USA: Bop Island Big Band featuring Randy Brecker Sunday, December 16th 4pm Woodstock Playhouse

Bop Island Big Band featuring Randy Brecker Sunday, December 16th 4pm Woodstock Playhouse

Tickets & Info

bop island jazz festival www.bopislandjazzfestival.com www.woodstockplayhouse.com

MALI: Salif Keita to release final album

The Harmony of Difference: Salif Keita’s New and Last Masterpiece, Un Autre Blanc

Some master artists transform their personal perspective into universally resonant art. That has been Malian icon Salif Keita’s way, since his first releases. Never shying from the bold contradictions of his own position as a white-skinned African (as he describes in the moving “La Différence”), as an adored outcast, Keita’s songs have moved people across the planet for decades.

Now he asks listeners to consider Un Autre Blanc, his latest (and likely last) studio offering. The album invites his fans to celebrate our many differences and savor the many shades of experience. Un Autre Blancshowcases Keita’s songwriting prowess and his skill for lush, emotional arrangements, all revolving around the earthy gravitas of Keita’s voice.

Keita brings a diverse group of African music luminaries to collaborate with him on Un Autre Blanc, including Angélique Kidjo (“Itarafo”), Ladysmith Black Mambazo (“Ngamale”), and Alpha Blondy (“Mansa Fo La”).

“When some people sing, they create social change. Salif changed the old ways in Mali, our relationship to musicianship, to classifying people,” muses Dr. Chérif Keita, Salif’s cousin and biographer, as well as a professor at Carleton College. “Because of his condition, he had to latch on to what he could do to survive in a harsh environment in Bamako. Music became his salvation.”

Keita’s international notoriety began in the late 70s, as Mali established itself as an independent country, though the bard and prodigy had cut his teeth for years prior. Though he was not from a griot family, not a hereditary musician, he struggled and fought to be accepted as a new kind of voice in a new nation.

“He had to find a musical identity that would fit him,” Chérif explains. “He worked on it for decades, and over the years he came to identify with the idea of the hunter, with that body of secret knowledge that helps a hunter overcome the trials of the hunt in the wilderness.” Hunting knowledge included musical performance, and Salif drew on those images to craft a place for himself in Malian music and society. Then he worked to expand the possibilities for others.

Fifty years, numerous albums and numerous world tours and international collaborations later--projects with Carlos Santana, Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Vernon Reid, and Esperanza Spalding, among many others--Keita is retiring, leaving the world with one last vital statement. Though his work has highlighted the needs and rights of those with albinism in Africa, an experience he knows personally, his critique and clarion call for acceptance ring true for differences of all kinds.

“I’m a white man with a deep black African soul, and I have accepted that. Now you have to accept that difference and that contrast,” says Keita. Even if Keita leaves the studio behind, his activism on behalf of those with albinism will continue, as will his call to embrace diversity and honor people’s heroic everyday struggles for respect.

About Rail Band of the Train Station Hotel, Ambassadeurs of the Motel of Bamako, Ambassadeurs Internationaux, and lately, Les Ambassadeurs Internationaux: so many bands that enabled Salif Keita to ascend the steep steps to world fame. Not only do their names suggest a quest, a thirst for mobility and travel, ... And along the way, Salif has bagged countless awards, national distinctions and prizes over his decades of touring the world, establishing his reputation as the Golden Voice of Africa, the Patriarch and the undisputed Ambassador of African music. Here we are. Forty years later and another milestone, Un Autre Blanc, the new album that Salif Keita has announced as his last. Ready to celebrate 50 years of a stellar career in music and soon to be seventy, and perhaps as a way of winding down, Salif Keita wishes to spread out his mat under the mango trees of the banks of the Niger river, to indulge in his favorite game of draughts. A well-­‐deserved rest, to be sure, for the Prodigy(N’an kama) of Djoliba but should we really believe that this beautiful album will be the last word of a most prolific poet, whose luminous voice has carried hope, even as far as the cells of Robben Island? This album of 10 brand-­‐new tracks continues Salif’s advocacy for the human rights of people with Albinism, a fight his Foundation for Albinism pledges to intensify, especially since the UN has declared June 13 the International Albinism Awareness Day. Salif is protesting the continued abduction and killing of albinos in a number of African countries for purposes of witchcraft and financial profit. He decries the fact that local witch doctors often purposefully spread and perpetuate misconceptions and superstitions for personal gain, and in some cases, family members of these innocent victims being complicit in these crimes.

