Tunde King

Tunde King
Born	24 August 1910 Lagos Island
Died	1980s
Nationality	Nigerian
Occupation	Musician

Tunde King was a Nigerian musician, credited as the founder of Jùjú music, who had great influence on Nigerian popular music.

Lagos in the 1920s and 1930s was peopled by a mixture of local Yoruba people and returnees from the New World. Together they created a form of music named "Palm Wine" that combined Yoruba folk music with musical idioms from countries such as Brazil and Cuba. Banjos, guitars, shakers and hand drums supported lilting songs about daily life. Jùjú music was a form of Palm Wine music that originated in the Olowogbowo area of Lagos in the 1920s, in a motor mechanic workshop where "area boys" used to gather to drink and make music. Tunde King was the leader of this group.

Abdulrafiu Babatunde King was born in the Saro-dominated Olowogbowo area of Lagos Island on 24 August 1910. He was the son of Ibrahim Sanni King, a member of the minority Muslim Saro community. His father was a chief Native Court clerk at Ilaro, and had lived for some time in Fourah Bay, Sierra Leone.

Tunde King attended a local Methodist primary school and the Eko Boys High School. A schoolmate taught him to play guitar, and he became a leading member of a local group of "area boys" who hung out at a mechanic's shop on West Balogun Street. The group talked, drank beer and sang, accompanied by improvised instruments. By 1929, King had a clerical job and was also working part-time as a singer and guitarist with a trio including guitar, samba and maracas, later changing to tambourine, guitar-banjo. and sekere (shaker). By the mid-1930s he enjoyed considerable success, with several recordings and radio broadcasts, but he still relied on live performances to earn a living, often at private functions. For example, King played at the wake of the prominent doctor Oguntola Sapara in June 1935.

...
Wikipedia