I SHARE because I CARE: I encourage YOU to read ALL. There is Wealth in this History. THE GREAT BABATUNDE OLATUNJI: DRUMS OF PASSION Picture: Abena Disroe (with) Babatunde Olatunji in Washington, DC , on the Mall to Honor our Ancestors (special ceremony) for the Tribes of Indian Ancestry. My Grandfather was from the Blackfoot tribe, who passed before I was birthed. EACH ONETEACH ONE! Date of birth : 1927-04-07 Date of death : 2003-04-06 Birthplace : Ajido, Lagos State, Nigeria Nationality : Nigerian Category : Famous Figures Babatunde Olatunji was a Nigerian drummer, educator, social activist and recording artist. Babatunde Olatunji influenced contemporary jazzs turn to African rhythms back in the 1960s. A respected musician and tireless promoter of African music and culture, he was also a key figure in the rise of world-beat music in the 1980s, and he teamed with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart to record the Grammy Award-winning 1991 release, Planet Drum. Olatunji died of complications from advanced diabetes in April of 2003, just a day before his 76th birthday, and was eulogized in a variety of publications. Sing Out!s Richard Dorsett termed him African musics foremost ambassador of the power of rhythm, while New York Times music critic Jon Pareles recalled the drummers personal philosophy: Rhythm is the soul of life, Olatunji liked to say. The whole universe revolves in rhythm. Everything and every human action revolves in rhythm. Born on April 7, 1927, Olatunji grew up in the fishing village of Ajido, some 40 miles from Nigerias largest city, Lagos. His father was a fisherman, and the family belonged to the Yoruba tribe, one of the countrys largest ethnic groups. Drumming was an integral part of Yoruba ceremonial life, and Olatunji was fascinated by the form from an early age. I was very inquisitive, he told Guardian journalist Ken Hunt, and every weekend I would go to village festivals. I was always behind those master drummers, watching them play. He also came of age during an era when the first radio sets appeared in Nigeria, and he was drawn to the sounds of American jazz, gospel, and classical music heard on the British Broadcasting Corporations (BBC) World Service. A Radio City Music Hall concert that Olatunji participated in served as another turning point. Columbia Records executive John Hammond, who had worked with Billie Holiday and would later discover both Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, signed Olatunji to the label, and his first release, Drums of Passion, appeared in 1959. It is considered the first African music ever recorded in a contemporary U.S. studio. Ethnomusicologists had brought back tapes of traditional ceremonial drumming, but Olatunjis debut reached a mass public with its vivid sound and exotic song titles like Primitive Fire, noted Pareles in the New York Times. Drums of Passion was actually released under the name Michael Olatunji but was later reissued under his own name. Poorly informed about his options, Olatunji also signed away his royalty rights, and in the end he earned little money from the record. He wrote music for the Broadway production of Lorraine Hansberrys acclaimed play, A Raisin in the Sun, but earned just $300 from that job. In 1961 he performed at inauguration ceremonies for U.S. President John F. Kennedy, and he released his second LP, Zungo! The following year, he was mentioned with other black icons, including King, in Bob Dylans I Shall Be Free. He was invited to perform at the African Pavilion of the 1964 New York Worlds Fair, and with money earned then he established the Olatunji Center for African Culture in Harlem a year later. There, Olatunji supplemented his income by teaching workshops in African music, dance, and language that were frequented by a new generation of jazz musicians in New York. The burgeoning free jazz movement incorporated African polyrhythms into its forms, and West African echoes became standard in new music from John Coltrane, Yusef Lateef, and Clark Terry, among others. Coltrane even dedicated a song, Tunji, to Olatunji, and the last concert the avant-garde saxophonist gave before his death in 1967 was at the Olatunji Center. Rock musician Carlos Santana covered Olatunjis Jin-Go-Lo-Ba, first heard on Drums of Passion, under the title Jingo, for his first single in 1969. Drums are for communication, for socialization and, most importantly, for healing, he explained to Austin American-Statesman journalist Michael Point. In the 1980s he gave more than 2,000 performances across American college campuses and abroad as well. His links to Morehouse helped revive his career in 1986, when fellow alumnus Bill Lee introduced him to his son, a young filmmaker named Spike, who hired Olatunji to score part of his groundbreaking 1986 feature-film debut, Shes Gotta Have It. Olatunjis last studio release was Love Drum Talk for the Chesky label in 1997. He continued to tour extensively, taking with him a group of dancers, musicians, and singers that performed under the name Drums of Passion. They sang in Yoruba and performed traditional West African dances in distinctive raffia costumes. One of his four children, daughter Modupe, was a member of the troupe, as were some of his seven grandchildren. He declared to the Star-Ledgers Kanzler that he was still an ardent believer in the power of music, and that society was ignoring deeper issues that brought violence and misery to so many lives. I want to put drums in the hands of young people instead of guns, he told the paper in 1999. Olatunji was hospitalized because of his diabetes in 2001. He finished work on a new studio album, Healing Session, in 2003, just weeks before he died. The tribute to Olatunji in Sing Out! also mentioned the rhythm is the soul of life credo, and Dorsett remarked that he was right ... long before most of us knew it. Albums: -Drums of Passion (1959) -Zungo! (1961) -Flaming Drums (1962, Columbia Records CS8666) -Olatunji -Soul Makossa (1973, Paramount) (Single/EP) -Dance to the Beat of My Drum (1986, Bellaphon) -Drums of Passion: The Invocation (1988, Rykodisc) -Drums of Passion: The Beat (1989, Rykodisc) -Drums of Passion: Celebrate Freedom, Justice & Peace (1993, Olatunji Music) -Drums of Passion and More (1994, Bear Family) Box Set -Babatunde Olatunji, Healing Rhythms, Songs and Chants (1995, Olatunji Music) -Love Drum Talk (1997, Chesky) -Drums of Passion [Expanded] (2002) -Olatunji Live at Starwood (2003) Recorded Live at the Starwood Festival 1997 -Healing Session (2003, Narada) -Circle of Drums (2005, Chesky)
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 04:23:09 +0000
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