Biography
Long recognized as Sierra Leone’s undisputed sovereign of bubu, Ahmed Janka Nabay presided over a centuries-old folk tradition whose beginnings remain obscure. Though typically reserved for solemn observances such as Ramadan processions, the music’s lineage stretches back before Islam reached the region.
Nabay launched his performing life playing reggae in the manner of his idol Bob Marley, yet he also explored bubu, whose acoustic form traditionally relies on bamboo flutes, air blown through metal pipes fashioned from auto exhaust or building conduit, and hand-built drums. When he appeared in a talent contest with a band that augmented those instruments with synthesizers, electronic drums, guitars, and basses, the panel’s evident weariness with foreign reggae and Afro-pop prompted an impromptu switch to a bubu selection; the performance won the judges’ favor and the competition itself.
In the years that followed, Nabay issued numerous cassettes, singles, and later CD-Rs that reshaped bubu into a secular as well as ceremonial style, selling in the tens of thousands and establishing him as a national figure. The music’s growing political resonance during the conflict drew rebel forces to adopt it as a rallying anthem, placing Nabay in peril; he escaped during the mass exodus of the mid-nineties, first settling in Philadelphia and then taking a series of menial jobs along the East Coast for roughly a decade before moving to New York, where he continued searching for musicians to revive bubu in the United States.
Public-radio producer Wills Glasspiegel encountered one of Nabay’s CD-Rs in a shipment of BBC releases, located the artist, and connected him with True Panther Sounds, which issued the Bubu King EP in 2010. Nabay subsequently assembled the Bubu Gang from players associated with Chairlift, Skeletons, Zs, Saadi, and other Brooklyn underground acts; the ensemble delivered the An Letah EP in early 2012 and was promptly signed to David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label. Its debut album, En Yay Sah, appeared that August, earning critical acclaim and leading to American tours and festival appearances throughout the following year. Before the next recording, Nabay returned to Sierra Leone for the first time in fifteen years; the new material and experimental approach he brought back yielded the 2017 Luaka Bop album Build Music. He died of a stomach ailment in April of the following year at age 54 while in his homeland.
Nabay launched his performing life playing reggae in the manner of his idol Bob Marley, yet he also explored bubu, whose acoustic form traditionally relies on bamboo flutes, air blown through metal pipes fashioned from auto exhaust or building conduit, and hand-built drums. When he appeared in a talent contest with a band that augmented those instruments with synthesizers, electronic drums, guitars, and basses, the panel’s evident weariness with foreign reggae and Afro-pop prompted an impromptu switch to a bubu selection; the performance won the judges’ favor and the competition itself.
In the years that followed, Nabay issued numerous cassettes, singles, and later CD-Rs that reshaped bubu into a secular as well as ceremonial style, selling in the tens of thousands and establishing him as a national figure. The music’s growing political resonance during the conflict drew rebel forces to adopt it as a rallying anthem, placing Nabay in peril; he escaped during the mass exodus of the mid-nineties, first settling in Philadelphia and then taking a series of menial jobs along the East Coast for roughly a decade before moving to New York, where he continued searching for musicians to revive bubu in the United States.
Public-radio producer Wills Glasspiegel encountered one of Nabay’s CD-Rs in a shipment of BBC releases, located the artist, and connected him with True Panther Sounds, which issued the Bubu King EP in 2010. Nabay subsequently assembled the Bubu Gang from players associated with Chairlift, Skeletons, Zs, Saadi, and other Brooklyn underground acts; the ensemble delivered the An Letah EP in early 2012 and was promptly signed to David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label. Its debut album, En Yay Sah, appeared that August, earning critical acclaim and leading to American tours and festival appearances throughout the following year. Before the next recording, Nabay returned to Sierra Leone for the first time in fifteen years; the new material and experimental approach he brought back yielded the 2017 Luaka Bop album Build Music. He died of a stomach ailment in April of the following year at age 54 while in his homeland.