Corie Sheppard Podcast
The Corie Sheppard Podcast
A trusted space for honest, Caribbean-rooted conversations that connect generations, challenge norms, and celebrate culture through real stories and perspectives.
Hosted by Corie Sheppard-Babb, the podcast explores the lives, journeys, and ideas of the Caribbean’s most compelling voices—artists, entrepreneurs, cultural leaders, changemakers, and everyday people with powerful stories. Each episode goes beyond headlines and hype to uncover the values, history, humour, struggle, and brilliance that shape who we are.
Whether it’s music, business, creativity, identity, advocacy, or community, this podcast holds space for the kind of dialogue that inspires reflection, empowers expression, and preserves our legacy. It’s culture in conversation—unfiltered, intergenerational, and deeply Caribbean.
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Corie Sheppard Podcast
Episode 245 | Sheena 'Ajibola' Richardson
In this vibrant and heartfelt conversation, percussionist, vocalist, and cultural advocate Ajibola (Sheena Richardson) joins Corie to share her journey from drumming on her mother’s Bible at age three to gracing stages with icons like Ella Andall, Vaughnette Bigford, Etienne Charles, and Machel Montano. She reflects on her mission with Girls Can Play Drums Too, an initiative empowering women of all ages to embrace rhythm, balance, and self-expression.
Ajibola opens up about her deep cultural roots in parang, calypso, and African rhythms, the spiritual connection she has with the drum, and the discipline needed to sustain a career in music. She discusses her experiences in Best Village, Calypso Fiesta, and the tight-knit creative circles that shaped her artistry. From singing Oshun with Freetown Collective to touring internationally, she shares stories of mentorship, resilience, and the lessons learned from standing alongside some of Trinidad & Tobago’s most powerful voices.
It’s a conversation about culture, empowerment, and the heartbeat of the drum — with plenty of laughter, inspiration, and moments that will make you want to dance.
Click the link in my bio for the full episode
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so I just started this interview in a strange place. Oh, start it. What is your name? Because I hear people calling you sheena, people calling you ajibola. You had to tell me what's your name let's start with the government name the government name is sheena richardson right right.
Ajibola:Ajibola is my artist name gotcha yeah.
Corie:So what?
Ajibola:we calling you for the episode you anything you choose to call me sheens, sheena agi, some people call me auntie agi. It depends, all right, when I drink.
Corie:You know what kind of name this come out love lover, darling, anything I mean yeah, love lover darling, that's a good place to start too.
Corie:So here's nothing I tell you right. I started this podcast mostly three, four years ago during covid, and you are one of the first people whoever reached out to me that I did not know. I always yeah. So, yeah, there's nothing I can tell you right, I started this podcast must be three, four years ago during COVID, and you are one of the first people who ever reached out to me that I did not know. I always had family and friends. Seriously, you know you're talking all the time. You're doing this thing and you're hoping that people are hearing it, you're hoping it's reaching people and I remember getting a message from you, like we're doing. You know, always do this, always do that. There's something I want to do. Remember that.
Corie:Yeah, yeah, yeah, a long time ago, you know.
Ajibola:A very long time, that's over four years.
Corie:Could be that. So it is a pleasure to have you here. I'm very very happy.
Ajibola:Thank you, I'm honored to be here.
Corie:Yeah.
Ajibola:Very honored when you messaged me I coming through like all the big bads coming through you talking about all the big bads to me.
Ajibola:I don't think you understand it no, but I I really fell in love with podcasting um during covid, something I still want to dive back into um because remember I had my podcast called blissful talks during the covid um because of the fact that I was, you know, bringing out an album that still has not been released, and the whole idea of the podcast was to really expand a bit on what was my inspiration behind each song, the persons who I've worked with from probably childhood to now. That was the whole idea behind BizFootalk.
Corie:Yeah, don't say it wasn't either. None of them. Things is live forever. No, I mean it is, it is, it's still there. I mean it is, it is.
Ajibola:It's still there. I mean, from time to time people ask about it. They can watch it. Just after yesterday I asked the producer to send me some of the episodes because I have like two outstanding that I need to get back.
Corie:Right, of course, of course, of course. So it's something you intend to start back.
Ajibola:You're still working on the album. Most of the stuff just needs to mix and master. You know albums is money and time and energy. Once the money plays me again definitely going to release that. I have two albums outstanding that I need to just put out into the world, but of course I have other things more important at hand, right now, life, life, life, life does stop while you're trying to pursue things.
Corie:Right, right, exactly. Some of the earliest lessons, you can learn Exactly.
Ajibola:You know.
Corie:so you're doing something now, so we will go on. I don't know what to call it. What do you call it A podcast? So I call everything a podcast, by the way.
Ajibola:I would say it's a podcast, explicit about what I do. So the whole idea behind girls can play drums too, it was one of those brain trials. Like everything else that I do is always be conceived in my brain and I morph it into something you know very big, because that's how I like to do things. Um, so girls can play drums too is an initiative for women of all ages, not just girls. People are seeing it and they're thinking it's just good, isn't getting young girls. It's not only young girls, it's for girls of all ages, not just girls.
Corie:People are seeing it and they're thinking it's just girls. They're thinking young girls.
Ajibola:It's not only young girls, it's for girls of all ages, because somewhere deep within me I still have a young girl within me, you know, and it's to really help women to play the drums of their own lives. So the drum in itself is the vehicle that drives everything. So what I want to do is allow women to see themselves as percussionists, see themselves as well-balanced women, you know talking with other women doulas, health, nutrition, you know all of these things to allow women to see, hey, I could be balanced, I could live my life.
Ajibola:You know, in a very succinct way, because there are a lot of problems. A lot of women come up to me like how you do this, how you do that and yes, I do a lot of problems. A lot of women come up to me like how you do this, how you do that and yes, I do a lot of drumming.
Corie:Yes, I come forward. I look strong while doing it.
Ajibola:I look powerful while doing it, they feel inspired. But there's a lot of things that happens behind the scenes before we could get to that. And that's about my practice. It's about me meditating. It's about me eating right. It's about me eating rice. It's about me exercising. It's about me having a spiritual foundation. You know, all of these things makes me the artist that I am.
Corie:Yeah, so drumming is what introduced you to drumming, right.
Ajibola:Exactly.
Corie:So I was going to ask you about, like, why women? Like, why the angle of women? Because when heard the woman can play drums too, it's so obvious, you know, but you in the world, so why? How come you took that angle? Uh?
Ajibola:I took the anger because I think a lot of women don't know their full potential. You know, um, a lot of the times when I'm playing, they'll be like um, how did you get to this point? You, you know it's always fascinating. And some men too, they'll be like okay, I don't understand why you're here. If people do not see me, at first glance they will think that it's a meal plan, you know, and I think that women need to know that, hey, I can do this, not to make a man feel uncomfortable, but just as a form of empowerment. You know, I could take myself from this level to that level. You know, and even if I don't want to do it professionally, it's one of those things that it could be a milestone, gotcha, you know, for them them, yeah, so who are some of the people you've featured on your show thus far?
Ajibola:um, so that small podcast, if you want to call it that um.
Corie:So muhammad lou lyons um tony paul von at bigfoot and tambo goodby, okay so everybody who's been featured here before we'll just talk about I Buy the Bards and they're coming here. Everybody who was in the show before you play with play for play alongside. I just want to document that up front early, right.
Ajibola:Okay.
Corie:Let me drink to that now. That is an accomplishment.
Ajibola:So these people are persons who would have had significant impact in my life to date, like from inception Tamba Gwindi, before I even knew that we were family.
Corie:I see.
Ajibola:He would have instilled in me a lot of values about being a percussionist. Like he was one of those persons who told me, hey, have you seen Sheila E? Told me, hey, have you seen Sheila E? Like I think you could be a very great percussionist, just like this woman, or even greater. And I started to dive and dig into. You know how Sheila E operates. You know, when you see Sheila E on a stage, it's trust me, the energy, the energy is there. Her dress code is way up there. I mean, she's to perform with Prince, she's to perform with all of these.
Corie:And Prince is known for his air for music. Extravagant so he's not playing around average people, exactly.
Ajibola:So you know, I started to embed those things within me because a lot of the times too, people think so I pull up to a gig and some people say, what instruments are you playing? I say, well, stay for the show and you'll see yeah and then they see me.
Ajibola:They see me behind the drums and be like what I thought you were probably the singer, or guitar or flute or something, something ladylike yeah, I mean, you know, and then some people be like I thought you would have worn a sneaker and a jersey and I'm like what, are you kidding me? I like it like I mean that's not.
Corie:I mean you know there's a learning, you know exactly and and that's, and that's the point behind.
Ajibola:girls can play drums too as well. You know, girls can play drums Because half the time, sometimes I play, I have a full set of nails. That's really long yeah yeah, yeah. Like how are you still producing a song? Because it does not take away from the fact that I'm still a lady.
Corie:Of course.
Ajibola:You understand, I could do all of these things while playing a male-dominated instrument for want of a better word and still function.
