Jit light dance
Biography
Booker was born Steven Bookvich in Detroit, Michigan on December 27, 1942 and is of Serbian decent. His father, Melvin Bookvich, was a shoemaker who played accordion. He has a wife, Shakti; a son, Aaron; and a daughter, Rani. Booker and his family moved back to the Detroit area from Oakland, California in 2000 and currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
[edit]Musical career
Booker first played the accordion before taking up drums as a pre-teen. He studied drums under Misha Bischoff, a Russian music teacher. He first professionally played drums with "The Low Rocks" in Detroit as Steve Booker. Under that name he also achieved local recognition playing with the "Thunder Rocks" and Ted Lucas and The Spike Drivers, and was known for his long, driving drum solos. He shared the bill at venues like Detroit's Eastown Theatre and Grande Ballroom with Ted Nugent (2/23/70), Traffic (6/5/70 & 6/6/70), Jack Bruce (2/13/70 & 2/14/70), and others.
At the first Woodstock Festival, where he played drums with Tim Hardin, he met Swami Satchidananda who gave him the name Muruga. In the late 1970s and early 1980s Booker lived in New York and played with David Peel on "King of Punk" and "Death to Disco" and Peel's Underground Comeback Hit "Junk Rock" (Muruga introduced his "Electric Talking Drum" on this song, production was by Sherwin Winick), then moved back to Detroit in 1980 where he connected with funk legend George Clinton and became an official P-Funk All-Star. His band at that time, Muruga and the Soda Jerks, recorded several albums produced by George Clinton.
In mid-1985 he moved to Oakland, California and formed the band Muruga UFM, which included Big Brother and the Holding Company guitarist James Gurley. In 1990, after performing with Prem Das on the classic drum meditation album Journey of the Drum, he joined Merl Saunders and formed Merl Saunders and the Rainforest Band with Jerry Garcia.
In 2000 Booker formed the band Muruga and The Global Village Ceremonial Band, which released the CD One Global Village, featuring P-Funk vocalist Belita Woods and jazz clarinetist Perry Robinson. They played at several festivals including the Starwood Festival, Rhythm Fest 1 with Mickey Hart, and Rhythm Fest 2 with Airto Moreira. In 2002 his recording company Musart and the Association for Consciousness Exploration co-hosted the SpiritDrum Festival, a tribute to Babatunde Olatunji, also featuring Sikiru Adepoju, Badal Roy, Jeff Rosenbaum, Halim El-Dabh, Perry Robinson, and Jim Donovan of Rusted Root[1]. In 2004, with most of the same musicians as Muruga & GVCB, Muruga formed the band Free Funk (also featuring Trey Lewd, and Louie Kabbabie), which plays mostly in the Detroit area. He also plays with jazz saxophonist Mark Hershberger, and Richard Smith as the Global Jazz Trio and Mark Hershberger's expanded five piece group as the Global Jazz Project. Booker continues to work with George Clinton and play with the P-Funk All Stars whenever they performed in California, and occasionally elsewhere.
http://murugabooker.com
http://musartco.com
http://murugabooker.com
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RAIL (US) - Another Side of Blue (1984)by Disorganized13,213 views
this is retarded.
hottotts30 9 months ago