Unveiling Etuk Ubong, A Fresh Blast In Jazz

Gwen Ansell, acclaimed SA music industry writer, trainer and researcher who writes for Businessday SA and BDLIVE SA penned these words in her review “Ubong’s playing approach offers irresistible reminders of Miles Davis in the late ‘50s quartet recordings: a velvet tone and quiet inventiveness rather than brash grandstanding, but underpinned by quick fingers and an even quicker mind…But there’s clearly more, and more that’s intriguing, to Ubong’s music…when the trumpet begins, the note sequence is distinctively Nigerian, not American, and it’s further in that African direction that Ubong’s intelligent improvisation takes it.”

Ibibio by birth but born and raised in Lagos in 1992, the Akwa-Ibom indigene is a trumpeter and flugel horn player who started playing music at the age of 14 and has put the decade since then to very good use.

Ubong started his music tuition under the guidance of Etop Adolphors and Victor Ademofe, after which he moved on to study jazz at the Peter King College of Music and classical music at the MUSON School of Music in Lagos. Currently he is enrolled for jazz studies at the University of Cape Town’s South African College of Music having also completed the Berklee Online Specialist Certificate in Improvisation and he hold certificates from Trinity College London and the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.

Apart from his formal studies, Ubong have gained invaluable experience by playing with world-renowned musicians like Victor Olaiya, Femi Kuti, the Gangbé Brass Band, Pat Harbison, Nduduzo Makhathini and many others.

In 2012, Ubong’s former teacher, top Nigerian trumpeter Victor Ademofe, invited him to play with him at the Lagos Jazz Series.

Following that collaboration and aged just 21, Ubong was handpicked by Femi Kuti to join his band, and played regularly for the next 2 years with Kuti at the African Shrine as well at festivals and venues around Nigeria and touring to Ghana. A highlight was meeting South Africa jazz legend Hugh Masekela at the Bayelsa International Jazz Festival produced by Inspiro Productions in 2013.  Moving on from Kuti’s band, Ubong then played with the Gangbé Brass Band, touring with them for a while to Benin, the Art Ensemble of Lagos and then he played with various local ensembles and bands in Nigeria.

In 2015, Ubong played with his Nigerian Quartet, made up of Ita Samson on bass, Timothy Ogunbiyi on piano/keyboards and Tombrapade Robert on drums, at the Lagos International Jazz Festival, the Abuja Jazz Festival and the MUSON Jazz Festival.  British vocalist Cleveland Watkiss was so impressed by the band that he invited Ubong’s Quartet to play with him at the Satchmo Jazz Festival, where he was a headline act.  As a member of the International Trumpet Guild, the young Turk represented Nigeria and Africa at its conference in Ohio, USA in August 2015 and rounded off the year playing in the On Mass project headed by Jamie Cullum as part of the London Jazz Festival.

In 2016, Ubong relocated to South Africa to further his jazz studies at the University of Cape Town. A smart move which saw him rapidly starting to make a name for himself in the local jazz scene, having formed a South African Etuk Ubong Quartet with three rising talents: Ludwe Danxa on piano, Shakeel Cullis on double bass and Keno Carelse on drums. The Quartet have performed at top live jazz venues in SA like The Orbit Jazz Club, African Freedom Station, The Crypt Jazz club, Sophia-Town Heritage Centre, The Piano Bar, Straight No chaser Jazz club and also the Artscape Youth Jazz Festival and are developing a name with jazz lovers and the media alike.

Ubong has also performed with various other musicians and bands by invitation and in SA has played with Nduduzo Makhathini, Benjamin Jephta, Justin Bellairs and Ayanda Sikade amongst others, and was featured as soloist in the Artscape Youth Jazz Festival 2016.

Ubong recorded his debut EP, Miracle, with his Nigerian Quartet in March 2016, and released the album in June.

It features original jazz compositions that reflect his Nigerian heritage as well as life philosophy of goodwill, peace and love to humanity.

His current and upcoming performances in SA and Nigeria are focused on promoting the EP and include: in SA – the Jazz in the Native Yards Heritage Festival with the SA and in Nigeria – headlining the Abuja Jazz festival and the Satchmo Jazz Festival both with the Nigerian Quartet. Engagements are underway for touring in 2017, to the USA and Europe.