Results for "Adele Sebastian"

Adele Sebastian

Born: August 14, 1956

Adele Sebastian was an American jazz flautist, vocalist, composer, and educator whose brief career left an enduring mark on West Coast spiritual jazz. Born in Riverside, California, she studied Theatre Arts and Pan-Afrikan Studies at California State University, Los Angeles, where she became deeply involved in the city's creative Black Arts movement. 

A central member of pianist and composer Horace Tapscott's Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra and the Union of God's Musicians and Artists Ascension (UGMAA), Sebastian developed a distinctive musical voice that blended modal jazz, African musical traditions, poetry, and spirituality. Her warm, lyrical flute playing and expressive vocals reflected both her technical ability and her commitment to music as a vehicle for cultural expression.

"My Feelings Are Wings / That Can Never Be Clipped"—The Jazz Poetry Of Adele Sebastian

by Gabriel Polley
August 11, 2026

In a kinder world, August 2026 would be a month of birthday tributes for a doyenne of the Los Angeles jazz scene. Born on August 14, 1956, flautist and singer Adele Sebastian would be celebrating her seventieth birthday surrounded by generations of younger musicians she had inspired. Perhaps they could look back on a sizeable repertoire of solo ...

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra: 60 Years

by Chris May
June 2, 2023

The 2 x LP 60 Years celebrates the history of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (PAPA), which was founded by the pianist, composer and community activist Horace Tapscott in South Central Los Angeles in 1961, and directed by him until he passed in 1999. The release, albeit of archive material, also reminds us that the Arkestra ...

Desert Fairy Princess

By Adele Sebastian

Label: Nimbus West
Released: 1981
Track listing: Desert Fairy Princess; Belize; I Felt Spring; Man From Tanganyika; Day Dreamer; Prayer For The People.