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.
