Hannibal Lokumbe live – February 15, 2010
Hannibal Lokumbe resides in the bucolic central Texas town of Bastrop, but his career in music – spanning more than four decades – continues to propel him forward on a globetrotting odyssey. Lokumbe’s journey has taken him from the cotton fields of Elgin, Texas – where he was first inspired by the spirituals and hymns of his grandparents – to the stages of Carnegie Hall and much of the world. At age thirteen he was given a trumpet by his mother. A year later his band The Soul Masters was backing up icons such as Jackie Wilson, Otis Redding, Etta James, Lightning Hopkins and T. Bone Walker. Lokumbe is the recipient of numerous awards: the Bessie’s, the NEA, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He has composed works for The Kronos String Quartet, as well as the Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit and Houston Symphonies. His groundbreaking opera African Portraits was performed and recorded by The Chicago Symphony under the direction of Daniel Barenboim and has been performed nearly two hundred time since its November 11, 1990 Carnegie Hall debut. His works range from string quartets to full orchestral and choral compositions. Lokumbe’s latest is a work for choir, jazz quartet and vocal soloist entitled The Parables of Mary As Given To Hannibal. You can hear Hannibal and his ensemble live from Studio 1A Monday at 2 PM.
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