THE resonant sound of musical instruments welcomed us to the Ijebu-Jesha home of multi-instrumentalist, highlife musician and producer, Orlando Julius Ekemode, known merely as OJ by friends and fans around mid-day that Friday.
We had thought a performance was underway but his wife, Latoya Aduke, who had given us directions to the house on the phone and welcomed us warmly when we arrived, explained that it was a rehearsal session.
The innovative artiste whose last album, Longevity & Reclamation produced in Ghana and released in 2005, was rehearsing for another album, a special gift to Nigerians and indeed the whole world in the New Year.
“He will join you shortly,” assured Latoya, a renowned dancer and backup vocalist for her husband, who received us warmly and graciously. She related with us as if she had known us all her life, producing a gallon of palm wine and glass cups in a jiffy.
“Here guys, you can drink this during the interview. It’s fresh,” she said as she went upstairs to break the rehearsal session and bring OJ to us.
The fact that we were from the Nigerian Tribune, Nigeria’s oldest surviving private newspaper founded by the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo who had played a pivotal role in OJ’s fledgling music career and at some of whose birthdays he had performed, made her shower us with care the more.
“Nigerian Tribune, Papa Awolowo, you guys are great. OJ is very fond of Papa and your paper. It’s good to have you here,” she said as she returned with not only her husband but also one of his main collaborators, British-born producer and multi-instrumentalist, Jack Yglesias in tow. Yglesias is the Band Leader of The Heliocentrics and Family Atlantica Bands in the UK; The Heliocentrics and OJ have been touring internationally for about five years.
Unknown to many, rather than relax and live the life in Ijebu-Jesha with his African-American wife, the highlife artiste born in September 1943 in Ikole-Ekiti, Ekiti State has been actively touring the world with The Heliocentrics. He only returned to Nigeria to rest before hitting the performance circuit again.
Rehearsing with the duo that day was bass guitarist and OJ’s band member, Segun Ayinde and TobilobaDagiloke, young talent with a beautiful voice that the Ekemode are nurturing.
Yglesias, who had never been to Nigeria previously, explained the early jam session: “We are going to make a new album; that’s Orlando Julius, and I’m here to help and meet some great musicians that we’re working with. That’s an album that’s going to come out, hopefully, next year; an Orlando Julius album. From where we have got to so far, I can tell you it’s going to be a fantastic album. So watch out for that.”
But why is he recording the new album in Nigeria and not abroad?
“I want to record it in Nigeria. Of course, I could have done it in Europe or the US, but I want time to prepare well and make a good record. Nigeria is my country, and I want to concentrate on its making. It should be out next year and what I’m doing is to ensure that people will like the songs,” he said.
Not only does the man who once played with highlife great, Eddy Okonta and American superstar, James Brown still play the saxophone at 75, he still dances very well and sings. Where does that energy come from?
“Let me say that God is my strength; I don’t take any concoction or performance-enhancing substance before I climb the stage. I take only water, and I’m grateful that those around me are not drunks too. They are competent and don’t also need any enhancer. Even when I have breaks during performances, I only take water as does my band members. I’m always happy when I’m singing and making people happy, so that’s the secret,” he said matter-of-factly.
Named Julius AremuOlusanyaEkemode by his parents, OJ started music early in elementary school in Ikole where he was born. The sudden death of his father at the commencement of high school made him head to Ibadan to learn music professionally. Explaining his choice of Ibadan, he said “the city was the Mecca of entertainment in Nigeria, and the big names in music and other spheres of life emerged there. Ibadan is a place where you need to be to be close to music; it’s where everything that is first in Africa started.”
Still recalling the early years of his apprenticeship in Ibadan in the 1950s, the maestro disclosed, “during that period, Chief Obafemi Awolowo was the Premier of Western Region and because there was no music school available, he made his party, the Action Group, to establish one at its secretariats at Oke-Ado, Ibadan, where I and others had the opportunity to learn music. In 1960, I was able to record my first single titled Igbehin Adara through the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC).
“After that, I went to Ilesha where I joined the late Dr I.K Dairo’s band. I was leading the band and later established my 10-piece band, Orlando Julius & His Modern Aces. We performed regularly at Independence Hotel, Oke-Bola, Ibadan. I released my first single, Jagua Nana on Phillips Records label. Not long after this, I travelled to Western Germany through Polydor Records, on recording deals. After the assignment in Germany, I returned to Nigeria to meet another task waiting for me, and I made a quick visit to the US. It was after I returned to Nigeria that I met late James Brown whose band performed with my band at Paradise Hotel.”
In 1974, OJ relocated to the US where he remained till 1998 before moving back home. During this time, however, he came home in 1984 to start recording the album, Dance Afro Beat at EMI Studios. While in God’s Own Country, he produced an album entitled The Boy is Doing It with late South African musician, Hugh Masekela. His song, Ashiko was a hit in the album while his track, Isedale Baba A wa in an album produced with Lamont Dozier during FESTAC ’77 was also popularly accepted. But it wasn’t just performances that occupied him in the US; he also seized the opportunity to improve himself; he studied Audio Engineering and Production in Bear West Studios and Film Production at the Berkeley Film Institute. That’s not all. He made a film with Jimi Solanke in the US.
The artiste and his wife, Latoya, also spent five years in Ghana (2003 to 2008) before he eventually returned home and subsequently moved to Ijebu-Jesha where he now lives.
Explaining what made him move to his home-town, the artiste who also featured on the Bar Beach Show on Channel 10 where he worked with the late Art Modupe Alade, said, “I have lived in many places, and it’s not that I’m in Ilesa to hide. I’ve always wanted to stay in a place where I can set up a music school to train people, have a performance venue as well as a studio. I feel this is the place to do that and our arena is almost ready as we speak. It’s also giving back to my hometown. I wanted to ensure that my people have access to me, and I want to make them happy.”
Asked about his dancing, he said it’s an innate talent and that his wife complements him perfectly. “God is the one that gave me music and dance. And talking about my wife, she’s too much when it comes to dancing. She never tires. I never do too because you should be happy to have a life.”
OJ’s face lit up when asked about his late kinsman, Ambrose Campbell. “He was very nice and liked my music. He was also from here, and he could speak Ijesa. We worked together in the US,” he said.
Impressively, the artist who favours the saxophone has never done anything outside the arts. He has lived practically all his life in music and production and had no regrets.
“Music has been good to me, and I want to continue singing and dancing because it makes me happy,” he assured while revealing that he has had his saxophone for over three decades.
“This sax is very old, and it’s not that I can’t afford another, but I love this particular one: this tenor and the smaller alto sax. I’m glad that I can continue to sing and this is a musical instrument that I pray God to enable me to play for a long time. I started learning it slowly in the 1950s and mastered it over time.”
Set to clock 76 in 2019, OJ is not entertaining retirements thought. He wants to continue making music, impacting lives and being merry as confirmed by the dance session featuring him, Latoya, Segun and Tobiloba at the end of the interview to a soon-to-be released track produced by the young boy for the town’s new king.
and then