Eric Akaeze, a popular name on the highlife scene of the 60s started playing music from the UNA secondary school, Kaduna. He was born in 1939. He played flute, drums and also sang. He finally entered professional music-making, he began with trumpet player Apollo Fiberseima who led a fine band in the late 50s. He later played with Rex Williams another trumpeter based at the Cool Cats Inn Lagos.

As a young musician, he moved around many bands before he finally settled down to go his separate way. In the early 1960s for instance, he played with the Empire Rhythm Orchestra, Idioro, Lagos. He later became the leader of one of Bobby Benson’s Combo which was inaugurated on an essentially fluid basis after he had faced out the memorable Jam Session that featured such great musicians as Jibril Isah on alto sax, Chief Billy Friday, Eddy Okonta, and Zeal Onyia on trumpets,

Bayo Martins on drums. Eric finally formed his own band in 1963 and turned out great hits such as Oyon Ma, Baby Vicky, Aya Oba, Adunni, etc. This great Saxophonist with remarkable individual style passed on in 2003.