In the wake of Black History month in the UK, I remember one who deserves to be acknowledged as a pioneer in his own right.
It was on an over cast but warm summer's evening in 2006 - two weeks after his death - that I discovered Ambrose Campbell. I regretted the fact that I had just missed the musician…just when I had found him!
If only he was still alive, I thought, I would make contact by any means possible and do all I could to showcase him.
I would ensure that the present generation of Nigerians, especially Nigerians in the UK, got to know about his contribution to the musical landscape of the London jazz scene. I would also strive to ensure that in his twilight years, the maestro would enjoy fame once again, this time, amongst "his own".
Tears welled up in my eyes as I read the various online tributes and comments that had been written about this man. Perhaps because of his apparently unassuming nature and humility, Ambrose Campbell remains in a sense, an unsung musical hero - even amongst Nigerians.
Oladipupo 'Ambrose' Adekoya Campbell was born in Lagos, Nigeria on August 19, 1919. He was the son of a church minister and started out by singing in the church choir. In his teens, Campbell worked as a printer in central Lagos. He would also often play the tambourine with some of his friends at the home of Herbert Macaulay.
Campbell left Nigeria to arrive in Liverpool in the throes of World War II in the early 1940s. He subsequently moved to London where he assembled a band in response to taunts from some of the "local" Londoners who didn't quite appreciate the arrival to the west-end of the African and his cohorts.
Campbell and his friends performed at Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus during the VE Day celebrations when World War II ended; he appeared on British television; co-founded the West African Rhythm Brothers (WARB); and his band accompanied Britain's first black ballet company Les Ballets Nègres.
Campbell and his band played in the jazz venues of London's west-end, including a club called Abalabi on Berwick Street in Soho, which was owned by a fellow Nigerian, Ola Dosunmu. Ola Dosunmu and his English wife, later opened another club on Wardour Street called Club Afrique - the WARB performed there too.
Ambrose Campbell was a celebrated figure in bohemian Soho, and his friends and contemporaries included British jazz greats Ronnie Scott and Johnny Dankworth.
Campbell moved to America in 1972 where he continued to be involved in music. He performed on Willie Nelson's One for the Road, and received a gold disc for his recording. Ambrose Campbell returned to the UK in 2004, settled in Plymouth, and died on June 22, 2006 at the age of 86.
When Campbell died, a plethora of obituaries were written in British newspapers. The obituary in The Times opened with the following words:
Ambrose Campbell - Nigerian-born musician whose relaxed African rhythms and harmonies made a stir in drab postwar Britain. That tribute went on to state that Campbell led what may well have been the first band of British-based black musicians.
He formed his band several years before the Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury from the Caribbean, two decades before the first Notting Hill carnival and more than 40 years before the term “world music” was invented.
An article in the Observer, written a few months before his death, was more explicit and stated that Campbell was the founder of Britain's first Black band!
I am not aware that any Nigerian newspaper reported his death - but I stand to be corrected. Three and a half years on however, I continue to ask myself why this erstwhile "son of the soil" appeared not to have been celebrated in the land of his birth.
What does one have to do to be recognised for one's achievements? What are the criteria for nomination of a national honour?
Or is it that Nigerians are reluctant to celebrate Unpretentiousness and Simplicity?
It would, of course, be unfair to make such a sweeping assumption. But it does appear that…this prophet was without honour in his own land.
Feyi Raimi-Abraham is the Principal Consultant/CEO of Zaynnah Ltd a UK based consultancy. Feyi is also the author of Zaynnah Blog
