Victor Uwaifo

Composer, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and bandleader Sir Victor Uwaifo was one of the flashiest, most creative, hardest-working Nigerian musicians of the highlife era. The first-ever African to earn a gold record, Uwaifo built his reputation on flamboyant showmanship, deep mining of legends and songs from his native Edo culture, creating new rhythms (Akwete in particular), and revamping old ones (Ekassa), which he juxtaposed with elements from R&B, soul, funk, and psychedelic rock. His long string of hits during the 1960s and '70s -- including the gold-certified "Joromi"...