By Henry Akubuiro
WItty, gorgeous and enterprising: these words say much about Bimbo Esho, the Managing Director of Evergreen Music and the daughter of Baba Emmanuel Esho, the Founder of Evergreen Music, who recently passed on. With over 100 vinyls on its collection, Evergreen Music is regarded as Nigeria’s foremost music collector, where you can find classic songs you won’t find anywhere else. Evergreen Music is into music promotion, providing platforms for old and young musicians to meet wider audiences and teaching music. Recently, it acquired a massive property at Anthony Village in Lagos, which it is currently turning into the biggest music museum in not only Nigeria but Africa. Bimbo Esho spoke to Daily Sun at the new site on what it means to be on the cusp of making history, overseeing a music empire and the changing face of the Nigerian music industry.
You come from a music family, your father being a big music promoter and a collector. He was also a PR expert. How was it growing up?
It was fun. I had parents who were always there for us. I was also close to my dad and learnt a lot from his PR business. He was into printing and music. All the printing business I am doing now I learnt from him. I schooled under his mentorship.
How did your dad fall in love with music?
He started music at a young age. He put up a small band in Ilesha, where he grew up. He was playing with his brother. They were playing reigning American songs of that era – the Beatles and other pop music. Even as a young boy of twelve, he usually moved from Ilesha to Ibadan and Lagos collecting music relics. He was going to those places where they had big highlife bands, like the Bobby Bensons, the Eddie Okontas, the Orlando Julius – the big highlife shots in Nigeria then, even Fela Kuti. He would go to watch them, and he developed a strong relationship with them.
Who is your favourite Nigerian highlife musician?
It’s always difficult for me to say. Because of my position, I don’t want to mention names. I just have people I personally like their music, like Victor Olaiya, maybe because he is my namesake, Abimbola. He is someone that I like his music, that I am opportune to meet. I interviewed him several times when I was writing my final year project in highlife music. I also travelled to Benin City to interview Victor Uwaifo.. Those I met for the project were mostly those whose music resonated with me. There are a whole lot of them I related with their music right from childhood, people like Tunji Oyelana.
You studied anthropology at the University of Ibadan and your final year thesis dwelled on highlife music. What was the motivation?
It was basically my dad. It was like a give-back thing to my dad. He used to profess highlife as his first love. I wanted something that would make him happy. So I decided to write on music as a medium for social reform. Beyond that, I also did it for tomorrow, trying to let people understand that, beyond the entertainment aspect of it, highlife music has its moral part of it; you can listen to it and learn a lot of things from it. I am particular about moral values.
You were an undergraduate when you met Sir Victor Uwaifo. What was the experience like?
It was a mind-blowing experience. I had to travel to Benin to meet him. It was 2003-2004. It was one of the best feelings I ever had. I went by public transport; I wanted to feel the tourism vibes and Benin City itself. He was the commissioner for tourism then. I visited his house and he showed me around, including his studio. I met his pretty wife.
There was a particular song he was describing to me. It was sung in Edo language. I told him each time I listened to the song, it transported me to another realm, though I didn’t understand the lyrics. He explained to me it was talking about mother hen and her chick. He also told me about the Mammy Water story, an encounter he had as a student at St Gregory’s College, Lagos – how it was swimming towards him. That was how the inspiration came. It sounded like a folk story. Just like the Joromi thing. It was a beautiful experience.
Tell us about Evergreen Music. What’s your connection?
Evergreen Music is more like an empire today. I started seriously with it in 2004 when I left school. It has been so interesting. We have been able to learn a lot of things about Nigerian music, that we are rich when it comes to music. What we are listening to today is an offshoot of what has been there, so there is nothing totally new. It’s just like a remodification and trying to make it sound better and packaging it. Nigeria is rich in music, not just one genre alone. If you listen to Onyeka Nwelu’s “Bia Nulu”, you get blown away. For somebody like me who is Yoruba and who doesn’t understand Igbo, I get carried away by the song. I am never biased when it comes to good music. In Evergreen Music, I appreciate Nigerian culture. We should not allow Nigerian classics to die. Even that Onyeka song I just mentioned, it should be remixed to bring new flavours, and you will see how people will react to it.
