Percussionist and multi-instrumentalist Modupe Onilu is only 25-years old, but having played his first gig at age eight he boasts 17 years of musical experience. The last nine of these have been professional. Today, April 17 at La Casa de Ibiza, Tragarete Road, Port of Spain, Onilu will showcase his many years of experience by headlining a benefit concert to raise funds towards his continuing education.
This will be the first fund-raising event hosted by Onilu with his band, Dayo Bejide Jazz Project. Dayo Bejide is merely 16 months old, but has gained popularity through local performances at Satchmo’s Jazz Restaurant, Trinidad Theatre Workshop and other private events.
Proceeds from the show will go towards Onilu’s participation in summer programmes at the esteemed Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Other vibrant local talents to be featured in the show include the violin group, Alternative Quartet, pan soloist, Mikhail Salcedo, the Vaughnette Bigford Acoustic Quartet, comedian and dramatist Darryl “Doza” Mendoza and a special guest artiste.
The experience Onilu boasts is by no means average; he has worked with such greats as David Rudder, Etienne Charles, Len “Boogsie” Sharpe and Machel Montano to name only a few. Being the son of master percussionist, Jajah Oga Onilu, and possessing a surname that means drummer, music was sure to be a part of Onilu’s destiny.
A self-proclaimed cultural activist, Onilu’s music is vital to this work – work making music that has a purpose. “My focus right now is music for world peace,” says Onilu. “When I perform I also try to talk to the audience about culture, life and give them a different voice.”
Onilu’s work as a musician-activist does not end with enlightening audiences. He also teaches percussion to students at the Russell Latapy Secondary School in Laventille, where he was raised and still resides. “My real reason for teaching at the school is to help that generation of Laventille youths to have some kind of hope and to know that it’s not only guns and drugs in Laventille”
Onilu says although teaching is challenging, it is also a fun learning experience and he is committed to giving back to his community. He plans to have a concert in the neighbourhood but figuring out how to navigate popular culture and simultaneously make jazz appeal to a broad demographic is proving difficult. “The wider audience in Laventille is more exposed to violent dancehall music. It can be negative, if you want to call it that” Onilu says apprehensively. “But at the end of the day its music. It's influential and I’m working on it.”
For his own education, Onilu plans to rely on friends, family and other members of the public willing to help. Rather than source money from government scholarship, which he sees as a complicated task, Onilu prefers to raise funds through private sponsors and old-fashioned fund-raisers. “It doesn’t make sense for me to go to the government for funding because they are part of the problem I’m trying to fix.”
Keeping in line with his activism, Onilu will also showcase an original composition entitled “Quartet on the Middle East”. The composition will be accompanied by a slideshow of photos and is dedicated to the end of wars in that region.
Onilu plans to use the summer programme primarily to enhance his skills and further his education, but recognises that the possibilities are endless at Berklee “A lot of students I know didn’t even finish at Berklee because someone saw them, pulled them on a tour and they never went back.” For Onilu, however, this summer programme will be the first of many and he is working towards one of the Trinidadian musician’s ultimate goals. “For a lot of musicians in Trinidad it’s a dream to study at the Berklee.”
For more information about the show, Modupe Onilu or Dayo Bejide Jazz Project, contact Onilu via email at natureboi.onilu7@gmail.com or check out his fan pages on Facebook by searching: Modupe Folasade Onilu,Jewels of Nature or Dayo Bejide Jazz Project.
By Zahra Gordon-Trinidad Express Newspaper
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