Earnest Olatunde Thomas (10 December 1922 – 1981), known as Tunde Nightingale or The Western Nightingale, was a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

singer and guitarist, best known for his unique

jùjú music Jùjú is a style of Yoruba popular music, derived from traditional Yoruba percussion. The name juju from the Yoruba word "juju" or "jiju" meaning "throwing" or "something being thrown". Juju music did not derive its name from juju, which is a ...

style, following in the tradition of

Tunde King Tunde King (born 24 August 1910), was a Nigerian musician credited as the founder of Jùjú music. He had a great influence on Nigerian popular music. Lagos in the 1920s and 1930s was peopled by a mixture of local Yoruba people and returnees from ...

. Born in

Ibadan Ibadan (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano, with a total population of 3,649,000 as of 2021, and over 6 million people within its me ...

, he attended school in

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 fo ...

, served in the army, and worked for a railway company. He formed his first group, a three piece band comprising

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

, and

shekere The shekere (from Yoruba Ṣẹ̀kẹ̀rẹ̀) is a West African percussion instrument consisting of a dried gourd with beads or cowries woven into a net covering the gourd. The Shekere originated in a tribe in Nigeria called the Yoruba. The in ...

, in 1944. This was at the onset of the period Nigerian musicians began to use guitar as part of their recordings. But his ''juju'' style of music was not the most popular among the Lagos elite who dominated the social scene and performances were limited to bars which provided limited income opportunities. In 1952, his band under the name of Tunde Nightingale and His Agba Jolly Orchestra held regular performances at the West African Club, Ibadan. His contemporaries included

Ayinde Bakare Ayinde Bakare (1912 – 1 October 1972) was a pioneering Yoruba jùjú and highlife musician in Nigeria. Early life Saibu Ayinde Bakare Ajikobi was born in 1912 at Okesuna Lafiaji area of Lagos to a soldier father. His father, Pa bakare was ...

I. K. Dairo Isaiah Kehinde Dairo MBE (1930 – 7 February 1996) was a Nigerian Jùjú musician. Early life I.K. Dairo was born in the town of Offa, located in present-day Kwara State; his family was originally from Ijebu-Jesa before migrating to Offa ...

and Dele Ojo. By 1952 his group had expanded to eight members, and played at the West African Club in Ibadan. Between 1954 and 1964, Nightingale's popularity fared better but he still had few hits. In the mid-1960s, he signed a record deal with Mr Jossy Fajimolu, it was during this period his music gained popularity among some socialites in Lagos who deemed the music more suitable for social parties than dance halls. He developed his style of juju music that included room for praise and incantations as party music and rarely played at halls or dances. His style of music was known as ''So Wàmbè'' ("Is it there?"), possibly a

double entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially ...

reference to the beads draped over the hips of dancing women. Biography by Leon Jackson at Allmusic.com
/ref> By the 1960s, his popularity had grown among

socialites, who sponsored him on a tour abroad. When he returned, he signed with the TYC label. In all, he recorded over 40 albums in his career. Modern stars like

King Sunny Adé Chief Sunday Adeniyi Adegeye (born 22 September 1946), known professionally as King Sunny Adé, is a Nigerian jùjú singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is regarded as one of the first African pop musicians to gain international s ...

and Queen Ayo Balogun continue to be influenced by his style. Apart from the fact that he "sounded", literally, like a

nightingale The common nightingale, rufous nightingale or simply nightingale (''Luscinia megarhynchos''), is a small passerine bird best known for its powerful and beautiful song. It was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is no ...

, he also kept a live bird in his home.

References

Nigerian pop musicians 1922 births 1981 deaths Musicians from Ibadan Yoruba-language singers 20th-century Nigerian male singers {{Nigeria-musician-stub