Ray Stephen Oche

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Ray Stephen Oche (born June 28, 1936 in Edikwu Village, Oturkpo , Idoma Division , Benue - Plateau , Nigeria) is a Nigerian musician ( trumpet , flute, vocals) of Afrobeat .

Live and act

Oche comes from a traditional family of musicians. At the age of eight he had established himself as a flautist in the school band. As a teenager he played in local bands and developed into an obinde singer. Soon he toured northern Nigeria to provide musical entertainment for Idoma communities.

In 1953 Oche moved to Lagos , where he first worked in the highlife bands of Stephen Amechi and then Bobby Benson , before forming his own orchestra, with which he toured. Then he settled with his formation in Accra , where he studied at the Ghana Military School of Music and met Guy Warren . In 1963 he returned to Lagos and played with Chris Ajilo & His Cubanos before founding his new band Outer Space , with whom he toured Sierra Leone and then performed in Gambia and Senegal. In 1965 he moved to Paris; from there he toured with his band in Switzerland, Italy, Spain and France.

In 1970 Oche appeared with Alan Silva and his Celestial Communications Orchestra at several festivals, but also released his album Interpretation of the Original Rhythm on the Sonodisc label Disques Espérance . In 1971 he went to Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands with Noah Howard's quartet . Back in Paris he founded his Freedom Suite Orchestra , with which he was touring in Algeria and Tunisia. In 1972 Anthony Braxton brought him into his Creative Music Orchestra to record his work RBN ---- 3 ° K12 with him . In the mid-1970s, Oche and his Matumbo Orchestra recorded another album for Disques Espérance , No Discrimination . He can also be heard on albums by Bongos Ikwue & The Groovies, Felix Lebarty, Judith Ezekoka and Nkem Njoku & Ozzobia Brothers.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reissued 2011 by Sonodisc. See archived copy ( Memento from January 12, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Oche, Ray Stephen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Nigerian musician (trumpet, flute, vocals) of the Afrobeat
DATE OF BIRTH June 28, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Edikwu Village, Oturkpo , Idoma Division , Benue - Plateau , Nigeria