June 18, (THEWILL) – Veteran music promoter and collector, Femi Esho, is dead.
Esho died on Monday, after a brief illness. He was aged 77 and would have been 78 in October.
Until his death, he was the Chairman and CEO of Evergreen Musical Company Limited.
In May, Esho launched an exceptional project, the Evergreen Music Heritage Foundation. It is said to be the biggest music museum and gallery in Africa and a collaboration with the Mountain of Fire Ministries founder, Daniel Olukoya.
The project consisted of a music library, a music museum, a music gallery showcasing a headburst of artistes, a display of over 1000 pictures of Nigerian musicians from 1914, relics of their costumes and old musical instruments, an event centre for music concerts, a cinema theatre, and a recording studio, all billed to be completed by December.
The late music promoter was known for his prowess in music collection. He was an extraordinary music collector.
At an event in December 2017, the music promoter revealed that he started collecting music at the age of 12.
He was undisputed, the most prominent collector of music of yesteryears with over 150,000 vinyl plates made up of 78rpm breakable plates, 45rpm and 33rpm, hundreds of reel-to-reel tapes, thousands of cassette tapes of various music along with archival materials such as His Master’s Voice (HMV), various reel-to-reel machines, various turntables with the oldest 100 years old, books and newspaper articles on Nigerian music, video recordings of early Nigerian music icons.
He had also set up an advertising/public relations agency and ran a printing consultancy. He also formed a band dedicated to evergreen music.
It testified to his band’s quality and the demand for evergreen music. The band performed at prestigious places in Lagos, including Metropolitan Club, Ikoyi Club, MUSON Centre, Island Club and Yoruba Tennis Club. Various corporate giants have also patronised it.
To mark Nigeria’s centenary celebration in 2014, he reviewed Nigerian music from 1914 to 2014 in a programme on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) network service.
He also presented ‘Highlife Renaissance’ on Raypower weekly for about three years.
