Feature in:- Orb -2001

Written by: Tomas A. Palermo
photos: Zen Sekisawa

What are you doing this Saturday? If you're Jerome Sydenham you're playing a wicked selection of house, Afrobeat, garage and classics in Dublin, Los Angeles, Tokyo or any number of transcontinental clubs. In demand not only for the tracks on his Ibadan imprint but for his awesome DJing and production talents, Sydenham has proven that the world is his.

Jerome Sydenham is at the Place Pigalle bar in San Francisco's Hayes Valley when I arrive. He's punctual, cordial and polite while I rain excuses for my tardiness, almost as if I were playing the role of the capricious musician that he is obviously not. Sydenham sips a beer and offers me one; dressed nattily in a white Yoji sweater and crisp Marjella jeans, he's the essence of refinement and detail. The only jarring element in the mix: the bar's stereo blares hard rock at shout-over-it levels (normally they program Massive Attack or tasteful jazz). Sydenham is unruffled, his generous smile never waning.

Pint glasses are clinked as we sit down and delve into the world of music to which Sydenham has devoted his life. "I'm a vinyl junkie," he says in a lilting Nigerian-British accent regarding his DJ passions. "I collect records avidly. Japan is a [favorite] place to go shopping." Sydenham's stop in San Francisco is part of a self-imposed layover to visit a few friends before jetting to Japan for two weeks, a business trip/vacation. "I've been going there Bi-yearly for the last few years, you can actually get a good selection and reasonably priced classics there. So I will look forward to that."

Born in Ibadan, in the Oyo province of Nigeria north of Lagos, Sydenham moved to New York in the early '80s. His homeland is recovering from the oppressive dictatorship of Sani Abacha (who died in 1999) but a recent visit left Sydenham optimistic. "[The country] has a future, but it's gonna take a long time to develop," Sydenham says of Nigeria. "There's a huge gap between rich and poor, and there's no middle class. But there's also a lot of opportunity there now, being a very tolerant open society, and because there's zero tolerance for corruption on a governmental level, I believe Nigeria time for growth and a more stable economy has begun".

Sydenham's Nigerian roots play an important role in his music productions as do the myriad experiences he amassed in New York as a DJ, club promoter and, most importantly, in the A&R department of Atlantic-East/West. There, he provided guidance for acts including En Vogue and Das EFX, in addition to successfully breaking vocal house group Ten City. In 1989 he met an up-and-coming producer, Kerri Chandler, when Atlantic picked up Chandler's first 12", "Super Lover." Their friendship remains solid to this day.

"We're definitely best friends," Sydenham says of Chandler. "When one us needs anything, it's an instant response. Basically, he's like family."

That friendship led Sydenham to draft Chandler to remix the Ten City catalog in 1995 for his fledgling Ibadan Records imprint. It increasingly became Sydenham's desire to produce high quality club music utilizing the best live musicians available. This concept bore fruit in August of 2001 with the release of Saturday, a collaboration between Sydenham and Chandler (with contributions from Dennis Ferrer and others). Saturday opens with percussive Afro-house ("KóKó") before winding through a Cuban jam session ("Candela," featuring the slinky bass of Richie Goods), late-night house ("Rising The Sun" and "Winters Blessing"), Bahian-Brazilian rhythms ("Deconstructed House" and "Espirito Du Tempo") and a breathtaking comedown (the classic soul-house rework of Nina Simone's "See Line Woman").

The instrumentation throughout Saturday is masterful, mainly due to Sydenham's insistence on using not merely single-genre players, but veteran talents. "It's better to get a well-rounded musician," explains Sydenham. "I've been very fortunate in this regard, thanks to a good friend of mine named Brian Bacchus who's head of creative development at Blue Note. [He hooks me up with] the top guys."

"Similarly, the songs themselves reflect the immediacy for which Sydenham strives. To illustrate his point, Sydenham describes one particular late night at the studio: "There's one song [on Saturday] that Dennis Ferrer made called 'Jehlaz.' That song was done literally in about three hours during a cocktail party in the studio. We were all messing around, Dennis was programming, this young lady from Paris, [Jehlaz], was in the room, and they came up with the beat. I was doing vocal direction, Kerri played the bass or something, and we all had cocktails in hand. She just freestyled it."

Sydenham is thankful that times have shifted, with house providing a way to introduce music's roots and speculate on its future. "The establishment of Body and Soul has been instrumental in changing the vibe of the city. The resurgence of the Shelter with Timmy Regisford has been crucial as well. For [people] making music, we're received quite well, because we have outlets for our stuff to be heard."

Never one to slow down, this jetset producer has collaborations lined up in Japan, plans for unveiling a new dance sound emerging from Nigeria, and his next album conceptualized: "I'm going to do one song of every kind of music-one hip-hop interpretation, one reggae interpretation. It'll work because there will be a vibe linking [it all]."

Linking is a crucial part of Sydenham's personal modus operandi. It was a link with Kerri via his A&R position that lead to his label and eventual collaborations, and ultimately back to his own musical roots. And the joy that classic music can elicit is central to Sydenham's creative process.

"Back in the day-around 1986-me and another DJ (Fummi Ononaye) used to go to (old school New Jersey house club) Zanzibar," beams Sydenham, as the music in the bar turns finally to a Gang Starr collection. "We coined a term [for when] Tony Humphries would play some really amazing record, and it would be so emotionally uplifting. We'd say, 'Yo, yo, did you feel that? I just experienced disco heaven.' That's what we used to call it."

These days, Sydenham is trying to forge his version of that magic sound. "The music can do it for you just by itself, it's powerful enough to make you as high as. . . as anything!"

Saturday is out now on Ibadan Records. A new single by Jania, "Deconstructing House Phase Two," is out soon. Look for a forthcoming Ibadan catalog mix CD by France's DJ Yello and Bob Sinclair.