His father was the Anglican priest, Emmanuel Sowande, a pioneer of church music in Lagos and a contemporary of the classical composer and organist Ekundayo Phillips.

[1] Tunji Sowande was educated at the CMS Anglican Grammar School in Lagos and the Yaba Higher College, where he obtained a diploma in pharmacy in about 1940.

[citation needed] He studied law at King's College London and took and passed the Bar Finals at Lincoln's Inn.

He collaborated on live sets with several contemporaries including Johnny Dankworth, Ronnie Scott, Paul Robeson and Afro-Caribbean icons like Ambrose Campbell and Edmundo Ros.

He is also reputed to have dedicated a substantial part of his musical career to playing for charity entertaining an elderly audience- as a duo with Rita Cann, travelling around the UK for this purpose.

Sowande had aimed to pursue his musical career on completion of his studies and initially refused but subsequently accepted after pressure from his Pupil Master.

He was often at the Central Criminal Court, Quarter Sessions, Chelmsford, St Albans, Hereford, Middlesex and others and was on the county prosecutors list in Essex.

[4][6] In addition in April 1978, he became the first Black Deputy Circuit Judge (assistant Recorder)[7][8][4] sitting initially at Snaresbrook and thereafter at 24 of the crown courts including Croydon, Inner London and Knightsbridge.