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FEATURING:
Olu Dara, horns and vocals
Kwatei Jones-Quartey, guitar
Alonzo Gardner, bass
Coster Massamba, percussion
Larry Johnson, drums |
Although he didn't record under his own name until 1998, Olu Dara enjoyed a reputation as one of the jazz avant-garde's leading trumpeters from the mid-'70s on. Early-'80s records and performances with the David Murray Octet and the Henry Threadgill Sextet revealed Dara to be a daring, roots-bound soloist, with a modern imagination and a big burnished tone in the style of Louis Armstrong and Roy Eldridge.
Dara was born Charles Jones III in Louisville, Mississippi in 1941. He moved to New York in 1963, but did not perform publicly until the early '70s, when he became a part of the city's loft jazz culture. By that time, he had changed his name to the Yoruba Olu Dara. Besides his work with Murray and Threadgill, Dara also played with Hamiet Bluiett, James "Blood" Ulmer, and Don Pullen, among others. Dara was an intermittent presence on the jazz scene in the '80s and '90s, occasionally leading his Okra Orchestra and Natchezsippi Dance Band. In 1985, he recorded with Pullen and in 1987, with saxophonist Charles Brackeen; in the '90s he worked with vocalist Cassandra Wilson, playing on her Blue Note album, Blue Light 'Til Dawn. Not much else was heard from him -- from a jazz perspective, anyway -- until 1998, when Atlantic released 'In the World: From Natchez to New York', the first album released under Dara's name. The record revealed another aspect of his musical personality: the leader and singer of a band immersed in African-American tradition, playing a tropical mix of blues, folk, and jazz, with tinges of funk, African popular music and reggae. In addition to playing trumpet and cornet, Dara composed all of the tunes, sung, and accompanied himself on guitar. Atlantic released Dara's follow-up, entitled 'Neighborhoods', with guest appearances by Dr. John and Cassandra Wilson, following in a similar vein in 2001.
Rapper Nas (Nasir Jones) is Dara's son. He encouraged his father to record the music he was playing with his band, and guested on a track on In the World. Dara played the trumpet on the track "Life's A Bi*#h" from Nas's debut album 'Illmatic' in 1994. In 2004, his vocals were featured on Nas's single "Bridging the Gap", from his album 'Street's Disciple'. |