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Ron Kadish

ron@rockpaperscissors.biz

812-339-1195 X 202

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SPAIN: Pedro Pablo & Three Cuban Jazz- Suena Cubano (2018)

Suena Cubano by Pedro Pablo & Three Cuban Jazz Three Cuban Jazz es un nuevo proyecto de Pedro Pablo Rodríguez Mireles; músico con una extensa y reconocida trayectoria musical, que tiene como objetivo proporcionar un espectáculo cuya intención es la de compartir el verdadero sonido del jazz cubano de los años dorados interpretados con gran maestría, complicidad y feeling. Cuentan con un exquisito repertorio transportándonos a través de su música, a aquella gloriosa época que tanta riqueza musical nos dejó. Graduado como Instrumentista, Profesor de percusión y Práctica de conjunto en la Escuela Nacional de Arte de La Habana (discípulo de José Luis Quintana “Changüito”,), aprovechándose de su extensa formación clásica desarrolla, junto con un estilo único, un especial énfasis en el folclore, el jazz y la música internacional. Inicia su carrera profesional en el Cabaret Parisién (Hotel Nacional) de La Habana y posteriormente, realiza su primera gira internacional mostrando la esencia y tradición de la música cubana. Ha integrado afamadas agrupaciones musicales (NG La Banda, dirigida por el maestro José Luis Cortés, Buenavista Social Club con Pío Leiva, Eliades Ochoa, Amadito Valdés...) con quienes se presentó en numerosos escenarios nacionales e internacionales y ha colaborado con otras figuras relevantes de la cultura cubana. A su llegada a Madrid forma parte de diferentes proyectos como Habana Blues Band; conciertos con La Creativa Big Band, Kelvis Ochoa, Lucrecia, Lagartos Amarillos, Andy y Lucas, Ana Belén, Luz Casal, Pastora Soler, Lulo Pérez, Dagoberto González, Tamara, Ernán López Nussa, José Luis Rodíguez “El Puma”, Iván “Melón” Lewis, Óscar Gómez, Alain Pérez o Jerry González entre otros. Cabe resaltar su colaboración con Emilio Aragón “Bach to Cuba”, “Ni pa ti ni pa mi”, “Tres palabras” de Manu Tenorio. También ha participado con Bebo Valdés en la grabación de la banda sonora de la película “Chico&Rita” de Fernando Trueba. Actualmente artista insignia de las prestigiosas marcas, Gewa Music (Latin Percussion (LP), Remo), Promark, JLeiva Percussion. Además, combina sus proyectos con la docencia a nivel nacional e internacional. “Perseverancia, virtuosismo y pasión” Suena Cubano... Bajo la dirección de Pedro Pablo Rodríguez Mireles se crea “Three Cuban Jazz”. Trío de jazz cubano que tiene como objetivo mantener viva la esencia y melodía del jazz de los años 30, 40, 50... todo esto con un alto nivel de ejecución por parte de sus integrantes cuyo resultado es...que “Suena Cubano”. En plena creación de nuevo álbum a punto de publicar (Suena Cubano), Pedro Pablo basándose en una visión rica, personal y única llena de improvisación regala un recorrido por diferentes géneros de la música cubana como lo son el Changüí, el Danzón, el Latin Jazz, el Bolero, la Rumba... El formato se compone por piano, percusiones y contrabajo ofreciendo al oyente ricos contrastes musicales cargados de sentimiento, elegancia y sensualidad. Las composiciones, constituidas por temas inéditos compuestos por Pedro Pablo y arreglos a temas clásicos de la música cubana y el jazz, se ejecutan magistralmente por un conjunto de profesionales conocedores de la cultura cubana que aportan sus conocimientos y capacidad interpretativa, llevando el espectáculo a su máxima expresión artística.

