Ola Onabule

Ola Onabule
Background information
Born	Islington, London, England
Genres	Soul, R&B
Occupation(s)	Musician, singer-songwriter
Labels	Rugged Ram
Website	www.ola-onabule.co.uk

Ola Onabule (born Islington, London, England) is a British-Nigerian soul singer.

Background

Onabule was born in Islington, London. At the age of seven he returned to Lagos, Nigeria, where he spent the next ten years in school. At seventeen he returned to the UK to study at Millfield School. From there he attended law school, almost completing a three-year degree before deciding to enroll at Middlesex Polytechnic for an arts degree. While studying, he began to perform in London clubs and venues, writing and performing his own material.

Music career

Ola Onabule in Imatra 2015

Onabule has had a career that spans almost two decades. He released much of his music on his own label, Rugged Ram Records, after recording for Elektra and Warner Bros. His first album, More Soul Than Sense, was released in 1995.^[1]

Performances 2009–2013

Onabule has performed internationally at some of the world's most prestigious jazz festivals and concert halls. Since 2009, he has appeared with the German big bands WDR Big Band and the SWR Big Band. He appeared with the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg in Potsdam for a concert at the Nikolaisaal featuring arrangements of his material by Peter Hinderthür.

In July 2009, he appeared on the main stage of the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2009 and Vancouver Jazz Festival.

In December 2009, he co-headlined a series of dates with South African jazz singer, Sibongile Khumalo entitled Soul Noel. The show travelled around the UK leading up to Christmas. The shows featured a band with choir led by arranger and conductor Kevin Robinson. The series of shows came to the attention of the BBC and he was invited to be a guest on the BBC TV program Soul Noel, which also featured Beverley Knight.

In June 2010, Onabule returned to Canada and performed at Victoria Jazz Festival on the main stage, Vancouver Jazz Festival at the Commodore Ballroom and the Edmonton Jazz Festival on the main stage as well as an appearance at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton.

In summer 2012, Onabule performed his first concerts in the Baltic region. He was invited to perform at Estonia's Muhu Future Music Festival and at the Saulkrasti Jazz Festival in Latvia. On this first visit to Estonia, he was introduced to the ETV Choir and performed a concert with them in a church in Saaremaa.

In December 2012 he returned for further concerts with saxophonist Villu Veski and the ETV Girls' Choir. He also performed a concert in the Charles' Church, Tallinn, which was produced and filmed by ETV. The concert was broadcast in December 2012 on ETV and in New York on 22 December 2013. In 2014 he performed a concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.^[2]

Onabule returned to Latvia in 2013 for shows with the Mirage Jazz Orchestra. The performance at the Saulkrasti Jazz Festival was so well received that the promoters decided to bring him back in November 2013 for two shows at the Splendid Palace in Riga. In December 2013, he returned to perform for the third time with WDR Big Band Köln. The studio recording was filmed and broadcast via live streaming. The show featured the talents of German harmonica player Berthold Matschat. Two sold out shows followed with a radio broadcast of the last show on WDR Radio.

Performances 2014–2015

In January 2014, Onabule performed with the SWR Big Band for a one-hour TV special of his original material arranged by Klaus Wagenleiter. The program was filmed at the SWR Studios in Stuttgart. The first TV broadcast took place on 27 July on SWR TV 2014.

In February 2014, Onabule performed at Porgy & Bess, Vienna. On 30 April, he performed at Romania's International Jazz Day with Villu Veski and a youth jazz orchestra in Cluj Napoca.

In May 2014, Onabule performed three shows in Germany, including Sendesaal (previously home of Radio Bremen).

In May 2014, Onabule performed with a US band at the Cutting Room in New York with Lionel Cordew on drums, Jonathan Maron on bass, and Robin Macantagay on guitar.

In June 2014, Onabule appeared at the Muhu Future Music Festival with Jason Rebello on piano, Villu Veski on saxophone and Jukka Eskola on trumpet.

In July 2014, Onabule appeared at the Istanbul Jazz Festival with his six-piece band including Villu Veski and Guido May and drums.

In November 2014, Onabule appeared in Mexico with the Orchestra of San Luis Potosí performing orchestral arrangements of his songs at the closing of Cinema Fest. Concha Buika opened the festival.

In November 2014, Onabule appeared in Frankfurt with China Moses and the HR Big Band for a concert of 1920s songs which were originally performed with the WDR Big Band of Cologne.

At the end of November 2014 Onabule appeared at the Lagos Jazz Festival in Nigeria as the headline act.

In December 2014, Onabule appeared with his band for the first time in Nigeria at the Lagos Jazz Series mid series event at La Scala, the Muson Centre. The show elicited a great press response as well as TV and radio interviews.

In December 2014, Onabule appeared with the WDR Big Band of Cologne for a series of Christmas concerts of songs arranged for Ola Onabule by the US arranger Richard De Rosa.

On 30 April 2015, Onabule headlined the Romania International Jazz Day closing their main event.

In Spring 2015, Onabule song "Soul Town", from his album In Emergency, Brake Silence (2004) was given a remix. The project was masterminded by Gary Van Den Bussche of DSG Music.

In May 2015, Onabule's album It's the Peace That Deafens is released on Dot Time Records, a US label with offices in Europe.

On September 30 and 1 October 2015, Onabule was a guest artist with Diana Krall at the Royal Albert Hall.^{[3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]}

Discography

^[15]

References

External links

• Official website

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ola Onabule.