Ola Onabulé: Momentum
Ola Onabulé will appear on the main stage of the Washington DC Jazz Festival this Summer with the support of the PRS for Music Foundation. A charismatic and sophisticated entertainer, Onabulé possesses an emotional intensity and vocal virtuosity accompanied by poignant storytelling. A truly powerful performer with the capacity to cross cultural and musical boundaries with an unflinching pursuit of truth and justice. Onabulé’s latest album, ‘It’s the Peace That Deafens’ contains 12 evocative songs about identity, reconciliation and nostalgia. Words, melodies and rhythms walk a delicate tightrope of paradoxes, born of a childhood and adulthood immersed in two disparate cultures, on two different continents during two different periods of time. Ola recently shared the view that ‘It’s The Peace That Deafens’ is as much a work of exploration as it is a declaration about the universal themes of what it is to be human in the 21st Century.
The Slow food movement arose from a feeling that what we were being fed was losing its ability to properly nourish and nurture people. Food had simply become a commodity with vital nutrients being lost in the pursuit of profit. If such a ‘slow’ movement was to be applied to the Music Industry, then Ola Onabulé surely epitomises a move towards hearty, sustaining music, made by artisans with a commitment to quality, integrity and real flavour.