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About Babatunde Olatunji

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Musician

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

Article: In Tribute To...

John Coltrane At 100: A Global Perspective

by Ian Patterson
September 23, 2026

With the advent of his birth centenary, John William Coltrane is on our minds again. But then he nearly always is. His influence on generations of saxophonists is palpable. For countless musicians the term “Coltranesque" can be a badge of honor or a millstone around the neck. With the exception perhaps of Miles Davis--whose centenary also ...

Article: Live Review

Terri Lyne Carrington's We Insist 2025! at Smoke Jazz Club

by Paul Reynolds
March 14, 2025

Terri Lyne Carrington We Insist! 2025 Smoke Jazz and Supper Club New York City March 7, 2025 How best to revisit a classic album of Civil Rights-era jazz activism two generations after the fact? If you are drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, and you're re-imagining--her word--"We Insist! by Max Roach, you ...

Album

Drums of Compassion

By Michael Shrieve

Label: 7D Media
Released: 2024
Track listing: The Call of Michael Olatunji; On the Path to the Healing Waters; As Above, So Below; The Euphoric Pandiero of Airto Moriera; The Fierce Energy of Love; Oracle; The Breath of Human Kindness; Zakir Hussain; Hejira

Article: Building a Jazz Library

Zakir Hussain: The Best Jazz / Crossover Albums

by Ian Patterson
March 4, 2021

Zakir Hussain turned 70 on March 9th. In an unparalleled career, which began in earnest aged 7, the man widely acclaimed as the world's greatest tabla player has played with the giants of both Indian classical music and jazz. It is hard to think of another musician who has straddled both worlds to such a prominent ...

Article: Building a Jazz Library

Strata-East: Seizing the Time

by Chris May
April 19, 2020

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 ...

Article: Live Review

Bray Jazz Festival 2017

by Ian Patterson
May 9, 2017

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 ...

Article: Hi-Res Jazz

John Coltrane: Coltrane And Crescent—Shadows And Light

by Mark Werlin
October 12, 2016

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 ...

News: Video / DVD

Santana Lands February 21 in a Captivating Set of Greatest Hits!

February 16, 2012

Eagle Rock Entertainment will release Santana Live At Montreux 2011 on a 2DVD set & Blu-ray in a exhilarating set of jazz, Latin, funk, soul and rock 'n' roll. The 23-song show weighs heavily on the side of the songs that fans of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarist (inducted in 1998) have loved ...

News: Book / Magazine

Creative Music Studio Book Reissue to Coincide with CMS Day at Columbia

March 6, 2011

Creative Music Studio Book Reissue to Coincide with CMS Day at Columbia The book that tells the story of the legendary Creative Music Studio—Music Universe, Music Mind: Revisiting the Creative Music Studio, Woodstock, New York (Ann Arbor: Arborville Publishing, ISBN 0-9650438-4-3)—is being reissued. The reissue coincides with events in 2011 designed to help cement the legacy ...