Corie:Yeah, I guess my surprise for it comes from and as I've watched this series I'm starting to learn more. I really appreciate the education it brings. Thank you, I've waited to hear you talk. By the time this comes out you might be featured. I'm hoping to hear you talk more about it, but at least I will get some of the questions answered today. But I guess I was telling you before. We started like from growing up in Parang right and going house to house Parang, and maybe it's something that Lou said when he did one of his episodes on Girls Can Play Drums 2. He said oh, it was Muhammad talking about the makeup of a woman's body body it sounds different.
Corie:Your body and the instrument is kind of one. It was yeah, yeah, and I understood immediately because I always as a child pairing. And then you see when a woman go on a box base, is here something?
Corie:different it's different, feel is different, or beat that iron. I remember being up somewhere in valencia when we're playing some young people, so now we had to remember all these full-blown song and thing. I'm so good at the new music, you know right, but um, that girl sort of beat that iron. I could not. Yeah, I lost that trying to figure out where so much people I can hear where it was coming from. But I know something was different.
Ajibola:It's for a female. You see, we experience life in a different, uh, from many different angles, right, and I think too, because a female is the producer of all kinds, both male and female. You get to see both sides. You know there's some form, and I mean everybody has it. You have a masculine side as well as you have a feminine side, you know, but females can tap into those both energies at the same time and make something very beautiful. I actually really love Parang. My family learned from those musicians who played with Desi for this, so Parang culture is very much deeply rooted in me. Like at Christmas time we still do house to house parang, yeah it's a paria gil.
Ajibola:Yeah, I mean so all of my experiences within life is what really influences my playing.
Corie:Got it.
Ajibola:You know. So, from parang to calypso to soka, to really authentic African rhythms. I used to dance too, and I tell people, when you are percussionist, it's about learning each aspect of the culture. That's how I would have learned. So when I learned to play drums, I learned to dance. I also learned to sing, so I also did paran. So in school. If my, if my friends, if you ever talk my friends, they'll say she knows in everything.
Ajibola:I literally was in every single group. When, coming for sand fest, you see me going up on stage. I dance in a ballet. After that I dance in a hurrapu. After that, entomology. After that I was the pan side, after that I play with the parang side. So it was all of these different things. But to understand culture, culture, you have to understand these small fine details, the food, the clothing. You know it gives you a greater appreciation.
Corie:Yeah, of course, and what school is this Faizabad Anika. So from as early as that you started to play drums.
Ajibola:Even earlier, so from since primary school I was. One of my teachers messaged me the other day. She's like do these people know that you have been playing since primaries? Literally, yeah, they would call me all the time I have pictures like in the church. It's like they would call me first like anything to do with anything. Maypole, I play drum for maypole yeah literally anything that they would have needed. Right, and they don't have an instrument. They sure they have a drum somewhere. Caution.
Corie:So where it start, where's your first memory of?
Ajibola:First, first memory, probably beating up my mother Bible.
Corie:Yeah, yeah, look at where it start, yeah.
Ajibola:And that Bible was a pack of cards.
Corie:By the time you're done with it. Yeah, once I tell you how long a drum is last, you know because you know you're not watching it. You know I say but how long are instruments last?
Ajibola:you know, a drum endures, it endures it builds. For that it's built for that, especially the way I hear it. Yeah, we know, we've seen it's built it could take the jamming, as they say.
Corie:Well, if it starts on our Bible, everything else after that will survive. That's right. You know what our Bible was.
Ajibola:I mean my cousins, and they would tell you that I started probably as early as three years old Wow, so you come from a musical family. You could say so yes. As I told you, my cousins, and they would have played in school as well, have played in school as well, and my uncles and they would have learned from the fellows, used to play with Daisy and they God, that's great. So I learned to play quattro from them. I learned to play marac sometimes.
Corie:I want quattro in the car. You do what's in the frame. No, no, let's not go there. Let's not go there. I know this is your home ground. I come prepared. I come and kiss you up with a drum. Catch my pants down.
Ajibola:I have a drum in the car and all of that We'll see, we'll see what happens. We'll see how it goes.
Corie:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But from three years old you're finding the love for music from there, you think. At that point your passion is established.
Ajibola:It has always been. So funny thing is I wanted to be a hotel manager.
Corie:Yeah.
Ajibola:Yeah, did accounting, did MOB, did e-call.
Corie:Oh, look at that. Do you remember that thing? Yeah, nice.
Ajibola:I mean, I actually got a distinction. I'd formed five in accounting.
Corie:I was really on the way you passed that up to today. Yeah, that was the hardest thing I ever did.
Ajibola:I loved it. I really, really loved accounting of the accountant and then I saw an ad in the newspaper for UTT and something just struck me. I was like, oh, she ain't scared, I think that's for you. I think that's for you didn't read a note of music, yeah or the ad was for a music program yeah, utt at Napa that was the first time they were opening their doors, you know.
Ajibola:So I went to my principal. I was like you think I should sign up for this? She was like yeah, I mean what else? She's like they're newly, they're gonna newly be opening right I think you should more than do it I mean, if it's any chance for you to get your foot in the door, it's now.
Ajibola:You know? Um, I was like, even though I don't read music, she was like, yeah, and the jimby was actually my entry point. So when I went there I just went with a djembe who come with pan and guitar and all these things.
Corie:This was the. What do they call it?
Ajibola:You have to do a piece, the bachelors, yeah, so I had to do a piece.
Corie:To get in.
Ajibola:To get in.
Corie:Where's it called? Again?
Ajibola:Audition two rhythms in front of the jury and they were like so you don't read music at all? I was like no. I was like are you willing to learn to play music, to learn music? I was like yeah.
Ajibola:This is what I want to do for the rest of my life, and with much deliberation. The jury was like listen, and I never forget this because my teacher's dad was a woman by the name of Deborah Kushmul, a husband and wife duo, brian and Deborah Kushmul and she spoke to the jury. She was like I want that girl to be in this program.
Corie:Yeah.
Ajibola:And I never regretted it. In four years I learned to read music. I learned to play formal at Marimba. I learned drum set. Right formal at marimba I learned drum set right. I learned vibraphone, all of the percussion, orchestral and um what you would call latin percussion.
Corie:I did it at ut. I see, I see, I see how long ago this was, this long time not so long how long ago was that probably about 10 years okay, long time. Yes, by the time I see him, you're done. I'm just trying to figure out. You know the timelines yeah yeah, yeah.
Corie:I think, like for stepping out like drums have always been a mystery to me. I could play a little music, I could keep timing with percussion. So there was one time I saw you doing a thing I think it was in Songford. You were doing like lessons, and I said, said, but why not go and learn? Why not? You should have come. Yeah, yeah, whatever was tying me up at the time, I think then I was in Chaguanas when we established before that I don't like to drive too far, right?
Ajibola:so when I see.
Corie:Chaguanas on Songford I'm like I ain't gonna make it home, but now you know one of the quickest things for little children to learn. So a lot of people come here and say who? Say a lot of people talk about. Who say being including pelham goddard, who's one of the greatest arrangers we ever had. Talks about. Who say has been his introduction to music. Who say just past couple weeks ago in st james yeah and I try.
Corie:I grew up beating drum and jimes and bass. Listen, I can't keep time at all. My left hand and right hand don't communicate well at all it's coordination but one of the things that I always fascinated by is the amount of energy it takes to play drums compared to other instruments oh yeah so that's where the whole idea of the holistic life comes from, for you definitely, and one of the persons who would have drove that point home to me too, was deborah kushmore.
Ajibola:So she's a half white, half korean, and she's so literally like. Everything I would have done to make me as a percussionist better, she would have introduced me to it, so I used to teach children with special needs for ocean okay right, and I used to teach at immortal um school.
Ajibola:That's in sentence up there there right, okay right, and she would have introduced me to that, because when she came she was teaching there and then she was like she and I can't do this forever. I may not even be here forever. She's back in the us I see, yes, she's just like let me introduce you to these people and I want you to teach these classes. And literally after teaching, she would go to the gym at herilton and I would be fascinated. I was like, why do you, you know, go?
Ajibola:to the gym she's cyclist and the energy it takes to play some of the and she would play some really long four mallet marimba pieces that she would literally stick up on like a poster when I I tell you big, massive. So the energy that she would have needed to execute such a piece.
Ajibola:She really needs to work out, she needs to be listen. She used to be eating all the right foods, so that burnout never really used to be a thing in her book at all. I was like listen, this is insane yeah, but then when I tried it you know, and I started to introduce exercise try, I started to introduce, you know, whole foods and that kind of thing with him.
Corie:I saw, major was a big difference. Got it, got it, yeah, yeah, because a whole body thing like even tasso. When I see a man playing a bass drum on the main, rodenton james, it's only so long you could do that for is there's a finite time. The drum itself heavy that thing around your neck trust me and you.
Ajibola:You physically need to be strong as well yeah, of course because sometimes I need to physically toot my instruments. I mean, my back get a little jacked up now, but it is what it is. So you have to have the strength to lift and carry.
