Los Angeles Greater Tomorrow Drummers

Siblings brought by their mother display their developing talents beating drum at the Drum Church Circle LPV Art Walk on Sunday, May 27, 2012 after procession through the village. Fela Kuti's protege and founder of the Drum Church Circle Najite Agindotan commences drumming by splashing water on the circles as parts of rituals and callings of Olokun Prophesy. Distinguishing surrounding features: World Stage Performing Arts Gallery, Eso-Won Book Store, Buckingham University administrative offices, KAOS Networks, The Vision Theater, Adassa Jamaican Restaurant, African Treasures Gallery, Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center, Zambezi African Antiques, Lucy Florence Institute, and much more; and an exhibition on the last Sunday of every month by local artists, whose work are found in every spot. Ehirim Files Images.

Los Angeles Greater Tomorrow Drummers

Siblings brought by their mother display their developing talents beating drum at the Drum Church Circle Leimert Park Village Art Walk in Los Angeles on Sunday, May 27, 2012 after procession through the village. Fela Kuti's boy and founder of the Drum Church Circle Najite Agindotan commences drumming by splashing water on the circles as parts of rituals and callings of Olokun Prophesy. Distinguishing surrounding features: World Stage Performing Arts Gallery, Eso-Won Book Store, Buckingham University administrative offices, KAOS Networks, The Vision Theater, Adassa Jamaican Restaurant, African Treasures Gallery, Barbara Morrison Performing Arts, Zambezi African Antiques and much more; and an exhibition on the last Sunday of every month by local artists, whose work are found in every spot. Ehirim Files Images.

Labor Day Fela Kuti Tribute

Night of Magic: Fela Kuti's Shrine Rocks Hollywood

Najite Agindotan takes center stage manning his craft as groomed by Baba back in the day at the shrine.

Ace drummer and percussionist, Remi "Kabots" Kabaka doing his thing.

The crowd and the magic night.

Multi-instrumentalist and stage manager, Matt Gibson and Najite performs in the magic night.
The horn section takes center stage.

The female dancers and the magic night.

The drum circle in the ballroom.

Efe Agindotan and the dancers

Summer Jam Afternoon Jump In 'Black Township'

Michael Sessions and trombonist Carl do their thing on the playgrounds as visitors and tourists watch.


Ray Straughter of Cosmic View rehearses at the World Stage Performance Art Gallery for the upcoming opening for the Michael McDonal's Hollywood Bowl Concert.


Folks in the village playing chess and the knockout game.


Dancing to the Najite Agindotan led Drum Church Circle beat, like in a spiritual revival.


The Learning Academy...Kids learn the art trade as part of 'incubating' the village.


Multi-instrumentalist, Wadada sets up his promotional CD and rehearses for the Labor Day Weekend jam.


The game begins -- the Drum Church Circle beats -- and Najite leads.



Tourist possessed by the powerful spirits of the Drum Church Circle beats.

Afrobeat Now Presents Fela Kuti Memorial Day

A summer blast coming down in da hood and all da folks in Hollywood be crawling, dawg!

Yes, on August 27, ace talking drummer and Bab's boy, Najite Agindotan and his Olokun Prophesy Afro Beat Band will be slamming it real hard at Dragon Fly which sits on 8510 Santa Monica Blvd in Hollywood. The gig will be featuring the Queen of Afro Beat, Sandra Isadore whose sensational vocal on Baba's smash hit "Upside Down" exploded at the Chief Priest's shrine.

It's gonna be a lotta fun with more side attractions; so come on down and be part of the experience!

Najite Agindotan, King of the African Drums

He was the Chief Priest, Fela Anikulapo Kuti's boy, back in the day, when Afro Beat, coined by Kuti, was the bomb at Baba's African Shrine where all kinds of rituals took place to reinvent a culture that was disappearing within its landscape. He speaks well of Baba who inspired him in what he now does very well, playing the adudu, African drums and percussions.

But Najite, as he is called by his admirers all around Greater Los Angeles, did take his hand-drumming craft to another level; initiating the Drum Church Circle to the City of Angels, inspiring others to follow, and the rest is now history.

On a normal Sunday afternoon, Najite pops up and walks around the village to survey which way the familiar rumble of his drum circle should spill in the park with a cast of vendors and tourists who'd shown up to make brisk business and stomp to the vibes as his entourage strikes rhythms together. Dressed in all white African outfits, his beads jingling around his neck and wrist band well-fit for the occasion, Najite peppers the Leimert Park Drum Church Circle beats with songs and yelps, echoeing as in African masquerade dance.

