Remembering Wole Bucknor

The pioneer Director of Music, Nigerian Navy, Captain Fredrick Oluwole Bucknor, 72, who died recently, in Lagos, was laid to rest on Wednesday, July 1. Captain Bucknor (who was affectionately called “Wole B” or plain Wole Bucknor), took ill at about 4am on Saturday, June 13, 2009.

He was taken to a clinic on Victoria Island, Lagos, at about 6 am. The proprietor of the clinic observed that Bucknor was in a serious condition and promptly called for an ambulance to convey the patient to a hospital, but he died of heart failure before the vehicle arrived.

Wole Bucknor was born in Lagos on October 25, 1937, to Mr. Ebunoluwa Bucknor and his wife, Ebunolajumoke. Mrs. Bucknor, a piano teacher, came from the well-known Shitta family of Lagos whose patriarch was given the title “Shitta Bey of West Africa” by The Sultan of Turkey before the demise of the Ottoman Empire.

The young Bucknor had his preparatory and elementary education at C.M.S. Girls’ School (yes, girls’), Broad Street, Lagos—with other young boys—before they moved across the road to C.M.S. Grammar School (corner of Broad and Odunlami Streets). Wole later transferred to Ijebu-Ode Grammar School, in the then Western Region.

As a youngster, Wole and other friends like Bukola Morgan (now Dr.), Olu Akinyanju (now Professor of Medicine), the late Lolu Forsythe, Modupe “Art” Alade, his first cousin, Richard Olufemi Bucknor and William “Yinka” Bucknor (Wole’s elder brothers) served their apprenticeship with the choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Lagos, under the Organist, Choir Master & Master of Music, Dr. T.K.E. Phillips, before they became choristers.

Fredrick Oluwole Bucknor was a Graduate and Fellow of the Trinity College of Music, London, England. He worked as a Music Producer with the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC)—now Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), before he enrolled in the Nigerian Navy as the first Director of Music (there were some Indian doctors in the Navy then, but Wole was probably the first Nigerian graduate to serve in the Navy).

Bucknor promptly hired instrumentalists literally off the streets and night clubs and gave most of them rudimentary lessons in music… reading and writing (instead of playing by ear). Full-fledged military, jazz and dance bands were established. The bright musicians were sent to the United Kingdom and the United States of America for further studies.

Before enlisting in the Navy, Wole Bucknor was very active on the Lagos music scene. He was the founder of the AFRO-JAZZ GROUP, a pianist and co-founder of the Nigerian Jazz Club in collaboration with the late trumpeter Zeal Onyia; Femi Asekun, the first Executive Director of the Nigerian Television Service (NTS)—now Nigerian Television Authority (NTA); the late engineer Taiwo Okupe.

Other members of the club were the pianist entertainer Art Alade; bandleader, conductor and bass player Steve Rhodes; the late pianist Sid Moss; the late vocalist Maud Meyer; the late Jazz-lover Bayo Marquis; the late drummer Bayo Martins; drummer Tony Williams; keyboard player Tony Benson; the late musician, multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.

Jazz-lover Austin Emodi: bassist Ayodele Vaughan; advertising practitioner and part-time Jazz singer Femi Adeniyi-Williams; the late bass player and pianist Emmanuel Ngomalio; bass player and guitarist Don Amechi; alter saxophonist Isaac Olasugba; broadcaster/journalist Benson Idonije were also members of the club.

Bassist, bandleader and engineer Tunde Kuboye; keyboard player, singer and bandleader Segun Bucknor; drummer John-Bull Okoh; the late Jazz lover Kunle Maja; the late broadcaster Yinka Craig; and photographer, journalist and part-time drummer Sunmi Smart-Cole completed the musical number.

Captain Fredrick Oluwole Bucknor (rtd.), who is survived by many children, was laid to rest in the Bucknor family vault, at Ikoyi Cemetery, after a funeral service at Christ Church Cathedral, where he was baptised, and where his late elder brother, Richard, served as Choir Master after he retired from the Music Unit of the Centre for Cultural Studies, University of Lagos, as a Senior Lecturer.