IN the early 1970s when Jamaican music producer Clinton ‘Sonny’ Roberts met a 10-piece Nigerian band named the Nkengas, he had little knowledge of them or the music coming out of Africa.

He decided to take a chance on the band, who were in the United Kingdom doing a series of shows in London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. He gathered them in a London recording studio and cut a series of what turned out to be memorable sides.

Those sessions resulted in two albums — Destruction and The Nkengas In London — which were both released by Roberts’ Orbitone Records, an independent company located in London.

Destruction was recently released digitally under a new distribution deal between Orbitone and Secret Stash Records, an American company that specialises in roots music.

The digital version of Destruction has been available through Secret Stash for two months while another deal between Orbitone and London-based Believe Digital went into effect two weeks ago.

The nine-song instrumental album is also available on compact disc from Secret Stash, a Minneapolis, Minnesota label which unearths rare recordings from Africa, Latin America and the United States.

Cleon Roberts, daughter of Sonny Roberts, told the Sunday Observer that the second coming of Destruction is timely.

“There’s been a resurgence of interest in America for the Afro-funk beat, you hear it in the clubs and on the radio,” she said. “It’s also making a comeback in Africa, in countries like Nigeria.”

The Afro beat was first made famous during the 1970s by Nigerian revolutionary Fela Kuti, whose mix of traditional African sounds and American jazz won him fans throughout the continent, Europe and North America.

In the 1980s, British avant garde artiste Peter Gabriel discovered the music which record companies described as world beat. Artistes like Manu Dibango of Cameroun, Youssou N’Dour of Senegal and Alpha Blondy of the Ivory Coast built on the trailblazing feats of Fela and were signed to major record labels.

The Nkengas were unknown outside of their homeland when they were introduced to Roberts, a Manchester-born carpenter who moved to the UK in the late 1950s. He quickly got involved in the music business, becoming the first Jamaican to operate a recording studio in the basement of his London flat, which was owned by Lee Gopthal, who would later start Trojan Records.

Cleon Roberts says her father’s musical interests at the time concentrated on Caribbean balladeers like Tim Chandell, Joyce Bond and Belinda Parker. Though he knew little of African music when he first met the Nkengas, Roberts was in the business long enough to know a good thing when he heard it.

“For a Jamaican to listen to a bunch of Nigerian guys and record them back then, was remarkable,” she said.

Sonny Roberts would record two albums with another Nigerian, saxophonist Peter King. His work for Orbitone, previously available on vinyl, is now available on compact disc.

Now 82, Roberts lives in St Andrew with his wife. Only four members of the Nkengas survive; they live in Nigeria.

Cleon Roberts hopes the new deal with Secret Stash and UK interests will revive interest in their work.

“My father is a firm believer that nothing happens before its time. This sound is timeless and can appeal to a new generation including the hip hop community.”