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A soulful blend of African fiddle, talking drums and jazz,
Imaginary Homeland weaves lyrical melodies and percussive
grooves into a potent blend of African and American traditions.
Jazz composer David Rogers left his Missouri roots and music
conservatory training to spend two years living with the
master drummers of rural Ghana. Living in a thatch hut through
dust storms and rainy seasons, he studied the native drum
language and the history of the talking drum. When he returned,
he formed Imaginary Homeland with three
other American musicians whose combined experience stretches
from Ghana and Uganda to the hills of West Virginia and
downtown New York. Marlene Rice's soaring violin and Matt
Pavolka's acoustic bass find the string sound in each of these
traditions, while percussionist Mark Stone drives the rhythm.
In their new CD, Jump for George, Imaginary Homeland
finds vivid connections between these and nearer American
musical roots. The results will delight music lovers looking
for a fresh sound rooted in the traditions of Africa and the
Americas.
David Rogers (saxophones, Dagbamba talking drum) is
an eclectic composer whose music draws on his extensive study
of the talking drum, xylophone, and one-string fiddle traditions
of the Dagbamba and Dagara tribes of northern Ghana. His compositions
for Imaginary Homeland and other ensembles weave
a unique blend of African roots with American jazz improvisation
and blues tonality. Rogers has apprenticed for three years
in Ghana, living in the homes of master musicians, studying
native drum language, and performing at traditional festivals,
funerals and celebrations. David is an active composer in
the jazz, new music, theater and dance circles of New York.
His compositions have been funded by the Meet the Composer
fund and the New York State Council on the Arts, and are featured
on Imaginary Homeland’s CD. He has collaborated
with choreographers Rebecca Ashley and Miral Kotb, the Next
Stage music ensemble, and African master musicians Dolsi-naa
Abubakari Lunna, Bernard Woma, Madou Dembele, and Kakraba
Lobi. David is a co-founder of Jumbie Records.
Mark Stone (African drumset, water drum, rattles,
bells, body percussion, Dagara gyil xylophone) has
performed with the foremost percussion groups of Ghana,
Uganda, and Trinidad (West Indies). In Ghana, Mark performed
with Godwin Agbeli's Sankofa Dance Theatre. In Uganda, he
was an honorary member of the Nakibembe Xylophone Group,
performing at village funerals and weddings. During a research
trip to Trinidad in 2001, Mark joined the steel drum ensemble Scrunters
Pan Groove throughout the carnival festivities. This
past December, Mark performed with master-xylophonist Bernard
Woma at the Filmua Kukur Bagr Festival in the Upper West
Region of Ghana. His research in Ugandan music has been
published in African Music, the Journal of the International
Library of African Music in South Africa. Mark also
directs the Biakuye Unity Ensemble and is a co-founder of
Jumbie Records.
Marlene Rice (violin) is unique in contemporary
jazz for her rich soulful tone and soaring solos, drawing
on blues, gospel, and modern jazz inflections. Marlene has
recorded with Greg Osby (“Symbols of Light”),
Steve Coleman, Quartette Indigo, pop stars Lauryn Hill and
Patti Labelle, and others. Marlene has performed throughout
the world with such artists as Cassandra Wilson, James Carter,
and Quartette Indigo, with iconoclastic composers David Soldier,
Kitty Brazelton, and Lawrence “Butch” Morris,
and in sections with Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, and
Sammy Davis, Jr. Her own string quartet Sojourner draws on
jazz, Soul, R&B, Hip-hop, and the avant-garde.
Peter Fand (acoustic bass) is a multi-instrumentalist,
born and raised in Maplewood, New Jersey. He studied music and
ethnomusicology at Kean College (NJ) and City College (NY).
He has traveled extensively in West Africa, studying the kora
and the djembe. In 1998 he released a kora-meditation recording
entitled Dedication which was selected by “Yoga
Journal” as one of the year’s best Yoga and Meditation
CD’s. He founded Blue Monster Studios in 1998, and it
has become an important center for the recording of African
music. More than a dozen albums of traditional and modern African
music have been recorded at his studio, in addition to film
scores and music for national television. Peter is also the
music director of Create, an Arts in Education organization
based in Brooklyn that places music and dance teachers into
NYC public schools. He leads his own "World Rock" band, Porter,
which just released a new CD entitled "Whiskey Hill."
Click here for tickets information
and location. |
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M. Christopher
Zacharow is
a painter and illustrator whose works have been exhibited locally,
nationally and internationally in solo and group shows. He holds
the MFA Degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland.
He has taught at Cooper Union and Parsons School of Design;
since 2003 he has been Instructor of Painting and Illustration
at Pratt Institute, NYC. His work has been featured in such
magazines as Time, Newsweek and Business
Week. His many awards include the Silver Medal from the
Society of Illustrators of New York.
Artist’s Statement: My works
respond to current political events - war and terrorism -
but they deal with something more fragile and ethereal: the
inner instability provoked by such dramatic occurrences. I
consider my drawings a barometer of feelings, of anxieties,
but also of hopes shared by all of us. These works draw from
the rich tradition of war images by Goya, Picasso and Motherwell.
Their multi-frame, polymorphous aspect also references comic
strips and computer games. The final image is a palimpsest
deriving its meaning from experience, awareness and the process. |
