Roy Chicago

Roy Chicago was born in Ikare-Akoko in the Ondo State in Nigeria. He lived in the capital city of the Ondo State Ibadan until he moved to Ibadan in the late 1950s. He reached the height of his popularity during the 1960s. Roy Chicago became increasingly successful with hits such as "Iyawo Pankeke", "Are owo niesa Yoyo gbe" and "Keregbe emu". In the 1960s, Victor Olaiya's International All Stars and Rooy Chicago's Abalabi Rhythm Dandies were two of the top leading highlife bands in Nigeria, both led by graduates of the Bobby Benson Orchestra. Roy Chicago became well known at the Abalabi Hotel in Mushin, introducing the talking drum into the highlife genre. As the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970, highlife became less popular at the expense of Yoruba-derived jùjú music, since many of the top highlife bands were run by the Igbo people from the breakaway regions of eastern Nigeria. The result was an increase in popularity of the easy-going and less rigid jùjú form of music at the expense of highlife. At a low point in Chicago's career in the 1970s, Bobby Benson assisted him by providing musical equipment and giving him a place to stay in Surulere. ==Music==

Roy Chicago combined the trumpet and saxophone with vocals. Playing with Bobby Benson in the 1950s, he performed ballroom dance and highlife, fox trot, tango, waltz, quick step and jive.. His sidemen included tenor sax player Etim Udo and trumpeter Marco Bazz. ==Legacy==

Former members of his band included trumpeter and vocalist Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson, who was of mixed Igbo and Kalabari background. Lawson apprenticed with Bobby Benson, Victor Olaiya, and Roy Chicago before striking out on his own with a unique blend of Igbo lyrics sung over Kalabari rhythms. Jimi Solanke, the playwright, poet and folk singer, was another singer with his band. The band's recording of his composition "Onile-Gogoro" became one of the most memorable highlife hits of the 1960s. Alaba Pedro, a guitarist from Roy Chicago's band, went on to play with Orlando Julius Aremu Olusanya Ekemode. Alaba Pedro joined Roy Chicago in 1961 and stayed with the band until the time of the civil war, when it disbanded in 1969. He recalls that "It was a highly disciplined band ... The band was versatile and could play almost all types of music, but ... highlife [was] its specialty, which relied more on Nigerian melodies with rhythms rooted in indigenous elements." Peter King, one of Nigeria's most famous tenor sax players, started with Roy Chicago's band in Lagos before going to England to study music. ==External links==