I.K. Dairo - Isaiah Kehinde Dairo

Isaiah Kehinde Dairo Biography / Profile

Isaiah Kehinde Dairo (I.K Dairo) was born to a carpenter on the 6th of January 1931.

Isaiah Kehinde Dairo Age

Isaiah Kehinde Dairo is 93 years old.

Isaiah Kehinde Dairo Early Life

I.K Dairo attended a Christian Missionary Primary School in Offa but had to quit his schooling due to his family's finances. Some people say that his life long love for music stemmed from a drum that his father made for him when he was younger and that accompained him wherever he went. He left Offa and Ijebu - Ijesa to work as a barber , a construction worker and a cloth merchant amongst other jobs in order to earn a living.

Isaiah Kehinde Dairo Career

He joined his first Juju band in 1942 before the band broke up. In 1956 went back to his home town in Ijebu- Ijesha where he formed his own group, the Morning Star Orchestra which was rechristened the Blue spots in 1959. He was a brilliant arranger as he embarked on a path of experimenting with Juju music since he was not quite content with the sound, he changed the tenor of Juju by introducing the accordion and talking drums to the Orchestra and Singing in a variety of regional dialects thus widening the rural appeal of the music. He was one of the first African Musician to master the 3 minutes song form required by the recording technology of that time. His songs covered a range of topics, 'Salmone' was a love song in praise of a young woman and 'O Wuro Lojo' is a song about the value of hard work and in his song 'Ka Sora' in 1963, Dairo prophesied the Nigerian Civil War, years before the outbreak of military hostitities and at the end of Nigerian Civil war, had released a number of hit singles establishing Juju music as Nigeria's national sound therby displacing Highlife. Dairo said that songs came to him at night , in dreams and borne on wings of Angels. He took a break from performing at the end of the 70s turning first to managing clubs and a hotel in Lagos then to a ministry in the Cherubim and Seraphim Church Movement. In 1990, he recorded his first album in 15 years with a reinforced Blue Spots band. He made hundreds of records and toured Africa, Asia, Europe and America paving way for younger musicians like King Sunny Ade, Ebenezer Obey, Slna Peters and many others and making him African music's first truly international star. Although he officially retired on his Sixtieth birthday, January 1991, he and the Blue Spots embarked on the first of three North American tours that same year. His final song 'Ashiko' was released in 1992 and was number eleven on the Billboard charts in 1994. Billboard called the album an excellent showcase of his singular styling. He helped found the MCSN (Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria and was the President of the Nigerian chapter of the Performing Rights Society (PRS). His final professional position was as a member of the Ethnomusicology faculty at the University of Washington in 1994 - 1995.

Isaiah Kehinde Dairo Personal Life

He is considered by many as the 'Father of Juju' and has been desribed by some as the Shakespeare of Music. He died on February 7 in Effon-Alaiye near Akure at age 65 from Renal failure and Complications from Diabetes. He was married to three wives and had 24 children.