King Sunny Ade and his band. (Photo: Michael Weintrob)
It's been a terrific spring for Twin Cities fans of African music, but, sadly, perhaps the biggest name just got scratched.
Nigerian great King Sunny Ade was forced to cancel Saturday's show at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis -- part of the lingering fallout from an auto accident March 26 that killed two of his musicians.
Gabriel Ayanniyi, who played talking drum, and percussionist Omo Olope died en route to a music video shoot north of Lagos March 26. As a result, the band's U.S. tour -- which was was to have started today (April 14) is on hold. The first five of Ade's 13 U.S. concerts have been canceled.
Here's how the announcement put it (somewhat curiously):
Final plans for the U.S. tour hit a snag since that time and, possibly as a result of this loss, communication between KSA's Nigerian management and U.S. management has become attenuated. Managers are currently awaiting approval by the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria for replacement musicians.
Ade brings a stage full of musicians, so some people may figure -- callously or not -- what's the big deal? But as anyone who attended Ade's sweatfest last summer at the Minnesota Zoo can testify, the talking drummer is a veritable rock star who pumps up the frenzy, altering the pitch of his drum by squeezing the rawhide strings that anchor the drumhead as he pounds out accents with his other hand.
"Gabriel was a great protege talking drum player that everyone in Nigeria was talking about," Ade's U.S. manager, Andy Frankel, said in the statement. "These musicians' deaths is a great loss."
