Just as Tunde King, J.O Araba, Fatai Rolling Dollar and others contributed immensely to the evolution of Jùjú music previously referred to Palm Wine music, Isaiah Kehinde (I.K) Dairo is nothing less than a devoted artiste who also brought in his uniqueness and innovations to see the Jùjú music become a powerful genre of music which everyone even elites like Politicians, Business men, and other influential, can resonate with.

IK Dairo who was known during his lifetime as an awe-inspiring musician, wrote his name on the tongues of everyone and in the household of Jùjú music as an inexpungible, owing to his determination, commitment, music styles and messages passed to the listeners.

IK Dairo was born into the family of 12 children on January 6, 1931 in the town of Offa, Kwara State; his family was originally from Ijebu-Jesa before moving to Offa. He was the son of a carpenter who worked with the Nigerian National Railway until 1937, when he resigned to focus on farming in Ijebu-Ijesa, Oyo State.

IK Dairo attended a Christian Missionary primary school in Offa but later quit his studies due to the depleting finances of his family. During this trying time for his family, Dairo decided to travel to Ijebu-Jesa with the drum his father built when he was seven years old. As at the time of residing in Ijebu-Jesa, he was fond of playing drum, especially when he is idle, and because of the love he has grown for music, he picked interest in listening to the early pioneers of Jùjú music which he practiced with his drum.

After a period of his admiration of Jùjú music, in 1942, IK Dairo joined a band led by Taiwo Igese; however, the band could not stand the test of time as it broke up within a few years. In 1948, he went to Ede in the present Osun State where he worked as a pedestrian cloth trader and also played music with a local group on the side. However, he got sacked when he thought his Boss might stay long during his travel which made him decide to play at a local ceremony, not knowing his boss would come back same day; his absence got his Boss angry and consequently got him fired.
IK Dairo later moved to Ibadan, where he joined Daniel Ojoge, a pioneer Jùjú musician’s Band and played for a brief before returning to Ijebu-Ijesa; most of the performances he had with Ojoge’s band were at night.

In 1957, after returning to Ijebu-Jesa, Dairo fully committed himself to music career when he founded a ten-piece band named the Morning Star Orchestra. This step contributed immensely to the growth of his career. In 1960, a popular Ibadan-based lawyer and politician, Chief D.O.A Oguntoye, invited his band to play during the celebration of Nigeria’s independence through which he earned admiration from prominent Yoruba patrons at the event, many of whom later invited him to perform during cultural celebrations and other parties.

In the early 1960s, he decided to change his Band’s Morning Star Orchestra name to Blue Spots. During the period, he won a competition televised in Western Nigeria to showcase the various talents in jùjú music and formed his record label in collaboration with Apala maestro, Haruna Ishola, shortly before he became famous.

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IK Dairo brought many initiatives into the revered genre during which he introduced news instruments into the jùjú music world, including the ten-button accordion, Latin-derived rhythms and researched into the oral traditions of the various Yoruba sub-groups. IK Dairo’s ability to bridge the gap of ethnic lines by infusing other tribes’ instruments and languages without affecting the use of deep Yoruba culture in his arts contributed a lot to his career success.

Aside from being the first high profile musician to play accordion, IK Dairo’s Band played other musical instruments like electric guitar, talking drum, double toy, akuba, ogido, clips, maracas, agogo, and samba.

In 1962, he released a major hit song titled ‘Salome’ under Decca records which was a mix of traditional elements in Yoruba culture and urban life as major themes. Another popular song he sang was Ka Sora, Let Us Be Careful, the song is sometimes described as predictive of the Nigeria Civil War. He also released other popular hits including one about Chief Awolowo, who was imprisoned at the time the song was released.
His versatility did not go unnoticed as Queen Elizabeth awarded Dairo the MBE (Member of the British Empire) for his contributions to the culture of the Commonwealth in 1963. He is the only African musician ever to receive such an honor.

The emergence of new musicians like Ebenezer Obey and King Sunny Ade in 1964, affected the popularity he enjoyed. However, Dairo continued with his music, touring Europe and North America in the 1970s and 1980s. He worked for the welfare of musicians, helping to found the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria (MCSN) and serving as President of the Nigerian chapter of the Performing Rights Society (PRS). He was also involved in a few interest groups dealing with the property rights of musicians. Between 1994 and 1995, he was a member of the Ethnomusicology department at the University of Washington, Seattle.

In 1966 a music poll was held in Spear, a popular Nigerian magazine, and IK Dairo won handily. The readers therefore conveyed their responses on the sense of his enormous appeal as: “Sensible hedonist. Dairo’s consistent drumming, sedulously, impartiality and unservitudeness make him the Shakespeare of Music. An earthly god of music!”; “His music contains a lot of the up and down of his world. It teaches us knowledge, moral spirits and other things.” “His is music without tears.”

IK Dairo, before his demise on February 7, 1996 in Efon-Alaye in Ekiti, sang different remarkable songs like Salome 92, Ise Ori Ranmi Ni Mo Nse, I Remember My Darling, Erora Feso Jaiye, Se B’Oluwa Lo Npese, Yoruba Solidarity, Mo ti yege, Ashiko Vols 1&2 Early 1970s’, among many others.

IK Dairo who was the first truly international star of African music with a career spanning more than fifty years, toured Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, paving the way for younger musicians such as King Sunny Ade, Ebenezer Obey, Sina Peters and many others.