OPE

Since moving to the US more than 30 years ago, percussionist Sikiru Adepoju has played his talking drums with the late Babatunde Olatunji, who became his mentor and for several years guested at Grateful Dead concerts in the Rhythm Devils segment led by the band’s drummer Mickey Hart. He also earned a Grammy award for his playing on Hart’s 1991 album Planet Drum. OPE – Yoruba for ‘gratitude’ – is the debut album from his Riddim Doctors project and features contributions from tabla maestro Zakir Hussain and Latin jazz percussionist Giovanni Hidalgo among others.

Infusing African percussion with Western jazz and rock flavours, the production is a little too slick and glossy for this reviewer’s tastes and the melodies are easy-listening pop-lite, horribly illustrated by a truly execrable version of John Denver’s ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’. However, the rhythms bubble infectiously, from the steel pans on ‘Ire Temi (My Success)’ to the funky percussive storm on the Staple Singers’ ‘I’ll Take You There’.