Solomon Ilori

Solomon Ilori And His Afro-Drum Ensemble: African High Life

by Chris May
June 14, 2006

Every now and again, a label pulls a previously unissued session out of the vaults and it proves to be a down-by-law number one with a mango. Candid did it earlier in 2006 with Jamaican tenor saxophonist Wilton Gaynair's Africa Calling (London, 1960). Now it's Blue Note's turn with Solomon Ilori's African High Life (Englewood Cliffs, 1963-64)--or to be precise, the album's final three tracks, recorded eighteen months after the rest of the set, and which together clock up just ...