Steve Rhodes (musician)

Steve Rhodes (April 1926 - May 2008) was a Nigerian broadcaster and musician who founded the Steve Rhodes Orchestra in 1970.[1] He was Fela Kuti's manager in the 1960s[2] and was source of inspiration for many Nigerian musicians who started out in the 1960s and 1970s.[3]

Life

Rhodes was born to the family of Bankole Rhodes, a Nigerian judge and Mabel Jones Rhodes.[1] His interest in music began at a young age; at the age of seven he was getting piano lessons from Kofo Abayomi and then was a choir boy in the Christ Church Cathedral choir under T.K.E. Philips.[4] Rhodes attended a few secondary schools, including CMS Grammar School, Dennis Memorial School, Onithsa and Enitonna High School in Port Harcout. He then enrolled at Oxford for + politics and economics program.[4] While in Oxford, he met a German music teacher who promised to give him lessons if he moved to Germany, Rhodes obliged and moved to Germany where he was taught music history, conducting and orchestration. To survive, he played in quartets, jazz clubs and worked with the British Forces Broadcasting Service.

In 1956, he returned to Nigeria and started work with the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation.[4] At NBC, he organized a radio orchestra called NBC Dance Orchestra, a big band that was also a dance music repertoire. He left NBC in 1958. In 1961, he took up appointment with the Western Nigerian Television as a programme director.

In 1971, he formed the band The Voices, which later became the Steve Rhodes Orchestra. Rhodes originally started The Voices as a church band. A pastor of the Christ Church Cathedral, Marina asked Rhodes to create a musical band that can be a crowd puller.

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References
  1. "Steve Rhodes (1926-2008)". The Nation, Lagos. 2008.
  2. Collins, John (2015). Historical trends of Nigerian indigenous and contemporary music. Lagos: Rothmed Press. p. 15.
  3. Asobele, Timothy (2005). Fela: Kalakuta notes. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press. p. 32.
  4. Dosunmu, Oyebade (2008). "Steve Rhodes (1926-2008)". /. Afrobeat Journal.
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