31 October 2009
Lagos — He has been living and working in the United States of America in the past six years. In that space of time, Kayode Olajide who used to perform with a band called the Weavers believers that some of the seeds of afrocentric product he sowed have been scorched to death by an unfavorable environment.
He also underscored why there is return of Nigerian artistes who used to live abroad back home. "I think people are beginning to see that the centre point, the reference should be your base. I had an established afrocentric artistic product here. The essence of it is to make sure that your culture is reflected in your expressions. What is responsible for that is that you have gone out to see how things are done outside, but you really should not adopt the style and applications 100 percent. Whatever upgrade you have currently should still be traced back to your origin because that is your identity.
I was talking to Branford Marsalis, Winton Marsalis' brother a couple of months ago. He is very excited about the potentials of rhythm from here. If we own it, we should be able to showcase it. Since the time that I left, there has not been much of that kind of music being played here. It just makes absolute sense that I have new products. I have to come home to establish the contact. It was written on the Internet that I had stopped playing and that is because I had been away for quite a while. I have been away for six years.
Kayode Olajide and the Weavers were solidly on ground here. We did the first concert by a Nigerian act at the MUSON. I had an album out in 1998. It was very well played on BBC's Network Africa. I had several shows. I had linkages with the American Embassy, British Council, French Cultural Centre, Goethe Institute and all that. We had regular performances. By the time I left I had two albums out which sold pretty well. I frontline the Afro centric jazz here. I kept it on for eight years with a band of 13 persons. As Jazz goes with the Lagos social circle, back then, it was essentially Kayode Olajide and the Weavers.
Guys call me from here and they tell me that since I left, that kind of music just stopped happening here. There is no where the upwardly mobile guys go to listen to nice jazz and Afro centric music. I was playing original music.
My sojourn has added to the artistic value that I have. There is something about the artiste and his environment. The environment has a way of impacting on the artistic perception of the artiste. This environment was bad. It is even worse now. There is a lot of commotion out there. There is a lot of disorder. It makes it sometimes difficult for an artiste to compose or sing quality music. Being out there has given me the privilege to see a lot of professional upscale acts performing and you see how they present, you see the quality of stage and you see the kind of effort they put into the work they do. That has impacted on me and makes my act a little bit more internationally relevant and accepted. It has cleaned up my music a little bit more and upgraded it a little bit more. That is basically who I am now. When I was here, I was not into full time music. I was a Chemist. I was a general manager at IPWA. That is still the line of business that I am in out there. When I was here I was music and that. In the US, I am also that and music. I have been performing not with my band. I have been performing with friends and groups-you go to clubs to play some gigs. You compose music together and you play, but I haven't done any major gig.
When I left I had a solid arrangement for members of my band to continue, but they were not able to do it. One of my main man, the talking drummer is now in London. He is very engaged in London. The dancer is there in London also. Quite a number of them are here and they are not playing together anymore, which is a regret. I have plans to come back with my friends from abroad and play something with my band here. I am basically visiting I am not back. I have two albums that I have made over the past 18 months I brought those back to re-establish and to sell and to give credence to the fact that I am still performing.
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