Ayo Bankole ( ) came from a family of musicians. His grandfather and father were both church organists and his mother taught music at the Queen's School, Ede, a Federal Government secondary institution in southwestern Nigeria. As a boy, Bankole assisted his grandfather at the organ.

Ayo Bankole went to London in 1957 to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and from there went to Cambridge, where he was an organ scholar of Clare College. After graduating from Cambridge, Bankole proceeded to the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied ethnomusicology and composition.

His studies in ethnomusicology influenced his creative work and among the compositions of his UCLA period were Ethnophony and Jonas, a cantata for soloists, chorus and a mixed ensemble including African instruments and the Indian tambura.

While studying in the United Kingdom and the U.S.A., Bankole employed various 20th century Western techniques in his work, but on his return to Nigeria in 1966, he simplified his idiom, in order to make local performances of his music possible and his work approachable to Nigerian audiences.

Ayo Bankole held the M.A. of Cambridge University and the FRCO (Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists). Prior to his death, Bankole was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Music, University of Lagos.