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Oyelana... artiste with two lives
THE last time I met Tunji Oyelana was January 2007 in London. He was caught in the act, playing some of the quintessential sounds of highlife with his usual one-man aggregation, at his Emukay Club.
In the audience were many Nigerians that I had not seen since the 60s and 70s, including Chief Robert Clarke (SAN) who was on his way from France, J.K. Braimoh, the man who freaked Fela into highlife and night club life. The place was full to over flowing.
As the people jumped up for joy and asked for more music, one thing that chased itself through my mind was if they knew that Tunji was larger than the man they saw on stage, doubling on vocals and keyboards.
Tunji Oyelana exemplifies the artist whose overdue praises are rarely sung. And when they are, the profoundness hardly matches the recognition and acclaim he rightly deserves.
But he remains so totally accomplished both as a musician and dramatist that it has become increasingly difficult to identify him with one without the other.
Some of Oyelana's biggest hits include Guguru perere and Enia bu aparo recorded in the 70s by EMI Records in a recording career that perhaps began with Segun Sofowote's solo production effort.
It was Sofowote who fist appreciated the profoundness of Oyelana's potentials; and he took him on his own in those early days of Afro-fusion when Fela Anikulapo spearheaded an Afrobeat revolution. On hand to boost this renaissance at the time were such names as Johnny Hasstrup of Monomono, Blackman Akeeb Karim, Segun Bucknor, and even Ofege; they all belonged to student group from Saint Gregory's College, Lagos.
Sofowote designed a relevant direction that showcased Oyelana's afrobeat talent, and could have pursued this dimension to a logical conclusion if he had the where-withal of the multinational companies who were financially strong enough to invest in the expensive business of producing, promoting and marketing an artiste.
Basically, Oyelana is an authentic highlife musician who, over the years, has taken advantage of Yoruba folklore and individual dimension for himself.
Evident in his highlife music is this indigenous rhythm elevated to contemporary level; and given vocal meaning and significance by a voice that has projected songs in various idioms but can now be heard in a matured setting, generating profound feeling.
These qualities are perhaps more evident in For Better For Stay: For Worse for Go, an album that up still has potential for international success.
Produced by Odion Iruoje while still at EMI in the 80s, the album title speaks volumes about the reality that now surrounds most marriages that hit the rocks because of the changes in fortunes for bridegrooms who are no longer as financially buoyant as they were when the marriages were contracted.
He is also in his elements on such traditional highlife renditions as Igbi aiyei and Oru Ladugbo, a folk song where singing is given dramatic feeling and emotion to project the messages.
Other renditions People of this world and it are not your fault brother, both of which are original compositions.
However the greatest performance in this album is Gudu morni Sir, where Oyelana's dramatic inclination comes into play both in terms of composition and vocal delivery.
Gudu morni Sir is the non-English speaking pronunciation of 'Good morning sir' by a typical Yoruba person. The story is told with homour ad dramatic feeling, which has both helped to establish the message.
As an overriding asset, Oyelana's vocalisation is perhaps the most impressive in his Benders Group.
And, playing percussion as well as doubling on keyboards, he would continue to perpetuate the rich, cultural Benders sound.
Oyelana evoked a lot of nostalgia some years ago on the occasion of Ambassador Segun Olusola's birthday at the latter's Surulere residence when he held a whole audience spell bound.
Unaccompanied, on vocals with all the rhythmic stressed in the right places, he made a single voice musical technique sound like a group.
One also had the opportunity of watching him in actual performance in the early 80s at the campus residence of Prof. Wole Soyinka.
The occasion was the marriage ceremony of one of the Soyinka's daughter. Oyelana held the fort even as the professor was out of the country, doubling on vocals and keyboards.
The audience was thrilled, not by the live versions of his popular hits, but by the creative imagination with which he reeled out lyrics with spontaneity. Beautifully laced between organ sounds and rhythm, he ran social commentaries and fitted them into melodies to capture the essence of the ceremony.
He played a lead role in Soyinka's King Baabu as a trusted lieutenant of tyrannical monarch. As Tikki, a brother in-law and chief adviser to King Baabu, Oyelana played a prominent role in the staging of the play.
Since he was discovered, like many other actors, by Soyinka in the 60s, Oyelana has been involved in numerous plays. He was integrated into Soyinka's theatre group, "Masks," in the early 60s when Soyinka was still a Research Fellow at the University of Ibadan. He began by serving, as a stagehand in Soyinka's You in your small corner, from where he eventually graduated into the mainstream of the scholar's drama productions.
Oyelana had left Nigeria in 1995 for Britain to take part in Bode Sowande's adaptation of Amos Tutuola's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts at the Royal Court Theatre, London. He also starred in Wole Soyinka's Beautification of Area Boy in which as a satirist and social commentator, Soyinka was forthright in the condemnation of mis-governance and the social vices being institutionalised by government functionaries.
The show put him on the wrong side of the then Nigerian dictator, late General Abacha whose wrath was incurred to the point of indignation and rage. Like his mentor, Oyelana was not to come back to Nigeria until the demise of Abacha.
He is perhaps better known for his lead role in the television serial, Sura The Tailor because the programme ran consecutively for more than a quarter on television.
But his music continues to play a vital role in the accomplishment of his drama production where, in collaboration with his mentor, music has been used as a satirical vehicle for condemning corruption in high places, misrule by governments and institutionalisation of social vices.
A case in point is the powerful music behind Etiku Revolution done by him and Soyinka in 1983 with a session unit referred to as 'Unlimited Liability Company Limited.'
The music became popular because of achieved its desired objective of pricking the consequence of the then government and their collaborators. Though banned by the authorities, it was in great demand; and as an underground sound, it sold and reflected as a hit on the famous Radio Nigeria 2 Top Ten Chart.
Oyelana is currently in London, keeping the spirit of highlife alive.
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