Victor Olaiya
Encyclopedia
Victor Abimbola Olaiya, or 'Dr Victor Olaiya', is a Nigeria
n trumpeter who plays in the Highlife
style. He was possibly the biggest star in Nigeria in the 1950s and early 1960s, but received little recognition outside of Nigeria. Alhaji Alade Odunewu of the Daily Times admiringly styled him "The Evil Genius of Highlife."
, Cross River State
, the 20th child of a family of 24. His parents, Alfred Omolona Olaiya and Bathsheba Owolabi Motajo came from Ijesha-Ishu in Ekiti State
.
Contrary to popular belief, Olaiya came from a very rich family. His father's house called Olaiya is still standing today at Tinubu square in Lagos and still owned by the Olaiya family.
At an early age he learned to play the Bombardon and the French Horn. After leaving school he moved to Lagos
where he passed the school certificate examination in 1951 and was accepted by Howard University
, USA to study Civil engineering. Instead he started a career as a musician, a move of which his parents disapproved. He played with the Sammy Akpabot band, the Old Lagos City Orchestra (a dance band) and the Bobby Benson
Jam Session Orchestra, where he was leader and trumpeter of the second band.
In 1954 he left Bobby Benson to form his own band, the Cool Cats, playing popular highlife music. His band was chosen to play at the state ball when Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
visited Nigeria in 1956, and later to play at the state balls when Nigeria became independent in 1960 and when Nigeria became a republic in 1963. On that occasion, he shared the stage with the famous American jazz player Louis Armstrong
. During the Nigerian Civil War
of 1967-1970, Olaiya was given the rank of a lieutenant colonel (honorary) in the Nigerian Army when his band played for the troops at various locations. His band later traveled to the Congo to perform for United Nations troops.
He led his band, renamed to the All Stars Band, to the 1963 International Jazz Festival
in Prague
, Czechoslovakia
.
In addition to his successful career as a musician, Olaiya ran a business that imported and distributed musical instruments and accessories throughout West Africa, and also established the Stadium Hotel in Surulere
.
In 1990, Olaiya received a fellowship of the Institute of Administrative Management of Nigeria. For a period, he was president of the Nigerian Union of Musicians.
ian highlife and what would become Afrobeat
.
His musical style was influenced by James Brown
, with horn parts harmonized in Brown's style, as opposed to the mostly unison lines of Afrobeat.
The music includes the swinging percussion of Tony Allen
, but not the syncopated style that Allen later pioneered.
His music is infectious, typifying highlife music, played with great energy. The unique style of some of his recordings is inimitable.
He played with highlife artist E. T. Mensah
of Ghana, and released a best-selling joint album with Mensah.
Both the drummer Tony Allen and vocalist Fela Kuti
played with Olaiya and went on to achieve individual success.
Kola Ogunkoya
played in the All Stars Band from 1986 to 1987 and went on to have a highly successful career with his own Afrobeat band.
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
n trumpeter who plays in the Highlife
Highlife
Highlife is a musical genre that originated in Ghana in the 1900s and spread to Sierra Leone, Nigeria and other West African countries by 1920...
style. He was possibly the biggest star in Nigeria in the 1950s and early 1960s, but received little recognition outside of Nigeria. Alhaji Alade Odunewu of the Daily Times admiringly styled him "The Evil Genius of Highlife."
Life
Olaiya was born on 31 December 1931, in CalabarCalabar
Calabar is a city in Cross River State, southeastern Nigeria. The original name for Calabar was Atakpa, from the Jukun language....
, Cross River State
Cross River State
Cross River State is a coastal state in southeastern Nigeria, bordering Cameroon to the east. Its capital is at Calabar, and it is named for the Cross River , which passes through the state...
, the 20th child of a family of 24. His parents, Alfred Omolona Olaiya and Bathsheba Owolabi Motajo came from Ijesha-Ishu in Ekiti State
Ekiti State
Ekiti State is a state in southwest Nigeria, created on October 1, 1996 alongside five other new states by military dictator General Sani Abacha...
.
