Tony Benson, son of late music legend Bobby Benson, is pushing 67, at least that may in part explain why he isn’t so much known in this generation of hip-hop music.

When you listen to his brand of music your first impression is that he is a jazz musician. Then you listen harder, you aren’t so sure again. You get a feeling its high-life, blues, Latin or even opera. And when he starts singing, you simply have to give up.

Like he told us; “You have to listen to my music to decide for yourself the genre of music I do”. All songs from his latest 15-track album were composed from 1963 to date and recorded live on stage. Most of the songs are tributes, to his late father, Bobby Benson, late Sir Steve Rhodes and many others. Weekend Groove had an interesting afternoon with the affable one-man band. Excerpts:

By Ayo Onikoyi and Kehinde Ajose

CAN we know a bit about you?
By next January, I will be sixty seven. I started on stage at the age of four playing the drum-set. My dad, late Bobby Benson taught me how to play the drums, and other instruments, including percussion, keyboard and I also  managed a band.

What actually inspired you to go into music?
When you grew up with something, you hardly have to be inspired. Music has always been part of my psyche and person. Even before I had the chance, it was all I wanted to do. Music became a part of my life at a tender age and from there it grew into what it is today.

How did you become a one-man band?
When I had my band, I was the highest paid band leader, but the advent of Juju music ended all that. Then, musicians depended on commissions from what people gave them at parties. They weren’t getting salaries, they were only getting commissions on each performance. That drew the musicians away from the main band  and  the churches also drew some away.

I had left music several times and came back each time to it. I didn’t have enough  resources so I had  to  work a way out. I have also been held to ransom like three to four times outside the country by some musicians who travelled with me. Most times they wanted to walk away. So I ended up being with my dad. Gradually, I started this one-man compose, that had this keyboard  accompaniment and rhythm equipment. That is how it generated into what it is today.

As a one-man band, how many instruments do you incorporate into your music?
I can’t really count. I use equipment called MIDI in telecommunications language. It is called Musical Instrument Digital Interface and it can interface up to fourteen equipments. You synchronize them and programme them. What you programme starts to play in time with what you have set with your MIDI.

Do you play the entire instrument as a one-man band?
While it’s playing I can take solo on each of the instrument. So during a live performance, I don’t have to break for anything, all I need to do is to make the proper connection and it sometimes takes up to four hours to set up.   If     the music stops     during the performance, it means you have messed up the party. I do all my packing, settings, wire checks and connections.

When you have a show, do you still do all these things all by yourself?
I have people who can help me pack and convey, but when it gets to setting, I have to connect and link up by myself. I leave early for any show, three to four hours in advance. For instance, if I have a show for let’s say, four o’clock, I will leave by 10am in the morning. I play for the average of 4 to 6 hours and I have played for nine hours non- stop.

What instrument do you really play?
I started by playing the jazz drum popularly known as drum-set, then with congas, keyboards and the gramophones. When I started playing the keyboard, I was taught to use foot-base  pedals but I have forgotten all that now. If you go to most churches, you will see an array of wooden things on the floor, they look like sticks, but they are actually musical notes for the bass part of the music.

Do you do only jazz music?
You see, because of the nature of our business back then, we could not afford to play only one form of music. We had different nationals and all sorts of people coming to the club, it was impossible to appeal to all of them by playing one form of music.

When I was very young my father had a lot of gramophone records which I listened to. The kind of people who came to the club made us not able to play one form of music. That is why we play a bit of this and that.

Do you have any classification for your music?
I can’t afford to have a classification for my music, it’s just like someone who has a restaurant, a ‘Mama put’ and you say     you want to cook only eba and amala. You can’t afford to make only one form of delicacy. I cannot be pegged into any genre of music, because I play a bit of jazz and high life, I play Latin, blues and I also sing.

How do you see the Nigerian music scene right now?
The Nigerian music scene right now is evolving and evolution is continuous. I have to praise the young artistes of this generation, they are only working with what they have and what they know. You cannot blame them. The musicians now are very energetic, they are not lazy. It’s what they know that they are working with. They cannot do otherwise.

Very big buying audience
The saving grace is that we have a very big buying audience in this country. If Nigeria were as small as Cotonou, they would have to think twice about the kind of music they make.

It is notable  that most of today’s musicians cannot perform live….
As I said earlier, it’s not their fault.   Please, I am not making excuses for them, it’s not their fault. You know, I tried long ago but I failed, I wanted to open a music academy for the performing arts to learn how to dance; you pay your money and start dancing immediately.

