Bez Idakula

Bez Idakula is a Nigerian singer-songwriter whose combines pop flavored soul and traditional West African music with overt jazz accents. His songs are often melodic and upbeat, with plenty of emotional and spiritual uplift to spare. His earlier albums aligned more with a pop oriented jazz that also featured a brass section. He has been relatively downplaying all that in his current work, in favor of a stronger Afropop and light Afro-Cuban elements that are much closer to the surface especially with respect to the rhythms, but also in the sparkly guitars and vocals. He sings mostly in English but lately has been switching to what appears to be Hausa on and off. "Gentle" is probably the first adjective that comes to mind in describing his music ... followed by sweet, hopeful, and spiritual.