By Emmanuel Esomnofu
Impeccable composition can do with words, but sometimes that’s not even necessary. Surely, KaySax cedes the way for singers to shine in his “Worship Medley,” but that happens in the second half of the song, when the sonic atmosphere has already been set, and the listener carried lightly on the wings of glorious ministration. When Olukayode ‘KaySax’ Adewale started playing instruments at the age of thirteen, it was the intensity of drums he picked up. He’d attended a military school and wanted to have a similar mastery over instruments, just like the players in the military band. His initial resolve was to play ten instruments (which he did), but along the line, “[he] had to streamline [himself to] concentrate on particular instruments,” as he said in a prior interview, and moving to the saxophone, which is his premier instrument right now. This experience in the field of music weans itself into the art KaySax creates, revealing a tender brilliance that can only be the result of years of creating and curating. In “Worship Medley,” his skill in both aspects is evident, as he occupies the position of a choirmaster and at the same time, a member of the playing set. One hears this in the movement of the song, the ecclesiastical way the tune of “amen, amen,” plays out, a grasping for God’s hand, a sojourn into the world where only purity resides. In the evocation of this mood, no other instrument comes close to the saxophone. Its humane tone, and yet heavenly poise—this gives a lot of feeling to KaySax’s composition here, and by the time the voices come in, the listener is already lifted, in tandem with the player’s beating heart. As any Christian would tell you, praise and worship is one of the touchstones of the religious experience. Too often, people get entangled in the muscle of their prayers, the zest of their desires, that they forget to praise God for the ultimate gift of life and perception. Musicians like KaySax throw it back to the pristine potentials of the art of worship, and here he creates a ten-minute masterpiece that will wake many from their slumber. By interpreting the most lifting worship songs we’ve heard from these parts, he creates a new expression within the familiar, a sonic novelty that listeners of this medley will be grateful for.
