Olu Dara: Biography

• Overview
• Discography
• Biography
• Related Artists

• Videos
• Photos
• Groups/Boards
• Fan Sites

• Herb Robertson
• Malachi Thompson
• Lawrence Butch Morris
• Ed Sarath
• Marvin "Hannibal" Peterson
• Kenny Wheeler
• Wallace Roney

• Henry Threadgill
• James Newton
• Don Pullen
• Hamiet Bluiett
• Oliver Lake
• David Murray
• Art Blakey

• Material

• Phillip Wilson
• Fred Hopkins
• Craig Harris
• Jamaaladeen Tacuma

Born:

Jan 1, 1941 in Natchez, MS

Genres:

Classical Music, Jazz Music, Avant Garde Jazz Music, Free Jazz Music

Decades Active:

1970's|1980's|1990's|2000's

Artistic Quality

Low

Cultural Impact

Low

Popularity

Low

Ratings Guide

Although he didn't record under his own name until 1998, Olu Dara enjoyed a reputation as one of the jazz avantgarde'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, rootsbound soloist, with a modern imagination and a big burnished tone in the style of Louis Armstrong and Roy Eldridge. Dara was born Charles Jones. 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 was only tangentially related to his free jazz work. The music drew upon countryblues and AfricanAmerican folk traditions. In addition to playing trumpet and cornet, Dara composed all of the tunes, sung, and accompanied himself on guitar. Atlantic released Dara's followup, entitled Neighborhoods, in early 2001.

- Chris Kelsey, All Music Guide