How destiny brought Fatai Rolling Dollar and I together – Ebenezer Obey

By BENJAMIN NJOKU

I read your tribute where you described late highlife maestro, Fatai Rolling Dollar as your mentor. How  was it training under him?

Music is something I believe God wanted me to pursue as a career in life. When I look back,  and I remember that as a baby, my mother was carrying me to the church. I was actually influenced into music through the church. While in my early school days, I became a member of the school band. Thereafter, I joined the choir and emerged the school band leader.

The gift of God in me as a multi- instrumentalist was speaking for me wherever  I go. Right from  my school days, I became a famous person by the fact that I was the school band leader. From there, we had the Idogo Boys and Girls Club. In that club, we had a band.   Though I was the youngest member of the club, yet I was made the leader of the band.

This is because I was leading the vocals and was actually the star of the band. However, when other members of the band realised it was my show, they all left the band. That was when I formed my own band  and named it Ifelode Mambo Orchestra  in 1957.  I grew up in Idogo, Ogun State  and had my early education in Lagos.

While in Lagos, I became the doyen of  bands. The bands saw me as a gift and they all wanted me to play with them. I finally played with some elderly musicians such as Bangwoshe and Savage Orchestra. While I was playing with these bands, Fatai Rolling Dollar was also playing with J.O Araba.

Evangelist Ebenezer Obey ...It may be difficult to see someone who understands me.

*Evangelist Ebenezer Obey

One day, I heard the sound of  Agidigbo, an instrument  somebody played excellently in J.O Araba’s music. I also  play  the same Agidigbo very well and I  would use  my experience to score  the performance of the person that played the instrument in that music.

Within an hour I’m done but this particular one took me several hours to score his performance. That was what made me to insist on meeting the man that played this Agidigbo. As a matter of fact, I spoke to those elderly musicians, pleading with them to introduce the man to me whenever he comes around.

They told me that the man usually passes by my axis. I  pleaded with them that I was interested in knowing who he was. One day, while he was passing, they told him that ‘this boy had been asking after you.”  They introduced me to him. That was the day we met for the first time.

I saw  his guitar hanging around his neck. That day, I asked him if he was the one that played the Agidigbo, narrating how it took me several hours to score his performance.  He inquired to know how many fingers I usually use while playing the Agidigbo.

I replied, saying that I’m used to two fingers while most people use only one finger. But he shocked me by saying that he used all the fingers. At this juncture, you cannot use two fingers to score somebody  who plays with all his fingers. It would be difficult. That was how he became someone I so much loved and admired.

From that moment, I followed him to his house with his guitar hanging around his neck. While on the way to his house, every chord he struck, I would compose a song. He marvelled at my talent.  That was how we became friends. He cannot do without seeing me then, just as I  could not do without seeing him a day.

He would visit my house and I would follow him to his own house. That led to my playing with his band, Federal Rhythm Brothers. I happened to be the person that God used to bring that band together. He became my boss and we had good relationship until we later parted ways. I later formed my own band.  Rolling Dollar was a nice man.

Within the years you worked with him, what would you say endeared you to him?

He was a man who was committed to his career in music. He was working at the Railways before establishing bis band. But when we formed the band, it was a full time thing. He was a talented vocalist and guitarist.

You described your first album, E wa wo ohun oju mi ri  as a failure. What was the problem with the album?

It was not a failure. I was explaining that in those days, it wasn’t like what is obtainable today where artistes approach recording companies with their demo. The recording outfits will have the opportunity to play the demo and decide whether they will release the album or not. But during my time, there was no demo technology. Everything was based on  the practical. I could recall how I went to a recording company and introduced myself as a future star and a musician.

The company auditioned me with my band and thereafter, they recorded my songs. The pattern in those days was that they would record all the artistes and later, organise a listening time for distributors  who would book the number of copies they want from the individual artiste’s songs.

So, at the end of the day, they would total the number of records they booked from each artiste. If it’s not up to 500 copies, the recording company would see the songs as something they would not release.  However, after I have scaled through all the auditions, and by the time, the distributors listened to my songs, the total number of copies they booked was 19 pieces less than the 500 as required by the company.

That does not mean that the album was a failure. Rather, I wasn’t able to meet up with the required numbers of copies.  Even at that, the managing director of the recording company who believed in me ordered about 25 copies of my songs instead of the 19 copies. And it was the first time the company’s Managing Director would order an artiste’s songs .

What the musicians of today should learn from my time was the determination I had to trek from Mushin to Lagos Island to storm Decca West Africa office to sell myself to the management of the company.  That determination is part of life. That was what helped me become who I am today. I didn’t wait until I had money to board a bus before I could go to the Decca West Africa office on the island. If you are sure of the gift of God in you, then try to be adventurous. Without adventure, there can’t be success.

What was it like playing Juju music in those days?

The Juju  music we played, we had an identity. Every artiste must have an identity. I am known as a good composer and my songs were meaningful. If you are a good composer, people will want to listen to your music all the time. It’s either you are a good composer or a good instrumentalist.

I’m a good instrumentalist and the edge I had over my contemporaries back then, was my composing ability. Meanwhile, every musician then had an identity. That’s the way we played Juju in those days.  But I admire the present generation of musicians. They are  reaching out to their generation. The only thing they need to take away from us is the lyrics of their songs. Anybody will like to hear something good That’s the secret.

Was it all that easy abandoning your musical career for the work of God?

Yes, it was easy because it was a call. God’s call cannot be resisted. God called me after being a successful  musician. I have taken my music to the four corners of the world and God now called me into the ministry. I heeded the call and here I am today. I knew everything about me came from God. The success I recorded as a musician also came from God  When God spoke to me, I wondered if I could be able to embark on the journey. But when the Holy Spirit speaks, it speaks the right words.

21 years after becoming a servant of God, what would you say have changed about you?

Several things have changed about me. I noticed that before I came into the ministry,  the life of a celebrity was still in me. But by the time I came into the ministry, I started weighing a lot of things because not everything is acceptable to God. If you want to follow God’s way, you must be prepared to do away with certain things.

Do you believe that Fatai Rolling Dollar’s name  desire to be immortalized?

There are so many things that can be done to immortalise him. One, to remember him for the good things that he did while he lived, to remember him for the records  he released, and to realise that by his death, the Nigerian music industry has lost a great musician. Nothing can be too much in trying to immortalise him.

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