Drums of Passion

This double CD set includes the original multi-platinum-selling album, produced by Al Ham, and its twin sister, More Drums of Passion, produced by Teo Macero and released in 1966. Each CD features the original albums augmented by jazz-steeped bonus tracks produced by Ham and Hammmond. Newly remastered from the original two track masters - staying true to the original production of the LPs by multi-Grammy winning engineer Mark Wilder.

Recorded in 1959, Babatunde Olatunji's Drums of Passion proved to be a milestone in recording history, as the first album of traditional African drumming and chants recorded in the West and the harbinger of popular music's fascination with world music.

Signed by legendary Columbia Records A&R genius John Hammond, Olatunji delivered authentic, mesmerizing - and passionate - drum/percussion-fused music from his native homeland Nigeria that opened the ears of music lovers worldwide. He was also befriended by a wealth of artists, from jazz saxophonist John Coltrane to rock guitarist Carlos Santana (who recorded a cover of "Jin-Go-Lo-Ba" as "Jingo" on his first album) to folk singer Joan Baez to the Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart, who was inspired to play drums after seeing Olatunji. He also became a hero in social and political circles, including performances at the 1961 inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, marches with Martin Luther King, Jr. and an appearance at the United Nations General Assembly that inspired Soviet Union Premier Nikita Krushchev to take off his shoes and dance.

Fifty years after Olatunji assembled his band of drummers and singers (over 50 musicians in all!), the groundbreaking Drums of Passion continues to buoy with its spirited rhythms that aroused the world and pioneered the creation of a global community united by music.