Moholo/Ngqawana/Dawkins in Baltimore

[bernardlyons]

AN DIE MUSIK LIVE 409,N.Charles St,Baltimore MD
www.andiemusiklive.com tel 410 385 2638

A SPECIAL USA / SOUTH AFRICA MUSIC MEETING!

FRIDAY 18 AUGUST @ 8PM & 10PM

LOUIS MOHOLO MOHOLO
ZIM NGQAWANA
ERNEST KHABEER DAWKINS

tickets are $20 / $18 seniors and students


LOUIS MOHOLO-MOHOLO (S.Africa) - drums
Louis Moholo-Moholo comes from a musical family and is a self-taught drummer. His band the Cordettes took part in the 1962 Johannesburg Jazz Festival, where Moholo won first prize for drums. After this, Chris McGregor asked him to join the Blue Notes, replacing the original drummer. After leaving South Africa in 1964, the Blue Notes worked in France, Switzerland, and Denmark, finally settling in London. Of the original Blue Notes, Moholo is the one who had the time and the inclination to branch out further, his fantasy and musical sense as an improviser making him a very sought-after partner.
Besides playing in the Blue Notes and McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath, Moholo was the driving force behind Harry Miller's Isipingo, and soon led his own groups: the unrecorded Unit, his octet Spirits Rejoice with Kenny Wheeler and Evan Parker, and his septet Viva la Black. In the '90s, he brought a band to South Africa, and the moving experience was recorded and released as Freedom Tour (Ogun, 1993).
Moholo has played with Mike Osborne (Shapes, Future Music 1999), Harry Miller, Irene Schweizer (who first met the South African in Zurich in 1964), and Peter Brötzmann (The Nearer the Bone, the Sweeter the Meat, FMP). He's also worked in a guitar-percussion trio with Derek Bailey and Thebe Lipere; and his duo with Cecil Taylor is pure pleasure, with Moholo's soft and melodic phrasing complementing the percussive whirls of the piano.
His late-'90s efforts are often based on an extraordinary interplay with Evan Parker (Bush Fire, Ogun 1997; Foxes' Fox, Emanem 1999). Moholo is often featured in the Dedication Orchestra, created to play the music of the South African exiles, and is a member of the London Improvisors Orchestra.

ZIM NGQAWANA (S.Africa) - saxophones
Zim Ngqawana has been hailed by South Africa's leading daily paper, The Star, as "The most visible, hardest working younger man in jazz". He is one of the new generation of South African musicians who are taking a fresh look at South Africa's jazz and traditional music heritage. Zim made his mark at the historic inauguration of President Nelson Mandela in 1994, where he directed the 100 person "Drums for Peace Orchestra", led an elite group of 12 Presidential drummers and featured as a solo saxophonist.
This recognition came after a late start and some tough struggles. Born in 1959 in Port Elizabeth ( in South Africa's Eastern Cape), Zim was the youngest of five children who started playing flute at the age of 21. Although Zim was forced to drop out of school before completing university entrance requirements, his prowess won him a place at Rhodes University. He later went on to study for a diploma in Jazz Studies at the University of Natal. Working with the University's ensemble, "The Jazzanians", he attended the International Association of Jazz Educators convention in the United States and was offered scholarships to the Max Roach / Wynton Marsalis jazz workshop and subsequently a Max Roach scholarship to the University of Massachusetts, where he studied with jazz legends Archie Shepp and Yusef Lateef.
Since his return to South Africa in the 1990's he has worked in the bands of veteran greats like Abdullah Ibrahim and Hugh Masekela. He has also devoted much time and effort into building up a number of small and large combos from the conventional quartet / quintet including his 8 piece band "Ingoma" through to the "Drums for Peace Orchestra". Zim is committed to developing and creating an audience for new South African jazz, his music draws on influences ranging from South Africa's folk and rural traditions to Indian and western classical music, world music and the avant-garde. Grounded in his South African roots, the music is strongly percussive, improvisational and highly danceable.

ERNEST KHABEER DAWKINS (USA) - saxophones
One of the life goals of Ernest Dawkins is to represent the African American cultural experience through his music. His musical art form reflects the rich background and cultural distinctions of African American life.
He is one of Chicago's premier jazz saxophonist whose music reflects his extraordinary talent not just as a musician but a composer as well. He has recorded eleven CD's and is the founder and leader of his own group, New Horizons Ensemble.
Dawkins started his musical career at the tender age of twelve when he learned how to play the bass and conga drams. At nineteen he became mesmerized by the sound of the saxophone while listening to his father's jazz recordings of Lester Young. But it wasn't until he heard the alto sax of Guido Sinclair that he knew this was the instrument he wanted to play. Within a week, he had purchased his first saxophone, clarinet and flute all for the meager sum of $24.00. He taught himself the music scale and then found he had to practice at Washington Park because he couldn't practice at home. Two weeks later Dawkins got his first lesson from members of the AACM. From there his illustrious career in music began.
In 1978 Dawkins formed his own group New Horizons Ensemble, a group which today continues to create a sound that showcases their unique combination of jazz, bebop, swing, and avant garde. The Chicago Tribune describes them as " a band with an uncommon versatility that erupts into new music bursts of dissonance and color. This band can enlighten an audience while enthralling it."
Dawkins has worked with a myriad of music greats which include: Ramsey Lewis, Muhal Richard Abrams, Lester Bowie, Edward Wilkerson, Jr., Henry Threadgill, Amina Claudine Myers, Anthony Braxton, Jack McDuff, Don Moye, Jerry Butler, and The Dells.
As a world renowned musician, Dawkins has performed in Maputo Mozambique and appeared on local radio and television programs as well as workshops there. He's performed with Zina Nggawana in Pretoria and at the Hugh Masekela Club J&B in Johnanesburg both in South Africa. He is also working as a consultant to The Jazz Club De Maputo in Mozambique.
He has composed music for the documentary film "Malcolm" in 1995 under the direction of Alan Siegal. In 1994 he was commissioned to write a three-piece suite honoring Rahsaan Roland Kirk for the King Arts Complex in Columbus, Ohio.