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'''Sikiru Adepoju''', a master of the [[talking drum]], comes from a musical family from Eruwa in western Nigeria. He and his brothers Saminu and Lasisi were taught drumming very early by their father, Chief Ayanleke Adepoju, whose very name, Ayan-, means "descended from drummers." While still in his teens, Sikiru joined the band of one of the pioneers of Afro-beat, Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey. In 1985, he came to America to play with O.J. Ekemode's Nigerian All-Stars and one year later met [[Babatunde Olatunji]]. He became an integral part of Olatunji's Drums of Passion and through Olatunji met [[Grateful Dead]] drummer [[Mickey Hart]]. |
'''Sikiru Adepoju''', a master of the [[talking drum]], comes from a musical family from Eruwa in western Nigeria. He and his brothers Saminu and Lasisi were taught drumming very early by their father, Chief Ayanleke Adepoju, whose very name, Ayan-, means "descended from drummers." While still in his teens, Sikiru joined the band of one of the pioneers of Afro-beat, Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey. In 1985, he came to America to play with O.J. Ekemode's Nigerian All-Stars and one year later met [[Babatunde Olatunji]]. He became an integral part of Olatunji's Drums of Passion and through Olatunji met [[Grateful Dead]] drummer [[Mickey Hart]]. |
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Revision as of 23:49, 21 August 2006
Sikiru Adepoju, a master of the talking drum, comes from a musical family from Eruwa in western Nigeria. He and his brothers Saminu and Lasisi were taught drumming very early by their father, Chief Ayanleke Adepoju, whose very name, Ayan-, means "descended from drummers." While still in his teens, Sikiru joined the band of one of the pioneers of Afro-beat, Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey. In 1985, he came to America to play with O.J. Ekemode's Nigerian All-Stars and one year later met Babatunde Olatunji. He became an integral part of Olatunji's Drums of Passion and through Olatunji met Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart.
Since then Sikiru has frequently been a guest percussionist during Hart and Bill Kreutzmann's "Rhythm Devils" segments of Grateful Dead concerts, and was a Grammy Award contributor to Mickey Hart's Planet Drum. He has collaborated with Muruga Booker and Olatunji on the CD Cosmic Rhythm Vibrations (recently remastered and re-issued as Circle of Drums), and played talking drum with Mickey Hart's group Bembe Orishas, which toured in 2002. Sikiru also leads his own group, The Honeymakers, plays with Muruga Booker and Badal Roy as part of the Global Village Ceremonial Band, and appeared with them at the Starwood Festival in 2003, which led to the creation of the SpiritDrum Festival (a tribute to Babatunde Olatunji, which also featured Jim Donovan of Rusted Root and Halim El-Dabh). He has recorded albums with artists as varied as Carlos Santana, Airto Moreira, the String Cheese Incident, Stevie Wonder, Zakir Hussain, Chief Ebenezer Obey, the Inter-Reformers Band, and the Nigerian All-Stars.