Musician and producer based in London.
Dele’s career began when he joined Fela Kuti's Egypt 80, where he played keyboards for seven years (1979-1986).
During Fela’s incarceration in 1984, Femi Kuti - Fela’s son and Dele’s childhood school friend - took over the reins temporarily and led Egypt 80. During this period, Dele developed his arranging skills as the musical director of the band. He re-orchestrated and re-arranged for Egypt 80 and also handled the recruiting and training of new musicians.
In 1986 Dele and Femi left Egypt 80 to form their own band called Femi Kuti & The Positive Force of which Dele was the musical director and bandleader, responsible for recruiting and training the new band members. He was also the rhythm keyboard player and keyboard soloist.
Dele left Femi Kuti & The Positive Force in December 1995 and moved to London where he set about forming a new group, and the resulting projects reflect London’s multicultural environment, with a strong influence of jazz and shades of deep funk and Latin music, but all underpinned by the heavy grooves of Afrobeat’s Yoruba rhythm with Dele’s vocals very strongly in the Afrobeat tradition.