Contrary to popular belief, Olaiya came from a very rich family. His father's house called Olaiya is still standing today at Tinubu square in Lagos and still owned by the Olaiya family.
At an early age he learned to play the Bombardon and the French Horn. After leaving school he moved to Lagos
Lagos
Lagos is a port and the most populous conurbation in Nigeria. With a population of 7,937,932, it is currently the third most populous city in Africa after Cairo and Kinshasa, and currently estimated to be the second fastest growing city in Africa...
where he passed the school certificate examination in 1951 and was accepted by Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
, USA to study Civil engineering. Instead he started a career as a musician, a move of which his parents disapproved. He played with the Sammy Akpabot band, the Old Lagos City Orchestra (a dance band) and the Bobby Benson
Bobby Benson
Bobby Benson was an entertainer and musician who had considerable influence on the Nigerian music scene, introducing big band and Caribbean idioms to the Highlife style of popular West African music.-Life:...
Jam Session Orchestra, where he was leader and trumpeter of the second band.
In 1954 he left Bobby Benson to form his own band, the Cool Cats, playing popular highlife music. His band was chosen to play at the state ball when Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
visited Nigeria in 1956, and later to play at the state balls when Nigeria became independent in 1960 and when Nigeria became a republic in 1963. On that occasion, he shared the stage with the famous American jazz player Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
. During the Nigerian Civil War
Nigerian Civil War
The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigerian-Biafran War, 6 July 1967–15 January 1970, was a political conflict caused by the attempted secession of the southeastern provinces of Nigeria as the self-proclaimed Republic of Biafra...
of 1967-1970, Olaiya was given the rank of a lieutenant colonel (honorary) in the Nigerian Army when his band played for the troops at various locations. His band later traveled to the Congo to perform for United Nations troops.
He led his band, renamed to the All Stars Band, to the 1963 International Jazz Festival
Prague International Jazz Festival
Prague International Jazz Festival is a traditional jazz festival held annually in Prague, Czech Republic. In 2005 the festival celebrated its anniversary - 40 years from its establishment in 1964. Prague's festival belongs to the most traditional jazz festivals.-External links:*...
in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
.
In addition to his successful career as a musician, Olaiya ran a business that imported and distributed musical instruments and accessories throughout West Africa, and also established the Stadium Hotel in Surulere
Surulere
Surulere is a residential and commercial area, and a Local Government Area located on the Lagos mainland in Lagos State, Nigeria, with an area of 23 km². It is part of Metropolitan Lagos...
.
In 1990, Olaiya received a fellowship of the Institute of Administrative Management of Nigeria. For a period, he was president of the Nigerian Union of Musicians.
Music
Olaiya's music bridges between GhanaGhana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
ian highlife and what would become Afrobeat
Afrobeat
Afrobeat is a combination of traditional Yoruba music, jazz, highlife, funk and chanted vocals, fused with percussion and vocal styles, popularised in Africa in the 1970s. Its main creator was the Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti, who gave it its name, who used it to...
.
His musical style was influenced by James Brown
James Brown
James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
, with horn parts harmonized in Brown's style, as opposed to the mostly unison lines of Afrobeat.
The music includes the swinging percussion of Tony Allen
Tony Allen (musician)
Tony Oladipo Allen is aNigerian drummer, composer, and songwriter who currently lives and works in Paris. He is currently writing his autobiography "Tony Allen: Master Drummer of Afrobeat" with author/musician Michael E...
, but not the syncopated style that Allen later pioneered.
His music is infectious, typifying highlife music, played with great energy. The unique style of some of his recordings is inimitable.
He played with highlife artist E. T. Mensah
E. T. Mensah
Emmanuel Tettey Mensah, best known as E. T. Mensah was a Ghanaian highlife musician.He began as a flutist with the Accra Orchestra, a schoolchildren band, in 1930. In 1948 he formed "The Tempos", a group he might be best known for, and toured West Africa. The group gained international attention...
of Ghana, and released a best-selling joint album with Mensah.
Both the drummer Tony Allen and vocalist Fela Kuti
Fela Kuti
Fela Anikulapo Kuti , or simply Fela , was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick.-Biography:...
played with Olaiya and went on to achieve individual success.
