Yinka Sowande

What’s Been Happening with plainsightSOUND?

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Sowande brothers updates at BFI

Among Fela Sowande’s compositions are soundtracks that he wrote for films including The Plainsmen of Barotseland (1943) and African Awakening(1962). He also makes an appearance as a pianist in the 1946 wartime drama The Lisbon Story. All of this means he has featured in the British Film Instituted archives. While doing the research for my last blogpost, I realised something that had confused me in the BFI archives previously – a reference to Olu Sowande as narrator in the documentary Nigerian Harvest (1962) took me to Fela’s page. I assumed that someone had mistakenly made a reference to Fela’s full name (Olufela) and ignored it. When I realised that one of his brothers was called Olu, I got in touch with the BFI and after providing evidence that Olu was a different Sowande, they not only updated the link but created new pages for the remaining brothers so they can be referred to if any one find them in old films or footage.

Mistakes happen with names – especially non-European ones – so much in archives. There must be so many other Black musicians that are lost within them because someone has made what looks like a small mistake that can bury their work for a long time.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor violin repertoire

Schott Music have recently reprinted Suite de Pièces by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor for violin and piano. It has been available as download only for a while but if, like me, you prefer to perform from printed scores, this is a welcome addition. Thanks to Ian Mylett at Schott for telling me about this.

Title page of Suite de Pieces piano score
Title page of Suite de Pieces piano score

There are several other works by Coleridge-Taylor that were originally published by Schott but are no longer available. Hopefully, more of these Schott editions will be reissued soon… I’m updating the plainsightSOUND database as this information comes in, so get in touch if I’ve missed anything!

Listen to Suite de Pièces performed by Maria Ioudenitch (violin) and Sahun (Sam) Hong (piano). Maria Ioudenitch performs on the on the Joachim-Ma Stradivarius

Timeline additions

Four new people have been added to the plainsightSOUND timeline – Yinka Sowande, Olu Sowande, Meki Nzewi and Christopher Oyesiku. There are so many more people to add to the timeline and I’m looking for other ways to display this data too. Let me know if you have any more ideas!

Musical families revisited

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Audience at Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos concert

Image: Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos Yellowcrunchy, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Within musical families, creative interest among several siblings is pretty much expected. When we look back in history though, it is not unusual to find individual siblings who become more well-known within specific genres or fields. A while ago, I wrote about Frederick Bridg(e)tower who - as well as his child prodigy brother George - excelled and remained in music throughout his short life. We also have the Aldridges - Luranah, Amanda and Ira - who were the children of the African American actor Ira Aldridge (Alex Ross wrote an interesting article on the elder Aldridge back in 2013). Added to these are the Sowande brothers, of which Fela Sowande (1905-1987) is probably the most well-cited among British musicians today. The brothers - Fela, Yinka, Olu and Tunji - all received their initial choral training at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos. Fela and Yinka were also organists at the church. I've previously written about Fela, but his brothers were pretty interesting too.

Yinka Sowande (1910-1993)

Williams Olayinka Sowande also studied music in England and later held various positions as organist at Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos in Nigeria during his lifetime. Unfortunately, I don't have a huge amount of information on Yinka yet, but I'm hoping more is coming soon.

Tunji Sowande (1912-1996)

While Fela initially studied economics, Tunji Sowande studied Law at Kings College, London while also sustaining himself with a successful career as a jazz drummer and saxophonist. Like Fela, he was associated with high profile musicians including Rita Lawrence, Ronnie Scott, Johnny Dankworth and Paul Robeson. Unlike his eldest brother, however, he eventually decided to focus on his career as a barrister - having been called to the bar in 1952. From there, he became the first Black Head of Chambers at a major set in 1968 and in 1978 was appointed the first Black Deputy Circuit Judge in the UK. The play Just an Ordinary Lawyer by Tunji Aluko explores his life through words and music. Take a look at the trailer below:

Olu Sowande (1916-1968)

Olubunmi Jonathan Sowande was the youngest of the four musician brothers. His received his initial voice training from his mother and his first piano lessons from eldest brother Fela. On April 3, 1956, he travelled to England to study operatic singing at Guildhall School of Music & Drama. As a member of the London International Choir, he introduced his peers to Nigerian folk songs. Olu returned to Nigeria in 1960 - around the same time as bass singer and music educator Christopher Oyesiki - and took up a post as a Senior Program Assistant at NBC. Through his weekly program Olu Sowande's Show he showcased several important musicians including the now famous Fela Kuti (an alumn of Trinity College of Music, London).

Special thanks

This post was inspired by a fantastic Olu Sowande biographical Facebook post by Professor Godwin Sadoh in 2020. Professor Sadoh writes extensively on Nigerian musicians and ethnomusicologists, including in his book The Centenary of the Cathedral Church of Christ choir, Lagos available in paperback and ebook formats.

All four of the brothers now appear on the plainsightSOUND timeline.