Corie:Of course. That's why I like Quattro, because when I fall I'm sure I take it on my back. I watch Drummer Pan man. I like to see them Long time.
Ajibola:I'm saying when we're doing Best Village and stuff you literally have to run with your instrument. You run with your drum.
Corie:Yeah.
Ajibola:Sometimes it's on your head Training. Sometimes, it's on your head Training. Yeah, your teacher will say oh toad culture.
Corie:So you're from Best Village time? Yeah, you've been around a long, long time Teach.
Ajibola:Best Village play in.
Corie:Best.
Ajibola:Village Judge Best Village. Yeah, yeah, I see.
Corie:Do you find that missing now?
Ajibola:Um, it's still there.
Corie:You still have Best Village now, yeah, so when is that one too many commitments, right? Um, but I judged last year, so I mean when I was younger in a best big thing on tv and everywhere.
Ajibola:So no, it's, it's it. It is still there, but to the extent I think people now are engaged with a lot of other stuff that they don't pay a lot of attention to it but, they are fully functioning groups I see um, most of the groups are very, very young in terms of the membership.
Ajibola:So you have persons that probably from five years up um, you know, you have the veteran groups like the northwest and the malik um, that would have persons who their membership are way older. But now in best village you see in a lot of groups that are very young people and a lot of groups that are very young people and a lot of young people.
Corie:That's good, though. It's encouraging when you see youths. So how did that thing in song forge go? That? Was that your only drum and camp, or you've been doing that before that was not mine, that's actually a friend of mine.
Ajibola:um, she has a program called regen, so it's what reform nation is name? Name of it Crystal Bascom.
Corie:Okay.
Ajibola:Another female drummer, Okay got it. Right. So she has a music school and she would have asked me to come and do a workshop just to introduce people to percussion, because she mainly does drum set in her school Drum set, keyboard, guitar, music theory, that kind of thing. So the day really had two parts. So one part was um sound engineering and the other part was me doing percussion and his children is young people or his adult son's one um her school yeah, no, that session you did that session was for any age.
Corie:It was for any age, yeah, so when?
Ajibola:it came true, there were a lot of. It was a mixed crowd.
Corie:Yeah, so I missed out, you missed out. So when you're doing this again, there's teaching something to continue to do. What is the next session?
Ajibola:trust me, it's. It is something that is very close to me. Um, teaching is one of my very, very, very heartfelt passions. I think I was born to teach.
Ajibola:So, um, the the little podcast things that you you're so love I'll be doing a few um instructionals on on things that I think people misinterpret, so I'll give you just a preview. People just have to be like oh, is that box thing you're playing? So I'm gonna, I'm gonna explain that, and then people think that every drum they see is a bongo yeah, well, I ain't that about it.
Corie:Anything is to them when it's a jimby and anything is the planes, and that's.
Ajibola:That's my whole thing. I want to really relieve people of the misconceptions and show them what is. That is one of one of my aims. Whether it be in person or via social media, I'm really to educate everybody, even though my main focus now is getting women to you know important, though important though.
Ajibola:So the next step for girls can play drums too is some instruction type things yeah, so it's instructionals as well as a workshop that is going to introduce again women of all ages to the instrument. It's not our being a virtue, so if persons want to go along that line, I could take them. However, the workshops are going to be introductory percussion for meditation, percussion for mindfulness, percussion to help you live life.
Corie:I remember one time Paring in again and they had a drummer. Now you know I'm going to say Bongo, right, because me, you know, it's different than the drum, right? I used to hear a Bongo drum. Every drum I see is an African drum too, oh my God. So I followed him, raja, you know bad, so he I feel like him, raja, you know bad, bad, bad, bad man when it comes to old time kaiso and ting boy. That man is already done me some mess. And I also remember well premier incident we playing, and you know you play, stop and they eat him and one of the other fellas in the band took his drum and put the plate of roti on.
Corie:His reaction to that take a drink, yeah, yeah, yeah, it starts a glitch immediately oh, wow another musician should know better, right, a fellow musician. But what struck me then is the his reaction to it was visceral. It was he's like hey, my drum is a spiritual thing. He said you can't come and rest, don't get fooled on that. And all them guys you know, and I always remember him saying that, and it's the same way you concerned you connect the drum from the spiritual realm.
Ajibola:Yes, yes and no. So if the drum is mine, there are things I may do with it that I personally would do with my pistol drum. But to do it on someone else's it's like anything, like if it's my car I lean up on it, of course, you know if it's my car, I might prop a certain way. If it's not mine, I'm not gonna put my hand, I'm not gonna just see your car and put up my foot and lull off like it doesn't belong to me.
Ajibola:So, off the bat, you're wrong. From a spiritual point of view, I mean, the drum is sacred. The drum coming out of a living thing, which is a tree, and then a living animal getting the skin. It's two living things in motion, having this whole ecosystem, and then me as a living person, playing into this drum, giving it new life, allowing it to speak, because the drum just being there, it can't speak. But me now, as the living thing, gives it a voice to disrespect it with something or an inanimate object that cannot give it life.
Corie:That's what I mean when I say a fellow musician, because Christmas time sometimes I have one quattro them time. Yeah, If you damage that, my season's done. Yeah, you know so simple things like that Exactly.
Ajibola:I have friends who are jimby foolers from the continent. They would put their foot and thing on top of their. But it's theirs, it's their personal you know, if they're doing something stylistically, you know they might be sitting, they might put their foot on the side, that kind of thing. But to openly just be like, alright, like there's some people, they see a djembe, they find it look like a seat and put a child to sit down and put oh, so you just get that.
Ajibola:Are you serious? Do you really? Do you think that it's okay? Like no, it doesn't make sense. No, it doesn't, it doesn't make sense, because I'm the person to not like. You know, there's some people like I. Have some elders who would have a serious concern. What Like they would?
Corie:That's why I call it an incident.
Ajibola:right, yeah, they tell you how your mother make you, why you do that thing, how much you disturbing the ancestors, which point in time you need to know where Bali go. These kinds of things, yeah, but if it's your personal thing, you do what you want to do, but you, yeah, but if it's your personal thing, you do what you want to do, but you, you should respect your things, of course anything like not just a drum, but you should respect what is yours of course, yeah, yeah, that's.
Corie:That's the space we live in sometimes, yeah you're just downright disrespectful yeah, I remember a guy talking about his old video when a triple e steel band was on tour in new york and they were talking about you know, you had no way to stall a whole steel band traveling to the store outside and of course, when they come out every morning it's garbage. They had to clear out. People just pass and they throw rubbish in it, you know. But there's some performances I'd ask you about, right, one of them is Etienne Charles Of course I'm a boy, yeah.
Corie:I know that boy, but the bads was here. Every time you go through names, you know you clock all of them down. I remember I know you played with him several times before and he's doing a lot. I saw him on stage once and again. Anything is sitting on. Yeah, anything is sitting on is a djembe for me, but I remember them calling it something different and I was confused, is that what?
Ajibola:Cajon Is it?
Corie:the same thing, or no?
Ajibola:Yeah, it's the same box everybody. Why is that box?
Corie:It's a cajon. Okay, got it.
Ajibola:So the cajon takes various manifestations across the African diaspora. So the cajons. That has nothing in it, that's plain box.
Ajibola:In some parts of Cuba there's one that they play uprightly I see um, that looks like a, a jimby made out of wood in a more like dimensional type thing. Um, but in peru the cajon itself would have guitar strings in it. The more modern ones would have snare yeah, snares in them, which is the one I have, and when they vibrate they create a very cool sound. Some persons would say, oh, it sounds just like a drum set. You know that kind of thing. But the instrument itself was used a lot for flamenco Flamenco dancing. They used that. Of course. The flamenco guitar. Now a lot of flamenco flamenco dancing. They use that. Of course. The flamenco guitar. Now a lot of persons use it in tiny spaces.
Ajibola:If you have to go and play in a small space with just a guitarist, a vocalist, it's easy to carry around and it gives the illusion of you having a drum set player there, so you have that person keeping time while not losing some form of energy within the whole set Got it.
Corie:I saw one time I went to see him perform and he played it. That was in Queensville and I was captivated by it at that point and I said, boy, if I didn't could do this, I could do this, I could try it. And I went by. You know, is it Sutton Street? They have a music place, Musicians Paradise.
Ajibola:Yeah, musicians, paradise.
Corie:I went in that place and they show me the thing and you see that little snare song. When you sing, I sit up and when I hear that, I come over that so fast and went back up the room. It's too complicated. That was something I could just. I want something that I can't. It's rough.
Ajibola:Yeah, it takes a little bit of technique too, because a lot of people miss average and they try to go way down in the middle to get that. All of the tones are literally in close proximity, you just need to know where to touch, where to place your hand.
Corie:But I remember.
Ajibola:Releasing a sound from it is not that hard.