Kola Ogunkoya
Kola Ogunkoya
Kola Ogunkoya is a Nigerian afrobeat musician who uses the term "Afro Gbedu" to describe his style of music, which includes jazz, highlife, Jùjú, funk and traditional Yoruba music....
played in the All Stars Band from 1986 to 1987 and went on to have a highly successful career with his own Afrobeat band.
Discography
A partial list of albums:| Date | Group | Album | Format | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Late 1950s/Early 1960s | Victor Olaiya & his Cool Cats | Odale Ore b/w Mofe Muyon | 10" 78 | Badejo's Sound Studios BBA 150 |
| 1960s? | Various Artists | Catchy Rhythms from Nigeria - Vol. 2 | 10" LP | Philips West Africa [Lagos] P 13401 |
| 1961 | Dr. Victor Olaiya & his All Stars | Olaiya's Victories | 10" LP | Philips [Netherlands] 13403 |
| Early 1960s | Various Artists | Catchy Rhythms From Nigeria - Vol. 3 | (10" LP | Philips West Africa [Lagos] 13404 |
| 1960s | Victor Olaiya & his Cool Cats | Afro-Rhythm Parade Vol. 2 | 7" EP | Philips [Netherlands] 420001 |
| 1960s? | Victor Olaiya & his All Stars | Oruku Tiniditindi / Iye Jemila | 7" 45 | Philips [Lagos] 303 015 |
| 1960s | Victor Olaiya & his All Stars | Pambotoriboto b/w Moonlight Highlife | 7" 45 | Philips [Lagos] 382357 |
| 1960s | Victor Olaiya & his All Stars | Feso J'aiye / Asian Udo | 7" 45 | Philips [Lagos] 382 397 |
| 1960s | Victor Olaiya & his All Stars | Kosowo Lode b/w Ewelewekuewele | 7" 45 | Philips [Lagos] 382739 |
| 1960s | Victor Olaiya & his All Stars | Afro-Rhythm Parade Vol. 7 | 7" EP | Philips [Lagos] 420014 |
| Late 1960s? | Various Artists | West Africa's Big Sound | 7" EP | Philips [Lagos] 420023 PE |
| 1982 | Dr. Victor Olaiya | In the Sixties | LP | Polydor [Lagos] POLP 066 |
| 1982 | Dr. Victor Olaiya | Highlife Reincaration | LP | Polydor [Lagos] POLP 073 |
| 1983 | Dr. Victor Olaiya | Ilu Le O (Country Hard 0!) | LP | Polydor [Lagos] POLP 096 |
| 1983 | Various Artists | African Music | LP | Vertigo [Netherlands] 814 480-1 |
| 1983 | E.T. Mensah & Dr. Victor Olaiya | Highlife Giants of Africa Vol. 1 | LP | Polydor [Lagos] POLP 102 |
| 1986 | Dr. Victor Olaiya | Papingo Davalaya | LP | Polydor [Lagos] POLP 156 |
| 2001? | Dr. Victor Olaiya | The Best of Dr. Victor Olaiya - 3 Decades of Highlife | CD | Premier Music [Lagos] KMCD003 |
| 2003? | Dr. Victor Abimbola Olaiya | Highlife in The 80's - The Best of Dr. Victor Olaiya Vol. 2 - Evil Genius of Highlife |
CD | Premier Music [Lagos] KMCD007 |
| 2002? | Various Artists | High Life Kings Vol. 1 | CD | Premier Music [Lagos] KMCD 01 |
| 2002? | Various Artists | High Life Kings Vol. 2 | CD | Premier Music [Lagos] KMCD 02 |
| 2003? | Various Artists | The Kings of Highlife | CD | Wrasse Records [UK] WRASS 097 |
| 2005 | Victor Olaiya & his International All Stars / St. Augustine |
Let Yourself Go/There Was a Time / Papa de Love | 7"45 | Soundway [UK] SNDW 7002 |
| 2009 | Victor Olaiya's All Stars Soul International | Victor Olaiya's All Stars Soul International | CD | Vampisoul [Spain] VAMPI 107) |