I organised a music contest involving 45 musicians. It was the music of yesteryears that made the first three emerge winners. The idea was for you to sing your own song and the music of yesteryears. That is just telling you that those songs are like old wine. In Evergreen Music, we promote, propage, preserve old songs to bring them back. Many people have been coming around, asking for these classics. Many also have been calling. Some say their doctors recommend these songs. But you can tell that’s what music is doing for a lot of people. We have people asking for songs dating back to thirty years ago. When you get the music for them, it’s like you have brought extra life into them.
My dad told me of a story of one man who came to his office and bought one of Adeola Adesanya’s music. The man was playing the song and was singing the lyrics (which was offensive to the wife). She went and put the music off, and wondered who gave the husband the song (laughs). The man wanted to use the song to tell her some bitter truths. That’s the power of music. We also have radio and TV stations coming around to ask for songs. We also have students from different schools asking for materials. It gladdens my heart. That’s why we are where we are that day. We resolved not to make it a one-man business but something the society will benefit from.
So, how do you collect these classics?
It started with my dad at the age of twelve. He was collecting those songs whenever he went to their shows. He kept collecting until he became the biggest music collector in the country.
Like how much music do you have at Evergreen Music?
They are uncountable. We have over 100,000 vinyls in our archive. He was a collector for the last sixty-six years and he became a museum himself. At a point, I started collecting music myself.
What do you consider the highpoint of Evergreen Music?
Getting a property of ours and now moving towards our dream. Buying a property like this is a monumental achievement. We are now able to tell the world something like this can happen in this country. It’s going to be the first of its kind in Nigeria and even Africa. A lot of people die with their dream. In the art world, it’s very common.
Many talented young artistes are looking for somebody to give them a push, is Evergreen Music thinking of floating a music label?
You have asked one of the best questions by any journalist this year. I must confess to you what we have been trying to do, especially the foundation we want to set, is primarily to tackle what you just asked. We need not to be a record label, except we desire, which we are capable of. From what I have encountered over the years, there are many problems associated with young artistes. One is getting funds. Second, some of them don’t know anything about music; they believe once you take the mic and put a band together, that’s music. Three, some of them are too much in a hurry to make it. The mistake some of them make is that not every musician should be a singer. You can be an instrumentalist or a producer.
But I personally wouldn’t tell a young artiste music is not for you, because that aritiste would never forget it. Also, some old artistes shouldn’t be doing music; they should, rather, be producers or instrumentalists. This is one of the things we have been trying to do – open their minds and heads. It’s not everybody who should be into music. We are working on something that will benefit every musician, young and old. It’s going to be the biggest platform for musicians. Some of them who don’t have money to rent halls, we are going to offer them that.
The platform you are talking about, is it the music museum?
Yes, this place we are right now is going to be a music museum. It’s called Evergreen Music Heritage Foundation. The foundation is going to include a museum, a showcase of music albums and an event centre, where an artist can come and perform. Aristes can also study music here. They can study proper music instruments. Every musician should learn one or two musical instruments. Most of today’s artistes don’t know how to play musical instruments. Fela could play virtually all the musical instruments. Sometimes you would see him backing the stage and instructing the instrumentalists on what to do. Even King Sunny Ade does the same. It’s not just understanding digital music alone, like we see today. Our musicians abroad are playing live music on stage. You have to master the instruments to do that. Asake, Burna Boy and others are playing live music. You can’t be miming alone as a musician.
If you do good music and have a live band, people will be looking for you to perform.
This is a multimillion naira project, how soon will it be completed and how are you going about funding?
When we started this project, my dad met Pastor Olukoya of Mountain of Fire Ministry. He is a lover of highlife music. Much of the church songs at MFM have highlife influences. When we told him our plans, he even saw beyond what we were seeing. He instantly bought into it, and we decided to make him our patron. Apart from my dad, I have never seen somebody crazy about music. In his university, all the departments study music to an extent. His church has one of the biggest bands that perform. They also win when they perform in competitions outside the country. He also loves highlife music. Also Dr. Olukoya used to be a music teacher and a choir master. So music has been in him for a long time.
