Percussionist Juma Sultan shot to international fame when he stepped
onto to stage of the 1969 Woodstock Festival as a member of Jimi
Hendrix’s Gypsy Sun & Rainbows. However, his musical journey neither
starts nor ends there.
As a child in Monrovia, CA, Juma Sultan, displaying his early affinity
for music, started playing African percussion instruments at the age
of nine. In his late teens and early twenties, Juma Sultan was touched
by Jazz, particularly, the music of saxophonist Sonny Simmons. While
attending a concert in Los Angeles, he heard Ray Brown play Double
Bass, which inspired him to learn it. His talent shone through,
quickly becoming proficient, he befriended Sonny Simmons and joined
his band. At the urging of Mr. Simmons, Juma Sultan relocated to New
York where the music scene was exploding in the mid ’60’s.
It was in New York that Juma forged the relationships that would prove
to be his destiny. He met Ali K. Abuwi with whom he co-formed the
still active, free-form musical collective Aboriginal Music Society.
He also met a struggling guitarist named James Marahall Hendix, whom
Juma would see around town; however, Juma Sultan was focused on his
flourishing career as a working jazz musician on the Double Bass,
percussion, and various woodwinds. Some of the musicians that he
collaborated with during this period are: Albert Ayler, Pharaoh
Sanders, Sonny Sharrock, Archie Shepp, James “Blood” Ullmer, Dave
Burell, Barry Altshult, and Sam Rivers, among others.
Juma Sultan realized that due to the improvisational nature of jazz,
he was witnessing and making some amazing music that was not captured
in any way. He purchased a Nagra tape recorder to document these
fleeting improvisations. Over the years, Juma has recorded of hours of
music and has received a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts
to help preserve the collection at Clarkson University. For more
information, please refer to www.iumasarchive.org .
Not long after arriving in NYC, Juma Sultan was made aware of Bob and
Isabelle Likalla and the Group 212 inter-media workshop that they ran
in Woodstock, NY. Juma was impressed with the facilities and joined
them. Juma Sultan soon interacted with the burgeoning artist community
in Woodstock and split his time between there and NYC. Under Group
212, Juma Sultan staged concerts with his Aboriginal Music Society. He
also started African Drum Circles that were staged on Sundays on
Woodstock’s Village Green.
It was there in 1969 where Juma Sultan renewed his acquaintance with
Jimi Hendrix. The pair started spending time together and became very
close friends. Juma Sultan wrote and recorded with Hendrix from late
1968 until the guitarist’s death. His work appears on numerous Jimi
Hendrix recordings that were released posthumously. In addition to
Woodstock, Juma Sultan appeared with Jimi Hendrix on the Dick Cavett
television show and other public appearances.
After the death of Jimi Hendrix, Juma Sultan strengthened his musical
partnership with James DuBois, and the two led Studio We, which was
part of the Loft Jazz scene – in order to give jazz musicians places
to play.
In 1972, when George Wein moved the Newport Jazz Festival to New York,
Juma Sultan and a number of other colleagues felt that New York
musicians were under represented in the roster of artists that were to
perform. As a result, Juma Sultan helped organize, and eventually
lead, the New York Musicians Organization (“NYMO”) which organized
concerts to successfully protest the Newport Jazz Festival’s
programming. The next year, George Wein invited NYMO to participate in
the Newport Jazz Festival. After 1973, NYMO decided to stage its own
annual jazz festivals for the next decade.
In addition to serving as an interview subject on countless books and
documentaries on the life of Jimi Hendrix, Juma Sultan is the subject
of an e-book by Stephen D. Farina, published by Wesleyan University
Press, entitled “Reel History:The Lost Archive of Juma Sultan and the
Aboriginal Music Society”, which is an imaginative, multimedia work
detailing the story of the Aboriginal Music Society and how Juma
Sultan’s extensive Jazz recordings came to be archived at Clarkson
University.
Juma Sultan has produced concerts, managed artists, and continues to
perform and record. He can currently be seen performing as part of the
Aboriginal Music Society, Asha Nan, or sitting in with friends such as
Vinnie Martell, lead guitarist for Vanilla Fudge. In 2013, Juma Sultan
was asked by the Estate of Richie Havens to lead a drum circle at his
public memorial concert.
Juma Sultan’s work with the Aboriginal Music Society from the 1960’s
to the 1980’s is currently enjoying a resurgence having released two
albums in the last two years: 2011’s “Father Of Origin” on Eremite
Records and 2012’s “Whispers from the Archive on Porter Records. Both
releases have been well received by the Jazz world.