Don Jazzy’s cousin, Uche hits airwaves with Mago Mago

To say that music runs in the family of popular musician, producer, and entrepreneur, Michael Collins Ajereh popularly known as Don Jazzy is not an understatement but a fact.

Unknown to many, Gabriel Akujobi better known as Uche and face of Yankari, an Afrobeat band based in Dublin, Ireland, making waves around the world, is a cousin to the famous Mavin Records chief and D’Prince. So, there is little wonder as to his musical capability seeing that the same musical genes flow in him as well.

Currently in Nigeria to promote the band’s latest single Mago Mago, Uche explains that the song is a Nigerian phrase used to imply that “a person or action is deceptive or untrustworthy, a trickster of sorts.

“Unfortunately, as we all know, this term applies to many people in positions of power all over the world. As such, the song is a statement on the struggles faced by all of us as we move through an age of fake news and questionable leadership at this point in time where both the people and planet have had enough,” he said.

Born in Nigeria, Uche moved to Dublin in his teens, where he found comfort expressing himself in music especially in the style of his idol, Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

He formed the band, Yankari with his brothers –Segun and Michael Akano, who is also originally from Nigeria, while his wife, Antonia, has also been a mainstay of the band from its inception, as a backup singer and now advisor.

More like a family affair, the band, Uche said, aspires to advance the original Afrobeat genre by incorporating contemporary sounds, such as jazz, funk, dance, rock-and-roll whilst keeping the traditional elemental groove of the genre.

According to him, the band now works with incredible musicians from Ireland, America, and all over the world to bring this new sound – Yankari. He said they have toured the world and now want to give back to their motherland, Nigeria, where he learned what it is to be a proud African.

He stated that a number of promoters have approached him with the view of getting the band to perform in live music festivals across Europe and America, as well as the popular Felabration in Lagos.