I.K. Dairo
b. 1930, Offa, Nigeria. The Father Of Juju Music, bandleader, composer and accordionist Isaiah Kehinde Dairo established the stylistic framework which fellow Nigerians Ebenezer Obey, King Sunny Ade, Dele Abiodun, Segun Adewale and others would develop in the '70s and '80s. After leaving school, Dairo worked in a variety of casual occupations while teaching himself to make and play drums. Inspired by the proto-juju experiments of Tunde Nightingale, he formed his first band in 1947, working semi-professionally in and around Ibadan. In 1957, he became a full time bandleader, moving to the capital, Lagos, and forming the 10-piece Morning Star Orchestra. In the early '60s, signed to Deccaand renaming his band the Blue Spots, Dairo became the most successful recording artist in Nigeria, a position he retained until the emergence of younger performers like Obey, Ade and Abiodun—and Afrobeat originator Fela Anikulapo Kuti—in the mid-70s. Despite the rise of this new generation of performers, however, Dairo remained a major artist in Nigeria throughout the '70s and continued to be active, both on stage and on record, in the '80s. Between 1965 and 1985 he released over 45 albums, a record even by the prolific standards of the Nigerian scene.