By Chris Paul Otaigbe
Trying to take my mind back to the days of innocence when there was order and life made more sense and had greater value than what it has been turned into today, I clicked on the You tube icon and of all the variety of videos outlined on the front desk of the foremost online video page, it was Victor Olaiya’s video my finger found more engaging to take me back in time.
The picture opens on a two shot with a hand cleaning a trumpet that dominates the shot with a young lady spotting an afro hair looking at pictures of the man whose hand we saw cleaning the musical instrument in the opening shot.
As she picks one of the pictures to show her subject, the shot is zoomed out to establish the two actors who are playing the younger Victor Olaiya and his girlfriend way back in his younger days in this music video shot in black and white to depict the olden days when the music maestro was in his prime as a young musician.
The scene is alluringly laced with one of his music. It was a music video production of the title track ‘Baby mi da’ produced and directed by Kunle Afolayan, whose late father Afolabi Afolayan reigned as one of the stars way back then on the Nigerian film and Theatre scene.
The young lady continued her enthusiastic journey into her musician boyfriend’s world as she picks each photograph to show him for explanation of who he is with or where he was, what he was doing in the particular pose captured by the camera at the time.
Each time she brought one for explanation, Victor, who busied himself with cleaning his trumpet as if tendering to a little baby would occasionally explain until she stumbled on one with him and another young lady. Victor tried to dismiss her concern over the status of the young lady in his life as she could imagine in their romantic posture in the picture but she would have none of it.
So, in anger, she made to leave with a Victor in pursuit begging her to stay. This action cued in the music of Victor Olaiya.
Just then, 2Face Idibia, also spotting an afro like the two other actors, appeared in a wide shot of the three performers, to find out what the problem was, blocking the young lady at the door to play the role of mediator between the two lover birds. By this time, the music had gained momentum.
The picture transited from this scene, a dramatization of the Olaiya in his younger days, from the black and white to the present day, now older Victor with a younger 2Face Idibia on stage with a few back up musicians and in living colour in an equally made up theatrical environment with a live audience, singing:
“e bami so fun sisi yen ko ma ilo ooo, sebi mo so wipe faji tele lawa… baby jowo ko ma ilo ooo… omode nse mi, baby mii daa…” (it means: help me tell that young damsel not to leave yet I had told her before that we were in a party mood. Baby, please don’t go yet. Am feeling childish, where is my baby…).
Those were some lyrics from one of his many hits back in the day. As the music progressed, the pictures oscillated between black and white and full color to continue the dramatization of the Olaiya story in his younger days and the present with him on the made-up stage performing the song with the Benue-born, Lagos brought-up present day Nigerian star, popular known as Tu Baba.
The music video was a fusion of the old with the new interpretation of the marriage of the old and modern-day representation of the old school and new beats of Nigerian entertainment industry using Olaiya’s highlife music.
The music was a classic love tale that had listeners in awe decades after its release. The Olaiya-Tu Face musical romance had been kicked off in 2013 when the older star had 2Baba, a contemporary afro-pop master, on the song. As expected, the song was a toast for the younger generation and a raised fist for Olaiya, saying “yes, I’m still here.”
A music video remix of Baby Jowo (Baby Mi Da) with 2face Idibia, it was released in July 2013 and received with much acclaim.
In 2017, Victor Olaiya, who kept playing weekly at his hotel (Stadium Hotel) in Surulere, Lagos, announced his retirement. According to his manager Gbenga Adewusi, Olaiya’s failing health was the only reason he wasn’t involved in playing music full time.
Olaiya was one of the pioneers of the highlife music which originated from Ghana. That genre which dominated the few decades, had the likes of E.T. Mensah, Bobby Benson, Eddy Okonta and the legendary Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.
Victor was an inspiration to many of the great stars the highlife music produced at the time. Fela Anikulapo Kuti who became the greatest of his protégés, left the world, just as virtually all of his fellow stars in the highlife firmaments, decades before he did, at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, on February 12, 2020 at 89.
Olaiya’s death brought to an end an era of a music genre that dominated the West African, especially the Nigerian music and entertainment scene.
Victor Abimbola Olaiya OON, also known as Dr Victor Olaiya, born on 31st December, 1930, was a Nigerian trumpeter who played in the highlife style. Though famous in Nigeria during the 1950s and early 1960s, Olaiya received little recognition outside his native country. Alhaji Alade Odunewu of the Daily Times nicknamed him “The Evil Genius of Highlife.”
Born in Calabar, Cross River State and the 20th child of a family of 24, his parents, a very rich family, Alfred Omolona Olaiya and Bathsheba Owolabi Motajo, came from Ijesha-Ishu in Ekiti State.
His father’s house, Ilọijọs Bar, stood at 2, Bamgbose Street, Lagos Island, until it was demolished in September 2016.
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, US, to study civil engineering.
Olaiya, instead, pursued a career as a musician, to the disapproval of his parents. He played with the Sammy Akpabot Band, was leader and trumpeter for the Old Lagos City Orchestra and joined the Bobby Benson Jam Session Orchestra.
In 1954 Olaiya formed 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 UK 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 the latter occasion, Olaiya shared the stage with the American jazz musician Louis Armstrong. During the Nigerian Civil War of 1967–70, Olaiya was given the rank of a lieutenant colonel (honorary) in the Nigerian army, and his band played for the troops at various locations. The Cool Cats later travelled to the Congo to perform for United Nations troops.
Olaiya renamed his band to the All Stars Band when they played at the 1963 International Jazz Festival in Czechoslovakia.
