Nigeria’s foremost promoter and Africa’s largest music collector, Samuel Babafemi Esho, may have passed on but his legacies leave on. While alive “Baba Esho”, as he is fondly called, was passionate about Africa’s music genres. Not only was he passionate but he is celebrated for turning his passion for music promotion into an art. You could call him an artist of some sort.
And if the saying that “an artist never really dies”, is anything to go by Baba Esho has a lot in his treasury. One of such legacies that have kept tongues wagging is the Evergreen Music Heritage Foundation. And it is set to establish a music experience centre that will compete with any from across the globe.
The late Esho was a key player in the vintage music community and a custodian and largest music distributor of the works of many African indigenous music legends for whom he campaigned tirelessly in a bid to immortalise their achievements as a symbol of cultural continuity and identity through sound.
Baba Esho, until his demise, was the chairman of the Evergreen Music Company Limited and the founder of the Evergreen Music Heritage Foundation. He was a mentor to many Highlife music aficionados and walking “databank” on Highlife music.
He would be remembered as one who invested a lot to enshrine musical works of Nigerian indigenous musicians in the annals of time.
Oyedele Ogunniyi Street in the heart of Anthony Village, Lagos, is soon to become a tourist site.
It is not common to find a place that houses scores of pictures and hundreds of works by musicians across the African continent under one roof.
Nestled on the street is the planned music experience centre, dubbed ‘Evergreen Music Heritage Centre’. Once completed, it will house a music museum, event hall for meetings and concerts, cinema theatre, recording studio and so much more.
With its music experience centre, the foundation, which has Dr. Daniel Kolawole (DK) Olukoya as patron, is taking music promotion to a whole new level. Beyond immortalising the late music promotion maestro, the move will be immortalising works and the lives and times of thousands of African musicians both living and dead.
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According to the Executive Secretary of the foundation and managing director Evergreen Music Company, Bimbo Esho, the centre is part of Baba Esho’s 25-year-old dream of music archiving. The museum would hold archival materials including music records dating back to 1914, adding that the project was kept alive by the need to preserve the music legacies of artists, most of whom are aged or dead.
“A lot of people do not know Fela Anikulapo-Kuti had such a collection of about 186 songs. A lot of people will not believe that when we put together Baba Obey’s 660 songs. The foundation is basically taking people back to time; letting them appreciate the efforts that these musicians have put into their works and have something to curate their works for posterity’s sake. That’s what we are trying to achieve with such an edifice,” she said.
As one walks into the premises, which used to be the Prince of Anthony, 1960 Hotel, one is greeted by a massive structure, currently undergoing renovation. On a visit to the place, one is greeted by a wall-size picture collage featuring hundreds of African musicians. She said: “The centre, particularly the museum, will be a contribution to the legacy that is going to be sustained for generations to come, all of the enduring morals and intrinsic values that our music of yesteryears taught us, all of which is lacking today. It is a one stop shop for all music lovers all over the world as it will become a big tourist attraction centre for all enthusiasts of Nigerian music.”
She added that the museum will consist of original vinyls of music from 1914, musical relics, old musical instruments/equipment, and busts of artists, books, documentaries, cassettes, reel-to-reel, gramophones as old as 100 years, journals, and cassettes.
“When the whole thing is finished, we will have a lot of professionals that will populate the building,” she continued. “We have IT people. There are people who have given us materials that they have kept for more than fifty years and they want to be sure that even when they are gone, nothing will happen to their materials. That’s where insurance comes in. We are going to have digital and physical archiving.”