Corie:No, that's the problem. That's the problem Every time you hit something and then you show you could flip something here and there, and that's one of the more advanced ones. I guess you see, my theory is that if you look at somebody you're from Separia, you see some of the baddest quatrain men ever. Trust me, the baddest ones is played like percussion.
Ajibola:Yeah.
Corie:That right hand is where the action is. So I always figure, you know, if I could learn to play drums, I could improve my strum.
Ajibola:A lot of guitar players would tell you that they are heavily influenced by percussionists. I would imagine, yeah, the rhythms that they replicate, like in certain parts of Africa. That's why their guitar strums are so rhythmic, because they are influenced by all of those rhythms.
Corie:It's the same thing you said in the beginning, where I suppose the more you absorb of the culture, of any genre of music or any type of music that you're trying to play, the more you absorb of that culture, the better you'll be yeah, and your influences are going to shape your playing style.
Ajibola:I'm with you.
Corie:I'm with you now talking about that show. She had a drummer there. I think her name on Instagram is Savvy Nose, the kind of light, light, red skin girl, big, big hair. Okay, I was. I was blown away when I was like what is happening here and you know, at the end of them is properly, everything is of course if you're not vibes in it is not going to work.
Ajibola:Energy from top to bottom. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My first opportunity to play with Atiyan was at UTT. He came he was teaching at the time, I think, Michigan State University and they had an exchange between UTT and that university and we did a showcase and he's like let's play together. Still have the picture somewhere.
Ajibola:Yeah, we were playing congas, but he learned from Ralph McDonald which is a very very prominent percussionist in our culture and band player, etienne, would blow your mind with the things that he could do progressively well he did, because again my mind has worked very one dimensional and it happened with you too.
Corie:I was telling the etienne story first because I just I went fatima etienne was in fatima, you know that first he and um woodruff was in fatima. So I know woodruff has a saxophone small yeah and etienne was playing trumpet and then and they used to do these um jazz things in fatima, in the quadrangle. There's good, but from that time you know we're watching two people who are? Different. He played with Woodruff too. I thought so. So when we um.
Ajibola:I'm a boy. I'm a boy that's your boy.
Corie:I thought so. So when I um go on one of his first shows, one of the bigger shows, right and he playing trumpet. Next time I see he going for a drum. I'll tell you my experience about this thing where people go for drum, and you'll tell me if there's a case. Right Again, going back to Parang, Right.
Corie:I have real issues with any form of drum, any form of marac, tok-tok, clapper, any of them things, because when it goes somewhere by people to Parang, nobody will touch the guitar. They watch Rolly Mandolin but they go feel they could beat a drum. Oh my god, and the better they don't.
Ajibola:It's a big difference it's a problem I just have too. I mean, any professional space to you find that that's the first thing persons would be like alright, you can't play anything or you don't have the music, go and play something, go and knock something, go and hit something or if the band take five, the first thing somebody coming to do.
Corie:Yeah, and they don't?
Ajibola:they don't stop to think. Well, I need to have some form of rhythmic knowledge. I need to be very cohesive with what it is I'm doing, because rhythm is about creating color, and that's the thing that people don't see. When somebody hires me, it's not because they have the money to do it, it's because they are looking for a particular picture that they want to paint. Understand, and I'm literally the hand of the brush.
Ajibola:Now that makes the strokes lighter and allows the picture to take shape because, before that you'll have a skeleton drums, bass, guitar, vocals gotcha, that's your skeleton, yeah percussion. Now you add the chimes, you see a whole new world you just a little shaker here and there, yeah, a little triangle just in the right spot, and you automatically saying, oh my god, this is a new day like this is the emotion that I really want to feel. You understand, it's one of those things you see it all the time.
Corie:It's funny. You mentioned she. That's what she.
Ajibola:That's what she was exactly so if you, if, if you do it wrong, like if you just shake anything anywhere, it's, it's gonna change the whole what because you say you say, um, a little triangle, here and there a little child, but when you find somebody who can't play his heavy triangle and times, it'll just get anything exactly. Or talk, talk or call back right in the middle and you just hear why you know it's good music and what an instrument.
Corie:Yeah, it happens a lot. You see people gravitate towards it. Yeah, so when I see Etienne going for a drum, I say oh lord, oh man, I thought it was one of them moments, but I should have known better yeah because he destroyed Queens, all of that destroyed, he destroyed he takes on a whole new life.
Ajibola:You just see his face lighter. He's different as well.
Corie:You're different, but you too, because I again introduced you as a drummer, I'm fascinated by what you're doing Again, I see. I mean we only met today after all these years.
Ajibola:In person. In person.
Corie:But when I see you play, I say Jesus Christ, she is something else. You know. A lot of times I see you playing and I said how you come up with them things, what you been doing. I signed a little advice like what you doing. So then one day I see you singing. I say but what? I say oh lord. But then I realized I say you had things, you had things. So you was always singing. You're making my blush. Now I like that, pick it up that ain't good at all.
Ajibola:I blushed it on camera, I like that?
Corie:Do you think? To take a drink too? Again? You know what I mean One blush.
Ajibola:What? What should I cough into? Not for that. What is this? I'll take a nap. I'll take a nap. I I tell people that Singing was Always my passion first.
Corie:Yeah, before drums Um.
Ajibola:however, I I was not as confident doing it because of the fact that my voice scared me a lot, especially spiritually. The minute I opened my mouth, things happen. It evokes certain emotions within people that I was really, really, really scared to emit.
Corie:What do you mean? Like it's balled people, I'm saying what kind of thing is it?
Ajibola:Balled. People feel a certain type of way spiritually. People get mounted for whatever better people transcend into you know. So it was one of those things where I I was like, nah boy, if I could be doing this then I don't think I want any part of it.
Ajibola:And then it's just one of those things that I just had to accept. I was like, if this is how your voice is, if this is what it does, well then so be it, because each person has a purpose. I remember this one night I think it was in Young Kings no, not Young Kings Something we were doing in the Savannah, probably Carrifester, something like that and I hear in this voice Sheena. I was like who is this voice, sheena? And I just hear somebody running and I said who called me Sheena? Wait, wait, wait. I said what the hell is this? I finally stopped and I just had to tell you, Just had to tell you. You sent my voice. Not think we were doing Aju, which was a play done by Adeola with Ella Andal, who was actually one of the first persons who allowed me to sing on a stage.
Ajibola:Ella yeah, that's who I started to perform with.
Corie:I see, let me come back to that.
Ajibola:That's my first, first, first ever debut on a stage was with Alana.
Corie:Singing or playing Singing and playing drums. I see, I see, I see, yeah, yeah, so I stopped.
Ajibola:She was, like you said, my voice was not there. I just had to tell you, like I had to play it over and over, my husband trying to tell me why are you playing this thing over and over? But it just, it just soothed me and I just had me feeling like if I could take on the world now and I just can't. It's like, oh Lord, here we go. Another instance I see him going at Thanksgiving Sheila, wait, wait. I said what is this? People are calling me out and they're calling me Wait. I said, wait. I said, but I'm going home. I do stop a guy. That performance you do the other day, I just can't get it out of my head.
Ajibola:Like something like something I don't know what it is. I was like, oh Lord, here we go. Then his wife comes up and be like I don't know what to do with my husband, why it is you have my husband like this. He said that girl, I just have to find that girl. If that girl I just have to find that girl, if I only find that girl, something about that girl voice I say mom, I'm terribly sorry.
Ajibola:I said I followed you backtrack. Yeah, it wasn't on purpose. Terribly sorry, it really was not on purpose. It's like that. You know, some people love it, most people love it let me say I'm thankful for that. But yeah, it's one of those things that I was already always comfortable with, but now more than ever, I am realizing that it is a gateway to a lot of other things for me, so your album is vocal as well.
Ajibola:Yeah it's mostly vocal. It takes the form of affirmations, it takes the form of a lot of the influences of me being in stick fights. We have a lot of ways, a lot of things I like where you carry me you know I've had him, keegan taylor, there.
Corie:You boy, I'll figure, I'll figure. So I see you. I see you in calendar collecting. That was where the that was the first time I'd seen you post something on instagram when you were singing. After all them years, wow. And I see. You see what you're describing there and pause raising like I'm watching this on instagram. I'm not a person and I you know a feeling sometimes, like where she I see she bad and real, she easy. And I saw the reactions of the people around, like because I think they were doing some stick, fighting, training or introducing people to stick fighting.
Corie:So those, the LaVoy is such an important part of it, the core of it. And you know, when you say girls can play drums too right. I feel sometimes that we as a culture underestimate what women's voices do. Trust me, because I look at the way my son is react when I talk to him versus when his mother talked to him. It's different, you know so. So we should make more space and that's what I was telling you.
Ajibola:The woman has this golden opportunity because we bring forth both male and female. We could tap into these energies at any point in time. A mother has a son, she has a daughter. She needs to know how to get you to her daughter as well as how to get you to her son. Just have, like a for want of a better word a sixth sense woman's intuition.
Corie:Usually, guys, when man is getting trouble in the woman's intuition is when man is getting what kind of problems. You know it's not a phone, no, but it.
