralities of leaders through music. Back then it was worse. Uhuoro’ojevwu was underground music.
Let us try Urhobo scat.
Didi dididi didi wota
Kodo
Didi dididi didi wota
Kodo
The above is the scat form of the literal following where Kodo is the chorus,
Osho da ruevu ohoronu
Kodo
‘Sho da ruevu ohoronu
Kodo
Which means,
If the penis finishes entering a vagina
It shouts.
If the penis finishes entering a vagina
It shouts.
Another scat form is,
Parako parako vwieta teme roba she she she dikpro
Parako parako vwieta teme roba she she she dikpro
Bububuru berubu re sho.
Meaning,
The elders lie like children when humbled.
The elders lie like children when humbled.
Endless words of theirs show them smaller.
Subversion can be a dangerous game.
The art of agbido, riddles, also has its origins in subversion and subterfuge and may have contributed to scat form. Its standard form is the proposer says agbido, calling a response, ano, from the audience. The proposer then says the riddle. Example.
Proposer: Agbido!
Audience: Ano!
Proposer: Kukuruku beberebe
Answer: Okpetu be siọ [Trouble is hard to negotiate].
Fewer people would know the answer. Most did not.
Also, we have the art of Odoma or Odova, nicknames. As a young man reaches adulthood, he picks a nickname for himself. Another partial emergence from scat. Women have them too but long ago bearing their husband’s nickname was the norm. The famous Urhobo barrister, Chief Efe Akpofure (SAN), has the nickname Ọrọdekọr Rọdudi, the cobra that drinks gin; the response, a cobra is fearsome then it gets drunk! Bianimikaley!
That Odoma is literal enough. Not all are. The Urhobo politician, Honourable Ovwigho Agbuya has or had the nickname, Okimini; the response, sunshine does not heat a vagina. Another is Ofovwi re Atugbutu; the response, the battle of the sexes never ends. The last is Rion rion rion, shine shine shine, response – a penis never grows mucor.
Wait, wait, wait. This piece is not a celebration or endorsement of vulgarity. I am still on track on the origin of ‘Djueta, scat, by describing is subversiveness in bare terms. At least you could see what scat practitioners were up to.
Call it eventual knowledge or later, common knowledge, the intent, style, import of scat soon became known to more people. Yes, people got it. Offense, anger, resentment persecution formed the order of response to the reception of scat. Uhuoro’ojevwu practitioners had to protect themselves and continue the newfound art form. Scat hid into more obscure areas in codes of singing often unrecognisable to the uninitiated.
‘Djueta in the beginning was a voice and drum affair. Scat was the reaction by practitioners to censure and resistance. The ọgwele was to sneak into the artform to provide cover for literal and coded expressions of song. Soon, an assortment of drums and percussion instruments were introduced with the intension of imitating the human voice. Bass drums once only used by town criers and Idugbu, search parties/militias, took its place as the defining percussion instrument in Uhuoro’ojevwu.
No one knows where the bass marimba came from, but Uhuoro’ojevwu got their hands on it making it a more salient instrument than the bass drum. The first effect of the wider ensemble is predictable syncopated beats and syncopated dance styles/steps. The second effect was the texture of the music proved dense enough to entertain other instruments to form harmonies and melodies. Abọreteye, clapping, ‘Djueta, scatting, ọmẹhwẹ, unelicited laughter, ghrẹhwẹn, humming, gbẹgwele, whistling, were regular features of Uhuoro’ojevwu. Even kọ, vocal clicks and unuefio, hisses were additions.
The Art Ensemble of Chicago is the jazz band, though American, that best captures the spirit of Uhuoro’ojevwu than any other. Listen to the track Toro by the Art Ensemble of Chicago. The word’s is not pronunciation is Toeroe but Torror. Tọrọ means pick it up. In Current Urhobo music the lead singer is the command kparọn, lift it, a synonym of Tọrọ that is signifies the first beat of a song. Thus, Toro is the opening of their album Spiritual in 1969. Spiritually, they found their way back to Otọr Urhobo where it all began. Erhiotor ghwre’e, the soul of a land, its people, never dies nor disperses only if we are conscious enough to trace it back to the cradle.
Uhuoro vwiere, the music is now ripe, is the phrase used to mark it as an autonomous art form. Yet, its strictures were few. The songs and its playing were committed to memory never written, so setting standards and rules of the music was unnecessary. The music’s ripening did not translate into any kind of public acceptance. It never has to date.
An early gifted practitioner of scat was a multi-talented woman called, Ọmọtẹ Ajalomu, Daughter of Ajalomu, a rich merchant. Patriarchy obscured her name. Reputed to have been a great fair skinned beauty standing over six feet tall resembling her father. Her main profession was as an Useki, marketer or wholesale barterer of goods on behalf of communities.
In its early days Uhuoro’ojevwu was more an identity than an artform to non-practitioners. Practitioner simply called it Uhuoro. As mentioned in part one, Uhuoro, playing, was an unusual term since music was either called Ine, songs or Eha, dance. The metaphor applicable to the burgeoning of the music was it grew like a weed. No marijuana pun intended. Uhuoro development, direction, and expansion was unpredictable, still ascendant.
We have modern Urhobo music as we heard and remembered it in the Twentieth Century. The reintroduction of the isologu into popular Urhobo music was by the musician Adarighofua, a.k.a. Go Slow. Centuries ago, Uhuoro’ojevwu musicians enjoyed and innovated with the isologu underground. Reintroduction and rediscovery are great for the sanctity and fidelity of culture.
The tragic transatlantic crossing of the Urhobo people and their culture that saw them in a strange land under bondage happened. The people suffered but Uhuoro’ojevwu profited two-fold. First, the obscure meaning of scat code made it undecipherable to most. Spies for slave masters had no subversion to report, leaving it intact. Second, the encountering of musical instruments unheard of or unavailable in Otọr Urhobo gave broad scope and possibilities to the music supplanting scat. Scat persists though. It is as important to Uhuoro’ojevwu, jazz, as the igede, isologu, and agogo, the rhythm section.
Is jazz Urhobo music? I ask again.
Next time we shall talk about the dance and call-response aspects of Uhuoro’ojevwu.