When our correspondent called Afro Juju creator, Sir Shina Peters - popularly called SSP - on the phone on Tuesday afternoon, the story of Barrister‘s death was the last thing he wanted to talk about. The pain was still so fresh in his system that he did not want anyone to drag him into a conversation on the incident.
”Honestly, I would rather not talk about Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde’s death for now,” he said. ”Barrister and I were very close. Many would not know how close we were. His death is even still like a dream to me. It is personally a huge loss to me. I don‘t think the death of my mum pained me as much as Barrister‘s death has. So, anything that will arouse my feelings on this for now, I would rather like to avoid it.”
SSP, who shook the Nigerian music scene in the early 1990s with fiery albums that include Ace and Shinamania, confessed that he did not know much about fuji music. But he noted that Barrister began to change the colour of the genre when he introduced the trumpet, piano and other western instruments to the game. When he released internationally acclaimed Fuji Garbage Series 2, SSP further confessed, the brilliance and success of the album sent shocking waves onto the scene. It was the waves that woke SSP from complacency.
”If there is any song of Barrister that I really like, it is Fuji Garbage,” he added. ”I don‘t want to lie to you. The innovation he brought into it changed fuji completely. All of a sudden, it was as if it was sending juju packing from the scene. That was what really inspired me to go back to the drawing board and develop the Ace concept.”
SSP is happy that Barrister left a positive legacy behind. He explained, ”Part of the lesson Barrister taught all of us, especially the younger artistes, is that you have to build a lasting musical legacy in terms of the quality of works you produce. You have to build it and defend it. We should also build the sense of ‘If I am no more there.”
Source: http://www.punchng.com
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