Ajibola:No, but it's one of those things, and if women really know how to tap into their essence correctly, the world wouldn't be a better place.
Corie:But you're helping with that in your own way. I think it's necessary, yeah.
Ajibola:I think it's necessary because you know why it is to have 20 women in a community talking to both male and female about life, about what they should do, about how to balance themselves A lot of the things that we would be seeing in communities today. We won't have it.
Corie:Yeah, we could have the trend that we're striving for. Trust me, yeah, yeah, yeah, I saw it there. I saw it there because Keegan was one of the first people I recorded with in person.
Ajibola:Yeah.
Corie:And I remember well there's a friend of mine who does a podcast called Marsha Messiah. She does Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival, okay, and she asked me to interview Keegan. Now I go in there thinking I'm setting up a podcast for two of them to talk, and then she's like no, you interviewed him. I was like I lost, I don't know there you. I was like I lost, I don't know there you go and you know, as we started talking I realised he's in stick fighting and that man beat that table and started a little halfway that dead bearing my clothes, and it is Keegan voice. It's hard to describe to somebody who never heard. It is gripping. You had to stop what you're doing. When he goes to that decimal level, that is crazy and you can't escape it. So I saw him doing that. Next thing I hear you're on drums and you start and I saw the energy shift in the whole yard. All them youths and if I feel this on Instagram, I can't imagine what they feel in the yard.
Ajibola:It's one of those things that people say you have to go deep. You have to go deep, and doing those things is almost as if you are no longer your individual self. You know, people have this saying we are ancestors' wildest dreams. I definitely think so, Because I would not be doing what I am doing If it was up to me. I would not be drumming, I would not be singing. Trust me, I'd be somewhere owning a hotel.
Corie:Back to the hotel. Again Back to the hotel.
Ajibola:And I mean, at some point I want, I really want to own that hotel, but definitely I would not be doing what I am doing. But there's something that compels me to do. What it is I'm doing is something that just this drive enforces says hey, women need this, your community needs this, children need this. You know, I think that if I continue to listen to that voice that's still a small voice, but some people say what are your conscience? In my um spiritual sphere, I would call it my uri. If I continue to listen to that, then I would open up, somewhat like a vortex and people are always watching, like me.
Corie:So you know silently mack away to see what is happening with people on Instagram and so on, but it's inspiring. I appreciate whatever is compelling you to do it. I am very, very grateful for that. Now, when we come on this table, we can't bypass things like Ella Andal was my start right, so how did that come about?
Ajibola:So I always listened to Ella religiously. When I say religiously, I was always a collector of her albums. I would always play like literally every day it would have been my routine to play all of her music from top to bottom and dance my tail off.
Corie:That was my routine every day, apart from playing the bucket because, I didn't have a drum dress yet by that time the Bible mash up.
Ajibola:The Bible mash up. My cousins and I were playing buckets in the evening, so much so that the neighbors, when they would see me, they'd be like you, stop playing the bucket until I get a drum and so on.
Ajibola:But I would play ella's music every single day yeah to the point where I always used to visualize me being on a stage with her performing. I used to sing these songs word for word and just be like one day Again being in UTT, being in everything. So the pan side doing something, they call in Sheena to play percussion, the dance studio doing something.
Corie:Just as with every other part of life and damn time man they call in my mother. Nice Right.
Ajibola:So literally I'm in a class. You would see somebody come by the window. Peep, knock the door, talk to the teacher. We could just see mother who's, mother Sheena? We need her often.
Corie:Nice.
Ajibola:So I had to go up in the dance studio so we were doing a presentation for one of our end of term things, and I would always go and help them by playing drums, because even though they bring outside drummers, they still want mother there.
Corie:Nice Mother's mother.
Ajibola:Mother's mother. Listen, we were doing something. Orisha, inspired by Asher Johnson. One of those pieces on one of the dancers there was.
Corie:Fanny's William.
Ajibola:Okay, but she did not know that she had roots within Orisha practices. Okay, every time we doing the particular piece, she would go into manifestation.
Corie:Mm-hmm.
Ajibola:Mother now had to run in upstairs. And they couldn't take it no more. Because I tell you, literally every single time we're doing a rehearsal, power takes you. They say, all right, they're going to call Ella. There it is.
Corie:I say all right, I see machines go call it a night.
Ajibola:There it is. I say all right. I say machines girl.
Corie:This is what you're waiting for, boy.
Ajibola:They say girl, now I think I'm playing my drum and I start to sing. Now she said I said what is your name? I say aha, yeah, sweet, yeah, I play in the store I say aha. Sweet yeah, sitting saying my name. She went I play in the store of Kuna. I say all right, she, where you live in. I say Sappara, she. Ooh, all right that time, and I traveling every day to go UTT Right, literally Coming up in town, yeah.
Ajibola:Four in the morning, leaving 4.30, getting up to Port of Spain by 6 to get to Utiti. She was like all right, I'll rehearse for tomorrow, but tomorrow too soon. So next week, please, God, have a performance. Come by me and I want you to. I said by so easy.
Corie:For the performance.
Ajibola:Yeah, I said so easy. Right performance yeah, I said, I said so easy yeah, you done, rehearsed you done auditioned raiders.
Ajibola:I said actually, but come by me before so I could vet you by one of the other singers. So at the time was one of my sister-in-courses, sheldon, also known as Ade Oshun, lauren and Julie, who actually sings with Los Alumnos. This and one I see Right and I go in there. Go in by Ella, sit down in the gallery singing my heart out. She said all right, sheldon, come and dress now. That's the one who won't fit. She said. She will tell me if you could sing or not yeah, if your vibes, vibes, so long day I start to sing.
Ajibola:She said, yeah, she all right she said that while he's singing, I say, but hello, you call me. Yeah, are you waiting for somebody to vet?
Corie:me If you're all right. All right.
Ajibola:I'm feeling bad. Well, I tell you I'm feeling bad.
Corie:Singing is a vulnerable thing too, eh.
Ajibola:I said but I sing my heart out. This girl will come and tell me All right, so-so. But anyway, I mean it helped me to not be stuck up with. It humbled me in a way to always strive for better and improve my craft. Not that I was you know thing, but I was expecting a little more but. I would have sang with Ella up until the time that she would have stopped.
Corie:Seriously.
Ajibola:So much so that my first gig with her was actually for Chutney Soka Monarch in the Oval it was the only time that they had Chutney Soka Monarch in the Oval.
Corie:I see.
Ajibola:And we would have opened. That was my first debut with her. I went on to doing a lot of gigs with her. I went to Tobago and England. The first time I went to England it was with Ella Wow. Yeah, we performed at Tricycle Theatre.
Corie:So that's how you parted the band here.
Ajibola:I was 19.
Corie:Oh my God, yeah, what a nice experience.
Ajibola:I was 19. Didn't know nothing about traveling and you know, you know, podium. I was like listen, you don't do that for free. I was like this how will this be? Like a bulb just went over me. She's like they give you a podium, they take you a second and listen, and she real, she real, get on and like everywhere. I would have gone with her like she never used to take nothing less. If we go in our space and it's not up to the standard, she would be like listen, pack your things.
Corie:We go in she would tell the organizer.
Ajibola:She's like listen. She's like pack your less 19. Her mother confides in me to have her out, so I'm not taking her out of her house to bring her to sleep in no hellhole or anything like that.
Ajibola:She's like get it right, listen, it's the fastest I ever see people organized. All right, we're moving from here. Okay, mom, what do you? Listen, and that's the kind of respect that I think all artists should require of themselves, you understand? Don't settle for less. Be like all right, I'll take this, but then take it. Listen, if you can't get all the factors right, she's not having it.
Corie:Important message to send. You know, funny enough, Taika was here the other day and she was saying the same thing. Taika's literal words here was I'm not doing no $500. Drama again she said don't tell me nothing about no $500. I'm not taking it.
Ajibola:Trust me. I tell people, if you want to pay me that it's better you tell me. Listen, I want you to come and do something.
Corie:It's a charity gig.
Ajibola:It's a charity gig, I'll do it for free, but let it be on my terms and let me clear my schedule enough to see if it could fit in, of course enough to see if it could fit in. Of course, however, if you can't pay me what I am worth, it don't make sense because I have to leave where I'm. Gas in my car is probably about 350 dollars to fill my tank by the time I finish, that one face alone for me is 300 dollars too, you understand.
Ajibola:So that is already clocking at $600. And then again, as I tell you, I'm not coming in no jeans and sneakers.
Corie:Of course.
Ajibola:To come and play in the event.
Corie:You're right, you're right.
Ajibola:You understand so.
Corie:It's sometimes like, as adults, you must also remember that we have a 19-year-old girl to take care of too, you know. So I had to ask her because she has been. You know, when you say Ella Handel, right, bring Down the Power of Love, has come to mind immediately.