Olaiya also ran a business that imported and distributed musical instruments and accessories throughout West Africa, and established the Stadium Hotel in Surulere.
Olaiya was bestowed the second rank (officer) of the national Order of the Niger award. In 1990, he received a fellowship of the Institute of Administrative Management of Nigeria. For a period, he was also president of the Nigerian Union of Musicians.
He had several wives through whom he had lots of children and grandchildren. One of his daughters, Moji Olaiya, was a Nollywood actress. He also sang with his son Bayode.
Victor Olaiya’s contribution to the highlife genre, dates back to 1954, when he formed the Cool Cats band with Fela Ransom-Kuti and Tony Allen as freelance members. Before then he had been playing with some other notable bands such as Bobby Benson’s Jam Session Orchestra.
Victor Olaiya had picked up along his musical career, the pristine highlife sounds that fed the vibes churned out by the Cool Cats and achieved massive success. Queen Elizabeth was gloriously serenaded by the heavenly horns of Victor and his highlife band, when she visited Nigeria in 1956.
The Cool Cats success was consistent and lasted through those early years of Nigeria’s post-colonial era.
On the Nigerian scene, the band played at the state balls held in the honor of the nation’s independence in 1960 and three years later, when she became a republic sharing the stage with the American jazz musician Louis Armstrong.
He was given the honorary rank of a lieutenant colonel (honorary) in the Nigerian army and his band played for the troops at various locations. during the Nigerian Civil War of 1967–70.
The Cool Cats later travelled to the Congo to perform for United Nations troops.
He would later rename his band as the All Stars Band when they played the 1963 International Jazz Festival in Czechoslovakia.
This recognition from the higher political echelon of the day was an endorsement and an affirmation of highlife’s position as a genre that spoke to the possibilities of young Nigeria. With lyrics that were often didactic and filled with wisdom which drew from the well of the positive norms, culture and practices of Africa. It found its resonance as a music for the Elders and the Elite, a personality-defining music that emphasized its strength through a sound that was at once electrifying, grand, and danceable. The 50s, 60s, and years after, saw highlife acts dominate the African music scene. Artistes like ET Mensah, Prince Nico Mbarga, Rex Lawson, and Victor Olaiya himself were all extremely popular in Africa.
Noted as a dedicated artist, among his contemporaries, Victor picked up instruments with the curiosity of a child and using the patience cum skill of the ideal student, learned its intricacies to mastery.
His dedication goes way back to his younger years. Trumping on a trajectory of a diehard creative Artiste, rather than follow the academic path on the course of Engineering which his parents would have been proud of, Olaiya decided to opt for music to the anger of his elite parents.
Justifiably, Alfred and Bathsheba were not happy with their son because they desperately needed him to join the corporate world which offered a better chance at the good life.
But Olaiya kept on, nonetheless, as he learned to play the Bombardon and the French Horn in his early life. It was with this relentless dedication he learned to shape his highlife sound that thrilled his audience with joyous and physically demanding beats.
According to Odunewu who gave the name ‘evil genius’ to Olaiya, the Late maestro’s music was 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration which made his fans sweat through dancing as they get carried away by the music.
Bridging between Ghanaian highlife and what would become Afrobeat, Olaiya’s musical style was influenced by James Brown, with horn parts harmonized in Brown’s style, as opposed to the mostly united rhythmic lines of Afrobeat. It included the vacillating percussion of Tony Allen, but not the syncopated style that Allen later pioneered.
Olaiya released an album with Ghanaian highlife musician E. T. Mensah. While the drummer Tony Allen and vocalist Fela Kuti had series of sessions with Olaiya and went on to achieve individual success.
Olaiya also ran a business that imported and distributed musical instruments and accessories throughout West Africa, and 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 also president of the Nigerian Union of Musicians.
Just like the story beautifully told in the music video remix of Baby Jowo, Victor has now become the beautiful girl in the mini movie dramatization, while his younger self, as played by the young actor is nature begging him not to leave yet because, like the lover girl, he had been told before time that life had been in a party mood for him.
However, unlike the story told in the mini movie in which a Tu Face appeared to settle the lovebirds and succeeding in getting the girl to stay back, in reality there was no Tu Baba to settle the Victor’s case with nature as his time had come to a glorious end and he had to go.
I am sure, the Producers of that video remix would have had other younger stars who are dominating the music scene globally today planned in similar fashion to collaborate with the old musician to video remix the rest of his many hits back the day. But then he had to leave because, at 89, he had lived the life he had always wanted to experience.
Although, it is one month and over eleven days he departed to continue his party with his Baby in the great beyond, Victor Olaiya’s music would continue to serenade the elderly and the elite whose affinity for the best of the good old days would always draw upon the wealth of wisdom and strength of the sanity of those times to remain sane in the insane world we have found ourselves today.
As the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji, said, the passing of Olaiya is like the fall of a big Iroko and the end of an era. In every way and areas of consideration, Olaiya was one of Nigeria’s greatest musicians of all times who held on to his art decade after decade after decade.
Surely his influence on Nigerian music and musicians is measurable as it is enduring; just as his impact on entertainment in the country is unequaled. As Okoroji said, yes, there will be other musicians over time, but there will not be another Victor Olaiya.
One cannot but agree with Muhammadu Buhari, the President of Nigeria, who spoke of the departed highlife giant when he affirmed that Victor’s place in history is guaranteed, because Victor sang, not just for the entertainment value, but also taught critical lessons on life, good neighborliness, and national cohesion.
Of course, he will be sorely missed.
