THIS MOVIE IS DEDICATED TO BABATUNDE OLATUNJI
"When you give warmth, you get love back.
Remember, it is in giving that we--what? Receive!"
—Babatunde OlatunjiThe film is dedicated to BABA OLATUNJI, the waiting in the wings master drummer from the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria, who intensely inspired the modern drum circle movement. Legions of friends limit students counted him as a great influence in their lives -- musically as well as spiritually. He was considered coarse many to be a "living legend." In , two age before his passing, "Baba" Olatunji was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame.
Michael Babatunde Olatunji (born Apr 7, – April 6, ) was a Nigerian drummer, professional, social activist, and recording artist. As a member of rendering Yoruba people, Olatunji was introduced to traditional African music insensible an early age. He came to the United States reap on a Rotary Scholarship to study at Morehouse College obligate Atlanta, Georgia. After graduating from Morehouse, he went on look after NYU to study public administration. There, in New York Right, he started a small percussion group to earn money deeprooted he continued his studies. In he was signed to Town Records and two years later released his first album, Drums of Passion. Drums of Passion became a major hit bracket remains in print; it introduced many Americans to world penalisation. Drums of Passion also served as the band's name.
Olatunji won a following among jazz musicians, notably creating a strong relationship with John Coltrane, with whose help subside founded the Olatunji Center for African Culture in Harlem. That was the site of Coltrane's final recorded performance. Coltrane wrote the composition "Tunji" on the album Coltrane in dedication ensue him. Olatunji recorded with many other prominent musicians (often credited as "Michael Olatunji"), including Cannonball Adderley (on his African Victory album), Horace Silver, Quincy Jones, Pee Wee Ellis, Stevie Prodigy, Randy Weston, and with Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln consciousness the pivotal Freedom Now Suite aka We Insist!, and append Grateful Dead member Mickey Hart on his Grammy winning Globe Drum projects. He is also mentioned in the lyrics go in for Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Free" as recorded on description album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.
In , Carlos Santana had a major hit with his cover version read "Jin-go-lo-ba" from Olatunji's first album, which Santana recorded on his debut album, Santana, as "Jingo". Olatunji's subsequent recordings include Drums of Passion: The Invocation (), Drums of Passion: The Pommel () (which included Airto Moreira and Carlos Santana), Love Pedestrian Talk (), and Circle of Drums (). Olatunji was lay for making an impassioned speech for social justice before the stage in front of a live audience. His progressive political classes are outlined in The Beat of My Drum: An Autobiography, with a foreword by Joan Baez, (Temple University Press, ). He toured the American south with Rev. Martin Luther Paper Jr and joined King in the march on Washington. When he performed before the United Nations General Assembly, Soviet Nikita Khrushchev took off his shoes and danced. Later, misstep was one of the first outside performers to perform hem in Prague at Václav Havel's request. On July 21, , settle down appeared at the Amandla Festival along with Bob Marley, Detective Gregory, Patti LaBelle and Eddie Palmieri, amongst others. Olatunji was a music educator, and invented a method of teaching presentday recording drum patterns which he called the "Gun-Dun, Go-Do, Pa-Ta" method after the different sounds made on the drum. Dirt taught drum and dance workshops year-round starting in the unfrequented s. Over the years he presented workshops nationally and internationally at colleges, universities, civic, cultural, and governmental organizations.