Osunlade

Can you imagine an artist which in a certain moment of his life got conscious that the music has been renegaded to a secondary place and decided to make a deep change on his career? Someone who considered that, from that moment on, he would really look for an artistic musical conception absolutely away of the market rules and the commercial clichés? Well, you can be sure that this is the case of Osunlade, one of the highest representants of what we call a house guided by spiritual and soulful atmosphere.

One of the first occasions that reassured him about his musical inclinations was the day when he listened to Prince‚s "For You" tune at his grand father‚s funeral. He was so touched by the sonorities that he knew at that moment is life would be ruled by music itself.

Though he was born in Saint Louis, the early Chicago house scene (as well as other electronic music styles) called his attention very early and made him a regular on the local parties, so he decided to buy a little Kong Poly 61 keyboard and make the house music production as a hobby. Pretty impressive considering that he begun playing trumpet on his school band.

When he became seventeen he moved out to Los Angeles and started to work for major labels and well known artists such as Pati Labelle, Freddie Jackson, Gerardo Mejia and Eric Benet. He certainly made some money though he never during this period had the chance to be at the forefront of the things.

One day he decided to meet the talented producer Tommy Musto that suggested a creation of his own label, which resulted on Yoruba, distributed by Northcott on a first moment, but the mainly techno orientation made Onsulade change for the SoulJazz distribution company.

His spiritual inclinations may be responsible for a very important part of his artistic approach: Osunlade became a priest at the traditional African religion of Ifa. Perhaps it can justify the use of very complex tribal percussion, soulful atmospheres, deep house elements, and even latin and brazilian rhythm influences. These are some of the ingredients of his "Paradigm" LP released recently.

His work became so well-estimated that after all he gained respect even on the developed scene of New York with its legendary icons, even if at their eyes Osunlade was considered a newbie at the beginning. He has been releasing together with artists like Wunmi, a singer who was one of the Soul II Soul dancer, African chanter and backing vocal for many other groups.