NAIJAZZ to honour Victor Olaiya

In pursuit of their vision of redefining and restoring Nigerian Music to its glorious position and promoting authentic, indigenous and identifiable Nigerian music for global relevance in a classic and contemporary style, NAIJAZZ music led by ace Jazz promoter Ayoola Sadare is honoring the legendary Highlife Genius Dr. Victor Olaiya whose career has spanned over 60 active years.

In a statement Sadare said “We at NAIJAZZ are honoured to be given opportunity to celebrate a living legend. Victor Olaiya has been a recurring decimal on the music scene for so long and he is no doubt a reference point for authentic Nigerian music whenever and wherever it is mentioned alongside other music legends like Fela Kuti, Ebenezer Obey, Rex Lawson, King Sunny Ade, Osita Osadebe, Dr. Victor Uwaifo  to mention a few. His music is evergreen, fresh and relevant now as it was when initially produced. His music can be regarded as our own Jazz standard which when properly archived is a reference points for generations to come. Dr. Olaiya is a Classic Legacy musician. His current collaboration ‘Baby Mi Da’ remix with another current music icon Tuface Idibia is a case in point. We need to celebrate and honour this man while he is alive. This opportunity was facilitated by his son Bayode and is the beginning of a series of events NAIJAZZ has planned for other musical legends among us.” 

Dr. Victor Olaiya (born 31 December 1930) who plays in the highlife style was extremely famous in Nigeria during the 1950s and early 1960s. Alhaji Alade Odunewu  (Allah De) of Blessed memory described him as "The Evil Genius of Highlife."  The 20th child of a family of 24. His parents, Alfred Omolona Olaiya and Bathsheba Owolabi Motajo, came from Ijesha-Ishu in Ekiti State. Olaiya came from a very rich family. His father's house called Olaiya is still standing today at Tinubu square in Lagos and still owned by the Olaiya family. At an early age he learned to play the Bombardon and the French Horn. After leaving school he moved to Lagos, where he passed the school certificate examination in 1951 and was accepted by Howard University, USA, to study civil engineering. Olaiya instead pursued a career as a musician. He played with the Sammy Akpabot Band, was leader and trumpeter for the Old Lagos City Orchestra and joined the Bobby Benson Jam Session Orchestra.

In 1954 Olaiya formed his own band, the Cool Cats, playing popular highlife music. His band was chosen to play at the state ball when Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom visited Nigeria in 1956, and later to play at the state balls when Nigeria became independent in 1960 and when Nigeria became a republic in 1963. On the latter occasion, Olaiya shared the stage with the American jazz musician Louis Armstrong. During the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-70, Olaiya was given the rank of a lieutenant colonel (honorary) in the Nigerian army and his band played for the troops at various locations. The Cool Cats later travelled to the Congo to perform for United Nations troops. Olaiya renamed his band to the All Stars Band when they played the 1963 International Jazz Festival in Czechoslovakia. Olaiya also ran a business that imported and distributed musical instruments and accessories throughout West Africa, and established the Stadium Hotel in Surulere. In 1990, Olaiya received a fellowship of the Institute of Administrative Management of Nigeria. For a period, he was also president of the Nigerian Union of Musicians. Olaiya's music bridges between Ghanaian highlife and what would become Afrobeat.

His musical style was influenced by James Brown, with horn parts harmonized in Brown's style, as opposed to the mostly unison lines of Afrobeat. Olaiya released an album with Ghanaian highlife musician E. T. Mensah. Both the drummer Tony Allen and vocalist Fela Kuti played with Olaiya and went on to achieve individual success. In July 2013, Victor Olaiya released a music video remix of Baby Jowo (Baby Mi Da) with Tuface idibia and that has received much acclaim.

The NAIJAZZ music celebration is slated for 5pm on Sunday, August 18 at Stadium Hotel, 27 Iyun Street, off Western Avenue, Surulere.