Babatunde Lea - Suite Unseen: Summoner of the Ghost
March 23, 2005
Mark Saleski

Throughout the world, music is created and used for many reasons. Here in the west we tend to think of music not only as a form of entertainment but also as an acccompaniment to various celebrations of our life calendar signposts: "Auld Lang Syne" to start off the new year, "Happy Birthday" for marking everyone's start in life, "Pomp & Circumstance" for graduations, "The Wedding March" for that trip down the isle.

While these are not trivial events, we do tend to treat the music as something to be pulled off the shelf, used and then put away. That is to say, music is not an integral part of our society (I'm ignoring the commercial uses of music, a topic for another day.)

Before we talk about Babatunde Lea's music, we need to check out his philosophy, something just about as important as the actual notes. First stop: the concept album.

In pop and rock music, the 'concept album', has been both celebrated (when it works) and reviled (sometimes rightfully so.). In the latter case, the critique often centers around the artist's "pretentious" approach. This has always struck me as being somewhat unfair as the use of the word "pretentious" implies that the reviewer knows the artist's intent:

I draw a lot from African culture, and one of the main things I've come to understand is that music is functional. In African cultures, music accompanies everything ... from birth ceremonies to funerals. The music is there to open people up to the deepest experiences of life. But once music opens you up, it doesn't control you after that. Music is a resource like oil or water, it does the bidding of those who control it.

True enough, it's more than entertainment.


It is my express wish that my music will empower people to look within and to wake up to new possibilities; to become agents of positive change for themselves, for their families and for the world at large.

That is not an artiste puttin' on airs...that's a human being putting his fellow man first.

On Suite Unseen: Summoner of the Ghosts, Babatunde Lea pays tribute to his ancestors: musical, actual and spiritual via a suite of thematically-linked compositions. What's unusual about this record is that the individual suite entries are not played sequentially to form a whole. Instead, the suite is interspersed amongst several bandmate compositions, traditional and new chant pieces and even a reworked modern pop standard, James Taylor's "Fire and Rain." Lea's motivation for this construct:

...But I chose to space the compositions from the other bandmates inside the suite so that they would become part of it, creating a flow where the songs in each segment of the suite speak to that particular moment.

Flow is the indeed the right word.

The opening suite piece, "Ancestral Stroll", a tune that conjures Sun Ra by way of Eddi Palmieri, segues into the boppish "Motivation." On the first tune we're treated to some playful and inspired unison soloing by saxophonist Richard Howell and guest trombonist Steve Turre. Howell and Turre are at it again during "Motivation", taking separate turns this time around.

The next sweep of tunes that seem to draw on each other: "Invocation" (all percussion) followed by "Inconspicuous" (beginning as percussion before taking on a modal flair with Glen Pearson's expansive piano chords) to "Suite Unseen: The Unseen" (which boosts a twisty melody with kit work and percussion that would be very much at home on a Hugh Masekela record) to the jazzified "Fire and Rain" ... the chanted conclusion of which links to "Suite Unseen: Spirit of the Wood", a percussion/chant featuring Steve Turre's famous and soulful conch shells racing around some very textural bala fon and kalimba.

(As you can see (and hopefully will hear), Lea's concept of an unlinked suite has paid off nicely.)

"Chants From Home" begins with Lea's chant which becomes the traditional "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child." This seems to introduce the final phase of the album, which peaks with "Suite Unseen: Summoner of the Ghost". Here, there is a convergence of past and present, swing and funk, change and melody. All music should aspire to this level of passion.

By now you may be wondering why I've made almost no mention of Lea's drumkit work. That's because it's there to serve the music. Unlike other records 'lead' by the drummer, Suite Unseen is all about the composition. Lea is no doubt a masterful drummer (and the inclusion of congas in his kit does open things up texturally)...but his compositions are what's important.

Suite Unseen is certainly entertaining, but it's far more than that.