Roy Chicago

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Nigerian musician and bandleader

title: "Roy Chicago" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["year-of-birth-missing", "1989-deaths", "nigerian-trumpeters", "20th-century-nigerian-male-singers", "yoruba-musicians", "20th-century-nigerian-musicians", "musicians-from-ibadan", "20th-century-nigerian-saxophonists", "20th-century-trumpeters"] description: "Nigerian musician and bandleader" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Chicago" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Nigerian musician and bandleader ::

John Akintola, also known as Roy Chicago (died February 5, 1989), was a Nigerian musician and band leader. Most popular during the 1960s,{{cite web |url=http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/arts/article01//indexn2_html?pdate=011009&ptitle=Echoes%20of%20the%2060 |date=1 October 2009 |title=Echoes of the 60 |author=Benson Idonije |work=Guardian Nigeria |accessdate=3 November 2009}} {{cite book |title= Fela: from West Africa to West Broadway |url= https://archive.org/details/felafromwestafri00newy |url-access= registration |author=Trevor Schoonmaker |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2003 |isbn=1-4039-6210-3 |page=80}} he played in the highlife style, introducing talking drums to his music.

Life and career

Roy Chicago was born in Ikare-Akoko in the Ondo State in Nigeria. He lived in the capital city of the Ondo State Ibadan until he moved to Ibadan in the late 1950s. He reached the height of his popularity during the 1960s. In contrast to Victor Olaiya, whose music was based on Ghanaian melodies and progressions, Chicago based his music on Nigerian indigenous themes and folklore.

In the 1950s, he started playing the saxophone in concerts at the Hotel Hotel in Ibadan as a member of Bobby Benson's band. At one point, he became the leader of the band.{{cite web| url=http://odili.net/news/source/2008/may/21/3.html |title=Legacy of Bobby Benson of Africa |author=Benson Idonije |date=21 May 2008 |work=The Guardian |accessdate=3 November 2009}} Roy Chicago became increasingly successful with hits such as "Iyawo Pankeke", "Are owo niesa Yoyo gbe" and "Keregbe emu".

In the 1960s, Victor Olaiya's International All Stars and Rooy Chicago's Abalabi Rhythm Dandies were two of the top leading highlife bands in Nigeria, both led by graduates of the Bobby Benson Orchestra. Roy Chicago became well known at the Abalabi Hotel in Mushin, introducing the talking drum into the highlife genre.{{cite web |url=http://www.bensonidonije.org/highlife/Echoes%20of%20the%20Sixties.pdf |title=Echoes of the sixties |author=Benson Idonije |publisher=Benson Idonije |accessdate=3 November 2009}} As the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970, highlife became less popular at the expense of Yoruba-derived jùjú music, since many of the top highlife bands were run by the Igbo people from the breakaway regions of eastern Nigeria.{{cite web |url=http://www.parisdjs.com/index.php/post/various-nigeria-70-lagos-jump |title=Various – Nigeria 70 : Lagos Jump |publisher=Paris DJs |accessdate=3 November 2009 |archive-date=20 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091020062049/http://www.parisdjs.com/index.php/post/various-nigeria-70-lagos-jump |url-status=dead |title=Musicmakers of West Africa |author=John Collins |publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers |year=1985 |isbn=0-89410-075-0 |page=137 |url=https://archive.org/details/musicmakersofwes00coll/page/137

At a low point in Chicago's career in the 1970s, Bobby Benson assisted him by providing musical equipment and giving him a place to stay in Surulere.

Music

Roy Chicago combined the trumpet and saxophone with vocals. Playing with Bobby Benson in the 1950s, he performed ballroom dance and highlife, fox trot, tango, waltz, quick step and jive.. His sidemen included tenor sax player Etim Udo and trumpeter Marco Bazz.

Roy Chicago's highlife style anchored its accent on rhythm. He explained Nigerian folksongs with vocals accompanied by Tunde Osofisan, one of the most popular singers in the highlife scene.

Although his style could not be called a jazz derivative, there are blue notes in his saxophone parts and "cool" jazz intonations and phrases, which are closer to traditional Yoruba music than to highlife.{{cite book |title=Africa and the blues |url=https://archive.org/details/africablues00kubik |author=Gerhard Kubik |publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi |year=1999 |isbn=1-57806-146-6 |page=156}}

Legacy

Former members of his band included trumpeter and vocalist Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson, who was of mixed Igbo and Kalabari background. Lawson apprenticed with Bobby Benson, Victor Olaiya, and Roy Chicago before striking out on his own with a unique blend of Igbo lyrics sung over Kalabari rhythms.{{cite web |url=http://www.honestjons.com/label.php?pid=28321 |title=Lagos All Routes: Juju And Highlife, Apala And Fuji |publisher=HONEST JON'S RECORDS |accessdate=3 November 2009}} Jimi Solanke, the playwright, poet and folk singer, was another singer with his band. |url=http://www.nigeriafilms.com/news/5299/9/i-will-die-a-dramatist-jimi-solanke.html |title=I will die a dramatist – Jimi Solanke |date=27 July 2009 |publisher=Nigeria Films |accessdate=4 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091124031938/http://www.nigeriafilms.com/news/5299/9/i-will-die-a-dramatist-jimi-solanke.html |archive-date=24 November 2009 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all

The band's recording of his composition "Onile-Gogoro" became one of the most memorable highlife hits of the 1960s.{{cite web |url=http://www.dtmgallery.com/Main/news/Newsletter-2009-01-02.html |title=NEWSLETTER – January 2nd, 2009 – Jimi Solanke |publisher =Downtown Music Gallery |date=2 January 2009 |accessdate=4 November 2009}}

Alaba Pedro, a guitarist from Roy Chicago's band, went on to play with Orlando Julius Aremu Olusanya Ekemode. |url=http://www.fastlaneintl.com/ekemode.htm |title=WORLD BEAT & FUSION – O.J. EKEMODE |publisher=Fast Lane International |accessdate=3 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090409135822/http://www.fastlaneintl.com/ekemode.htm |archive-date=9 April 2009 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all Alaba Pedro joined Roy Chicago in 1961 and stayed with the band until the time of the civil war, when it disbanded in 1969. He recalls that "It was a highly disciplined band ... The band was versatile and could play almost all types of music, but ... highlife [was] its specialty, which relied more on Nigerian melodies with rhythms rooted in indigenous elements." |url=http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/showtime/2005/jan/28/showtime-28-01-2005-004.htm |title=Rap and hip-hop not African music |author=SEGUN AJAYI |date=28 January 2005 |publisher=Sun News |accessdate=3 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100106213014/http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/showtime/2005/jan/28/showtime-28-01-2005-004.htm |archive-date=6 January 2010 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all Peter King, one of Nigeria's most famous tenor sax players, started with Roy Chicago's band in Lagos before going to England to study music.{{cite web |url=http://www.last.fm/music/Peter+King/+wiki |title=Peter King Biography |publisher=last.fm |accessdate=4 November 2009}}

References

Benson Idonije. "Alaba Pedro, master of guitar stroke".

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