Pictures (and video) from the Jazzhole Concert in Memory of Rex Lawson

The concert was a 45th anniversary celebration of the death of highlife great, Rex Lawson. It held at the popular books, music and art store on Awolowo Road, Ikoyi — Jazzhole.

The band members are still those that played with him in the heydays of highlife, except for the younger ones that feature occasionally. The host of the event introduced each of the band members and one is stunned to know how they’ve remained dedicated to the band, given their ages. One of them — Toni Odili is 88 years old, and according to him, he’s been playing the conga for over 47 years.

The host is one remarkable man. I was pretty impressed by his knowledge of highlife music in Nigeria. I coined “musicpedia” behind him as he reeled out tidbits about the band and everything about Nigerian music. (He reminded me of my dad who enjoys sharing his knowledge of old Nigerian music and who made highlife a staple of my childhood. Only these days, I look back and wonder if I didn’t miss out from the mainstream music of my teenage days since all I heard in the house were mostly old Nigerian/Ghanaian/Congolese music (including Eastern and Southern Africa ones).

I invited some of my friends and I believe we all had fun.

The band

A long shot of the audience and the band

Old men fist-bump too :)

In the mood; lead singer and guitarist.

I like this picture because it brings everything together: the band, the books, the albums, and the ambience.

Band and audience

This dude played the flutes so impressively and was introduced as a first class student in Music.

A case of two Damis: one is a real estate exec, the other is a renowned poet and music critic

Dami Ajayi and his very nice designer native :)

Abbie and her Tunde Nightingale album (Somehow the price, Spotify & iTunes got into our convo. Just two alaroros)

With the famous Jahman Anikulapo. (I used to mistake him for Benson Idonije. He teased me with how we met on a flight. I like this man. (I don’t know why this picture didn’t come out well)

Ran into my goofy friend, Febechi. I expressed my shock that I didn’t know she was into arty things. She elbowed me.

With Abbie. (Probably the only sane picture we took when we weren’t trying to slap each other or saying silly things)

One more from the awesome band

Here’s a video.

First published in chrisogunlowo.com