In the Lagos nightclubs of the 1950s and 1960s, a trumpeter in a sharp suit led the band that everyone wanted to dance to. They called him the evil genius of highlife.
Victor Abimbola Olaiya was born on 31 December 1930. He became one of the leading figures of Nigerian highlife, the big-band dance music that ruled West African nightlife after the Second World War.
The highlife era
Highlife came from Ghana and spread to Nigeria, where it took on local flavours. In Lagos, bands played in hotels and clubs for dancers in their best clothes. Victor Olaiya’s band was among the most popular.
His trumpet playing and arrangements were polished and lively, and his band played at society events and official celebrations.
The hits
Olaiya’s best-known songs included “Baby Jowo”, “Feso J’aiye”, “Ilu Le O” and “Taxi Driver”. They were sung in Yoruba and English and were built for dancing, with bright horns and steady rhythms.
Fela’s first boss
A young Fela Kuti played in Victor Olaiya’s band before he left to study music in London and later created Afrobeat. For Fela, the experience was part of his musical education, and Olaiya often spoke about his former band member with pride.
Independence celebrations
Olaiya’s band was part of the celebrations when Nigeria became independent in 1960. Highlife was the sound of that moment, full of optimism and glamour.
A long life in music
As tastes changed and juju, Afrobeat and later Afropop took over, Olaiya kept performing. He ran his own venue in Lagos and continued to play for audiences who had grown up with highlife.
In his later years, younger musicians collaborated with him, and his songs reached new listeners through remakes and remixes.
His death
Victor Olaiya died in Lagos on 12 February 2020, aged 89. Tributes described him as one of the last of the original highlife bandleaders.
What he left
Highlife is sometimes treated as old people’s music in Nigeria. Listen to Olaiya’s recordings from the 1950s and 1960s, and it is clear how much of modern Nigerian pop, from the horns to the dance steps, started in the ballrooms where he played.
The trumpeter who once hired a teenage Fela lived long enough to see Afrobeats fill stadiums, and to hear young musicians borrow from his records.