We started fundraising privately, and he reached out to his friends. We also reached out to our friends. We then bought this three-story property, which we are currently reconstructing. We still need money from public spirited individuals to complete it.
Dr Olukoya can’t do it alone. He has done his own part, and he is doing more privately.
Politicians in Nigeria should also encourage us; this is the kind of thing they should be bringing money to sponsor for legacy. Corporate bodies and individuals should help. This project concerns all of us. There is going to be people coming here for programmes from within and outside the country. Sometimes, people are not seeing what you are seeing. Until some dreams come to life, that’s when the whole world comes to you. I don’t like that mentality. Let’s all come together and finish this project. We are looking at before the end of the year to open it, if we are able to raise the funds. We intend to write biographies of top musicians. So we need a lot of money to commission biographers to research and do good work.
We are in the era of Afrobeats, but you have not left highlife behind. What’s so fascinating about it that you are still championing its cause in the 21st century?
For those who really understand that music genre, it is a kind of music you cannot afford to lose. It has not been given the kind of promotion it so much deserves. One thing about highlife music, you can find it in juju, fuji, even in Afrobeats. That music itself hasn’t been promoted and given space among other music genres. Sometimes when you listen to highlife music, you find out it’s another feeling. I am not being biased. When people are together –young and old– and they listen to that music, you will notice they have a different feeling. The question now is: what’s missing? Decades ago, when they were playing it, vis-à-vis today, is not how it will be accepted by music lovers. If a Flavour could play “Sawa Sawa” and people appreciate it, that›s a sign of something good. If Victor Olaiya and Tuface could do a collabo, then there is a link somewhere. If they can turn it around, it›s going to be hot cake. I believe highlife music will still come back.
With Afrobeats dominating the airwaves and charts worldwide?
The word “Afrobeats” is even a misnomer. What they are doing is modified hip-hop music. It’s just like hiding under the camouflage of an existing genre, Afrobeat, and they marketed the brand well. If the genre would have been given another name, maybe it wouldn’t have flown. Someone smart came with that name and it caught fire. Compared with Fela’s Afrobeat, what they are playing now is different. This is high tempo hip-hop music.
Don’t forget this is Afrobeat with an “s”, so they are two different genres…
They are hiding under the word “Afrobeat’’. Let’s forget they didn’t use the word “Afrobeat”, would that music have been what it has turned out to be today? Don’t forget there were experimentations before they came with Afrobeats. What they are playing is just like African beats and they did it well. They have really mastered it. If I would congratulate them, they were the first to incorporate the hip-hop genre with our indigenous beats. They just added a name to it –Afrobeats.
So, what do you think the Afrobeats stars are doing right that the highlife musicians didn’t get right? The Burna Boys, WizKids and Davidos are celebrated all over the world.
I would say the digital world has given them more exposure. During their time, the highlife musicians were carrying their records up and down. I am not sure they met CDs. In those days, record labels were owned by popular rich men only. Most of these artistes were not informed; they were doing the music for the passion of it. If they were conscious of money, we wouldn›t be talking about what›s happening to most of them now. They were chiefly concerned with giving people good music. They believed the stipends they got were enough to keep body and soul together. The major effect today on contemporary artistes is the social media era and their promoters. Whoever is backing these young Afrobeats musicians are using bulk money to promote them. A musician will come out today, and the next thing you hear is that he has “blown”. Some are ascribing their successes to belonging to cult groups or using juju, but I don›t think so. There is what we call grace. Today, just one song can make you ‘’blow›. If you do good music, people will listen to it. Also, they support themselves.
The older musicians were busy antagonising one another. The juju and fuji musicians were also doing the same thing. These ones don’t have time for that. They are businessmen and they are giving to people what they think they want. Beside that some of them have labels, they are the ones promoting their music themselves. Somebody like Wizkid and a few others didn’t just become super stars. Wizkid exerted himself before making it. Wizkid has genuinely good songs. He was able to carry the youths along. Social media is exposing these musicians.
Why didn’t you go into music yourself?
What I am doing today is like a musical calling. I give moral support to a lot of upcoming musicians. It is just like doing music itself.
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