CARDINAL REX LAWSON
Passions of Pleasant Pains
-Attorney Patryk Utulu

Cardinal Jim Rex Lawson (Cardinal Rex) was an African musical genius and one of the most influential artists in the so-called African "independence decades" of 1950's to 1970's . Born to Nigerian (Igbo/Kalabari) parents the man universally acclaimed as "The First King of Highlife Music" was a gifted improvisational trumpeter as well as an enigmatic bandleader whose show-stopping voice still transports listeners to the realm of mellifluous moodiness. Listening to Rex Lawson is like being in a dreamlike state and meeting one's departed ancestors: your heart sings sadly but also smiles silently as memories warmly flow, leaving you unsure whether to weep or worship.

One of my elder brothers once described Rex Lawson as the Prince of Pleasant Pains. I did not truly understand what he meant until many years later (after our parents had passed) and I would often find myself recalling the unadulterated joy with which my brother and his friends from Ghana, Guinea and Gambia all listened to Lawson, without hints of boundaries of nationality. Also, Rex was a man who spiritually crossed musical borders: so immersed was he in the passion of his own songs that he frequently shed tears while singing for both princes and plebeians.

Cardinal Lawson was born in 1935 and died in a car accident in 1971. But in those short 36 years he took what was a traditional folk musical style (Highlife Music) and improvised, polished and promoted it a global musical genre. His West African sounds collaborators and contemporaries included the great Victor Olaiya, Sammy Obot, Chris Ajilo and Bobby Benson, among many other musical greats.

I have been told that the music of Cardinal Rex Lawson helped to heal the post-Biafra trauma for millions of victims of the Nigerian Civil War, 1967-1970. If music is informally defined as organized noise I supposed we can be forgiven for the justified cynicism of sometimes viewing politics as natural harmony in disarray. It is here that, within the Nigerian context at least, the mournful melodies of Cardinal Rex Lawson is beginning to take on the significance of a warning from the great beyond. Few nations ever survived two civil wars. Recently, as I find myself often and increasingly listening to Jim Rex's melody of melancholy I cannot help but wonder if, per twist of faith, I am somehow pre-mourning the death of my ancestral nation, Nigeria, which is perched precariously on the edge of violent disintegration.

In his 1951 book, "Requiem for a Nun" American Nobel Laureate, William Faulkner, famously wrote that "The past Is never dead. It isn't even the past."

Thus, I fear that driven by self-inflicted pains and mischievous passions, Nigeria and Nigerians are taking giants steps backward....into the abyss!!!


******
Attorney Patryk A. Utulu
U.S.-based Attorney & Strategic Communications Specialist
Global Defense Analyst and Global Events Commentator
Executive Vice President, Nigerian Diaspora-North America
Executive Director, The Center 4 Community Empowerment & Lifeskills, Inc
[Rights Rsvd. 12032014. Copyrights Strictly Enforced. Fair Use Permitted]

Visit our new website. Click >>>> www.cencel.com


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFilIFOlZe8

noted