Results for "Babatunde Olatunji"

Babatunde Olatunji

Babatunde Olatunji - African Drums (1927-2003) Before there was world beat music, before there was Afropop or any of the other genres of African music marketed to Western audiences, there was Babatunde Olatunji. Olatunji's 1959 “Drums of Passion” album may have been the first African music release recorded in a modern U.S. studio. That album and its successor “Zungo!” proved extremely influential in the world of progressive 1960s jazz, helping to introduce saxophonist John Coltrane and other jazz players to African music. Olatunji himself made the United States his home and became a durable and enthusiastic ambassador of West African culture A member of the Yoruba ethnic group, Olatunji was born in 1927 in the Nigerian village of Ajido, about forty miles from the capital of Lagos

Strata-East: Seizing the Time

By CHRIS MAY

Operating on minimum finance and maximum passion, Brooklyn's Strata-East label was a pivotal platform for the spiritual-jazz movement that emerged during the Civil Rights struggle of the 1970s. Its closest contemporary comparator was Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Both were non-profit organisations. The AACM was non-profit by design. With Strata-East, co-founder Charles Tolliver ...

Bray Jazz Festival 2017

By IAN PATTERSON

Bray Jazz Festival Various venues Bray, Ireland May 28-30, 2017 There are just so many cultural events going on in Ireland over the May Bank Holiday weekend that it can be a bit of a head-spin deciding what to opt for. Roots music gatherings, literature festivals, classical recitals, a chamber ...

John Coltrane: Coltrane And Crescent—Shadows And Light

By MARK WERLIN

Visual art is a play of shadow and light, and contrast makes the forms visible. In the best jazz music, there is a kind of inner light that emanates from the musicians, the light of creative impulse, the light of spontaneous artistic expression. Some jazz musicians--too many--cast their own shadows of addiction and self-destructiveness. But often--too ...

Take Five With Aimua Eghobamien

By AAJ STAFF

Meet Aimua Eghobamien: With a dad who listened to a world of music from British pop to Highlife and Calypso; a mum who sang him a do lullabies; and siblings who were interested in all things American--Motown, soul, US pop and R&B charts--his musical tastes developed without limitations. Living at various points on three continents, he ...

Alex Diaz y Son de la Calle: Merengue Jazz King: Dedicated to Mario Rivera

By JERRY D'SOUZA

Conguero Alex Diaz marries the heady rhythms of meringue to the harmony and sway of jazz as he pays tribute to Mario Rivera, the “King of Merengue Jazz." Rivera was an exceptional musician who played 24 instruments. Born in the Dominican Republic, he moved to the United States, and soon began playing with Tito Puente, Dizzy ...

Vision Festival 2009: Day 2

By JOHN SHARPE

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 All-Star Collective / Bill Cole's Untempered Ensemble / Sun Ra Arkestra14th Annual Vision Festival Abrons Arts Center New York, New York June 10, 2009 Chapter Index All-Star Collective Bill ...

J.D. Allen Trio: Shine

By RAUL D'GAMA ROSE

The unfettered joy of listening to J.D. Allen's Shine comes from being reunited with the blues and spiritualism of modern Afro-American saxophone music. This kind of feeling and emotion all but died with John Coltrane. Arguably only a handful of players such as Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp and, perhaps, Dewey Redman kept those flames alive. And ...