Babatunde Lea
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Babatunde Lea

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Music

The best kept secret in music

Press


"Seattle Times"

It’s been a while since I’ve felt the kind of passionate heat and burning sense of message generated by drummer Babatunde Lea. He’s one of the hottest jazz/world music attractions on the festival scene.
-The Seattle Times
- Seattle Times


"Jazz Times"

Accessible and earthy...fresh hand-slapped and stick-led patterns...[his] rhythyms operate through
jazz’s cosmos, with bluesy passages and rockish in-your-faceness.
-JazzTimes
The festive feel of a percussionist’s reunion and a thorough respect for the spiritual roots of Afro-Cuban music... well arranged... brilliant solos... tight horn section. Listeners will be waiting at the door with warm anticipation the next time Lea hangs out his shingle.
---Jazz Times
- Jazz Times


"Philadelphia Daily News"

Catchy melodies with blowout middle sections, a la the Jazz Messengers...Lea drives and enhances
the pieces with taste, not power.

-Philadelphia Daily News
- Philadelphia Daily News


"San Francisco Weekly"

Lea drives his stellar group from the drum kit or congas with ferocity and grace, picking up where
post-bop greats of the 60’s and 70’s left off.
-San Francisco Weekly
- San Francisco Weekly


"Mc Coy Tyner"

Lea brings a heady and propulsive sense of soul to jazz along with....an authentication of the music to African culture.

Playing music with Babatunde Lea is a surreal and gratifying experience.
-- McCoy Tyner
- Mc Coy Tyner


"Schwann Inside Jazz"

It’s music as fresh and wonderful as the first album you ever bought... It’s 60’s Blue Note vintage
hard-bop- funk refracted through an Afro-Latino spirit-cosmic jazz-tinted looking glass. This music will make a believer outta you!
--Schwann Inside Jazz
- Schwann Inside Jazz


"LA Weekly"

What you got is a tightly disciplined, tightly arranged, Jazz Messengers-influenced soulful
post-bop that’s propelled, rather than ruled, by it’s leader’s formidable technique.
---LA Weekly
- LA Weekly


"Modern Drummer"

At the heart of his sound are simple repetitive riffs,growing waves of rhythym and inspired
ensemble soloing, creating a surge of visceral exuberance. It is this passionate earthiness that
distinguishes Lea’s accessible arrangements.
---Modern Drummer
- Modern Drummer


"The Beat"

. Harkens back to the classic late-1960’s Impulse label sound where heros like Coltrane and
Pharoah Sanders made some of the most soulful, searching music ever... simply beautiful.
---The Beat
- The Beat


"Providence Phoenix"

Babatunde Lea makes a good case for drums being jazz’s most important instrument.
--Providence Phoenix
- Providence Phoenix


Discography

March of the Jazz Guerillas
Level of Intent
Soul Pools
Suite Unseen: Summoner of the Ghost
Levels of Consciousness

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

Babatunde Lea

Babatunde Lea is one of those “old souls.” You know the type: wise and serene, blessed with a culturally diverse perspective, bubbling over with ideas and creative energies that strongly suggest they’ve been this way before; someone deeply in touch with the spiritual essences. Such an impression is borne out in spades by ‘Tunde’s newest entry in the growing tradition of Motema Music. Suite Unseen: Summoner of the Ghost is a journey through the spirit world powered by contemporary, deeply sculpted grooves and articulations specially crafted by this master percussionist; all delivered by a high-spirited crew of musicians.

“I’m not a religious man, but I do believe in spirit, that it intervenes in our lives in mysterious ways. So I thought with this record I wanted to pay homage to the spirits. This suite is five melodic vignettes that call on the spirits, culminating in [ the 5th and final movement] “Summoner of the Ghosts. I get more technically adept as I grow and keep practicing, but the one thing that I’m really sure of about my playing is that I can call the ghosts.” To label Babatunde Lea a multiple percussionist is to recognize the holistic, global approach and depth of his skills, as both trap drummer – from whence he primarily operates on this disc – as well as hand drums and miscellaneous percussion from diverse sources.

Babatunde's music is steeped in the rhythms of the Motherland of Africa and its Caribbean & South American diaspora. Lea was raised in New York and Englewood, New Jersey, but in the late 1960s migrated westward to the Bay Area, where he was further immersed in global rhythms, courtesy of such affiliations as fellow percussionist Bill Summers’ (The Headhunters; Los Hombres Calientes) visionary ensemble Bata Koto. ‘Tunde, as he is known to intimates, has also drawn immeasurable experience working with such singular stylists as Leon Thomas, Pharoah Sanders, Stan Getz, Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, Van Morrison, Oscar Brown, Jr., and a host of others.

Lea’s cultural quest doesn’t end at the bandstand. Since 1993 he and spouse Dr. Virginia Lea have operated the Educultural Foundation, a Bay Area youth education operation that through a variety of programs immerses students and schools in global rhythms primarily from Africa and the Caribbean diaspora. “The Educultural Foundation is something my wife and I put together to sow seeds of change and be agents of change, trying to better ourselves and our communities. We teach critical thinking about social and cultural issues through the arts,” the drummer informs. One of their programs, Yo Ancestors! neatly dovetails and is a precursor to Suite Unseen: Summoner of the Ghost’s quest for the spiritual essences.

Asked to detail his overall career philosophy, Babatunde eagerly divulges that “I draw a lot from African culture and one of the main things I draw is that music is functional; in African life music accompanies everything. The music can put you in a space to make you learn a lot, to open you up. Once you’re open and energized then you can start building things to make the world a better place. Music is like oil and water: it does the bidding of who controls it; it has the power to open you up but it doesn’t direct where you’re gonna go once you’re open.” The music of Babatunde Lea will open you up to its spiritual quest in a way you will find both stimulating to the body and “educultural” for the mind.

In 2005, Babatunde one first prize of the prestigious award in Adventurous Programming given by Chamber Music America/ASCAP and was voted best jazz artist by the San Francisco Weekly.