USA: Two Performances of Music by Sarah Weaver 12/15 DiMenna Center 12/21 The Cell

INTERHERE: Sarah Weaver Ensemble December 15, 2018  8:00pm DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Benzaquen Hall 450 W. 37th Street, NYC  www.dimennacenter.org $25 Admission/$20 Students & Seniors Tickets: www.sarahweaver.org/tickets

Contemporary works by composer Sarah Weaver. “Sound in Peace (2016)” Joe McPhee, multiple instruments, Sarah Weaver, electronics. “Symmetry of Presence (2018)” David Taylor, bass trombone, electronics, Sarah Weaver, electronics. “Fountain of Synthesis (2018)” Jane Ira Bloom, soprano saxophone, Yoon Sun Choi, voice, Julie Ferrara, oboe, english horn, Joe McPhee, multiple instruments, Ned Rothenberg, woodwinds, Min Xiao-Fen, pipa, sanxian, ruan, Ray Anderson, trombone, David Taylor, bass trombone, Denman Maroney, piano, Mark Helias, bass, Gerald Cleaver, drumset, percussion, Sarah Weaver, conductor. Admission $25/$20 Students and Seniors.

REALITY AXIS: for Solo Percussion

The music of Sarah Weaver performed by Gerry Hemingway

Recording Release Concert

December 21, 2018  8:00PM

the cell, 338 W. 23rd Street, NYC  www.thecelltheatre.org

$20 Admission/$15 Students & Seniors

Tickets: www.sarahweaver.org/tickets

 

Program:

“Node 111, Volumes 1-3”, “Reality Axis”, “Nexus Expanse”

GERMANY: Lasse Golz Quartett ‎– Darkunkel (2018)

Lasse Golz // Tenor Sax, Bass Clarinet Noah Rott // Rhodes, Keyboards Dany Ahmad // Guitar Jan-Phillip Meyer // Drums

NORWAY:Frode Haltli ‎– Avant Folk (2018)

The opening track of ‘Avant Folk’ is like a dream of what contemporary experimental folk-meets-jazz-meets-chamber-music might be. Composed by Frode Haltli, ‘Hug’ begins with a galumphing off-centre rhythm that could be an accompaniment to elephants waltzing before the wheezing bellows-breath of Haltli’s accordion creates delightfully airy whispers of noise that drift across the other instruments like wisps of cloud across the sky. Elsewhere, as the album develops, the folk references expand to include echoes of west African desert blues, east European gypsy swing, Armenian double-reed laments and lugubrious Nordic village knees-ups on a range of material partly adapted from traditional hymn-tunes and songs from Norway and the Faroe islands to form a kind of north Atlantic gumbo. The breadth of Frode Haltli’s interests is not unusual in Norwegian music and this is paralleled by a number of his collaborators on ‘Avant Folk’, many of whom - like the inspirational fiddler Erlend Apneseth (a regular Hubro artist in a number of settings) or the keyboardist Stale Storlokken (of Supersilent and Motorpsycho, among others) enjoy similarly wide-ranging careers that weave in and out of numerous musical styles and settings. But the last word on ‘Avant Folk’ has to be the music. The album ends on the suitably epic note of Haltli’s ‘Neid’, an original composition that sounds absolutely timeless, matching a maelstrom of squeaky-gate post-serialist glissandi with an ancient-sounding dirge-like refrain. Haltli’s own stunningly adept accordion solo, its intensely emotional voicings heard against a splashy biscuit tin-lid style percussive backdrop, then gives way to the stately pairing of gently-stepping double-bass and country-roots electric guitar that in turn heads eastwards towards the Balkans before ending up back home in the northlands again, the thirteen minute performance superbly resolving itself in a final sequence of transcendent hymn-like solemnity. Wow.

ITALY: Alberto Parmegiani ‎– On My Radio (2018)

Alberto Parmegiani New Album "On My Radio" AMC011 Produced by A.MA Records Published by A.MA Edizioni Alberto Parmegiani Leader & Guitar Claudio Filippini Piano/Electric Piano/Synt Daniele Cappucci Double Bass Armando Luongo Drums