8 DEC: MICHAEL OLATUJA Album Launch Party at Jazz Cafe, London
December 4, 2009 by M. Gosho Oakes
Filed under Events
MICHAEL OLATUJA
ALBUM LAUNCH PARTY with special guests Ty & Terri Walker
Venue: Jazz Cafe (5 Parkway, Camden Town, London NW1 7PG )
Date: Tuesday 8th December 2009
Time: Doors 7pm
Tickets: Adv £15 - click here to buy tickets
At age 11, Olatuja picked up a bass guitar for the first time, and within five years, he was playing professionally, absorbing everything he heard along the way, including soul, jazz, R&B, gospel and more.
Influences such as guitarist George Benson and jazz bassists John Patitucci and Richard Bona, who Olatuja calls his “teacher and mentor,” helped shape his musical world. Additional schooling in both the UK at Middlesex University and in the US at Manhattan School of Music sharpened Olatuja’s chops and allowed him to mix it up with world-class artists who quickly came to appreciate his gifts.
His 2004 move to New York gave him the impetus he needed to put it all together. “As a writer, New York encouraged me to be original, because there are so many artists out there,” he says. “Jazz encouraged the freedom to improvise, soul encouraged me to do it from the heart, R&B encouraged an undeniable deep groove and world music encouraged me not to forget my roots. Gospel gives it all a sense of purpose; it inspires and uplifts.”
Olatuja incorporates such hallmarks of traditional African music as the talking drum and hand drums (conga and djembe), call-and-response vocals and the Yoruba language, while working comfortably with musical vocabularies more familiar to Western ears: neo-soul balladry, Hip Hop, modern jazz and deep groove.
Michael Olatuja – Bass
Alicia Olatuja – Vocals
Brendan Guyatt – Vocals
Anna Omakinwa- Vocals
Troy Miller – Drums
Oliver Rockberger – Keyboards
British born writer and dreamer of Zimbabwean and Irish descent with hands and ink indelibly marked in music and culture, Marsha Gosho Oakes is Editor and Founder of SoulCulture. Has also written for likes of Blues & Soul, MySpace UK, HipHopDX, Dazed&Confused, Shook, Undercover and MOBO. Website: MGoshoOakes.com
