I AM THE BEST AFRO MUSICIAN – KOLA OGUNKOYA. BOB EJIKE

I AM THE BEST AFRO MUSICIAN – KOLA OGUNKOYA. BOB EJIKE I AM THE BEST AFRO MUSICIAN – KOLA OGUNKOYA. BOB EJIKE

The Proprietor of Galaxy television, (one of the few Nigerian TV stations that is not bugged down with the endless bore of discussion programmes), Chief Steve Ojo is a friend of mine. The boisterous patriarch of the Nigerian modeling industry, who was my modeling agent in my younger days when I was a top model, had once mentioned that he wanted me to present a program on his station. On that account I went to Galaxy Television Station in Ikeja. Chief Ojo was clogged with various assortments of production materials, as he told me that Galaxy Television was in concert with Kola Ogunkoya’s Gbedu Music Village, and recommended that before anything, I should go and see the marvelous work that Ogunkoya was doing, and so I drove to the joint, which was opposite Bevista in Opebi. Kola Ogunkoya had arrived. Logically, in Nigerian music you arrive when you set up your own band, nightclub and record label. That is literally what Kola Ogunkoya, The Gbedu Master did to crown the success he attained performing in the USA. What’s the secret of his American success? Kola replied,‘I won’t say, the Americans appreciate my music because Fela had done a lot of work there, talk about African music, Nigeria has a name outside, Sunny Ade, Ebenezer Obey, Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe, Dr. Victor Olaiya. My first show in America was the Chicago Jazz Festival of 1997, most artistes were playing Chicago blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, there was The Mighty Sparrow, I was billed to play before him then when I started playing people began to dance although they did not understand me, they said you sound like Fela and Mighty Sparrow said Fela was his friend so he hooked me up with an agent in New York’.

 

Kola Ogunkoya augmented his American six-man band to a seventeen piece afro music ensemble which performed every Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at Gbedu Music Village, an open air affair complete with ultra modern musical instruments including an amazing array of exotic African drums, sophisticated recording equipment, an African bar (where you could eat delicious bush meat and wash it down with sweet palm wine from a calabash) and a thatch-roofed video watching centre. Everything spiced with an Africa touch. What factors facilitated the opening of Gbedu Music Village? The amiable and balding horns man responded, ‘I want to say that in Nigeria we have the advantage of cheap labor, this is my country, the players of instruments in my band understand my dreams, they understand what’s going on. I thank God things are moving up a little bit and I can make my living just playing African music and we need to do it manually my own way. To me I thank God that today my music is no longer called afro beat. I can wake up and say my name is Uchenna, what you call yourself is what people call you. I have spent many of my career years running away from the shadow of Fela, afro beat means African music and as far as that goes, Femi Kuti cannot be the king of African music because there are a lot of people in the industry who are senior to Femi.’

Kola Ogunkoya will not say if he is the king of afro beat, he simply tags himself The Gbedu Master and refers me to his website, Kola reflected pensively, ‘I never had money in mind when I set up this place, Americans are proud of their culture, their stars, their actors etc I have a country too so I said to myself I have to go back to Nigeria.’ The objective of Ogunkoya’s organization is to give hope to Nigerian budding artistes’. . Kola Ogunkoya, a maestro in his own right has six compact discs to his credit, namely Na je Je O (1988-1989), Original Blackman (1990) Loud in Washington DC (1997), Kola Jazz’s double cd’ (1998), Lolade (1999) and Sweetie Baby (2001). His music is a pleasing combination of old high-life, harmony with modern afro rhythm, and his biggest problem, like that of most Nigerian musicians is the demise of credible record companies formally operational within the nation’s territory. Kola Ogunkoya explained, almost in desperation. ‘The problem is distribution at the street level, I am trying to see who I will give my jobs to, my last albums were released under Ivory Music and EMI, but I don’t know what’s wrong with them, now I am working on a new album I hope to find a good marketing outfit. I AM THE BEST AFRO MUSICIAN – KOLA OGUNKOYA. BOB EJIKE 

Born in Owerri in the early 70’s and raised in the barracks by a disciplinarian cop daddy.

Kola Ogunkoya grew up speaking Igbo as his first language even though his parents who were Ijebus hail from Shagamu. He learnt Yoruba under duress as a student of Eko Boys High School, Okota, Community High School, Okota and Iponri Estate High School from which Kola ended his epileptic attempt at formal Education and ended up as a trumpeter with Victor Olaiya. He later

played with the Legendary Edi Okonta and Orlando Julius before forming the Jambo Express. Kola Ogunkoya introduced saxophone to fuji music when he worked as a session man for Wasiu Ayinde Marshal and Wale Abiodun. Ogunkoya believes that it is too early to judge his performance in the Nigeria music industry. His words ‘I think people out there will tell you that I am the best. I appreciate Lagbaja but I don’t envy him, we both have our different ways of improvisation. I am fascinated by Orlando Julius, Fela Kuti, Grover Washington Jr. Victor Olaiya, Edi Okonta, Hugh Masekela’. In 1996, Kola started playing every Friday at jazzville until the opportunity came for him to travel to the US, he made three trips to the USA and in the summer of 1997 he decided to relocate to America. Mr. Ogunkoya recalls, ‘US was tough, the agent was paying my rent but after the summer there were no more shows so I had to do job’. A Diploma in Computer Programming from Howard University made professional life easier for Kola and thus he sustained himself until his final decision to return home. The stage at Gbedu Village held such Nigerian artistic celebrities as Alariwo of Africa, Wale Thompson, Eddie Remedie, Olu Maintain, Tony Tetuila, Obesere and Akin Akindele.

Kola Ogunkoya has since relocated to the USA but his music is still popular online.

BOB EJIKE