Dance to the Music

African music is not our usual beat, but when Nigerian bandleader and electric guitarist King Sunny Adé stopped by Seattle’s Triple Door in 2009 we couldn’t resist interviewing him for the Fretboard Journal. This singular artist not only modernized juju music over the course of his 100-plus albums, he's also is a veritable historian of the electric guitar in Africa. Among other things, Adé tells us about his earliest exposure to the music of hero I.K. Dairo, his friendly rivalry with fellow bandleader Ebenezer Obey and the story behind his Juju Music album on Island Records.