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Contemporary afrofunk aficionados need not feel inadequate for not having heard of the musician known as Tex Soul--even at the peak of his brief career in the mid-1970s, he never approached widespread national recognition in his native Nigeria. Unheard-of in the dance halls and on the radio waves of the country's principal metropolis of Lagos, Tex Soul was a hero in the Eastern city of Aba, where his prowess as the consummate entertainer lived as the stuff of local legend. As a performer who could dance like James Brown, play the guitar like Jimi Hendrix and belt out a song with the soulfulness of ages, Tex Soul's name was prefixed by the word "Showman," almost as a permanent honorific.
Hotly recruited by other groups on the booming Eastern rock circuit to add some electricity to their live shows, Tex Soul made his first big splash during a brief stint with the city's number one rockers, The Funkees of Aba, before forming his own group The Vibrations. After scoring a handful of regional hits, Tex Soul's promising career and life were cut short when he was found dead under suspicious circumstances after an altercation with a show promoter in 1979. Now Voodoo Funk and Academy Records are proud to expose this tragically overlooked artist to a new audience, digging deep to unearth the single "Uto Nwa" b/w "Osi Na Ngada," recorded by Tex in 1972 with his early soul group The Bayonets, forgotten even by the hardest Aba scenesters! |
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