Greg, who has gigged with him, says he's the most underrated drummer on the West Coast. For my money, you could make that the entire continent. He's certainly the most dynamic and exciting. 
Babatunde Lea, percussionist and drummer extraordinaire, performs regularly at clubs, festivals and colleges throughout the Bay Area, but from time to time, he has been known to stray from his San Francisco base to far-flung jazz outposts such as The Kennedy Center with Mary Stallings, The Blue Note, with Hilton Ruiz and at The Playboy Jazz Festival (2001, 2002) with the Bill Cosby All-Stars. He's also been seen at Atlanta's Jazz Festival and Seattle's Bumbershoot Jazz Festival as well as their famous Jazz Bakery. He's turned up to perform at the world-class jazz Mecca, Yoshi's in Emeryville and at the presigious Monterey Jazz Festival. It's pretty clear that the man is in great, great demand.
I caught him the other night at a small concert performance being presented by Jessica Felix and the Healdsburg Jazz Festival at the Grove Street Winery in Healdsburg, playing for the packed but small venue with his 'Friends', keyboardist, Glen Pearson; bassist, Geoff Brennan and reedman, the great Ernie Watts. And what a special treat it was to be able to hear these four present a full program of Afro-Cuban, Brazilian bossa and Parker-esque bebop for three solid hours. The delicious complimentary Grove Street cabernet was just the perfect accompanyment to the high-energy sights and sounds of Babatunda and his quartet.
One is immediately struck by Lea's uniquely designed drum and percussion set-up. It's not like any I'd ever seen. Besides the usual array of snare, tom-tom and bass, there are other percussion gadgets, bells cowbells, gourds, hand drums and what have you, interspersed among two giant ride cymbals on either side of his stool and which are placed - not in the customary horizontal fashion - but are hung on a vertical, which - I'm guessing - requires less effort and time to reach with the stick heads. Two sizes of crash cymbals (which he uses more than any drummer I know of) and a high-hat set that appears to have an extra foot pedal attached so as to be able to work a percussion box on the floor with his left foot.
Now I don't want to create a false impression here, because I'm sure that Lea is just a normal human being like all the rest of us, but I do want to warn you - if you ever attend one of his performances, and watch him as he turns himself loose, you may just be convinced - nay, you will swear that this man has four arms. It's the only way to explain the incredibly copious amounts of music that emanates from this man's frenetic playing. Hands, arms and feet flailing at dizzying speeds - faster than the human eye can possibly follow, all in exquisitely timed sync. One can only sit there and watch and listen in rapt wonderment as he not so much plays the drums, but rather attacks them. He seemingly overpowers and pulverizes them into submission. During one solo, he came down on the crash cymbal with such ferocity that his stick shattered into several pieces. Without missing so much as a single beat, he grabbed a replacement out of thin air (or so it seemed) and raised it high over his head, as if to assure his awestruck audience that they needn't worry - everything was under his complete control.
Using his mastered technique at hand-drumming and 'stick-tricks', Lea is a showman as much as he is an outstanding musician, mesmerizing his audience with one-handed drum rolls, rim-drumming and drumming on just about any handy hard surface that he thought would produce a sound.
Check out his latest CD release, Level of Intent wherein Babatunde demonstrates his outstanding musicianship - even though it would be virtually impossible to duplicate or to even present a fair representation of the wild, but always controlled, antics. The CD is especially enjoyable and certainly worth the investment just for his band, which consists of pianists Kenny Barron, Tommy James and the late Hilton Ruiz; Jon Faddis, trumpet; Frank Lacy, trombone; John Purcell, tenor, soprano saxes and flute; Marvin Horn, guitar; Charnette Moffett and Santi Debriano, bass; Frank Colon, conga and percussion
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