With 16 African album releases to his credit — many of them gold — Nigeria’s Sonny Okosuns is one of the continent’s most enduringly popular performers. Okosuns initially caught the pop music bug via Elvis and the Beatles, forming his first band, The Postmen, in 1964. In the early ’70s, he helped usher in a back-to-African-roots trend with a stylistic mix of Western pop and local highlife he called “ozzidi.” He later broadened it to include the rapidly spreading gospel of reggae. His diversity has kept him from being pigeonholed. He was featured in Black Star Liner, a 1983 anthology of African reggae, and more recently appeared on the anti-apartheid Sun City EP produced by Steve Van Zandt. His albums typically feature vocals in English as well as the Nigerian Ishan language.
All Music-Bob Tarte.