Academic Musicians

1. Professor Akin Euba

Akin Euba (born Olatunji Akin Euba, Lagos, Nigeria, 28 April 1935) is a Nigerian composer,
musicologist, and pianist.

Career
Euba studied composition with Arnold Cooke at the Trinity College of Music, London, obtaining
the diplomas of Fellow of the Trinity College London (Composition) and Fellow of the Trinity
College London (Piano). He received B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of California,
Los Angeles, where he studied with Mantle Hood, Charles Seeger, Professor J. H. Kwabena
Nketia, Klaus Wachsmann, and Roy Travis. He holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the
University of Ghana, Legon (1974). While at Legon, Euba's doctoral work was supervised by
Professor Nketia, and his dissertation is entitled "Dundun Music of the Yoruba."
He was former Professor and Director of the Centre for Cultural Studies at the University of
Lagos, and has also served as a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Ife (now Obafemi
Awolowo University) in Nigeria. He served as Head of Music at the Nigerian Broadcasting
Corporation for five years. Since December 1986 has served as a research scholar and artist in
residence at IWALEWA House, the African studies center of the University of Bayreuth in
Germany. He currently serves as Andrew Mellon Professor of Music at the University of
Pittsburgh. He is the founder and director of the Centre for Intercultural Music Arts, London
(founded in 1989), and currently serves on the Board of Management of The Centre for
Intercultural Musicology at Churchill College (CIMACC).
Euba's scholarly interests include the musicology and ethnomusicology of modern
interculturalism. He has organized regular symposia on music in Africa and the Diaspora at
Churchill College, Cambridge as well as the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. These
events have featured such notable composers and scholars as J. H. Kwabena Nketia and Halim
El-Dabh. With his Elekoto Ensemble, he has brought together musicians from Nigeria, China,
India, Germany, Malta, and the United States.
His compositions involve a synthesis of African traditional material (often from his own ethnic
group, the Yoruba people) and contemporary classical music. His most ambitious composition is
the opera Chaka: An Opera in Two Chants (1970), which blends West African percussion and
atenteben flutes with twelve tone technique.
Works
Six Yoruba Folk Songs, arranged for voice and piano
1956 - Introduction and Allegro, orchestra
1964 - Four Pictures from Oyo Calabashes
1964 - Impressions From an Akwete Cloth, piano
1967 - Morning, Noon, and Night, singers, dancers, and Nigerian instruments
1967 - Olurounbi (or Olurombi), symphonic study for orchestra
1970 (rev. 1999) - Chaka, opera
1970 - Ice Cubes, string orchestra
1970 - Scenes From Traditional Life, piano
1975 - Alatangana, ballet for singers, dancers, and Nigerian instruments
1979 - Black Bethlehem, soloists, chorus, Nigerian drums, and jazz ensemble
1987 - Wakar Duru: Studies in African Pianism 1-3, piano
2003 - Below Rusumo Falls, voice, dancer, kayagum, flute, drums, and piano (text:
Olusola Oyeleye)
2. Tunji Oyelana

Tunji Oleyana grew up in Abeokuta, a city south of Lagos with a distant history of effective
resistance against European encroachment and during the mid-20th century when he grew up
vigorous intellectual and cultural ferment. He was raised in a household that valued both
musical performance and book learning, and might have settled on a legal career if he hadnt
been seduced by the stage in 1960, when he joined a theatre company called 1960 Masks. The
leader of that company, Wole Soyinka, was destined to win a Nobel Prize for writings that
incorporated Western structural and conceptual innovations without compromising its essential
African character. He was also destined to be Oyelanos occasional collaborator for decades;
having a guy like that in your crowd raises the bar a bit.
In the 60s, Oyelana juggled theatrical work, university-level musical instruction, and a bit of
singing for Orlando Julius. By the late 60s, he led a band called The Benders because of its
ability to shift easily between genres, including highlife, calypso, and rock n roll. The Benders
scored a hit in 1971 with Agba Lo De, which shared a bass-heavy, clave-driven rhythmic
approach with Fela Kutis Jeun Ko Ku. The song earned some Fela comparisons, but The
Benders flexibility assured that they never got pigeonholed as Afrobeat copycats. More
importantly, the songs success secured additional recording opportunities. This in turn yielded a
series of singles and LPs during the 70s and 80s, culminating in a joint project with Solinka
called Unlimited Liability Company. Oleyano continued to be an active musician and actor until
the 90s, when the corrupt powers that be in Nigeria grew tired of his association with truth
telling. Today he lives in London, where he occasionally serenades the diners at a family-run
restaurant named Emukay. Aside from three tracks on Struts Nigeria 70: The Definitive Story of
1970s Funky Lagos and Soundways Nigeria Rock Special and Nigeria Special Volume 2:
Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-6, his music has been confined to crates
and the blogosphere until now.
You can tell European and American art rock by its ambition; whether it borrows from Bach,
Brecht, or Burroughs, it aspires to be something more. Stylistic versatility wasnt so much a
distinction as a necessity for anyone who wanted to be a working musician in Nigeria, but artistic
ambition was another matter. The same music that we now celebrate as the product of a golden
age was perceived in its time as disposable stuff, of no more cultural import than Sugar Sugar
or Apple Bottom Jeans. By virtue of who he was and with whom he hung, Oyelano aimed for
more. Like Fela, he had some things to say about Nigerias inequities; but rather than just call
out the offenders, on Which Way Africa? he evokes a pre-industrial paradise in Yoruba before
switching to English to discuss the problems of modern Nigeria. And like many other musicians
of his time, his commentaries upon individual travails and current events were rooted in folk
expressions. But on Ipasan, he layers the imagery of a harsh traditional treatment for madness
(the title translates as Whip) with evocations of Christ-like suffering, and likewise layers
traditional festive grooves with a highlife and a hot, Santana-like guitar lead.
Oyelana deftly and self-consciously mixes past and present, insular tradition and cosmopolitan
consciousness, using everything at his disposal like Soyinka has done in his writing. He might
not get a Nobel Prize for it, but this swell collection will draw more attention to his artistry.
HIS WORKS
1. Agba Lo De,
2. Mo lo soko
3. Ethical revolution
4. I love my country
5. E pagbo yimika
6. Guguru
7. Perere
8. Ifa