"The Babatunde Lea Quintet took us on a compelling musical trip through the African Diaspora, hunkering into the rich shores of jazz right here in Southern California."
"The Babatunde Lea Quintet took us on a compelling musical trip through the African Diaspora, hunkering into the rich shores of jazz right here in Southern California."
– Dee Dee McNeil, Allaboutjazz.com
"Lea's quartet relied heavily on traditional African rhythms with an influence of Latin origins. The sound quality was top-notch and the fast-paced music had influences of bebop."
– Peter Hironaka, Spartan Daily
"Lea's quartet relied heavily on traditional African rhythms with an influence of Latin origins. The sound quality was top-notch and the fast-paced music had influences of bebop."
– Stephanie Brown, The Boston Globe"Yearning, uplift, and ancestry permeate this celebration of late vocalist Leon Thomas, a leading figure of post-Coltrane spiritual jazz who combined deep melodicism with a signature yodel-like technique on classics like Pharoah Sanders’s “Creator Has a Master Plan.”
"The deep love Babatunde Lea felt, and obviously still feels, for Leon Thomas and the music they made together comes through on every note of this disc."
– Phil Freeman, All Music Guide
"For this beautiful tribute to the spirit and music of Thomas, Lea captures the mesmerizing essence of Thomas ...not only a wonderful tribute to a great artist, but a tremendous work in its own right."
"For this beautiful tribute to the spirit and music of Thomas, Lea captures the mesmerizing essence of Thomas ...not only a wonderful tribute to a great artist, but a tremendous work in its own right."
– Glenn Daniels, Thejazzpage.com
East Bay Express
By Lee Hildebrand, October 14, 2009
Babatunde Lea - Umbo Weti: A Tribute to Leon Thomas
The spirituality in John Coltrane's music was not apparent to many listeners, especially during his final years, when his performances became increasingly complex, cacophonous, and long. His spiritual vibe was made accessible to a wider audience two years following his death by his stylistic disciple Pharoah Sanders, on the 1969 album Karma. The song "The Creator Has a Master Plan," a distillation by Sanders of Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" with lyrics and vocals about "peace and happiness for every man" by the previously little-known Leon Thomas, became a surprise hit. Thomas, who later sang with Santana, died in 1999.
Much of the essence associated with Coltrane, Sanders, and Thomas flows through Vallejo drummer Babatunde Lea's two-disc Umbo Weti, recorded a year ago at Yoshi's in Oakland with the alternately rhapsodic and ferocious Coltrane-inspired tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts, pianist Patrice Rushen, bassist Gary Brown, and Los Angeles vocalist Dwight Trible. The CD title is a pygmy word for yodeling, yet Timble's yodels are far less developed than were Thomas'. Trible's ringing baritone pipes are similar to Thomas', however, and his wordless interludes avoid the clichés of scat. The program consists of six Thomas compositions, some written with Sanders, along with two by Lea, one by Watts, Coltrane's "Cousin Mary," Horace Silver's "Song for My Father," and John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom," which is fitting, as Thomas began his career as a blues shouter with Count Basie. (Motema)
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