Veteran Afro Highlife Musician, Orlando Julius Is Dead

By Akinwale Kasali

The Nigerian Entertainment Industry has lost one of its renowned Afro Highlife “Big boys.” Julius Ekemode, popularly known as Orlando Julius is dead.

He passed on in the early hours of today, Good Friday, April 15, 2022 to the shock of many of his fans and family.

Breaking the news of his demise on the Social Media popular music promoter, Bimbo Esho said she  received the news from the deceased’s wife, Lady Latoya.

The veteran musician was  a native of ijebu jesha in Osun State. He was aged  79 years.

His popular tracks include Iwo Ololufe mi, Adara, Mura sise, Jaguar Nana among others.

Reacting to his death  Bimbo Esho wrote on her Social Media handle:  “We shall miss one of Nigeria’s fathers of Afro/Highlife Music , a gentleman and a fine Saxophonist. May daddy Orlando Julius soul journey well . To the entire Ekemode family may God give you the fortitude to bear this irreplaceable loss”

“Bimbo, Daddy Has Passed On…

“This was the message I stumbled on waking up at exactly 3am to peruse my watsapp page.. It was a message sent in to me by Orlando Julius beautiful and supportive wife Lady Latoya.

“We shall miss one of Nigeria’s fathers of Afro/Highlife Music, a gentleman and a fine Saxophonist.

“May daddy Orlando Julius soul journey well To the entire  Ekemode family may God give you the fortitude to bear this irreplaceable loss”.

Julius was born in 1943 in Ikole, Nigeria to a merchant family during British colonialism.

Julius’ first musical teacher was his mother, who would sing and dance while he played drums.

He went to St. Peter’s Anglican School in Ikole and played in the school band. In 1957, after dropping out of school and the death of his father, he left for Ibadan to pursue a career as a musician. He worked at a bakery while playing the drums or flute with juju and konkoma bands.

There was no music school in the area at the time, so the premier, Obafemi Awolowo, created one in his political party’s secretariat.

He spent time trying to connect with highlife musician Jazz Romero, doing chores for him hoping to garner enough favor for music lessons. Romero invited him to play with his band at a hotel in Ondo, learning his first chords on the instrument that he would become best known for, the saxophone.

When Romero got into a conflict with a nightclub owner and walked out on a gig, Julius stepped in as bandleader. Not long after, back in Ibadan, he joined Rex Williams’ highlife band. In lieu of formal lessons, he consumed as much music as possible, buying records of any horn-based music he could, but especially the highlife music out of Ghana which had become popular in Nigeria, too.

Lopa Kothari of BBC Radio called Julius a “legend” and Robin Denselow of The Guardian wrote that he is “one of the heroes of Nigerian music”, a “master of the simple, stomping riff” with a significant influence on afrobeat music.

Modern Ghana considered him “the last of Nigeria’s titans in the highlife music genre”.According to AllMusic, “few artists have been more crucial to the invention, development, and popularization of Afro-pop”.