Tunde King

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Tunde King
Born24 August 1910
Nigerian
OccupationMusician

Tunde King (born 24 August 1910), was a Nigerian musician credited as the founder of Jùjú music. He had a great influence on Nigerian popular music.

Lagos in the 1920s and 1930s was peopled by a mixture of local Yoruba people and returnees from the New World. Together they created a form of music named "Palm Wine" that combined Yoruba folk music with musical idioms from countries such as Brazil and Cuba. Banjos, guitars, shakers and hand drums supported lilting songs about daily life.[1] Jùjú music was a form of Palm Wine music that originated in the Olowogbowo area of Lagos in the 1920s, in a motor mechanic workshop where "area boys" used to gather to drink and make music. Tunde King was the leader of this group.[2]

Life

Abdulrafiu Babatunde King was born in the

Muslim Saro community. His father was a chief Native Court clerk at Ilaro, and had lived for some time in Fourah Bay, Sierra Leone.[3]

Tunde King attended a local

maracas, later changing to tambourine, guitar-banjo. and sekere (shaker). By the mid-1930s, he enjoyed considerable success, with several recordings and radio broadcasts, but he still relied on live performances to earn a living, often at private functions.[3]
For example, King played at the wake of the prominent doctor Oguntola Sapara in June 1935.[4]

With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Tunde King joined the Merchant Marines. He returned to Lagos in 1941, then disappeared for the next eleven years. He was rediscovered playing in Francophone ports such as Conakry and Dakar, and returned to Lagos in 1954. He died in the 1980s.[3]

Music

The guitar-centered Jùjú musical style blends African elements such as the Yoruba talking drum with Western and Afro-Cuban influences.

Salvation Army store, which he gave to his Samba drummer. The drummer developed a flamboyant style that included throwing the tambourine into the air and catching it, which the audience called Jù-jú, duplicating the Yoruba word for "throw" with tonal accent.[6]

His trio expanded into a quartet, with King on six-string guitar-banjo and vocals, Ishola Caxton Martins on sekere (gourde rattle), Ahmeed Lamidi George on tambourine and Sanya ("Snake") Johnson on tomtom and supporting vocals. The members of the band created a moderately-paced ensemble sound that backed up the guitar and vocals with simple harmonic progressions.[7]

In the 1930s, Nigeria was a British colony. A Nigerian could go so far, but no further, in the government or in business, regardless of ability or qualifications. Tunde King expressed popular feelings in his songs. In "Oba Oyinbo", he celebrated the ascension of King George VI of Britain, saying with quiet irony "We Have a father ... King George is our father ... White man Cameron (the governor) is our father ..." In songs that were not recorded, he went further, expressing resentment more explicitly. The song "Soja Idunmota" describes a monument of a white soldier with a native carrier, whose head is hanging down, saying "Cruelly, they forget the common descent of man". In the song "Eti Joluwe" he said that it was better for Yorubas to work for themselves than for the government.[3]

Recordings

The first mass recordings of Jùjú music were made by Parlophone of the EMI group, starting in 1936, released on 78rpm shellac discs. Tunde King released a number of these recordings including "Eko Akete" and the classic "Oba Oyinbo" ("European King"). He was paid only a small amount to record each release, and earned a very small amount from royalties. However, the recordings were essential in establishing his reputation.[3][6] Other recordings include "Sapara ti sajule orun", "Dunia (Ameda)" and "Ojuola lojo agan". In all, he made over 30 records.[7] Two of his recordings, "Oba Oyinbo" and "Dunia" were included on an anthology CD Juju Roots: 1930s-1950s, released by Rounder Records in January 1985.[5]

Legacy

Tunde King's music influenced his contemporaries, as well as later players such as

Sir Shina Peters and Segun Adewale were playing modern forms of Jùjú.[5]

References

  1. ^ "Juju music". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 4 January 2011. Retrieved 1 November 2009.
  2. JSTOR 931274
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-226-87465-4
    .
  4. ISBN 978-0-252-06343-5
    .
  5. ^ a b c "Juju Roots: 1930s-1950s". Rounder Records. Archived from the original on 24 May 2006. Retrieved 1 November 2009.
  6. ^ a b "Palm Wine is Truly Old or New" (PDF). Glendora Review Vol 3 No.2. Retrieved 1 November 2009.
  7. ^ a b Benson Idonije (2 April 2008). "Salute to Tunde King, pioneer of juju music". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 21 February 2013. Retrieved 2 November 2009.
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