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Babatunde Olatunji |
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Info: Biography, Pictures, Discography of all CDs & DVDs |
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| Education
Olatunji received a Rotary scholarship in 1950 and was educated at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.There, he started a small percussion group to earn money on the side while he continued his studies.Olatunji favoured a big percussion sound, and his records typically featured more than 20 players, unusual for a percussion based ensemble.Drums of Passion also served as the band's name.Social activism
Olatunji was known for making an impassioned speech for social justice before performing in front of a live audience.His progressive political beliefs are outlined in The Beat Of My Drum: An Autobiography, with a foreword by Joan Baez, (Temple University Press, 2005).On July 21, 1979, he appeared at the Amandla Festival along with Bob Marley, Dick Gregory, Patti LaBelle and Eddie Palmieri, amongst others.Over the years he presented workshops nationally and internationally at too many colleges, universities, civic, cultural and governmental organizations to list here.John Day Company OCLC: 592096
The Beat Of My Drum: An Autobiography (2005) (with a foreword by Joan Baez).This page was last modified 19:38, 12 December 2007.Babatunde Olatunji died Sunday morning, April 6, 2003 just ten days after being admitted to Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital, of complications due to his long struggle with the effects of Diabetes.Babatunde Olatunji was born 1927 in the small village of Ajido, Nigeria, about forty miles from Lagos, the capital of the country.The drummers celebrated every occasion, proclaimed the coming of local politicians, evoked the dreams and aspirations of their people.To cover his expenses he started a small drumming and dance group.It was the first album to bring genuine African music to Western ears, and it went on to sell over five million copies and is still a popular recording.In 1964 Olatunji performed at the African Pavilion at the New York World Fair where he was able to raise enough money to open the Olatunji Center for African Culture (OCAC) in Harlem, offering classes in African dance, music, language, folklore, and history.Everything and every human action revolves in rhythm.In 1991 he and Hart joined forces on Planet Drum, a group that toured around the country and later recorded an album that won a Grammy Award.In 1997, Chesky Records released Love Drum Talk, which went on to be nominated for the 1998 Grammy for Best World Music Album.Baba was the single most important contributor to the popularization of African hand drumming in the United States.For the few years before his death Olatunji made his home at Esalen Institute along the wild Big Sur coastline in California, where he continued to teach while battling the ravages of Diabetes.Olatunji's Page in The African Music Encyclopedia.Babatunde Olatunji and Arthur Hull.About the author: Janet Planet is a writer and drummer and one of many seeds planted by Babatunde Olatunji during his lifetime.Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji's ensemble
heard on Drums of Passion not only was released on a major label
but became a top 10 record in America.By the time that his music was making the charts, he was also making
the lecture circuit, going around colleges to talk about African culture.Olatunji in April 1999 to talk about the span of his career.Sad news as Baba passed away in California on April 6th at the age of 76 from diabetes.All of this
is celebrated with music and chants and dance.You are just there
and you are a part of it.PSF: Who were some of these musicians who influenced
you early on?Those who wake
up every day to play music, those who go to the marketplaces to perform
where the women sell their wares, those are the professional musicians.PSF: This was probably before radio or television
entered the picture so they were probably an equivalent form of entertainment
also, right?There's always a
child being born in the village.These are events
that are announced by word of mouth.We
were overwhelmed when we came here.We went to school
in the South.That's how
the whole thing started with me as a lecturer.African programs
for Black awareness for NAACP and other groups.Tarzan or the Hollywood
image.When I
came to New York, I started going about lecturing in schools.Boston and we
recorded it when he returned.It was then that Al Han, artists representative of
Columbia Records, came to me and said 'We'll put you in the studio.It was the first African recording that really demonstrated the
impact of percussion in music.We know
that it will always do that.The instruments that we use in Africa are
sources of communication.The other aspect of it is that we use it for
healing.We know that rhythm is the soul of life.Everything that we do is
in rhythm.In talking about jazz, you call it a phenomenon that
has been born from so many sources.With
that going on, there is a steady beat, a heartbeat."Oh happy day, happy day."In the way of life of people in the area of arts,
it's the same thing when you think about it.People who can recite verses.The style of presentation.Through their songs, through their renditions, they let this all out.And
how they feel about the one that gives them the most pleasure.The continents were not really separated as they were
with North America.If you go to Trinidad, you can listen to people who are chanting
the same songs to the God of thunder as they do in Nigeria.We put it together to make music.It really speaks for itself.That's why I changed course, foreseeing the whole idea of diplomacy that
I was studying for.In essence, I said that
there should be a cultural center in every major city in America so as
to disseminate information about the rich cultural heritage of Africa to
correct the ugly image of Africa in the mind of Americans.We will be able to help you.So the first drum set I had for
Drums
Of Passion actually came from Ghana.Those who say they were gonna charge us, they say 'when
you're finished charging, you come over here.We were the first African group in this
country to perform at the World's Fair.The money I made there, I used to
open the Center.He was very concerned
about the way that promoters were cheating the musicians.He was following me at that time.We know how to promote shows.You want to have
a center in every center in America?Things were so different.You had black
