Give The Beggar A Chance

Rate It! Avg: 5.0 (3 ratings)
Sample Album
Give The Beggar A Chance album cover
Album Information

Total Tracks: 7   Total Length: 38:47

eMusic Review 0

Avatar Image
Phil Freeman

eMusic Contributor

09.27.11
A promising debut from an Afrobeat forefather
2011 | Label: Tummy Touch Records / Virtual

Joni Haastrup has one of the most fascinating stories in Nigerian music history. The scion of royalty (he’s literally credited on some records as Prince Joni Haastrup, and it’s not a self-selected title), he first came to public prominence in 1966, singing on Orlando Julius Ekemode’s amazing Super Afro Soul album, which is credited with lighting the fuse that launched Afrobeat. A few years later, he hooked up with former Cream drummer Ginger Baker and became a member of Airforce, before forming Monomono in 1971.

On this, their debut album, Monomono are clearly still finding their identity. While Haastrup’s vocals and organ mesh well with Jimmy Adams’s stinging guitar and Baba Ken Okulolo’s thick, liquid bass lines, and two percussionists, Candido Obajimi and Friday Jumbo, keep the rhythm flowing behind them, the songs themselves are a not-always-perfect blend of African grooves and British-influenced psychedelic folk rock. The material was written while Haastrup was in London with Baker and making his name on the UK scene, and it shows. The relentless funk of Fela Kuti’s Afrika 70 and the more lilting grooves of other Nigerian acts like Ebenezer Obey, Haastrup’s former boss Ekemode, and singer/guitarist Sir Victor Uwaifo are present,… read more »

Write a Review 0 Member Reviews

Please register before you review a release. Register

Recommended Albums

They Say All Music Guide

Led by keyboardist and singer Joni Haastrup (himself a scion of Nigerian royalty), the band MonoMono was one of the most popular funk-rock acts in West Africa in the early ’70s. Give the Beggar a Chance is the first of a set of three reissues from that decade, two by MonoMono and one by Haastrup as a solo artist. Although the sound quality is marginal at times (these CDs were mastered from audibly damaged vinyl records), the music itself is fascinating and sometimes deeply compelling. Of the band’s two albums, Give the Beggar a Chance is the most consistently fun and interesting. This was a period when Afro-pop was coming into its maturity, and the endlessly repetitive grooves of Fela Kuti were starting to give way to influences from British and American traditions — listen closely to the title track and you’ll hear more than a hint of Ray Manzarek in Haastrup’s organ playing, while “The World Might Fall Over” hints at a Santana-esque blues-rock and “Find Out” segues abruptly from a jaunty, swinging jazz-reggae groove to an even jauntier and sauntering 6/8 feel. It must be said that Haastrup is a good singer but not a great one; he often struggles to hit his high notes, which can distract from what are generally pretty good songs and ferocious grooves. But his arrangements are brilliant, dense, and busy without ever feeling ponderous. Surface noise notwithstanding, this album is a genuine gem that should be welcomed back to the commercial marketplace. – Rick Anderson

more »