Egba Alake i respect you for your work,however i must tell you that my late Father Chief J.B. Egunjobi of Abeokuta was good friend to Baba Legba (Joseph later Yusuf Olatunji) Lefty Balogun Salami, S Aka, Ojindo , Ejire and Kelani yusuf . All sakara musician. Furthermore i want you to know that all these i mentioned i knew them personally because they always come and spend week end with us with (Chief Amodemaja, Chief Okerayi, Chief Okegbenro e.t.c.) and they sang for my dad,if you listen to them where they sang for my dad they mentioned all of us (the children) and my name is Bashir. Lefty was initialy a drumer for Abibu Oluwa and he became singer when Abibu died. Baba legba came from iseyin to Lagos but never play in Lagos because of competition available,however he came to Abeokuta and settle and my Dad converted him to Islam (as you might have known then Muslim spent and rock with sakara musicians ) Ojindo and S.Aka were from Abeokuta (Owu) unfortunately they never see eye to eye despite the fact that they were from the same compound in Owu, both of them happened to be good friends to my dad.
bedford bashir Please accept my sincere apologies for taking such a long time to respond to your comments. I must say I 99.9% agree with your assertion. I learnt Lefty was former drummer to late Abibu for sure.However,I never knew Babalegba ever settled in Lagos. As an Abeokuta indigene myself, I know many citizens of Abeokuta do have other ancestral homes. Thanks for your comment
Special thanks to Egba Alake for uploading this. I listened to Lefty first in the late 80's whenever my dad played it. @Bedford Bashir & Okuboro....many thanks to you for the history lessons. My research on Lefty, Ajao and Abibu Oluwa (their master) was just as you have said here. Lefty was too good. I listened to his songs and Olatunji's songs repeated, but I can confirme that I like his lyrics, combinations and eulogies more than those of his colleagues. At times, he would combine Hausa, Arabic, Tapa languages with Yoruba in such a way that you would be wondering how talented he was.
Sometimes i wann cry when i get blown away by these classical music. I wish i grew up in those period to be part of the fun. God bless u EgaAlake. I respect you!
Baba Legba & Salami Lefty played with Abibu Oluwa. Abibu himself was with Adamu from Ilorin who entertained lagosians of d time with what they called Seli music, Abibu took it up after the demise of Adamu, he introduced Goje, Sakara, igba, iya ilu etc 2 create full sakara. Ajao yusuf and Lefty enjoyed a very cordial relationship. Whenever Abibu himself throws a party, Yusuf plays 4 him,& lefty will willingly beat the sakara drum 4 yusuf. Jamiu lefty son still plays Sakara today, he confimed dis
@EgbaAlake Both Baba Legba & Lefty, S aka were trained by Abibu Oluwa, after the demise of Abibu, Oba of Lagos & his chiefs, had a close door meeting and decided that Lefty the youngest bandboy, who had similar style with late Abibu should lead the late Abibu old group, Baba legba deserted the old group to form his group. Lefty played the goje with dexterity, he played in fast tempo, while Ajao olumota is slightly laid back creating enough time for d powerful lyrics to sink. They are both great!
@ladenet1 You are correct, egbe party were great in Ikorodu in those days, Lefty Salami actually serenaded them in some of his records, most of them are now late, Jagumolu Alasi Buramoh, Akanbi Salisu, Dada Aliu, etc were members of the club then. My dad was very close to them. Ikorodu was like a second home to Lefty during his life time. He actually had more fans among the Ikorodus than his counterparts.
i think you got wrong by claiming that baba legba were in the group of abibu oluwa. the two never played in same group. baba legba has his apprenticeship in iseyin before moving to abeokuta where he later became household name
