By Ola Lee
To ‘tell a story’ and most particularly to ‘tell your story’ is the well-worn advice for building a successful jazz solo. Trumpeter and vocalist, Doc Cheatham buttresses this fact when he says, “If a guy plays a beautiful solo and he’s playing from the heart or he’s talking with his horn, we say, he’s telling a story.”
For Victor Ajayi, who performs under the moniker, Veeesax, originality cannot be faked. A prolific musician and multi-instrumentalist, Veeesax’s passion for the brass is legendary, with the saxophone as his forte and a core genre of Afro smooth jazz his specialty.
Veeesax’s 2-track jazz album, Life’s Journey opens with Peaceful Storm, a tapestry of smooth vocals and cool guitar riffs weaved to achieve an intricate sequence of notes, which are musically satisfying. However, the piercing sound of a lone trumpet interrupts the melody, but this is immediately muffled by the throaty, powerful sound of Veeesax’s saxophone. It’s like experiencing peace in the midst of a storm!
Veeesax’s diverse orchestra experience and his background as an instrumentalist, reflect in the second track, Not Alone. The result is a gospel infused, smooth jazz. On the album, the jazz musician, composer and soul healer splashes his sheets of sound over the troubled waters of our everyday life. Whether drawn from his own experiences or those of others, Veeesax speaks to us all: men and women; husbands and wives, lovers and lost loves. We hear his rich, plaintive saxophone and somehow we know that everything is going to be alright.
For over a decade, Veeesax has been a part of the Living Faith Church choir brass team, garnering a record of over 1,000 appearances as well as performing in front of a live audience of over 100,000 every week. He has also championed and arranged at least 10 brass bands that performed at Shiloh, an annual event that welcomes over a million congregants. The multi-instrumentalist has featured in more than 10 albums. He has equally performed on more than 30 stages across Nigeria and the United Kingdom.