Coming This Summer! Babatunde Lea Quintet - UMBO WETI - A Living Tribute to Leon Thomas. Recorded live at Yoshi's featuring Earnie Watts, Patrice Rushen, Gary Brown and vocalist Dwight Trible.
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Information regarding babatunde's previous release, Suite Unseen:
Babatunde Lea is one of those 'old souls :' wise and serene, blessed with a culturally diverse perspective, bubbling over with ideas and creative energies that strongly suggest he's been this way before ; someone deeply in touch with spiritual essences. Such an impression is borne out deeply by "Suite Unseen": Summoner of the Ghost, his 2006 release on Motéma Music.
Lea has forged a career steeped in the rhythms of the motherland of Africa and its Caribbean and South American Diaspora. Raised in New York and Englewood, New Jersey, he migrated westward to the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960's where he was further immersed in global rhythms, courtesy of such affiliations as percussionist Bill Summers (The Headhunters ; Los Hombres Calientes) who invited Lea to join his 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, Randy Weston, Van Morrison, Oscar Brown, Jr., and a host of other jazz luminaries.
With "Suite Unseen", his third release on Motéma and his fifth as a leader, Lea reaches a new quantum level of musicality and spiritual power. "I'm not a religious man, but I do believe in spirit, that it intervenes in our lives in mysterious ways," says the composer, who's Suite Unseen comprises five melodic vignettes that call on the spirits and culminate in the final and title track of the CD, Summoner of the Ghosts. "I get more technically adept as I grow and keep practicing, but the one thing that I've always relied on is my ability to 'call the ghosts', so with this record I wanted to pay homage to the unseen spirits that have inspired me for as long as I can remember." he explains. As with his previous releases, Babatunde continues to blaze trails in the tradition of 'Trane and Pharoah with compositions that give his highly spirited ensemble ample space to blow and paint as they call forth the spirits both individually and collectively.
Critical and popular raves were universal for Lea's 2003 Motéma releases "Soul Pools""Level of Intent" which gained top ten Jazz radio status. : 'Soul' is the operative word, wrote DOWNBEAT which rated Soul Pools with four stars. "...Fresh hand-slapped and stick-led patterns that operate through jazz's cosmos, with rockish in-your-faceness." wrote JAZZTIMES. 'A fiery example of everything that's not dead about Jazz... picks up where the Post Bob greats of the 60's and 70's left off" raved the SAN FRANCISCO WEEKLY. What you get is highly disciplined, tightly arranged, Jazz Messengers-influenced soulful post-bop that's propelled, rather than ruled, by its leader's formidable technique" comments the LA Weekly.
Now, with "Suite Unseen", the plot thickens in the story of Lea's growing tradition of imprinting soulfully personal and highly accessible jazz experiences onto disc. Always looking for ways to stretch himself and his medium, Lea conceived his fivepart suite and realized it could serve as the album's spiritual and creative backbone : "Most people link a suite together, going from movement to movement," explains Lea. "But I chose to place the compositions by my bandmates and other composers inside the suite so that they would become part of it, creating a flow where the songs in each segment would speak to that particular movement." The result is Lea's most complete concept recording to date.
Lea's holistic 'mind/body and spirit' approach has also brought out new depths in his skills, as a trap drummer - from whence he primarily operates on this disc - and as a multi-percussionist and African inspired vocalist. His unique set-up - three Remo congas' tucked neatly into a full Remo trap set, along with shekere, bala fon and other miscellaneous percussion -provides a lavish musical playground for Lea whose dazzling skill and theatricality now routinely inspire standing ovations at his live shows. Lea's explorations into vocal territories have also lent a new immediacy to his sound, as he seems to channel the very voices of the African ancestors he calls upon.
The compositional and improvisational strength of this album is enhanced by Lea's potent band mates. Most notably, by the perennial poll winning trombonist and conch shell specialist Steve Turre who contributes the swinging straight ahead track, 'Motivation' and the haunting ballad 'Inconspicuous'. Tenor saxophonist Richard Howell, with whom Lea has enjoyed a musical partnership of over 20 years , also plays a powerful role, as do pianist Glen Pearson, bassists Geoff Brennan and Ron Belcher, and percussionist 'Bujo' Kevin Jones who co-produces and rounds out the cast. Pianist Hilton Ruiz, who has appeared on Lea's previous three projects continues to perform to great effect in Lea's touring ensemble.
Asked to detail his overall career philosophy, Babatunde divulges : "I draw a lot from African culture, and one of the main things I've come to understand is that music is functional ; in African culture music accompanies everything ... from birth ceremonies to funerals. The music is there to open people up to the deepest experiences of life. But once music opens you up, it doesn't control what happens after that. Music is a resource like oil or water ; it does the bidding of who controls it. For my part, I know exactly what I want done with the energy I create with my music. I want people to use it to fight the limiting "isms" of this world. It is my express wish that my music will empower people to look within and become agents of peace and change in their hearts, in their families and in the world at large."
Lea's quest doesn't end at the bandstand. Since 1993 he and spouse Dr. Virginia Lea have operated the nonprofit Educultural Foundation. "We established our foundation to sow seeds of change, to better ourselves and our communities. We teach critical thinking about social and cultural issues through the arts, to empower students and educators to build communities and reach their educational and socio-economic goals." (http://educulturalfoundation.org)