Master of his art, Najite, in 2000, was awarded the Congressional Award for Excellence by Representative Diane Watson. He has also received grants from the California Arts Council, the National Endownment for the Arts, and in filmmaker Ben Caldwell's own words, promoting and "incubating" the cultural arts in a multicultural Greater Los Angeles.

Also, Najite has been recognized by the University of California; Los Angeles, San Diego, Irvine, and Riverside campuses for his thoroughness and persistence in the arts.

Now that Leimert Park Art Walk is born, expect more with the best yet to come!

WE ARE INCUBATING LEIMERT PARK VILLAGE, SAYS BEN R. CALDWELL

I had watched on Saturday evening, April 17, 2010, the resident drummer, Cornel Fowler, perform with a visting group of jazz musicians at the World Stage Performance Gallery before heading to 7th Street Bar on 7th and Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles where grafitti rock and things like that is now the order in an amazing, evolving generation of a new era.

But on Sunday, April 18, 2010, I had to come back to Leimert Park Village, the hood I have known for many years now, with a whole lot of stuff going on. As it happened and as usual, I bumped into filmmaker, motivator, and founder and director of the Kaos Network, Ben R. Caldwell, who spoke at length on how to keep the historical Leimert Park Village moving. He talked about everything related to the neigborhood. He talked about Laura Mae Gross, founder of the quintenssential blues bar and restaurant in Leimert Park who died last October at the age of 83 and why no major event had been scheduled in rememberance of what she did for the community besides extensive stories written about her by the Los Angeles Times, and the curiousness of tourists who troop the park to find out more about her.

Caldwell talked more about how the younger generation should carry on with the legacy of keeping Leimert Park Village afloat in meeting up with the challenges and what he called "incubating the park" positively and engaging activities. Caldwell is just a cool cat and was serious on what he was talking about.


Sika Dwimfo's Alley Catwalk Models Fashion Show behind the vacated Vision Theatre parking lot as part of the festivities that kept Leimert Park Village activities moving yesterday.


Rastafarian and performer, Jamaiel Shabaka and friend pose for the camera at the park while brisk business was being made. Jamaiel's friend prepares African health-related traditional dishes for patrons and tourists who troop to the park.


This is one of my favorites as I walked around the park and in my conversations with Caldwell. It's kids stuff and inspiration...


Local ensemble The Hurricane Band entertains in "Blues at the Park."


Like a spiritual revival, Rene Fisher Mims leads the women group as they stomp and dance to the vibes of the hand blasting drums of Najite Agindotan and the Leimert Park Village Drum Church Circle.


Leimert Park Village hairstylist, Sherrie "Sirena" Tamu (left) poses with a vendor and a friend who made brisk business selling homemade old-fashion way variety of juices as part of encouraging small businesses in the community.


A motivator and parent instructs the kids as they begin to learn crafts in a variety of disciplines.


Shobiz promoter/model/poet, and resident 27th Street performer, Storm da Poet, poses with a vendor who traded in a variety of authentic African accessories.


Former Chief Priest Fela Kuti's hand drummer, Najite Agindotan and the Leimert Park Village Drum Church Circle entertains the audience at the park.

Afro-Cuban ensemble on the sidewalk featuring Wadada and Horold Lott on the sidewalk of Degnan Blvd and 43rd Street entertaining tourists.


Complete bargain and the provision of services, the African way.


Ben R. Calwell making his point on the incubation of Leimert Park Village.


One of the vendors is all smiles as brisk business is being made.


Motivational speaker and activist, Sista Paula Robinson who will be speaking on "Empowering Our Community" at the Los Angeles City Hall on April 22, 2010, invited by Councilman Bernard Parks and sponsored by Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs had a field day at the park speaking on "sisterhood and brotherhood" to make our community the best it could be in meeting up with the challenges ahead.

Summer Jam's Winding Down

The beginning of summer could be viewed as the opening scene of a movie. Shots into the night. The crews and casts. The concerts from every recreational park on the goodwill of every city or county's department of culture, and on the sponsorship of the big rollers in today's commerce -- Heineken, Lucky, Los Angeles Weekly, Downtown Long Beach Associates, Budweiser, Jack In The Box, Burger King, McDonalds, Sonoma Vineyard, CVS Pharmacy, Magic Johnson, Korbel, KLOX 95.5 Los Angeles, Amoeba Records, and so on -- throwing in the big bucks, making sure we party animals, pub-crawlers, concert goers and the Hollywood wannabes gets the best out of it. It is winding down and how could one explain it? Fun? Of course.

