12th November, 2010
Tuesday 9 November made it exactly 27 years that Although the Apala music maestro, Alhaji Haruna Ishola Bello, departed the world for the great beyond exactly 27 years ago on Tuesday 9 November, he has remained the undisputed king of the music genre as his songs have continued to wax stronger.
Until the arrival on the scene of Ayinla Omowura and perhaps the popularity in later years of Epe-born Ligali Mukaiba, Haruna Ishola reigned supreme as the foremost Apala music exponent in Nigeria and before he died, he added a feather to his cap by his unprecedented contribution to the development of the music industry in Africa.
With a gentle but compelling rhythm that is steeped in the style of Ajao Oru, leader of an Apala aggregation that first attracted attention in the early 1950s to become perhaps the first recorded artiste in this music idiom by Philips Recording Company, Ishola truly made his mark and left a valuable legacy behind as the greatest, most popular Apala music exponent the industry ever produced.
His continued success depended on a number of star qualities. As a singer, he had the ability to create thought-provoking lyrics about issues, places, real life situation and even the philosophy of life, where he was comfortably at home with the use of parables and anecdote. He consistently projected the virtues of life and living through these channels without resorting to unnecessary praise singing and abuse, which later became the order of the day.
Knowing that Apala music, like every other typical African music form is characterised by repetitive rhythm and percussion, he was able to introduce the element of variety to his style through the creation, on the spur of the moment, of myriad of choruses which derived inspiration from situational social events as they unfolded themselves. They added extra artistic substance and colour to social commentaries that were rehearsed and premeditated. Besides rhythm, which forms the bedrock of Apala music, Ishola realised the essence of a well blended group vocal harmony treatment. And so he always had in the band, percussion, when they could double proficiently on vocals to provide the necessary call and response pattern of the music and for this purpose, he had perhaps the best crop of singers at any point in time.
He started out by recording for multinational companies that pioneered the recording industry like Philips and Decca, but because he was a brilliant businessman and visionary artiste, he struck out early enough to set up Star Records, his own stable for which he recorded such albums and songs as Oluwa nikan l’oba, Oro buruku oni s’oju wa and Eni ti Olorun se fun, among others.
The label also accommodated less fortunate musicians who needed his guidance and financial assistance. But perhaps the greatest achievement for which he will forever be remembered by the recording industry is the fact that he was the first indigenous African to establish a recording company of the magnitude that had all the facilities and accessories in place.
One of the memorable sessions that came out of this wonderful set up was Ododun l’a n r’orogbo, an Apala-disco session of nine songs. Renowned producer, Odion Iruoje, was in fact part of this revolution that took place at Ishola’s Phonodisk Recording Company.
It is not an overstatement to state that the late Alhaji Ishola was not just a superstar musician, he was a super artiste, who used his legendary status to influence a recording outfit that later revolutionised the industry, while he remains the most influential and established artiste whose name is synonymous with Apala music.
Although he was not literate, he achieved a feat in the industry, had a vision which did not even occur to the literate money bags, let alone government.
Ishola’s name has gone down in history as having succeeded in taking the operations and reputation of the recording industry in Africa to such a revolutionary and unprecedented height that will be difficult to surpass.
—Funsho Arogundade
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