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Ola Onabule, Seven Shades Darker

OLA ONABULE – The name represents true soul. OLA’S voice – unmistakably gentle and wistful, haunting and heartbreaking, very special and unique reminiscent of the great Soul and Jazz artists of the 1960s and 70s, whose music was able to change the course of history because it changed perceptions and opened minds.

OLA ONABULE is an inspired artist for the 21st Century who has written, recorded and produced 7 albums on his label Rugged Ram Records. Ola’s music has been performed on the largest festival stages worldwide including the main stage of the Montreal Jazz Festival, Vancouver International Jazz Festival and many others. In Germany, Ola has collaborated with The WDR Big Band in Cologne Philharmonie, The Babelsberg Film Orchestra in Nikolaisaal Potsdam and most recently with The SWR Big Band at the Jazzfest Aalen with arrangements of his beautifully crafted songs.

SEVEN SHADES DARKER is a modern classic. Grooves undoubtedly rooted in the Soul and Blues of the late sixties and early Seventies make an unlikely but easy peace with mournful, complex African melodic lines. Seemingly conventional 4/4 grooves beguile with inviting familiarity whilst slipping potent lyrical nuggets under the radar of our assumptions. Ballads are new requiems, odes to the passing of loved ones, Funky jaunts document the ebbing away of precious time, and deal with jealousy, cowardice, loss of identity and the world through the eyes of an unwanted visitor is set to the galloping gait of an african church hymn.

What sets “SEVEN SHADES DARKER” apart is Ola’s lyrical sensibility, poetic in tone and attuned to the issues of the day; as Ola puts it himself, “Though my music is of a different idiom, I write with the heart of a folk songwriter and the desire for my lyrics to be heard and read.”

Ola has shared stages with some of the world’s finest soul and jazz artistes; Al Jarreau, Dianne Reeves, Joe Zawinul, Roberta Flack, Natalie Cole, Roy Hargrove, Gladys Knight and Patti LaBelle. Ola seems set to become a name that will last as long.

SEVEN SHADES DARKER will be released via Conveyor Music Canada this June and via Proper Music in the UK, Groove Attack in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and V2 in France, Belgium and Poland.

For more details about Ola Onabule please visit: olasmusic.com

..:: SOURCE: Maria Avgoulis ::..