Besides all that summer jams and blasts, call it what you want, I somehow did something different during the course of the summer jams not letting anything block my way, no matter what. I read some fascinating books while the summerfest jammed all around. I combed through Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's The Thing Around Your Neck after my daughter reading it and concluding some of the short stories did not have an ending suggesting there might be a sequel as in a movie or to suspend her readers to figure it out. And, also, interestingly, I read Jeanette Hardage's Mary Slessor -- Everybody's Mother: The Era and Impact of a Victorian Missionary published by WIPF & STOCK taking me aback to the civics lessons of Colonial Mentality which destroyed our cultural heritage bringing about modernity that we see today as civilization, and which ultimately nullified our ancient customs rather than reform them. Remember when "witchcraft, trial by ordeal, the murder of twins" for one must be the offspring of a demon and when barren women were derided as ekwesu, evils in our society? As the story goes on, Mary Slessor, the Scottish Presbyterian missionary, at age twenty-eight dabbled into an agrarian and primitive society in Calabar and did all she could as a missionary to leave a mark in the history books.

I also read The History of Black Religion: Your Spirits Walk Beside Us by Barbara Dianne Savage published by Harvard University Press, which narrates the relationship between a prominent black preacher, Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church in Chicago, and his most famous congregant, Barack Obama, who would become the president of the United States. Savage wrote with style here beginning with the early studies of black religion by W.E.B. Du Bois, Carter G. Woodson, and Benjamin Mays and ending with a discussion of Obama and Wright. Interesting read!

Now the book is diverting my attention, so I must face the real deal and while summer is just fun. Nothing but fun, so to speak.

From Long Beach to Los Angeles, and from Hollywood to the San Fernando Valley, it's all about jazz and the summer jams. From Laguna Nigel to Ocean Side, the sweet breeze met the smooth jazz on several trips along the coasts of San Diego heading back North on the 405 Freeway onto the 5 Freeway jamming the farmlands of Central California. It also echoed on the playgrounds of California State University in Bakersfield, breezing through the beautiful smell of produce in Fresno. It's been a hell of a jam despite the "slowmo" economy. It's the economy really bad?

Then all along the 101 North, heading to Woodland Hills, Canoga Park Westlake Village, it's all about the summer jams.

For instance, the three day Long Beach Jazz Festival was one of its kind in the program's 22-year history. The lineup this year was another event that revealed there is actually no show like showbizness. The festival was dedicated to former NBA player and jazz musician Wayman Tisdale who passed away on Friday, May 15th, 2009. My girl, Los Angeles-based performer, Angie Stone, gave it her best with her fifth studio album "Unexpected" scheduled to hit record stores around mid-October and Stone taking her career to a whole new heights said, "people think there is a fixed sound for Angie Stone, but this will be something different across the board," and acknowledging "... there will be some collectible tracks in there. With the exception of Chuck, I'm working with all new producers. I also worked with Juanita Wynn, my sister in soul for the last seven years and she's incredible."

In Black Township's Leimert Park, the 2009 World Stage dropped its own line of programs on Sunday, August 09, on the Vision Theatre parking lot with a bunch of casts and fanfare even though the event and turnout was way below expectation. I was able to talk to a lot of the performers, and had looked forward to seeing Los Angeles Times veteran photo-jounalist, Francine Orr to show up for the historic community's event which unveiled some incredible talents.

I had also spoken to Leimert Park resident, hand drummer, Marvin "Brother Rock" Rock of the Leimert Park Drum Church founded by Nigerian-born Najite Agindotan. Najite was the Chief Priest, Fela Kuti's hand drummer at kalakuta republic. Najite Olokun Prophesy plays weekend at the House of Blues in Hollywood with his cast of Omo ogun, Rock Samori, N'gala, Sherwood Nat Nyema, Nate Morgan, Charley, Kpapko Adu, Phil Ramelin, Bobby Bryant, Alaah-Deen, Andrew Gerald, Chini Kopano, Ndugu, Makida Anderson, and Carol Abata. Bobby Bryant plays alto sax while joined by fellow windist Alaah Deen on tenor saxophone.

