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The enduring beats of Juju music
IN the process of evolution and development over the years, some social music Idioms have disappeared completely from Nigeria's music culture. Some have metamorphosed into other genre in terms of fusions while others are still struggling between survival and extinction as a result of the changing dimensions of a dynamic culture. But the highlife variant called Juju is still thriving unrelenting in the same entertainment role that it has performed since the beginning of the 20th century - especially at parties - as a social music form.
One of the early champions of juju music was Irewolede Denge who walked the streets of Lagos, singing and playing his guitar in the palm wine style. In day time, he worked as a labourer, but at night, he became an itinerant artiste and traversed the route from Oshodi through Messey, Bangbose and Kakawa to Campbell streets, singing in praise of the rich who lived in these areas and collecting huge sums of money from them at the end of the day.
Denge later formed a group as he grew older - with some of his early recordings on Odeon and later Ogunde labels. This was in the 1920s with Togo Lawson, another fine musician who was Denge's contemporary.
However, the man who really established and celebrated juju music in terms of pioneering was Tunde King who formed his group in 1932 and started making gramophone records on parlophone label in 1936.
Prior to King's emergence on the scene, the music had no name to it but it was King who first reflected it on his recordings. He was the first to incorporate the tambourine, which was eventually popular with the genre. We are told that the exponent of the tambourine developed the habit of throwing the instrument into the air and catching it when the music got him, a ritual,which he performed often to the delight and admiration of the dancers and onlookers. The Yoruba meaning for juju is throw. Duplicated with some tonal accent it becomes juju, which translates to "throw, throw". Like the case of highlife in Ghana, it was the onlooker's description of the movement of the tambourine that gave the name juju to the music. And since then the name struck, with King's first hit record, Eko Akete in 1936 followed by Oba Oyinbo, Dunia, Ojonla lojo agan among many others.
Another popular music form of this era was palm wine, which was so called because it was popular in palm wine bars along the Marina, Lagos. One of the champions of this variant was Ambrose Campell who in 1948 pioneered early highlife palm wine styles.
One of the first juju exponents to emerge from this juju - highlife format of palm wine origin in 1934 was Ayinde Bakare, who lived and died for the music.
Bakare personified the true spirit of juju music, creating a typical style and variant that went down well with Lagosians. He made numerous hit records, which were characterised by his passions for women as he often sang in their praises, among them, Adara fun Awon Aboyun, a prayer for pregnant women; Iwa Lewa where he equated beauty to good behaviour and Ojowu Obirin which entreated women never to commit abortion.
Also performing in the same authentic juju music style was Tunde Nightingale, a product of the past war era who was able to fuse the music with foreign idioms. Associated with the "Owambe" variant, Nightingale was popular on the Lagos party circuit, recording works of social commentary as well as praise songs on Melodisc and later Take Your Choice Records owned by the late Chief Abioro.
Influenced by the highlife scene of the early 1950s were such stars as Julius Araba and J.O. Oyesiku, avant garde juju exponents for whom the music was a pass-time as they were full-time staff of the Engineering Department of the Nigerian Railways. Eventually establishing a quartet which included Fatai Rolling Dollar, Araba's Afro Skiffle group took juju music to a higher level of performance with a style named Toy motion - with such hits as Mokago, Otilekun momo onile among many others.
Exponents of the highlife - juju format also include Dele Ojo, a guitarist who graduated from Victor Olaiya's All Stars where he played trumpet and learnt to play the guitar. But a more enduring effort appears to have come from Orlando Owoh in this idiom as his music is still as relevant as ever.
However, a major artiste that represents the highlife influence of the 1950s is Isaiah Kehinde (IK) Dairo, a celebrated musician who was honoured with an award of Member of the British Empire by the Queen of England in 1963.
Dairo came on the scene in 1960 with the introduction of accordion to juju music. Big band highlife was also at the peak of its popularity with exponents such as Victor Olaiya, Roy Chicago, Eddy Okonta, Bill Friday among others in the vanguard. A juju version of the music also went down well with the people especially as it was well crafted. Melodies were simple and structured along highlife patterns. And the instrumental backing was well tailored to suit accompaniment. IK Dairo's music went further to boost the rhythmic background which was less intense in highlife, introduction call - and - response patterns with group vocal harmonies to identify highlife with African music. It was not surprising that he was eventually invited to lecture in an American University before he died.
However, Ebenezer Obey and Sunny Ade took over in the 1960 s in a career that was to revolutionise juju music. Shina Peters funkified it with an up-tempo beat.
Juju music has endured. But the problem that has militated against its evolution and development over the years has been that of limited structural scope. For this reason, the music has not been able to assume any definitive melodic frame that can be adopted as a format. It cannot gain international acceptance because of its seeming formlessness. This explain why attractive as Sunny's releases for Island Records were in the early 1980s when he was signed on by the label, the King of Juju music was dropped, and the contract cancelled - for borishness and monotony.
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