Ahamefule J. Oluo is an American musician, trumpeter, composer, stand-up comedian, and writer. He was the first artist-in-residence at Town Hall Seattle.
Career.
As a trumpeter, Oluo has performed or recorded with numerous prominent musicians and groups, including Das Racist, John Zorn, Hey Marseilles, Wayne Horvitz, Macklemore, and Julian Priester. He is a member of jazz quartet Industrial Revelation, winner of a 2014 Stranger Genius Award. The other members of Industrial Revelation are D'Vonne Lewis (drums), Evan Flory-Barnes (bass), and Josh Rawlings (keyboards).
In 2012, Oluo was selected as Town Hall Seattle's first-ever artist-in-residence. During his time as the artist-in-residence, he created an experimental autobiographical pop opera, "Now I'm Fine," about the year his father died. The full-length opera (co-written with Lindy West) debuted in December 2014, at On the Boards theater, complete with a 17-piece orchestra, and received positive reviews. "Seattle Times" critic Misha Berson said Oluo possibly created "a new art form" by combining his own big-band jazz pieces with a blend of standup comedy and memoir. The piece went on to New York City's Public Theater in January 2016 as part of the Under the Radar Festival and was also staged at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland in February 2017. "The New York Times" reviewed the Public Theater run of "Now I'm Fine," saying that Oluo expanded the format of the "standard, modest, one-man confessional show" to "dizzying proportions" and described the score as "modernist jazz [that] leans toward solemnity, suggesting a New Orleans funeral march."
The film "Thin Skin", starring Oluo and based on his off-Broadway play "Now, I'm Fine" and his This American Life episode "The Wedding Crasher" was scheduled for release in 2020, but apparently that did not happen, and the film is being released streaming and for showings in Seattle, Los Angeles, and New York City November 2023. Oluo wrote the film's script with Lindy West and Charles Mudede. Mudede directed; Oluo's sister Ijeoma Oluo appears in the film as herself.
As a comedian, he has collaborated closely with Hari Kondabolu, who described him in 2010 as "my great friend and writing partner."
Personal life.
Oluo is biracial; his father is a black immigrant from Nigeria and his mother is a white woman from Kansas.
Oluo married writer Lindy West on July 11, 2015. He and West practice polyamory.
His older sister is writer and activist Ijeoma Oluo.
References.
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