Sitting down with Najite and chatting on the course of Leimert Park projects in reviving its cultural landscape, he said the city hasn't done much to promote the historic park's cultural awareness despite all the efforts he had put to bring back life to the community and his own idea of the Leimert Park Drum Church was to make it a yearly thing as in all cultures and fests.

The summer fests is winding down, for sure, and the reamaining lineups seems to be tempting and would be overwhelming. In keeping funk alive, the Long Beach Funk Fest was held on the streets of Long Beach, on the corner of Pine and Broadway, and it was all explosive, featuring back in the day funksters' Mandrill. Dawn Silva, Charles Wright and The Meters' Experience popped up to sustain the future through pure funk. The jam was on till midnight, Saturday, August 29 to wind it down, and I probably have one more big event to attend depending on my schedule -- the one week two festivals at the 33rd Annual Russian River Jazz and Blues Festival featuring Al Jarreau, Neville Brothers, Rick Braun, my buddy Jonathan Butler, Dr. John and the legendary R & B Revue, also, featuring Tommy Castro, Bernard Allison, Rick Estrin and Janiva Magness. The Jazz and Blues Festival starts Sept. 12 for the jazz concerts and Sept 13 for the blues at Johnson's Beach in Guerneville, on the plains of the wine country of Sonoma County.

It's going to be fun, without a doubt, so stick around as there is more to come and time to deal with the nasty political issues of the day, home and abroad.

Checking My Instincts

The past week had too many drama from Obamanian Washington politics and stimulus plan to the International Criminal Court call for Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir's arrest for crimes against humanity. The funny thing is the Sudanese president has decried ICC arrest warrant saying "We defeated them in the 19th centuru. We defeated them in the 20th century. And we will defeat them in the 21st century....This is the new Sudan, raising its voice against hegemony to tell colonialists: we will not kneel."

Soon you will begin to kneel for the blood of innocent people that is now on your head.

What else am I thinking? Ok, I got it. Yes, The Ambrose Ehirim Files website will soon be popping up and it's going to be a whole lot of goodies, I mean everything practical from sports to comedy and from politics to religion. Also, from Hollywood to Nollywood, we will bring it all to you in your face. That's some good signs that we are not backing up from cyber space. And, on the ground, a news magazine will soon be on the news stands which also will adrress a whole lot in our endeavors, and as usual, politics and all the strange bedfellows that comes along with it.

Talking about websites and creating one, and becoming a web designer, and knowing all the nuts and bolts necessary in popping it up like any regular one out there, and not Mickey Mouse, I have learned some tecniques I did not know I had already known. And the technique is just simple because by the time I hired a web consultant to start out a plan to put all these I'm not mentioning it together, the gist and breakdown had me wondering. There are too many scams out there, believe it or not. But anyway, to cut this long story short, the whole thing has to do with some petty stuff. Stuff like SEO (search engine optimization), MODBC (Management of online business campaigns), KR (keyword research), hosting, redirects, error pages, use of java script and other website developments techniques. And the web consultant is killing me. T^hat's right, he is killing me.

You see why I'm now on my own to figure things all out just by myself?

The weekend wasn't bad at all. I had to hang out with jazz singer Rita Edmond for a minute and she "cannot wait" to see me pop up at her scheduled performance at the Seabird Jazz Lounge in Long Beach, California on March 14 to slam her "Sketches of a Dream" CD in your face. Some moments of cool jazz would not be bad at all and I know a whole lot of goodies will be smoking knowing Long Beach for its "coastal flames."

What's going on with these WOWOWOW women? Why are women running the show in every corner that one pops up? See how women on the web can change all that? Don't get me wrong. I think it's a good stuff on many grounds. Women make good managers. Women can endure. Women brought "badass" guys like me into this world. So why shouldn't we be thankful and grateful to all that they have done for us? So the women at WOWOWOW keep shooting it straight gurls and I have just begun to like your style. Check the WOWOWOW out and see how these women are busy gossipping. Just kidding!

What else happened? Okay, I was at Lola's in Hollywood then popped up for some jam sessions at Leirmert Park to watch Najite and his crew beat the drums. Najite was the Chief Priest Fela Kuti's showman back in the day at the Shrine when the wee hours was like day. And the jam at the "Black Township" grooved until dark.

Besides that, nothing much happened save for it's a new week in a Spring forward and you know what that is. Now, I'm done with checking my instincts.