Hitting the right notes with smooth jazz
As shoppers scurried through the busy parking lot at Riverview’s Lake St. Charles shopping center on Thanksgiving eve, they could be thankful for at least one thing: the smooth jazz coming from the tenor saxophone of Oladepo Ogomodede.
Ogomodede 84, has been a fixture in the parking lot at the corner of U.S. 301 and Lake St. Charles Boulevard for seven years, usually setting up a tent on Fridays and Saturdays to serenade shoppers with the saxophone or flute. He even sings a few songs. This particular Wednesday, he made a pre-holiday special appearance.
He bills himself as “Jamaica’s Gift to Jazz,” and has been known as Ivanhoe Oladepo Ogomodede (or just Ivanhoe) and Mickey O’Bryan. His business card touts “Ivanhoe, One Man Band.” And he has had a love affair with music from the time he picked up a set of drumsticks as a 5-year-old attending music school in his native town of Port Antonio, Jamaica. He has since added the saxophone, flute and clarinet to his repertoire.
“I love music,” he said.
Especially jazz. His latest collection of songs on CD (he sells them for $3) are advertised as “Jazz the Way You Love It.” Some of Ogomodede’s albums can be found on eBay, and he also can be found on YouTube. He has performed songs such as “It’s Your Thing,” “Take Five,” and “Theme From Love Story,” and has sat in with musicians such as James Brown, Lionel Hampton, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie.
Even though he’s in his mid-80s, Ogomodede still enjoys playing his music in public. In addition to his shopping plaza appearances, Ogomodede also performs at weddings and parties, and occasionally drops in for sessions at area night clubs.
He’s not slowing down.
“I don’t like rocking chairs,” he said. “And I love to come out (here) and exercise my brain.”
After playing in a band for the Jamaican military, Ogomodede earned a degree at Lehman College in New York City. After graduating from the Bronx school, he taught music at P.S. 299 (now known as Thomas Warren Field School), in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. He said he also covered music as a journalist for the New York Amsterdam News.
Ogomodede met his wife, Barbara, “at a club in Suffolk County,” Long Island and have been married “for more than 50 years.” One of the songs on his latest CD collection is named for her: “Barbara.”
He got his nickname of Mickey O’Bryan as a child. “People said I looked like Mickey Mouse,” he laughed.
Playing music for children is one of Ogomodede’s joys.
“Music is a language. And if you take your instrument,” he said, demonstrating by playing a few bars of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on the sax, “now they know that song. Then you’re speaking their language.”
He eventually moved to Riverview but since has relocated to the Sun City Center area. He raised a family that has shared his love of music. One of his two daughters, Angela, plays the piano. His two grandchildren also are musically inclined. Coby plays the saxophone, while Ciera plays the violin.
And Ogomodede keeps playing music — his own, and those of other artists. He takes requests at the Lake St. Charles shopping center and can be heard singing “What a Wonderful World,” by Louis Armstrong or songs from “Beauty and the Beast.”
Before picking up his saxophone again to play, Ogomodede explains his simple philosophy.
“I believe in myself, and I try to do exactly what my mind tells me to do,” he said.
Smooth. Just like his jazz.