Corie:Your greatest power, and here love. Well, I mean, she had so much music I don't know if people pay attention to what she really is in this space, but powerful Her voices are again one of them, voices like yours or like Keegan. Where it stops, there's a stopping power to what she does, Irreplaceable in my books. But when I hear so much of her music, so much of it was about the rhythm, the percussion in this, every song. It's almost like you know, I used to listen to Bob Marley a lot and Bob Marley had a fella named Siko with him that them fellas hand-picking the percussion. It fella's hand picking the percussion. It's not by guess. It was a major part of her making Mali music iconic. So I wonder for you, as somebody who, in the space of a singer and percussionist, what is it like to just be with her or be around her and next to her and so on? I only see her on stage. What is it like being with her?
Ajibola:Ella is a fantastic, phenomenal individual being there and when you go by Allah, it's literally like being in a village, Because by the time I reach and that's where I met Muhammad for the first time yeah, it was by Allah. So by the time I reach, by Allah, Muhammad might be there and he might be on his way out, or he might stay for a little while while I'm there and then leave. And that is literally how it used to be. Like persons, there would have been constant traffic in and out and people would come there, they would sit, they would have a meal, they would talk, they would laugh, they would blag, they would share music. Some of Muhammad's for me first offerings would have been vetted.
Corie:This explains a lot, yeah.
Ajibola:You understand. So I would have been like the first time I would have heard muhammad sing a chant was for right at it, um ella, yeah. When he break up okay yeah, nothing. Okay, you hey now, yeah, at that time, I mean, as I tell you, at 19, mother's way older than I am aren't you? We'll make some more yeah okay, but yeah, ella is, is a, is a mother in every aspect of the world and she, like, literally, would have breathed life into me in a different kind of way.
Ajibola:I have a song called Modubwe Iya, and the first verse of that song was literally words that Ella spoke to me. You understand, and it literally says I hear the voice of Iya, which means mother, say to me, remember what God wants you to be. I hear the voice of ear, which means mother, say to me, remember what god wants you to be. I hear the voice of ear say to me you are special among many. The hand of drum that cause you to be an artist just rings out a rhythm for all to hear and for all to feel. I hear the voice of ear say to me you are special among many, those literal words that she's spoken to my life. She's like hey, we just sit down, just like this on the table she would cook.
Ajibola:Sometimes she make a bad curry fish. She was like this, if you ever taste. And she's a left-hander, so she turned in that part listen bad curry fish on the right. So she's like eat thing put on your first shoes foot. She's like kill you bad. And this is before I probably even believed in you know the capabilities of what my own hands have worked to do and she'll be like listen, you're bad.
Ajibola:She's like one day people are going to see how bad you are and literally she's going to drag it along. You're bad. Imagine hearing yeah, and she used to be like listen. She was like you're singing with me. Now she said but at some point you're gonna use that voice for powerful things. You understand, you're gonna use that song for great things. She's like don't let nobody sell you, sure, sure. I remember we go into Tobago one time and the same way, they put us up somewhere and I had already settled, I mean first time.
Ajibola:I don't know how this thing was going I know, travis, I went up before and she ended up coming after. When she come and she see the setting, she's like lice coming through this bed or something. She's like no, no, no, Pack your things, we stay in here. Listen, it wasn't even half an hour. We moved to the Legrand or whatever.
Corie:Oh nice, I'm telling you, I did not know this, but that's beautiful to hear.
Ajibola:She was like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. If people talk about diva, she ain't playing that. She don't play, but a lot of persons who would have passed through there would tell you that, being amongst Ella, you would hear stories too about the life of a musician Like she would have passed on the merchant.
Corie:Yeah, she'd been around Rashot.
Ajibola:Yeah, of course, of course, of course, the merchant Rashot you know, and her being in those spaces and places of some of those greats of that time, like she not gonna.
Corie:Yeah, that's people who don't compromise. That's people who not compromise?
Ajibola:so she would tell you that. You know, this is what I saw for myself and this is what I want for you If you're in my space. This is how we're going to roll.
Corie:But it's great talking to you now to see how much of that because even long before we I didn't know about Ella. So much of what you said in the first part of this is that same energy that you carrying forward. So you're taking care of that 19-year-old today. Yeah, it's important. It's important have to.
Ajibola:Have to.
Corie:So you bring up Muhammad and them, right. I didn't bring that up, but I was telling you that I went to their tight spaces, right, and I went to. The first one for this year was in Cafe Noir and it is something to see the connection that they have with their fans. So when I had the season pass and for reason after reason, I never make the third or the second, third and fourth show, but I saw you join after that one in Cafe Noir and I just feel good. It's got plenty of things in it, like listen, I just feel good. And when I see you doing things, I just feel good.
Ajibola:Oh, don't make me blush again.
Corie:Blush no more. Don't make me blush again, Blush again. So I'm feeling good. I say I like this because, again, I'm watching Free Tongue from afar all the time.
Ajibola:Right.
Corie:But now I plan to sit down and talk to them both and start to learn about them. So I started to really do a deep dive into the music to start to understand it right, and I have three particular songs with Free Tongue that are space for heart, which is important and it feels very, very. You know sometimes you talk about our carnival space. It's so driven by carnival and so centered around carnival.
Corie:Our music could be one thing yeah space for heart is sunness, yeah, and then the other one is light man, which will forever be one of my favorites. Anybody who ever try anything in this life. You know my time I listen to like man over and over, just to get the energy to go again.
Ajibola:It's real, it's real, it's real.
Corie:It's very real.
Ajibola:Yeah.
Corie:And Oshun. And then I see you in the thing now and I see it's time for Oshun and Muhammad gone one side, and it's Sheena, sheen's Ajibola sister mother, who come in to sing oh shoot, I do not think, from the little I know of them, that they are just going to let somebody else do that. I feel like, if that is divine, talk to me about that and how that come about.
Ajibola:Again as I said, I am well met by Ella, so mother is very much aware of culture, is very much aware way of culture, is very much a way of aspects of spirituality that resides deeply within me as well as within the whole topography of Trinidad and Tobago. The first time we would have done that, we tried it at a Welcome to Freedom concert and we actually changed the beat of that with J9, Janine Ruiz. She does a lot of re-imaginations of songs, so she was the musical director at the time and we had tried it then. But this year we tried it again.
Ajibola:And when because Lou came and asked me she's like she wants to run something by yourself.
Ajibola:Oh Lord, I don't know, but if I think I know what road we're going under he's like yeah, I think we need to do ushun, but I think people need to feel what it is to really hear it coming from you. I was like all right. So I decided we'll use the same guitar strum at the top and I would also train another chant in there, because and I don't know, I always tell my daughter I was like you, did you know what you were doing when you wrote the song? You understand, because the energy of Oshun is so much centered around love and harmony, and the chant that I chose to train there is about Oshun, the energy, giving a promise to us all. You know that she would always be with us, that she would always bring harmony and sensuality to our lives, and if at any point we forget, she always would be there and I go. So he was like, yeah, yeah, let's do it. And then I was like what kind of background you know joining. And they didn't like nothing better.
Corie:Yeah, they're just fitting.
Ajibola:They're just fitting. But I didn't even know that it would have hit so hard until the end of the Welcome to Freetown concert, one of my friends messaged me same thing again oh God, james, no, no, no, no, no, something, something within that she was like I could have felt you wanting to go somewhere, but again, because I still have some form of resistance, because not everybody is open to things like that, you know, and the first instance of people hearing anything to do with africa and they immediately think obia, but they think I opening some portal that they can't get out of, yada, yada it don't work.
Corie:The same as some other cultures, for some reason exactly, but anything african.
Ajibola:They immediately put up this block. So I I'm trying now to hold myself back, for want of a better word, to not get too deep into it. And here's this girl saying listen, felt you're kind of holding back, you know, you went with us, you know, but you gotta go a little deeper, said Miss Lady, for what it's worth, what they got is a little super, because I try my best to not force anything on anybody. If you're in this space and you experience it, fine. But I am not one of those persons to tell you africa is the way, orisha is the way, this is the way, or that is the way. I believe that each person has to find their own way. But if, by chance, what I am doing suddenly sparks some form of curiosity within your mind, then by all means come and talk to me, hit me a message in my dm, ask me what was this series you're speaking about or singing about, you know?
Ajibola:because I would certainly explain to you and not give you no hypothetical thing because, the orisha is a very real thing, and it's it's more real than just knowing that ocean is sensuality, ocean is love, it's it's. It's as real as you looking at the river and seeing that this very natural thing of this earth belongs to an essence called Oshun, and so many things within the earth belongs to the Orisha. So it's a lot more than saying that something.
Corie:It's not just words. Yeah.
Ajibola:You know and I mean Maud says all the time like I have this very deep connection with Oshun, because Oshun would have been the energy that would have fostered a lot of things in my life when my life was in a sort of imbalance Ocean. Was that orisha, to bring it back to center and allow me to channel my energy and my creativity in this way? Girls can play drums too. All of these things is deeply rooted by Ocean, just fostering that in my life. So when I sing and I open my mouth, it's ready to give honor and reference to the energy that would have been responsible for me being here and for me changing and, more so, reconditioning my mind from being all right. I don't think I should do this. I think I should be scared to really opening up and giving people something that they can think about, that they could understand, that is palatable for them to digest so, like we are free, town is a bigger venue and bigger space.
