Grammy Winner, Babalola to Perform in Lagos

Ferdinand Ekechukwu

As a prelude to his homecoming gig in Lagos today, two-time Grammy award-winning musician Lekan Babalola, had earlier in the year released a new body of work, titled ‘Mr. Lakaye’, on local and international digital stores. The 11-track album embraces a mix of jazz, funk and world music with the signature touch of Afrobeat. This would be the repertoire upon which the master percussionist will sate the appetite of his African fans and music connoisseurs with his self-produced album.

Guests at the breezy evening of cool music for his album listening party, which promises to be an eclectic blend of musical influences, would get a chance to see the 61-year-old hold sway at Ogidi Studios located in Lekki Phase I, Lagos. A statement credited to Winifred Okpapi, Head, Strategy, Arts and Talent Affairs, said, “We are privileged to have one of the greats amongst us and this is only the beginning as we tell his story. Being a master percussionist and brilliant curator, we can’t wait to have you with us at the prestigious Ogidi studios to know more and see him at work.”

Babalola is well known for his innovative musical style, using his native Yoruba tongue infused with traditional music, Afrobeat and funky dance overtones. His voice is noted to boom in Yoruba over a bouncing tune enriched with infectious electronic elements and complemented with his signature percussion sound. The album title track “Mr Lakaye” seethes with overwhelming pop influence, re-evoking ‘80s pop and soul train fever. ‘Time Come’, the first track off the album is a tribute track to the percussionist’s father, Olayiwola Babalola for his contribution to gospel music composition.

Babalola’s father was a leader of the church choir and an accordionist. As a composer, his father would have him sit down at age six to play the drums or the cowbell while he was composing and arranging songs. This childhood experience became very influential in his music career. He later formed a patchwork band with his peers. Another profound influence on Babalola’s sound is the King of Afrobeat himself, Fela Kuti. One of the songs on the album, ‘Your Highness’, which has a video shot in Lagos, precisely Lagos Island, is an Afrobeat track that eulogises Fela.

Babalola is famed to be the first person Fela Kuti rented out his famous New Afrika Shrine in 1987. Furthermore, he introduced the Fela Kuti fan club to the world, running it from his residence in Kalakuta, Gbemisola Street, Ikeja. The oldie had first-hand experience in the evolution of Afrobeat and Fela’s promotion of African ideology. The Yoruba world-view forms a powerful crust in Babalola’s sound. He satisfies the curiosity of his western audience with the bulk of mythology and history that he breaks down beat after beat.

One of Nigeria’s most accomplished musicians, Babalola has jointly won the Grammy Awards twice. He won it for the first time in 2006 for his work on Ali Farka Toure’s In the Heart of the Moon, receiving credit on three songs. He won a second Grammy in 2009 for his work on Cassandra Wilson’s album, Loverly.

Still on his professional career, his percussive skills were honed after he joined a band called Samba Samba Band and later New York City-based Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers band, playing the Bongo drums and performing jazz music. Upon his arrival in the U.K, Babalola later went on to work with notable acts including Prince, Ernest Ranglin, Branford Marsalis, African Jazz All Stars, Roy Ayers, David Byrne, Damon Albarn, and Tony Allen amongst others. His long-standing romance with English-European culture and music in particular brought about another fruit: a wife, Kate Luxmoore with whom he has five children.

Luxmoore has been his music collaborator and composed a few of the tracks in the album. His previous albums include Songs of Icon (2006), Kabioye (2005), and 12 Package (2005). Babalola has lived in UK since 1980 when he left Nigeria for the United Kingdom to study automobile engineering at the Chelsea College of Aeronautical and Automobile Engineering after he won a Lagos State Scholarship. He however dropped the engineering programme for music and later enrolled at the Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design where he studied filmmaking. He proceeded to the Northern Film School where he completed his master’s degree.