Cooking Pepper Soup with Michael Olatuja

Soundcheck | Sep 25, 2023

Bass player and songwriter Michael Olatuja has a career that spans continents and styles. He grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, spent his teenage years playing on the London jazz scene, and has spent much of his career here in New York, playing with everyone from Diana Ross to Shakira to the band for the Broadway hit Frozen. His latest album, called Lagos Pepper Soup, is a tribute to those three cities, and his cinematic Afrobeat sound contains jazz roots of Fela Kuti and Tony Allen, but also perhaps a bit of orchestration from his work with Broadway and Angelique Kidjo. Michael and his band play songs from the new album in-studio.  

Michael Olatuja plays at Joe's Pub on Sept. 27. 

Michael teaches you the recipe for pepper soup here:

 

Set list: “Brighter Day”, “The Hero’s Journey”, “Lagos Pepper Soup”

Watch “The Hero’s Journey”:

Watch "Lagos Pepper Soup":

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