Corie:Are you able to see like people's reactions at that time?
Ajibola:I mean there was this deafness in the in the space when we started, you understand. And then kershaw does this thing. When he engineers, especially, he tweaks my voice in such a way that if you ain't want to hear it, you just hear it alone. So you're hearing my voice and my voice alone, with this guitar just echoing through the, and you know Soundforge is just this open area, so you imagine how much thousands of people within that crowd?
Corie:You can't escape it. Nobody saying a word, only four, sure, not just the crowd.
Ajibola:Nobody is saying a word, not just the crowd, nobody is saying a word, and all you hear is my. There was like this, I kid you not, there was a deafness, just you could hear a pin drop. So much so that when I was done like mud always takes a cool minute to center himself to begin the actual song to me is that powerful, so much so that sometimes I and all this hatton- you're dialing it back I start to dial back to play, because I don't sing.
Ajibola:I had to come back and play, so what?
Corie:was like in tight spaces compared to that.
Ajibola:Tight spaces was a bit different. The first time we would have done it is in one yoga. I'm always like I wonder, are people going to dig it or not? Open, but yet still, you know, still trying to figure out what the space would bring. And at the end of that particular performance, two persons came up to me. One particular person comes to each tight spaces and every time I do it she comes up and be like you need to record this. You and mud need to record this version.
Ajibola:She told me that every time I do it she remembers her father, her father would have passed away and she would have taken the ashes to the water to the sea she was like listen, every time you do that song, like I immediately get glimpses of me during those ashes with my father and remembering him in a very special way, another person came up to me. She's like listen, my mom died. I think the week ago her mom had died and she was like what you did really allowed me to connect with grief.
Ajibola:I knew my mom died, but something about the energy of it. I really got to hold myself center and think about that whole scenario.
Corie:You know.
Ajibola:So it's a whole host of different comments, but all in all, a lot of people were not introduced to it and they're now being introduced to it.
Corie:Oh, I can't think of it you know.
Ajibola:So it's a mix of already familiar, but not hearing it in this way and then there are the total newbies, I guess, I suppose, I suppose, I suppose yeah.
Corie:So my selfish request to whoever might be listening is that if there's a way for you to do them three songs, you know what I mean. That's my selfish request. We're gonna do it. I see it like this, like, like we gonna do it. Space for our heart is giving of life and Oshun is connecting with life. We gonna do it and like man is life itself.
Ajibola:We definitely gonna do it okay, good. Maud really wants to do it and he would have expressed to me in more ways than one that he, he really really wants to do it. So it's just, I mean, in the midst of all of this, because we're going to, we're heading to Canada, so in the midst of that happening, we'll figure out a way to squeeze it in good at some point.
Corie:Looking forward to that, I'm looking forward to that. I'm going back to my DMs. I'm thinking, no, no, let me check my DMs right, because it's important, you know. I tell you, I'm looking forward to seeing you here a long time, you know I hope it's not a blushing moment.
Ajibola:Well, who knows, who knows you?
Corie:guys, you could never tell. You could never tell, but you think about it is like um again that that, that that light man, important for all of us who tried something, whether you start a business or whatever, because most of the time that you're trying to get anything out of the mud no pun intended, it is you spend more time in in that darkness of of knowing. You see, when you have a vision and you know what you want, it is very difficult. You have to work through the drudgery of it and trinidad and tobago is a space where I learned that is a real thing and not necessarily a trinidadian thing. But you will find your parents might tell you, boy, this thing you know. Or you might find as much as they love you and they're encouraging you to, or some of your friends, like you say, you know, your friends have a way of telling you you're still doing that little podcast, boy, you know.
Corie:And those things is cut deep when you're trying something because you know what you want it to be. And one of the things I still remember when you had messaged me one of the first times was he was talking about just sharing stories about the podcasting, and I always remember say you're saying that um, I used to go in the studio and record and pay this, and and I think to myself, like why are you doing that? Why don't just do it home? And then when I watch the quality of what you're doing now compared to what I was doing home, I want to delete all my old videos that I was doing home because the quality important to to connect and that's, that's the thing I I I believe, when you're doing something, just go hard or go home yeah, of course, of course um a lot of the time.
Ajibola:It's funny that you bring up a song like like man um, because I remember when I got into utt and I tell the story all the time, my mom wasn't that happy. She's like you're doing accounting, you're doing all of these things. Why are you going to waste your brain? You know, and those exact. Why are you going to waste your?
Ajibola:brain you know and it's only until I did my junior recital at utt that she was like, and she stood up and started. She was like I really didn't think that my daughter should be doing music. Now. She's quite happy. I mean she'll get to come.
Ajibola:Some shows meet a whole lot of people you understand and she'll be like you know, at the end of the day, if you do not have a strong mind to move past, what strong mind to move past what any average person might tell you, whether it be family, friend, whoever of?
Corie:course you're just not gonna, you're just not gonna make it yeah, because some of those things being set out to love is support. But again, you can. You can't hear the people who make it. You can't hear that. You have to not listen to them voices. And then you had to find other voices now who might share your vision, who just believe in you and who telling you, boy, you could do it yeah and you was one of them voices for me.
Corie:You always use a message and say I see, you know you're doing it going good. You might message and say, my mind running here how you're going.
Ajibola:So when that's what I say, when I see you know, that's why everybody is my boy, because, because that's me, I believe in connection. I believe in connection. The world needs to be a lot more connected. I don't believe in doing things in isolation, because what is the sense? If I'm trying to do something, I believe in community. I have a whole lot of friends who doing this one thing. If I have some resource that could help that person be better or do better, why not? Why not share it?
Ajibola:yeah, you know it, it don't make no sense to me.
Corie:Yeah, usually not like it.
Ajibola:Common it's, so common it's not so common, but what I'm saying is, but yeah, you if I could afford you. I mean, sometimes all you need is a word. You know what? You mean all you need is a word.
Corie:Sometimes you wake up in the morning and be like, oh gosh, I have to go and record these podcast things again and then you see that and you say yeah, because most of the time what you would see is you say this wrong, you pronounce this name wrong. That's what people and again out of love. So imagine how good I feel and my heart feel full when I watch your thing and I see.
Ajibola:Here we go, here we go. I jump out my seat, let's go. I say.
Corie:I say oh, my God Boy, you don't know my excitement. What?
Ajibola:If you didn't know, I know Listen. The morning I got a call.
Corie:Yeah, let me take a drink why?
Ajibola:I watch my phone Because I seen a picture. I said her picture. I said, shina, what you do, what it is you do, because nobody have preview man, nobody has said well, listen, shins expect a phone call, because normally that's how it is.
Corie:They would say Shins, you know, I give you a name to ask my wife?
Ajibola:I see you. They would say sheens. You know, I give you a name. To ask my wife. I see you. They would reach out to you casual. One morning I go in about my merry way. I see Rastaban in shades, with the image of one who appears to look like Mr Montana. So I say, no man, this could never be. I screenshot it. I send it to my cousin. I said I said you know who called. Yes, she did so you can't be free. I said well, I'm going to answer the call.
Corie:So all this is before you answer. I'm telling you.
Ajibola:I said I couldn't answer the call. I said hello, yes, she did. I said yes, it was soft voice, hey, sheena. I say yeah, yes, listen, I try to put on my best voice not to get high. How are you? You know talking to you, right? I said I think I'm aware.
Ajibola:So, um, yeah, I got your number from chris andrews, in my mind I saying that bastard, he could have told me something. Anyway, he decided to tell me that Chris gave him my number and he has this clip so that he wants to record. And he heard that I'm the best person for the job. I said, really, in those words, I'm the best person. No, I started to question him. Person for the job. I said, really, in those words, I'm the best person I know. And I started questioning him. No, I said so of all the percussionists you would have heard about in the whole of trinidad and topego, because I mean, of course, there's tampa grindy, there's my boy coyote, there are a lot of percussionists or folk drummers, because for what he wanted, he's like I wanted this type of folk, feel. You know, I don't want nothing too extravagant just right in the pocket.
Ajibola:So why you chose me? You know yeah, he's like no. He say okay, my idea recommended. He say and if it is, I ask Chris on, he's like. He said Chris on, tell me over and over. He say Sheena is the person.
Corie:If it's somebody in, ok, so it's Chris-on, right? Yeah, yeah.
Ajibola:So I think he trusted his judgment. I told him I say, well, ok, he's like you could come in the studio X, y, y there. I was like hell, yeah, he's like well, all right, he's like well all right, we set. And I mean that one thing led to another performance. That was what Caribbean Airlines had something at the hilt, and I can't remember what it was, but his percussionist, or his drummer, rather, could not have flew in to do the performance.
Corie:And he was like I need to do this percussive, like acoustic thing.
