[1] A native of Shkodër, he studied under Martin Gjoka and Zef Kurti, and he was also an alumnus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

His two musical teachers were Martin Gjoka and Zef Kurti, probably the most important Albanian musicians of northern Albania at that time.

In 1940 Jakova was transferred back to Shkodër where he started a cycle of songs for children and an operetta on two acts entitled "Kopshti i Xhuxhmaxhuxhëve" (English: The Dwarfs' Yard).

In the academic year 1941–42, Jakova was again transferred in Katërkollë, a village close to Ulqin and Osho in the Krajë region of Yugoslavia, to where he would commute with his bike from Shkodër, covering 50 kilometres (31 mi) every day.

In 1942 he went to study clarinet at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Italy where he finished with excellent results.

In June 1952 poet Llazar Siliqi was put in charge to write a poetry on youth's work on a new hydroelectric power station, which was being built on the Mat river.

The piece started as a song, but afterward it took a longer shape and was divided into two movements called Dritë mbi Shqipëri (English: Lights on Albania), and was presented in 1952 in Tirana.

The piece was nothing but the embryo of the first Albanian opera, Mrika, which was worked upon by Jakova in the following 6 years and eventually rehearsed on 2 May 1958, and put on stage on 12 November 1958.

The event was considered important and Jakova received telegrams of congratulations from many of his peer composers all around the world for the success of his first opera.

It is reported that Hoxha laughed at that response and that he immediately assured Jakova, that he personally would provide to all the necessary conditions to guarantee the opera's success.

Jakova worked very intensively on the music while at the same time he had other responsibilities as the director of the House of Culture and also teaching assignments.

The stress accumulated and the despair of a heavy life without recognition, brought him to attempt to kill himself on 9 September 1969, by throwing himself from the second floor of the House of Culture of Shkodër.

Beside the two operas there are dozens of songs, orchestral and choral pieces, movies' music, and operettas that he left to posterity.