ARTS & REVIEW\\ FESTIVAL LEKAN BABALOLA: L

Under the rustling branches of the trees in Freedom Park, Lagos, Yinka Olatunbosun found tranquility and more importantly, Lekan Babalola, the two-time Grammy Award-winning Nigerian percussionist and culture advocate at the opening of the 2015 Lagos Inter

HBabalola e wore a tan-coloured hat that could make the title, “Lord’’ befitting in describing him. Lekan Babalola’s name may not chime within the earshot of young music lovers and that’s quite understandable. His career in music has spanned over three decades with a lot of international performances at Jazz festivals in Europe and South Africa much to the pleasure of foreign media. On the last day of the Jazz Appreciation Month, that is April 30, Babalola made his first appearance at the Lagos International Jazz Festival although he had given a bit of his funky self at the cultural hub, Jazzhole on Awolowo road, Ikoyi, recently.

Babalola had been playing drums at his father’s Aladura church as a child. He had no inkling that he’d stake his future in pursuit of a career in music. He attended Bishop Oluwole Primary School, Agege and later proceeded to a secondary school in Iwo, Oyo State. His father owned a Greyhound Company in Nigeria in the 70s where it was hoped that young Babalola would return and work having left Nigeria for the United Kingdom in 1980 to pursue a degree in Engineering. As an outstanding student, he won a Lagos State scholarship to enroll for the course at the University of London. But it took no time for Babalola to discover that his passion was not in working at the Rolls Royce Company back in Nigeria. Although as the first child, it was a tradition presumption that he would stay in the family business. Instead, he paddled his canoe, overseas.

“I left Nigeria when I was 20 years old,’’ he began. “My father died when I was 15. When I finished studying there, I wrote my mother and told her I wanted to be an artist. In my family then, it is either you are a lawyer or a doctor. My mother said I should go ahead. So, I went to Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design. It was the Art College for British artists. We have had a lot of famous painters and filmmakers graduating from there. Shade Adu was my senior in college. She studied fashion. I studied filmmaking. I studied to become a film director. I did my MA as well at the Northern School of Film & Television. In 1992, I went to the US to work with Spike Lee, to understudy him actually. After graduating, you have to understudy a director. It is like a doctor’s houseman ship.’’

He was with Spike Lee for six months. Spike Lee is known for movies with subject matter or race and colour. When Babalola arrived at Lee’s studio, he was shooting the making of Malcolm X.

“I had to return to the UK because my visa was due to be upgraded to a permanent stay. So, when I got it, I started a family. I became a musician and the rest is history,’’ he said.

But not so fast. He didn’t say he was the first to establish a Fela Fan Club in Nigeria. He also did not mention that he had received a cultural and political apprenticeship from the late Fela Kuti. But as soon as he entered the hall for the Opening Cocktail at the Jazz Festival, his long-time acquaintances bore the warm smiles of recognition and along with the responsibility of introducing him to the younger generation of music enthusiasts. He chose to talk more about his personal life and how he found music a rewarding career.

“When I started going to clubs with my friends, most of whom were artists, I would get on the Bongo drums and played just for the fun of it. I joined a band alongside Olumide Akinsanya, the artist you know as Seal. The band was called the African Samba Samba Band. In that band, I discovered that I could be a musician. I didn’t even know I was going to become a jazz musician. I just kept hanging out with artists, going into the studio and being able to express my inner thoughts. I didn’t even know someone is even going to pay me to play Bongo,’’ he reminisced.

He kept working to eke a living. He worked in Mayfair and with job agencies that offered temporary jobs. He’d do night jobs in five-star hotels as a kitchen porter.

“The reason why I took that job was to do the dishes and get to eat the remnants so that I could save some money. I had three brothers behind me and I didn’t want to bother my mother to keep sending money to me. My mother didn’t expect me to send money home. In fact, she sent tickets to me to come home. She kept saying to me that they told her in a vision that