Ajibola:I see he's like you're down to come. I was like, yes, to do this progressive like acoustic thing. He was like you're down to come. I was like, yeah, let's do it like, why not?
Corie:and?
Ajibola:by the end of it, like his entire band was like yeah. So when she joined the band, I said, well, I can't do that. I said, well, I have a call and they go how will I get? No, but yeah, so when? When? No, but I mean that that calypso led to a lot of different things, which was that and a lot, of, a lot of people started to see me a lot more too. You know a lot more a lot of people was to see me um a lot more too.
Ajibola:You know a lot more. A lot of people's like you're performing. And boy now I said boy is from saparia and I'm very biased because, where he used to live is not too far from where I live, but, um, it was a wonderful experience being in this space with him in the studio.
Ajibola:Like there were a lot of things, spiritually too, that he spoke about. That that blew my mind. You know, um, I have a lot of other persons who would have been in in spaces with him. You know, I talk the usual type of person he is yada, yada. But I wanted to not go with that notion and I went into the space very open-minded and I was like god, if this is what you want me to do, let's do it. And it led, it led. It led to really good things yeah, yeah, yeah.
Corie:So I in celebration mode, you know I said, oh cool, it's like that, and I always hear stories about marshall. Is one shadow was one like that as well. Shorty was one way. When the men bring in a studio as a as a musician, them men don't know what they want to hear. They're telling you what to play. So I saw a video but two of us sit down next to one another running through what the song was like. What's our experience like?
Ajibola:trust me that that wasn't me, I think, because I told him. I was like can, can I record? It's like, yeah, he's like knock yourself out it's like you know, but this is what I want and he, he was literally playing everything he wanted, just by his gestures so I had to now not only look at him but feel his energy and get all of those inflections to go into the song, you know.
Ajibola:But it was amazing because a lot of the things I do, that's how I work. I like to be in the space with persons, feel their energy in order to replicate, you know what it is I mean. A lot of the times it would be my creative input, but in this instance it was really what he wanted and me just feeding off of him and giving, giving him what he wanted so you have a calypso monarch.
Ajibola:Yeah, yeah, boy, look at, look at life you know, I don't even think, I didn't even think of it that way.
Corie:No, I mean, when you, when I study you, I really didn't. When I say, well, I mean I'm trying to perform, in a way from the semifinal, I study you immediately. So those times you're performing all those things and that kind of thing. Or you just did the recording and a couple gigs.
Ajibola:I did the recording. And then, well, for Dimash Khar. And well, yeah, he would have done Skinner Park too. Yeah, so I performed, because I'm a part of the band that performs for Dimash Gras and Skinner Park.
Corie:Okay, so you're accustomed to doing two stages, or Roger Gass and Reader Shop.
Ajibola:Yeah, I have been playing on the Skinner Park and Dimash Gras stage for probably 12 years now. Really I started with none other than Errol Ince. He used to be teaching UTT at the time and he wanted a percussionist in his in-house band that we had at UTT. He had a brass band and one of my friends, michelle Henry, told him she was like I'll get somebody for him and I came and I started to play some drums. She was like the son he's like who is?
Corie:this girl, yeah, and by the he's like.
Ajibola:He's like who is this girl? Yeah, and by by the weekend or something, I think Fiesta was coming up. He was like yeah, you're on drums.
Corie:I was like no, but I could get bored.
Ajibola:Yeah, and by by the weekend. He was like nah.
Corie:No other action, because that is a marathon.
Ajibola:Yeah, it is. It's a very long Like you have to have the stamina.
Corie:Yeah, that's why everything Is talked about so important here, gotcha, because that though done.
Ajibola:Trust me, that starts. It starts way before it starts, of course, so the actual Recording starts Probably about Just before 12 o'clock, before they play Playway, and so on. But my usual day for calypso fiesta starts at about six o'clock. Yeah, because I make sure I have everything in check yeah, make sure the car get ready get there for eight o'clock.
Corie:I understand set up my stuff sound check yeah, when you originally leave, yeah, and then wait till midnight you understand and it's not, and it's not tooting, it's not like a plug in I get that, of course, of course, make sure the drum set, the bomb goes yeah, and what you're playing for who? And then?
Ajibola:Calypsoians now decide that they want a lot more stuff, and they can give them a.
Corie:Of course, yeah, man, you built for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So all these other ass people like you, like by age, like you're hearing anything, you just be hearing still, you're focused on still, yeah.
Ajibola:Yeah, what helps me a lot because I also play in Calypso Tent, so and a lot of Calypso shows I do. So most of this stuff I either played on it via recording at the studio or I would have played it at the tent because a lot of the times two tents clash so I would have heard it. Heard the song at some point, so it's not entirely new.
Ajibola:When I went by the time they hit semifinals, I hear the song couple times because, possibly about five persons from my tent would have gotten through the tents that we would have clashed from probably two of them get you to some of them the songs that I would have recorded either drums or percussion on so I hear two or three of them and then I love Calypso as well so you know I might be hearing it on the radio 195 or whatever on the radio at 95 you know, so it's not not that difficult when you come to, you know do it on the day, I mean it's 40 of them, yeah 40 is the very best but it's it's a marathon that you you have to pace yourself and it it helps when you have good people around.
Ajibola:so when I had Kunt Summerville and myself in the back there, his vibes. So there are no two ways about it. You just have to have the vibes, bring the vibes, or just do whatever.
Corie:Yeah, of course, of course. So the next time he's at my wedding he's coming up there and all the bads you had, everybody up here.
Ajibola:Yeah, you know, all right, Right, I take that. So, all, all my excitement and thing when I see marshall montano tiny desk, I sit down waiting.
Corie:I say, I say I waited, but I ain't see you there, and I mean great percussionists. They ain't taking nothing from nobody either, but I mean artists use who they they want to use.
Ajibola:And I guess that probably was a question of availability, because I know Doops and they are partially in Trinidad and Ah right, it's supposed to be easy for them to get there. He's mainly in the US. Most times he comes back and forth. Just guessing that was the saying.
Corie:Well, that's just a selfish question, that's just me being a fan. I would like to see you there. I don't like to be there too, but I mean if I get a call.
Ajibola:Yeah, by all means, you know, but I, I, um, I tell people, if you don't see me on a stage with somebody that you're custom seeing me with, it's because that person has a choice their reasons, you know, and they, they have, they have reasons. I mean as much as I would like to be there all the time. It's like anything if you feel to eat KFC today, you buy it. If you feel to eat Royal Castle, you buy it. I'll wait, you I'll wait you, it's just film, of course, of course of course.
Corie:Well, as a biggest fan, I hear rooting. I will open when time you just come back around, because probably not the last one you never know, and I mean, there might be something else that plenty of artists will do it too. I'm glad that he's tend to do those things where you go and open the door and people will go, so I hope, I hope them calls continue to come and, um, as as much as you send them. Dms. On supporting, I hear supporting all the time. I, I, I like to see it.
Ajibola:I still still really want to do those podcasts. Um, from a different angle. I can't let me. I'm gonna throw it out into the atmosphere.
Ajibola:I want to do a podcast called walking with the elders that'd be the name of it you know walking with the elders, because I think there are a lot of elders within our community who think that they are getting older and they don't have a voice and the youth is not taking them on and they can't share anymore because the youth's not making themselves available, because everybody got busy and you know things like that. There's a podcast that I want to do called Walking with the Elders.
Corie:Well, here I might support anything you need you tell me. I dare to support it, to help in any way I could. I want to see it come off the ground, yeah man For sure. So before I go you had to tell me about the. You have merch and things you know.
Ajibola:Yes, I do. I have merch, so girls can play drums too. Crop tops, t-shirts and champagne glasses. I'm not sure if I want to do sweaters yet. However, if you want a sweater, we could arrange.
Corie:You could make it work.
Ajibola:Yeah, we could make it work, but I just didn't put it out there yet. But if you want one, yeah, we could work that out. Colors that are available red, yellow, blue, white, right.
Corie:The bucket hats are red white.
Ajibola:Red white, khaki and well, the jerseys are also the same thing. So, as I said, the next phase of girls can play drums too. Apart from the videos that persons would have been seeing on instagram, is a workshop, right, um, for women of all ages. I'm torn in between. I may do like one for younger, for younger crowd, as well as for older women, um, and it'll be taking the form of a drum circle right doing some drumming, as well as some meditation and some yoga.
Ajibola:Um may tie in as well something to do with women, some small lecture, something to do with women, women's health or something.
Corie:I like how rounded it is. I have a selfish request too, alano.
Ajibola:White yeah.
Corie:The drum is last Oli. I think, I think, oli, I don't need a GoFundMe to buy back drum for two, oli, when Oli hit drum.
Ajibola:it can last, the drum is built for that.
Corie:All right, you say so, it's robust enough to take the German. All right, all right.
Ajibola:All right, thank you for having me Sheena.
Corie:Sheen's a jibola, you see, you'll find her. This was nice. I appreciate it.
Ajibola:Yeah, man, I totally enjoyed it, thank you.