The Babatunde Lea Quintet Featuring Dwight Trible, Ernie Watts, Patrice Rushen, Gary Brown March 18, 2010

Babatunde Lea is one of those old souls. You know the type: wise and serene, blessed with a culturally diverse perspective, bubbling over with ideas and creative energies that strongly suggest theyve been this way before; someone deeply in touch with the spiritual essences. Such an impression is borne out in spades by Tundes newest entry in the growing tradition of Motema Music. Suite Unseen: Summoner of the Ghost is a journey through the spirit world powered by contemporary, deeply sculpted grooves and articulations specially crafted by this master percussionist; all delivered by a high-spirited crew of musicians.

Im not a religious man, but I do believe in spirit, that it intervenes in our lives in mysterious ways. So I thought with this record I wanted to pay homage to the spirits. This suite is five melodic vignettes that call on the spirits, culminating in [5th and final movement] Summoner of the Ghosts. I get more technically adept as I grow and keep practicing, but the one thing that Im really sure of about my playing is that I can call the ghosts. To label Babatunde Lea a multiple percussionist is to recognize the holistic, global approach and depth of his skills, as both trap drummer from whence he primarily operates on this disc as well as hand drums and miscellaneous percussions from diverse sources.

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