Legendary Nigerian Evergreen promoter and music collector, Femi Esho, has died.
He was Chairman and CEO of Evergreen Musical Company Limited, until his death.
The music promoter would have turned 78 in October, but death called him earlier.
His daughter, Bunmi Esho, broke the news of his death on Facebook on Monday, revealing that Baba Esho departed for greater glory on Monday, after a brief illness.
In May, Esho launched an exceptional project, the Evergreen Music Heritage Foundation. Said to be the largest music museum and gallery in Africa and a collaboration with the founder of Mountain of Fire Ministries, Daniel Olukoya.
The project consisted of a music library, a music museum, a music gallery exhibiting a large number of artists, a display of more than 1,000 photographs of Nigerian musicians from 1914, relics of their ancient costumes and musical instruments, a events for music concerts, a cinema and a recording studio, scheduled for completion in December.
Illustrious career
The late music promoter was known for his prowess in collecting music. He was an extraordinary music collector.
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At an event in December 2017, the music promoter told the audience how long ago he started collecting music.
He said: “I started collecting music when I was 12.” Today, Femi Esho is the undisputed most prominent collector of vintage music with more than 150,000 vinyl plates consisting of 78 rpm, 45 rpm and 33 rpm breakable plates, hundreds of reel-to-reel tapes, thousands of cassette tapes of varied music along with archival materials. such as His Master’s Voice (HMV), various reel-to-reel machines, various record players (the oldest ones are 100 years old), books and newspaper articles on Nigerian music, video recordings of early icons of Nigerian music.”
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Before forming his music company, he had worked for the Lagos State government under its first military governor, Mobolaji Johnson, and for a major architectural firm.
He had also set up an advertising and public relations agency and run a printing consultancy. He also formed a band dedicated to timeless music.
It testifies to the quality of his band and the demand for timeless music. The band performed at prestigious venues in Lagos including Metropolitan Club, Ikoyi Club, MUSON Centre, Island Club and Yoruba Tennis Club. Several corporate giants have also sponsored it.
To mark Nigeria’s centenary celebration in 2014, he reviewed Nigerian music from 1914 to 2014 in a program on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) network service.
He presented “Highlife Renaissance” in the weekly Raypower for about three years.