A REVIEW OF COACH HENRY’S MUSICAL ALBUM, MY TEACHERS ||

My Teachers, the debut album of Ndigis Henry was released in 2016 and the album marked a huge leap forward since the start of his music career in back in 2009.

Ndigis, who hails from Mangu in Plateau State, Nigeria poses a style that is typical of the region. A place known for its cultural variegation can only create an avenue for experimenting with a myriad of melodies.

This makes it harder to categorise his style into a particular genre. However, if one decided to take a shortcut i.e to take into consideration only it’s thematic composition, one would simply tag this album as gospel.

His music influences include Ezra Jinang, Cyrus Mutihir, Don Moen, Dushu Osaro Dushu among other well-known artistes. It is no wonder that his music carries such ambience and verve.

Henry may not be your usual regular artist, not on the bigger stage anyways, but if there’s anything his album has proven is that he has put in much work, leaving promising hints of a better album in the coming years.

The album contains the following tracks

-My Teachers

-Dream

-Nighin Mat

-Pyat Wus

-Nagode

-Mafarki

-Diret

-Be yourself

‘My Teachers, the eponymous track, is an indication that the artiste embroidered a piece of himself, his story and identity into this rhythmic tapestry. Being a teacher himself, one can say he has in fact left a piece of himself in this particular piece.

The song comes off as a golden laurel handed to the unsung heroes that teachers are. The lyrics are like a loaded gun; loaded with accolades for teachers and the harmony is inviting.

The songs Pyat Wus and Nighin Mat were both sung in the artiste’s native dialect (The Mwaghavul language). The tune readily engages the listener, whether the lyrics are understood or not. Lyrically, Pyat Wus is a jeremiad, a beckoning and a heartfelt rogation packaged in one.

However, the tune that accompanies it does not convey this mood effectively. Nighin Mat carries a similar appreciative theme as “My teachers” and “Nagode”.

Dream is an ambitious track that almost automatically gets the listener nodding. The contribution of background vocalists is not shadowed.

Henry tries, with this melody, to conjure feelings of hope in the seemingly worn out fraction of his audience. It is reminiscent of the famous quote by the late Martin Luther King Jr.

‘Mafarki’ bears a trancelike texture as the title implies, by the way Mafarki is the Hausa word for dream. It is calm and unhurried in its delivery. And it serves as the right companion for moments of reflection.

Diret and Nagode aren’t in many ways different from the aforementioned tracks in their pizzazz and motif. It is good music to listen to but more often than not, music does not come without a dip side.

The album, good as it is, tilts too hard to the side of gratitude as a theme. It may have been a deliberate move by artiste but in some ways, it affects the dynamism of the album as a whole making it predictable.

The last piece is a spoken word titled “Be Yourself”. The symphony that escorts it is near perfect. It is smooth and vivid and like a model it will promenade on the catwalk that is the listener’s ear canal.

Though one would say the content of the piece is a little too straight to the point, nonetheless, Henry still does well in avoiding the clutches of abstraction; a feature that is apparent in most spoken word pieces that attempt to sound profound.

For an artist on the shores of adulthood, Dikis Henry in undeterred by the multitude gasping for fame in the music industry. He invests a great deal of energy to ensure that that his debut does not just become a stepping stone, but a milestone.

Without any reservation, and considering his background and current capacity, one can safely say that the album was a success.

There is a dire need for minority languages, especially those of central and north-eastern Nigeria, to be preserved via the artistic modes. Dikis Henry has done his bit in a bid the assuage the plight of these languages, particularly the Mwaghavul language, through his music as it can be readily grasped from his tracks, Nighin Mat, Pyat Wus and Diret. Perhaps, someday, these tracks will someday in the future be culled from history as intangible folkloric materials.

Generally, this album garners its strength from its moralistic motif and perhaps its ability to reflect the artiste’s culture and tradition. It also reveals the muse and sentiment that kick-started the whole idea. Being his first project, it is fair say he has come a long way. And if he is diligent enough, we will see more improved art spilling out of his warehouse.

By Bizuum Yadok