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Roy Chicago

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John Akintola (Yoruba pronunciation: [d͡ʒɔn ákĩ́tólá] ⓘ; died February 5, 1989), also known as Roy Chicago, was a Nigerian musician and bandleader. Most popular during the 1960s,[1][2] he played in the highlife style and is credited for introducing the talking drum to the genre.

Life and career

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Roy Chicago was born in Ikare-Akoko in the Ondo State in Nigeria. He lived in the capital city of Ondo State until he moved to Ibadan in the late 1950s. He reached the height of his popularity during the 1960s.[1] While Victor Olaiya[citation needed] was popular for music based on Ghanaian melodies and progressions, Chicago gained stardom by basing his music on Nigerian indigenous themes and folklore.[citation needed]

In the 1950s, he began playing the saxophone in concerts at the Central Hotel in Ibadan as a member of Bobby Benson's band. At one point, he became the leader of the band.[3] Roy Chicago became increasingly successful with hits such as "Iyawo Pankeke", "Are owo niesa Yoyo gbe", and "Keregbe emu".[citation needed]

In the 1960s, Victor Olaiya's International All Stars and Roy Chicago's Abalabi Rhythm Dandies were two of the top leading highlife bands in Nigeria,[citation needed] both led by graduates of the Bobby Benson Orchestra. Chicago became well known at the Abalabi Hotel in Mushin, introducing the talking drum into the highlife genre.[4] As the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970) progressed, highlife became less popular at the expense of Yoruba-derived jùjú music, since many of the top highlife bands were run by the Igbo people from the breakaway regions of eastern Nigeria.[5] The result was an increase in popularity of the easy-going and less rigid jùjú form of music at the expense of highlife.[6]

At a low point in Chicago's career in the 1970s, Bobby Benson assisted him by providing musical equipment and giving him a place to stay in Surulere.[4]

Music

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Chicago combined the trumpet and saxophone with vocals.[citation needed] Playing with Bobby Benson in the 1950s, he performed highlife, along with ballroom dance, foxtrot, tango, waltz, quickstep, and jive.[citation needed]. His sidemen included tenor saxophonist Etim Udo and trumpeter Marco Bazz.[4]

Chicago's highlife style anchored its accent on rhythm.[citation needed] He explained Nigerian folksongs through vocals accompanied by Tunde Osofisan, one of the most popular singers in the highlife scene.[4]

Although his style could not be called a jazz derivative, there are blue notes in his saxophone parts and "cool" jazz intonations and phrases, which are closer to traditional Yoruba music than to highlife.[7]

Legacy

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Former members of his band included trumpeter and vocalist Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson, who was of mixed Igbo and Kalabari background. Lawson apprenticed with Bobby Benson, Victor Olaiya, and Chicago before striking out on his own with a unique blend of Igbo lyrics sung over Kalabari rhythms.[8] Jimi Solanke, the playwright, poet, and folk singer, was another singer associated with his band.[9]

The band's recording of his composition "Onile-Gogoro" became one of the most memorable highlife hits of the 1960s.[10]

Alaba Pedro, a guitarist from Chicago's band, went on to play with Orlando Julius Aremu Olusanya Ekemode.[11] Alaba Pedro joined Chicago in 1961 and stayed with the band until the time of the Nigerian Civil War, when it disbanded in 1969. He recalls that "It was a highly disciplined band ... The band was versatile and could play almost all types of music, but ... highlife [was] its speciality, which relied more on Nigerian melodies with rhythms rooted in indigenous elements."[12][13] Peter King, one of Nigeria's most famous tenor saxophonists, began his career with Chicago's band in Lagos before going to England to study music.[14]

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  • "A Classic HIGHLIFE from naija 4 ( Roy Chicago)". MuzikPaPare. Archived from the original on 14 July 2011. Retrieved 4 November 2009.

References

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  1. ^ a b Benson Idonije (1 October 2009). "Echoes of the 60". The Guardian. Lagos, Nigeria. Retrieved 3 November 2009. [dead link]
  2. ^ Trevor Schoonmaker (2003). Fela: from West Africa to West Broadway. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 80. ISBN 1-4039-6210-3.
  3. ^ Benson Idonije (21 May 2008). "Legacy of Bobby Benson of Africa". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 November 2009. [dead link]
  4. ^ a b c d Benson Idonije. "Echoes of the sixties" (PDF). Benson Idonije. Retrieved 3 November 2009. [dead link]
  5. ^ "Various – Nigeria 70 : Lagos Jump". Paris DJs. Archived from the original on 20 October 2009. Retrieved 3 November 2009.
  6. ^ John Collins (1985). Musicmakers of West Africa. Lynne Rienner Publishers. p. 137. ISBN 0-89410-075-0.
  7. ^ Gerhard Kubik (1999). Africa and the blues. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 156. ISBN 1-57806-146-6.
  8. ^ "Lagos All Routes: Juju And Highlife, Apala And Fuji". HONEST JON'S RECORDS. Retrieved 3 November 2009.
  9. ^ "I will die a dramatist – Jimi Solanke". Nigeria Films. 27 July 2009. Archived from the original on 24 November 2009. Retrieved 4 November 2009.
  10. ^ "NEWSLETTER – January 2nd, 2009 – Jimi Solanke". Downtown Music Gallery. 2 January 2009. Retrieved 4 November 2009.
  11. ^ "WORLD BEAT & FUSION – O.J. EKEMODE". Fast Lane International. Archived from the original on 9 April 2009. Retrieved 3 November 2009.
  12. ^ Benson Idonije. "Alaba Pedro, master of guitar stroke" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 3 November 2009.
  13. ^ SEGUN AJAYI (28 January 2005). "Rap and hip-hop, not African music". The Sun. Lagos, Nigeria. Archived from the original on 6 January 2010. Retrieved 3 November 2009.
  14. ^ "Peter King Biography". last.fm. Retrieved 4 November 2009.
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