Adieu, King of Palm-Wine Highlife
Permit me to express my warm belated condolence to the family and fans of the late highlife music maestro, Chief Dr. Oladipupo Owomoyela (aka Orlando Owoh). This is another bigblow to the Nigerian music industry. I was bewildered to hear about the sad loss of this great man. Like most legends, Dr. Owoh crafted his own distinctive genre of Highlife music, what he calls Asiko Highlife, which is anchored on systematic polyphonic blend of lead and rhythm guitar leaks; with beautiful guitar and conga transitions from one track to another. He had this peculiar resonating husky voice, which was his brand identity and Unique Selling Point, over other musicians of his time. O rlando was not just an average musician, he was also a social crusader who used his palm-wine highlife tunes to decry societal ills such military rule, corruption and injustice in Nigerian prisons; with tracks such as Have you been to the State Before?, Experience, E get as e be, Eku Iroju Omo Nigeria, Not in Our Chara