{"id":122044,"date":"2023-05-09T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/?p=122044"},"modified":"2023-05-10T11:51:21","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T09:51:21","slug":"life-of-babatunde-olatunji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/life-of-babatunde-olatunji\/","title":{"rendered":"The life and legacy of Babatunde Olatunji"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Master drummer, educator, and Pan-Africanist, Olatunji influenced everyone from John Coltrane to Spike Lee in the US where he made his home, whilst in Europe Serge Gainsbourg `borrowed\u2019 Babatunde\u2019s beats for his 1964 long-player Gainsbourg Percussions. Writing in his posthumously published autobiography, the percussionist explained the art of the drummer as; \u201ca very special kind of trinity\u201d<\/em> comprising the spirit of the tree from which the drum is carved, the life force of the animal whose hide becomes a drum skin, and the spirit of the percussionist. Together these three amount to; \u201can irresistible force\u201d <\/em>and provide \u201ca balance that gives the drum its healing power. So let us look at Olatunji\u2019s life in three acts as we pay tribute to the man.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The village child<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

As origin stories go, Olatunji\u2019s is suitably Homeric. Born in 1927 in the small fishing village of Ajido some forty miles from Lagos, he received the name Babatunde meaning ‘father has returned\u2019 as he was born two months after his father (a chief in waiting) passed. As such, it was hoped he would take up his father\u2019s position, but instead it would be his mother – a potter by profession, who would determine his course.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing in his book The Beat of My Drum Babatunde recounted; \u201cThere was no school for drumming. Every child in the village is exposed to drums, dances, and sings… But I went beyond that, I would follow the drummers everywhere. They would go from market to market, from village to village, and I would follow.\u201d <\/em>Seeing her son\u2019s passion Babatunde\u2019s mother made him his first drum, a clay instrument known as an `apesin\u2019, and his fate was sealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving to the federal capital as a teen he continued his musical education within the Methodist Church where he was employed as a chorister and accompanist. Coming of age in the capital he happened upon an article in Reader\u2019s Digest magazine for a scholarship to The Morehouse Liberal College of The Arts, a historically Black college in Atlanta, and successfully applied, leaving Nigeria for The United States in 1950.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The pan-Africanist<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

“They had no concept of Africa”<\/em> Babatunde would write of this time. Realising the need to educate his peers at Morehouse, Olatunji (who had considered a career as a diplomat before he left Nigeria) lamented; “Africa had given so much to world culture, but they didn’t know it. I would invite them to my room and we would talk about their African heritage.\u201d <\/em>Forming a drum and dance troupe, he began giving school programs on African performing arts and the transmission of the drum that would be his life’s work began in earnest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elected president of the All-African Students’ Union of the Americas, he attended the All African People\u2019s Conference in Accra in 1958 where he rubbed shoulders with WEB DuBois, Kwame Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba. The same year he connected with Radio City Music Hall arranger Raymond White who invited him to collaborate on a performance at the famed New York music hall. Their “African Drum Fantasy” would play four shows a day, for seven weeks, and it was at one of these performances that Babatunde was spotted by Columbia Records Exec Al Han. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Han immediately signed the young drummer and Babatunde\u2019s Year of Africa<\/a> began with the release of his debut album Drums of Passion<\/em> on Columbia Records in February 1960. Featuring Babatunde\u2019s arrangements for an ensemble of drummers and voices, this glorious stereo recording includes a praise song to the orisha Shango set to the trans-Atlantic long bell pattern that would inspire jazz drummers such as Elvin Jones and Art Blakey<\/a>. The album also yielded the song “Jin-Go-Lo-Ba”, worthy of a deep dive as we will see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A rhythmic conversation between the mother drum (iya ilu) and the baby drum (omele) which underscore a catchy call and response chant – \u201cJin-Go Lo-Ba\u201d would be `borrowed\u2019 by Serge Gainsbourg four years later for his record Gainsbourg Percussions<\/em> appearing under the new title \u201cMarabout.\u201d Gainsbourg also lifted interpolations of  “Kiyakiya\u201d and “Akiwowo\u201d from Drums of Passion<\/em> as well as Miriam Makeba<\/a>‘s “Umqokozo\u201d. All of this proto-sampling was done without permission and Babtunde was never credited. Then in 1969 Latin rock band Santana covered \u201cJin-Go-La-Ba\u201d as \u201cJingo\u201d on their debut self-titled album and Carlos Santana was listed as songwriter even though the song was built entirely around the musical hook of Babatunde\u2019s tune.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Babatunde Olatunji & Malcolm X<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Nonetheless Drums of Passion<\/em> would sell five million copies, and in 2004 was added to the National Recording Registry – an archive of recordings considered; “Culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant to, and\/or informing or reflecting life in the United States” <\/em>where Babatunde\u2019s beats are conserved alongside Martin Luther King\u2019s 1963 \u201cI have a dream\u201d <\/em>speech. With the release of Drums of Passion<\/em> Babatunde officially became `hip\u2019 and began a storied career as a sideman (often credited as Michael Olatunji) on the records of Cannonball Adderley, Horace Silver and Max Roach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Babatunde became a regular at New York\u2019s legendary Birdland club, opening for jazz royalty such as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Quincy Jones. \u201cWe were playing ‘Afro-jazz’ before anybody called it that” <\/em>Babatunde later pointed out, and it was at Birdland that he became close friends with saxophonist John Coltrane. In 1965 Babatunde and Coltrane established The Olatunji Center for African Culture in Harlem to provide music and dance lessons to children. John Coltrane<\/a> even gave his final concert there in April 1967 three months before his untimely passing, playing alongside his wife Alice Coltrane<\/a> and the recently departed Pharoah Sanders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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