Isaiah Kehinde (I.K.) Dairo was born in 1931 in Kwara State of Nigeria. The first twenty years of his life included defection from elementary school, odd jobs including barber, construction worker, and cloth merchant, and playing with early juju bands at nightclubs. Dairo joined his first juju band when he was 12, and things only got better from there.

Dairo formed his first band in 1956 after ten years of light gigging with other juju bands. They were called the Morning Star Orchestra, but changed the name to the Blue Spots after three years. Dairo added accordion and talking drum to juju music, fusing it with the highlife style that was also popular at the time, and creating a sound unique to himself. His lyrics spoke of love, women, and fear of god. He was given the nickname "Baba Aladura," which translates to "a prayerful father."

His rise in popularity and success in the 1960s went hand-in-hand with Nigeria's rise as an independent nation, and the Blue Spots composed much of the soundtrack of the time. In 1963, Dairo became the first African to receive the MBE (Member of the British Empire) award from Queen Elizabeth.

The 1970s and 80s saw Dairo and the Blue Spots touring the globe, spreading juju music throughout Europe and North America. In the 1990s, Dairo decided to retire from music, leaving the touring world to become an ethnomusicologist and professor at Washington University in Seattle in the 1994-95 academic year. Dairo passed away February 7, 1996 in Efon-Alaiye, Nigeria, at 65 years of age.

Contributed by: Jake Gold