Victor Uwaifo - Kumbaya

Topic: Dance Music - Highlife
Victor Uwaifo recorded a version of "Kumbaya" in the highlife tradition of Kwame Asare, mentioned in the post for 29 April 2018. As Jacob Sam, he had extolled the joys of couples dancing together and promised a woman he would love her after she was gone. Uwaifo’s verses asked a woman to "warm me," "wrap me in your arms," and "kiss me." He return he told her she was his "everything," his "sunshine, moon, and stars," and "the best forever."

Uwaifo’s vocal style was more westernized. Sam had a high-pitched voice and spoke his words on tones of the melody. Uwaifo’s voice was lower, and, while he still spoke, rather than sang, his intonation was more musical.

The two artists used their backup vocalists in similar ways. Uwaifo sang the verse alone, but on the chorus other men sang with him in unison. Sam’s lyrics were in Fanti, so I only know their meaning from translation. Thus, while I heard him sing alone and with men in unison, I don’t know what relationship existed between style and text.

Uwaifo’s instrumentation was more contemporary. Instead of Sam’s acoustic guitars and claves, he used an electric guitar, a drum set, and a hand drum. He added brass accents borrowed from the highlife style of E. T. Mensah, also mentioned in the post for 29 April 2018.

He instrumental deployment was more varied. Sam’s guitar and claves repeated one rhythmic phrase, and, when he wasn’t singing, they did not vary their parts. Uwaifo also used a recurring rhythmic figure, but during the instrumental interludes he let the trumpets and electric guitar take his place and play melody.

The brass did not vary the tune, but Uwaifo introduced some minor notes on the electric guitar. In one case, they sounded like a Hawaiian guitar. Interestingly, he told Morgan Greenstreet he had made his own guitar as an adolescent, but when he tried to play with others he discovered

"It was difficult because I tuned to my own taste, it was like the Hawaiian style, do, re, mi, do, sol, mi, do, whereas theirs was the Spanish style, which is EBGDAE." [1]

A non-western aesthetic [2] defined Uwaifo’s treatment of "kumbaya" in the chorus. After Bach, western music had made the melody paramount, and subordinated instruments to playing chords or variations on chords. [3] Highlife was more modular. If one may borrow a metaphor from weaving, one rhythm instrument supplied the framework like the warp on a loom. The other parts, like the weft, wove through in different patterns to create a twill-like fabric that supported the griots who spoke over it and the individuals who danced to the assembled rhythm.

Uwaifo told John Collins he developed his first rhythmic pattern, Akwete, when he was in art school, and used it from 1965 to 1968. Then, he created the Shadow, which was based on the twist. In 1970s, he began using Edo dances as the basis for his continuo. [4] He created another motif in 1976, when he changed the name of his backup group to the Titibitis and added trumpets. [5] He told Greenstreet the titibiti rhythm "gave me a wider scope." [6]

Uwaifo converted the vocal parts into additional components of his rhythm. The lines in the verse weren’t simply iambic, but, when strongly accented, became a succession of xX sounds. In the chorus Uwaifo combined the long-short-long rhythm of "kumbaya" with the "short short" of "oh oh" and the "short" of "oh" in different permutations that floated above the interlaced sounds of the other rhythm instruments.

Performers
Vocal Soloist: Victor Uwaifo
Vocal Group: male group
Instrumental Soloists: electric guitar, trumpets
Instrumental Accompaniment: electric guitar
Rhythm Accompaniment: drum set, hand-played drum, shaker

Credits
"Composed By, Arranged By - Sir Victor Uwaifo (J.P.; M.O.N.)" [7]

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: KUM-ba-YAH, long-short-long
Verses: his own

Basic Form: verse-chorus
Verse Length: 6 line sestet
Verse Rhyme Pattern: most ended with the words "my love"
Verse Repetition Pattern: AB-A
Line Meter: iambic (xX)
Line Length: generally 8, sometimes 9 or 10 syllables
Line Repetition Pattern: none

Chorus Length: 8 lines
Chorus Line Repetition Pattern: AAAA BC BC
A. long-short-long short-short long-short-long (lines 1-4)
B. long-short-long short long-short-long (lines 5 and 7)

C. long-short-long long-short-long short-short long-short-long (lines 6 and 8)

Chorus Meters: repetitions of "kumbaya," "oh oh" and "oh"
Ending: repeated the last line of chorus

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: his own; occasional minor notes in melody and harmony

Tempo: moderate

Basic Structure: A-BCDD-BCD- BC where
A is a capella (chorus)
B is instrumental
C is the vocal group (chorus)
D is solo voice joined by group (verse-chorus)

Singing Style: one syllable to one note
Solo-Group Dynamics: men joined him on chorus in unison

Vocal-Orchestral Dynamics: began a capella; after that, the melody alternated between voice, trumpets, and electric guitar

Vocal-Rhythm Dynamics: the actual rhythm instruments varied, but they maintained the same supporting pattern

Notes on Performance
The provenance of this recording of "Kumbaya" was not clear. It was released on a four-song album in 1990, but was not listed by Uwaifo in his on-line discography. Indeed, his list of recordings showed a hiatus from 1985 to 1991. [8] This implied his music company was filling the void with collections of unreleased material.

The use of brass indicated "Kumbaya" was recorded some time after 1976, when he changed the name of his backup group. The fact the record covers displayed on Amazon and YouTube identified his musicians with his earlier band name, the Melody Maestros, may have been a marketing ploy.

Uwaifo could have heard "Kumbaya" when he toured the United States in 1970, [9] and may even been asked politely if he knew the song. He also may have heard it anytime after that when he talked to American or European fans.

Notes on Performers
Uwaifo may have turned from recording for a while. He founded a college of music in Benin in 1990, revived his interest in sculpture, and earned his bachelor’s degree in 1995. [10] For more information on his earlier life, see the post for 29 April 2018.

Availability
Album: Hold Your Romeo. Polydor POLP 241. 1990. [11]

Reissue: Hold Your Romeo. Premier Records. MP3. 2010.

YouTube: uploaded to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises on 24 February 2015.

End Notes
1. Victor Uwaifo. Quoted by Morgan Greenstreet. "Sir Victor Uwaifo, Superstar: In His Own Words." Afro Pop website. 20 March 2017.

2. While African music is seen by many as unique, it may, in fact, be the development of a view of music that was widespread before Bach changed the course of European music.

3. Homophony is the technical term for this type of music.
4. John Collins. Musicmakers of West Africa. Washington: Three Continents Press, 1985. 78.
5. Victor Uwaifo website.
6. Greenstreet.

7. "Victor Uwaifo (J.P. ; M.O.N.) And The Titibitis – Hold Your Romeo." Discogs website notes for album.

8. Victor Uwaifo website.
9. Collins. 74.
10. "Biography." Victor Uwaifo website.
11. Discogs.