and white (people) everywhere.So I was wondering why it wasn't happening
again?The first money I got was from the Rockefeller
brothers: 25,000.It wasn't until November 1985
in San Francisco that I met him again at one of the Bill Graham theatres.It's because of you that I'm doing what I'm doing today.It
was at that time that Columbia refused to renew my contract.We used to open for all the big bands.Harlem just to (earn money to)
come upstairs and drum.It
was so devastating that here was an opportunity to help these people to
have an image of themselves.But they didn't do the right thing by them.Street to 138th Street and I saw that those kids didn't go
school.They walked around, had nowhere to go.The history about themselves.If they ever knew who their
ancestors where, they would want to do the right thing.But they (the parents and adults) didn't do anything
about the situation.Now, the black student unions would want to sponsor me but they don't have
no money.The black student union gets very little
money and they want to do so much.The dancers must be able to dance with the beat of the drum.Not only in tempo, in intensity,
maybe to a completely new interpretation.The drummer as well as the dancer has the ability to sing along
as they perform.It is part of the whole presentation.PSF: Do you also have a sense that the drums are
interacting with each other?Irrespective of the number of drummers involved in a presentation,
each drummer is given a part to play for the whole.They just play for the dance.Every traditional
dance that's been passed on from time immortal is all music, unless it
is a new work.So (then) you got to write the music for it.New choreography,
new music, new costumes.They had a special service for Mandela
when he first came here (1990).San Francisco, which was also organized
by Bill Graham.Well, I'm a citizen of the world now.What I've been doing here...In the Western world, we have neglected those traditional values.The past
and the present are inevitably put together.Then we cannot let time go by without taking care of that particular aspect
of our development now, especially if we try to patch up the rest of the
world.And we need to catch up with the rest of the world.You look at this country and how they spend all the
money buying arms.My recent album,
the subject matter is love.It was overpowered by other instruments.There's always a message about each CD that
I put out.So, I have been very careful about that.African music, even Africans themselves, needs to make sure that we
don't lose that touch.That our performances really be a signature of
where the roots of the music come from.There is no doubt in my mind (that) we all go through
a process of incorporation.No matter who you are or where you are, you
will be effect by an environment.Well, I am proud of that.This site has been temporarily disabled due to a problem.If you are the owner of the site, please click here to correct the problem.This is extra text so that microsoft internet explorer will show our page as a 404.Rhythm is the soul of life.The whole universe revolves in rhythm.PLANET DRUM has been a best selling recording on commercial charts and the ensemble carried out a fifteen city tour of the U.The contribution of this project led to a Grammy Award for the Planet Drum recording.Olatunji has led his Drums of Passion performance group of drummers, singers and dancers in appearances as diverse as the Earth Celebration '95, Sado Island, Japan; One World, One Music Celebration of the 50th Year of the United Nations at Madison Square Garden, New York; opening ceremonies of the International Peace University, Berlin; International Transpersonal Association Conference in Prague, Czechoslovakia; The First International Men's Conference, Austin; the opening of the New Years Eve Celebration Concert by the highly popular band the Grateful Dead in Oakland and the Juneteenth Celebration, Buffalo.This year as in the past 12 years Mr.Olatunji continues to pursue his four decade commitment to spreading knowledge of African culture through the teaching of traditional drumming, dancing and chanting in classes for adults and young people.This commitment continues the educational activities that Mr.CD boxed set through Sony Records.Olatunji and The Drums of Passion continue their vision of the shared experience of joy, energy, and exhilaration stimulated by sounds and rhythms of universal language from the deep tradition of African drumming, dancing and chanting.Babatunde Olatunji, a renowned Nigerian drummer who pioneered world music and influenced musicians such as Carlos Santana, Mickey Hart, John Coltrane and Bob Dylan, died Sunday at a Salinas hospital of complications from diabetes.At Morehouse, he began performing informally, entertaining fellow students.In 1959, Columbia Records released Olatunji's first album, Drums of Passion, which became an unprecedented, worldwide smash hit.Olatunji has traveled the world for forty years spreading his music and African culture.Olatunji also has written scores for Broadway and Hollywood productions, including the music for She's Gotta Have It, a film by Spike Lee.In 1997, Chesky Records released love drum talk, which went on to be nominated for the 1998 Grammy for Best World Music Album.Olatunji leads an ebullient ensemble of guitarists, singers and, of course, percussionists through a series of spirited meditations on the nature of love.DO YOU LIKE DRUMMERWORLD?Both there, and in New York where he attended graduate school in Public Administration starting in 1954, Olatunji saw the cultural divides between black and white Americans and between all Americans and Africans, and he decided that music, in particular drumming, could go a long way toward bringing people together.But Olatunji persued his vision.Not only did he become an accomplished percussionist and arranger, but he went on to teach and inspire generations of American musicians, many of whom have devoted their careers to African music.This meeting led directly to the recording of Drums of Passion .It was a landmark and a triumph, but the road beyond has not been easy.Between the time Olatunji's contract with Columbia expired in 1965, and the time he was picked up by Rykodisc over 20 years later, he didn't even have a record company.In concert and in the studio, Olatunji favors the big sound, often using 20 or more singers, percussionists, and dancers.Do not duplicate or redistribute in any form without permission. |
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