JUJU’S TOP 2: BROTHERS, NOT RIVALS

Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey and King Sunny Ade are sort of the Hertz and Avis of juju--the flowing, intensely polyrhythmic Nigerian music--but it’s hard to tell who’s No. 1 and who’s trying harder.

Obey is considered the inventor of modern juju; Ade has introduced some key innovations, including adding steel guitar to the instrumental crosscurrents. (Obey has since followed suit.) Ade is better known in America, while Obey has enjoyed a longer career overall, having formed his first band nearly 25 years ago.

Given the situation, you’d think that some kind of rivalry might have developed between the two men. Not so, said Obey, who plays the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano tonight and the Music Machine on Sunday.

“We are brothers. We don’t allow competition or rivalry to exist,” Obey said by phone recently on a tour stop in Japan. “We both (view) the whole thing as doing juju music proud, doing our country proud.

“And we believe that whatever both of us achieve, success-wise, is best for the music. . . . We have both improved the music, and put a lot of innovations in the music.”

Of course, the chief improvement Obey has brought to juju was re-inventing the style by making it a truly big-band endeavor. Obey’s Inter-Reformers Band often has nearly 20 members, though for this tour he has reduced it to a still-sizable 14-piece unit.

“Juju music started in the early 1930s (with) who I can call the ‘Father of Juju Music’: the late Ayinde Bakarecq--and a few others,” said Obey, who was born in 1942.

“But Ayinde Bakare’s juju music was based on one talking drum (a drum with variable tones), one guitar and some percussion. When I came up, I decided to modernize juju music, and I added more talking drums, more guitars and so on and so forth.

“It makes the music very heavy, and it catches the ears of the listeners. That’s why they are not fed up with listening to the records of juju music--even though I release three records a year.” (Obey said he has released as many as five records in a year.)

“Likewise, Sunny releases three records a year. But people are not fed up. They want to listen because it catches their ears, and each time there’s a message sent out through the records.”

Obey is both a hereditary and honorary chief and picked up the “commander” tag from his fan club. His messages--most delivered in the Yoruba language, some in English--cover a lot of thematic ground, from relating parables to commenting on the actions of the Nigerian government.

And it’s apparent that recent articles about the increasing number of pop artists incorporating Christian beliefs into their music could also have included this Nigerian.

“Oh yes, I’m a Christian and part of what I do is use the medium of my music to spread the Gospel messages,” said Obey, noting that he has a ministry in Nigeria.

“By knowing Christ and giving my life to him, I have found peace. But I don’t want to hold onto that peace myself alone--I want other people in the world to have peace.”

But even if Obey didn’t sing a word of English and audiences didn’t understand a word of Yoruba, it’s doubtful there would be much of a communication gap. His material speaks volumes in the universal language of inspired music that not only “catches the ears of the listeners,” but also engages their feet.

On record (including the latest release, “Aimasiko,”)--and, by all accounts, on stage--Obey and his band lock into shifting, multi-layered rhythms, built by a handful of both guitars and percussion instruments. Laid over this percolating base, typically, are solo and group vocals and melancholy cries from the steel guitar.

It all makes for a hypnotic, eminently danceable musical melange, one that in concerts at home lasts anywhere from five hours to all night. For the shows on this monthlong U.S. tour, however, Obey will deliver an abbreviated version of those marathons.

“(American audiences) are not used to that,” he said, chuckling. “That would be too much for them here.”