American Jazz by Blood Drum Spirit June 5, 2008

Time: 2008/6/5
Venue: The Imperial Granary
Price: 580/780/980/5880
MSN: [email protected]
Tel: 86-10-64177845

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http://www.piao.com.cn/en%5Fpiao/ticket_1764.html

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Members
Royal Hartigan: percussionist and jazz pianist
David Bindman: saxophonist and composer
Art Hirahara: jazz pianist and composer
Wes Brown: bassist

AfricanAmerican jazz is an international music in its ability to encompasselements of other traditions. Blood Drum Spirit is an effort to adaptthe deep structures of Asian, African, and Native American traditionsinto the African American sound, a life force creating a space for thegods to descend, a positive alternative for what we see as a corruptand parasitic status quo on plantation earth.

Royal hartiganis a percussionist who has studied and performed the musics of Asia,Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas, including indigenousWest African drumming, dance, song, and highlife; Turkish bendir framedrum; Japanese taiko drumming; Philippine kulintang gong and drumensemble; Chinese Beijing, Cantonese, and Kunqu opera percussion; SouthIndian solkattu rhythms; Korean Nong ak drum and gong ensemble;Javanese and Sumatran gamelan; Gaelic bodhran; Native Americandrumming; Dominican merengue; Brazilian samba; Cambodian sampho drumsand Vietnamese clapper percussion, European symphony; and AfricanAmerican blues, gospel, funk, hip-hop, and jazz traditions.

David Bindman,saxophonist and composer, creates works that combine many elements:that draw on the motion of dance, that explore the complexity of melodyand time unbound yet relating to tradition, and that have improvisationat the core. His multi-movement compositions cross genres and media,and incorporate ideas from West Africa, India,and around the globe. In addition to leading his ensemble andco-leading the Brooklyn Sax Quartet, Bindman has performed or recordedwith Wadada Leo Smith, Royal Hartigan, Kevin Norton, Ehran Elisha, Adam Lane, Bill Lowe, Anthony Braxton, Fred Ho, Talking Drums, JUBA,and many others. He has collaborated with poet Tyrone Henderson andvisual artist Quimetta Perle, creating the multimedia pieces "TheMadman" and "Strawman Dance", and recording the CD Strawman Dance(Konnex). His work with the Brooklyn Sax Quartet has been released ontwo critically acclaimed recordings, The Way of the Saxophone (Innova)and Far Side of Here (Omnitone).

Art Hirahara is a jazz pianist/composer, originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, now living in Brooklyn, NY. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree in jazz piano performance at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA and a Bachelor of Music degree in Electronic and Computer Music from the Oberlin College Conservatory in Oberlin, OH. Art has performed at major festivals including the Earshot Jazz Festival in Seattle and the Jazz Ost-West Festival in Nuremburg, Germany.He performed with his ***tet at the Monterey Jazz Festival in September2001. He has also appeared at many festivals in the Bay Area includingthe Stanford Jazz Festival, the San Jose Jazz Festival, Healdsburg JazzFestival, Jazz on the River (Russian River) and Jazz on the Hill (San Mateo). Art has also played in Japan and China.

Wes Brown(bass) has performed and toured with a wide range of musicalpersonalities. Wes plays acoustic and electric bass, keyboard,percussion and African flute. His current interests includeAfrican-American/jazz, Afro-pop/worldbeat, reggae and traditionalAfrican styles. Wes has appeared on over two dozen records with variousartists and has extensive international touring experience with suchartists as Earl "Fatha" Hines and Anthony Braxton.

VIP Price: RMB5580