Ola Balogun

By Ola Balogun

I was a precocious and rascally schoolboy at King’s College Lagos in the late 1950s and early 1960s when I first encountered the late E.C.Arinze, the music maestro whose glittering performances at Kakadu night club, (located close to Alagomeji bus stop on Herbert Macauley road, Yaba) was a must for music lovers in the Lagos of those days…

At that time, along with my twin brother and alter ego, Tayo Gibson-Roberts, I was one of the leaders of a ring of ‘bad boys’ who specialized in scaling the King’s College walls at night during the weekends to roam about Lagos in search of live music performances.

E. C Arinze

Over time, our adventurous explorations allowed us to witness at first hand what was perhaps Nigeria’s greatest era of live music performances…

Since we were perennially short of funds, we usually walked long distances to and from the mainland after sneaking out of the King’s College premises, chatting and laughing happily all the way as we wandered from one night spot to the other in quest of the holy grail of musical nirvana…

In the course of those exciting years, our peregrinations took us to a variety of music spots, which ranged from Kakadu night club to Ambassador hotel (located a few hundred yards up the road from Kakadu), which was home to Chief Bill Friday and his band (featuring our idol Joe Mensah as vocalist) as well as to Gondolanight club close by, which was located within the premises of Niger Palace hotel, which was situated close to Ambassador.

Unfortunately, Gondola night club was strictly off limits to rascally urchins like us at the time. However, it was a few years later that I first heard Fela Ransome-Kuti (as he was then known) perform at the bar of the Niger Palace hotel, when I returned briefly to Nigeria on holidays from overseas study towards 1964 or 1965.

Obviously, I was instantly mesmerized by Fela’s music from the first moment I heard him play. (Fela was a trumpet player at the time, and his idiom was jazz).

Interestingly enough, Fela’s music was hugely unpopular with the general crowd of music fans in the Lagos of those days. The great majority of Nigerians were (and still remain!) deeply allergic to jazz, so it was quite amusing to watch most of the audience hissing in disgust and heading hastily for the exit each time Fela mounted on the stage to perform…

Other music spots that our ring of ‘bad boys’ favoured in our years of hungry quest for good music included Lido night club and Empire hotel (both located close to what later became Fela’s home at Idi Oro, which subsequently came to be knownas ‘Kalakuta Republic’.)

Ironically enough, Fela was later to take over the Empire hotel night club at the height of his popularity in the early 1970s, when it became known as the Africa Shrine, in succession to the original Africa Shrine, which was located off Akerele street in SuruLere…

Another of our favourite night spots was what was then known as Papingo Davalaya, where the ‘wicked’ highlife king Victor Olaiya used to hold sway, and where Fela was occasionally permitted to perform as a guest vocalist, although he was strictly restricted to performing high life tunes. (Papingo Davalaya, located in the vicinity the National Stadium was later to become known by the more prosaic name of Stadium hotel)…

And of course, the Mecca of all music lovers in those days was Caban Bamboo (also known as Hotel Bobby) on Ikorodu road, where the greatest of them all, King Bobby Benson the incomparable showman, wonderful dancer and fabulous musician reigned in high pomp and glory over the entire city of Lagos by night…

Where does Gentleman E.C. Arinze (as he was known at the time to some of us because of his refined and courtly manners) fit into this panorama of live music performances in the Lagos of the early 1960s?

To begin with, it is perhaps necessary to recall that the band leaders of that era were hugely successful and highly respected men who lived in big houses and drove flashy American limousines. Music was a highly respected profession at the time!

In terms of the social pecking order, band leaders featured high up on the scale, alongside primary school Headmasters, post office Post Masters and railway Station Masters…

In addition, the factthat they ranked somewhat beneath lawyers, magistrates, politicians, surveyors and doctors in terms of prestige and wealth did not make them any the less influential in the Nigerian society of those days, since they invariably set fashion trends and coined new phrases and expressions that were subsequently adopted by the entire society…

So E.C. Arinze, like his peers Chief Bill Friday, Roy Chicago, Victor Olaiya, Charlie Uwegbue, Baby Face Paul and Eddie Okonta was a powerful and influential man in his time!
However, E.C.Arinze was never a flamboyant person, even though he was one of the best liked and most respected musicians in the Lagos of that era. He tended to be cool and unflappable, rather in the manner of the inscrutable trumpet maestro Miles Davies or the immortal emperor of big band jazz music Duke Ellington…

I remember that whenever it was time for E.C. Arinze to mount on stage, he would stride forward calmly after producing a white handkerchief from one of his pockets (no doubt in imitation of his heroLouis Armstrong, who was idolized by musicians and crowds alike all across West Africa at the time), wipe his trumpet briefly, and then launch into a melodious succession of highlife tunes, backed up by a highly disciplined band, which occasionally included Victor Uwaifo on tenor guitar…

(Uwaifo belonged at this time to a parallel set of ‘bad boys’ who used to sneak out of St. Gregory’s college to enjoy and participate in live music performances all across Lagos.)

I cannot absolutely vouch for the veracity of my affirmation, but if my memory serves me correctly, other St. Gregory’s college rebels and non-conformists whom we frequently crossed paths with in various night spots during our music-oriented night time peregrinationsincluded my dear brother Yinka Alakija and my equally dear friend and contemporary,George Amu (now a Bishop), who has since metamorphosed into a religious leader, no doubt in atonement for his youthful sins and indiscretions…

Interestingly enough, the E.C. Arinze we knew and loved in those days was a remarkably poised individual, who played a wide range of music with remarkable aplomb, ranging from what was then known as ballroom music (i.e. foxtrot, waltz, tango etc) to jazz, cha cha cha, rhumba and highlife…

May he commune in glory in the other world for the rest of eternity in the scintillating company of Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Franco, Baby Face Paul, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Lionel Hampton, Chief Bill Friday, Lee Morgan, Lionel Hampton, Miriam Makeba, E.T. Mensah, Fatai Rolling Dollar, Julius Araba, I.K. Dairo, Stephen Osita Osadebe and the marvellous host of other heroes and heroines of contemporary black musical creativity!

* Dr. Ola Balogun is a film maker, author and musician who is currently resident in Cotonou, Benin Republic