Sikiru Adepoju

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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.^[1]

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,^[2] which led to the creation of the SpiritDrum Festival^[3] (a tribute to Babatunde Olatunji, which also featured Jim Donovan of Rusted Root, Perry Robinson, Jeff Rosenbaum and Halim El-Dabh). He has recorded albums with artists as varied as Carlos Santana, Airto Moreira, the String Cheese Incident, Stevie Wonder,^[4] Zakir Hussain, Chief Ebenezer Obey, the Inter-Reformers Band, and the Nigerian All-Stars. His latest band Afrika Heartbeat debut their first CD, entitled Ijinle Ilu, in 2003.

[edit] Discography

Juju Jubilee (1985) - Ebenezer Obey
Drums of Passion: The Invocation (1988) - Babatunde Olatunji
Drums of Passion: The Beat (1989) - Babatunde Olatunji
At the Edge (1990) - Mickey Hart
Jungle Fever - Stevie Wonder (1991)
Drums of Passion: Celebrate Freedom, Justice & Peace (1993) - Babatunde Olatunji
Big Bang (1995) - Various Artists
Mickey Hart's Mystery Box (1996) - Mickey Hart
Watchfire (1996) - Pete Sears & Friends
Best of Ellipsis Arts (1997) - Various Artists
Supralingua (1998) - Mickey Hart & Planet Drum
Rose That Grew from Concrete (2000)
Honour Simplicity, Respect the Flow (2000) - Kai Eckhardt
Best of Mickey Hart: Over the Edge and Back (2002) - Mickey Hart
Ijinle Ilu - Afrika Heartbeat (2003)
Life After That (2003) - Airto Moreira
Soup's On Fire (2003) - Jana Herzen
July 21 2004 San Francisco Ca: On The Road (2004) - String Cheese Incident
Circle of Drums (2005) - Babatunde Olatunji