CARDINAL REX JIM LAWSON (LATE) 53RD YEAR REMEMBRANCE AT BUGUMA RIVERS STATE - SO ALA TEMEN скачать в хорошем качестве

CARDINAL REX JIM LAWSON (LATE) 53RD YEAR REMEMBRANCE AT BUGUMA RIVERS STATE - SO ALA TEMEN

REX LAWSON 53RD TRIBUTE CONCERT DAY AT AMACHREE TOWN SQUARE IN BUGUMA RIVERS STATE ON TUES 16TH JAN, 2024. 49 years ago, a great highlife musician, Rex Lawson, left the company of the living. He was aged 33 years when he passed away. Rex Lawson was born on the 4th of March 1938 to a Kalabari father and Igbo mother. Born after frequent early childhood deaths of his mother’s children, his father named him, Erekeosima, which means “not worthy of a name”. Erekeosima grew well and lived with his maternal uncle who taught him how to play the trumpet. Once he got his hands on the trumpet, it began to shape things around him and he called his father’s bluff by giving himself a name, a household name in highlife music, that has resonated even after his death. Cardinal Jim Rex Lawson died on the 16th of January, 1971 in a fatal car crash at Urhonigbe on Agbor-Warri Road. He had a show that fateful day and had sent his band ahead of himself to set up at Zena Nite Club, Warri. The events leading up to his death was sequentially narrated in his biography, Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson, The Legend written by his nephew, Sopriala Bob-Manuel. According to the biography, Rex Lawson woke up that day to find a dead vulture by his house. An evil omen if superstitions are anything to go by, but this did not deter Rex Lawson from going about the day’s business which meant preparing for his concert in Warri. He had only recently returned from his concert in London where a significant number of his band members had eloped. Rex Lawson travelled that fateful evening in a bus with five other people. He sat beside the driver. They stopped over at Aba to buy some new clothes for the highlife king. At Onitsha, Rex Lawson asked the driver to use the new road from Agbor to Warri. They stopped over at Agbor to eat and drink. They were offered python meat which was forbidden as food for the Kalabari people. This was the second omen they disregarded, according to the biography. The driver was said to be driving fast whilst other passengers, including Rex Lawson, were fast asleep. It had been a long day, full of smoking, eating and drinking. Welsh Lawson, the narrator and Rex Lawson’s relative, was asleep but suddenly, he noticed there was a sharp bend the driver could not meander. The vehicle lost control, somersaulted a number of times and collided with a tree. Rex Lawson sustained head injuries and bled profusely and was pronounced dead at Eku Baptist Mission Hospital after a few hours. This was how Buguma and Nigeria as a whole lost one of their illustrious sons. Rex Lawson is fondly remembered today as a remarkable trumpeter and vocalist. He released several albums now preserved in vinyl; his discography is made of no less than 100 songs and his music continues be a staple enjoyed all over the world in their original form or slightly altered to carry the flavor of our contemporary times. #highlife #nigerianmusic #nigerianentertainment #highlifemusic #riversstate #nigeriamusic