You don’t have to own a school certificate.   Here, they tell you to bring your school certificate and     all of that. It discourages them .It’s a standing factor to our music explosion. The talent is there and the energy is there, but there are too much encumbrances. Here, they would ask you if you have a school leaving certificate.

Do you need a school leaving certificate to play in front of a live audience? So you don’t blame them, they are using what they have to get what they want. They dress fine, doing all kinds of gimmicks with ladies on stage.

Don’t you think their inability to play music instruments may be killing this same art of music?
It will not, it will only broaden it.

How would you compare the opportunities you had during your time to the opportunities the young artistes have in this generation, because more people are making more money in music presently than in those days?
In those days, music was looked at  as something for drop-outs. Look at footballers today, they are millionaires. Like I said,we are evolving to understand. I cannot blame them; it’s a function of what they know. Their scope is limited  and they are making the best out of what they have.

If they want to impress you, all they do is  sing a  few lines, put beautiful girls and that will catch your attention. The younger cadres are so many that if you want to belong you have to follow the crowd.

How do you see the acceptability of your own kind of music?
I don’t care. You see, I was taught to play good music. For instance, I once lived in Benin Republic and I discovered that the level of  understanding of the average Benin Republic citizen is far higher than that of the average Nigerian. They  are much more exposed to different genres  of music than our people. I am doing this as a kind of testament that I came to this world and was able to accomplish this. I have more materials that I haven’t even touched.

Are you saying you are not essentially doing music to make money?
Excuse me, when they tell you ‘Ori e foka sibe’ you can’t expect me  to sing that at my age, with due respect to the young man who sang the song. We have conservatives, non- conservatives, conformists and the non-conformists, free thinkers, among many others.

People in movie industry
People in the movie industry are the    most fortunate because most of them studied drama in school. You can’t say that  about the music industry even though it’s blossoming in its own way. A guy came from America and was taught how to play the talking drum by Nasiru Akanni. Nasiru taught him how to play the talking drum and today he is making huge money from playing the talking drum.

Nasiru didn’t ask for his university degree before teaching him. As long as he is ready to pay his money, he will be taught. The white guy learnt how to play the talking drum in three months and he is a lecturer in some university in America. It’s like that.

How do you see the lyrical content of today’s music?
The lyrical content is a function of their limited scope and training. The other day, there     was  mass failure in WAEC. They lack that basic education and backing.As long as the basic backing is not there, you get garbage in, garbage out. That is just it. They say to themselves: ‘With or without you I will make it’

But these guys seem to be making more money than the people doing good music?
It’s simply because there are more of them around with the same background. They speak the same language. This happens because they are in the majority. You cannot dampen evolution; you can only help reshape it. Our education is in shambles and because the parents have to go and hustle     jobs to make ends meet, they really don’t have time for the home-front.

How do you see  the evolution of the present day brand of music killing other genres of music?
Fuji pushed Juju out of the way and something is pushing Juju out of the way too. High-life is still relevant because it’s conservative. What  the majority understands is more or less Agidigbo based. Let’s call a spade a spade. When you fuse drums, Sekere and the gong, what you have is Agidigbo.

How do you see the future of music in this country going by this trend?
They will keep selling because they are in the majority. The youth market is huge, they are many and they will keep selling. They will bootleg and pirate. The musician only thinks about what puts money into his pocket, he is thinking of today,  he doesn’t wants to live forever. He is not thinking of ten years time, only of what he can do now to make money, buy nice phones and a  good car.

Most of the songs on your  album are tributes, like Madiba?
I composed that in 1999, someone tried to hijack  it.  I won’t  mention his name  and he murdered the song .I couldn’t get the   song out, because I didn’t have enough resources.

Is the whole of this album only about tributes?
That is what life is about. No one succeeds without others. So it’s good to give honour to whom it’s due.

If you had to pick five musicians in Nigeria today who will they be?
It depends on what they do .For lyrics I will pick Adeolu Okutegbe .He has very sound lyrics with deep content.

I mean the new generation musicians?
I don’t listen to what I cannot gain something from, musically or otherwise. This Skelewu song, I like the music and I was almost tempted  to fuse it in one of my songs,  but  the song I wanted to fuse it with was done in 1963. People will misunderstand the rhythm and think I am trying to copy his, so I decided to leave it as it is. It’s called Agolo Tincan which everybody calls Scavan. The song was composed when I was in form two.