New Audio and Video
Posted on | September 24, 2009 | 1 Comment
I’ve switched themes here, hoping that this will be a bit clearer of a layout and style. Hope you enjoy it.
Earlier in the month, the Kora Band played a couple of very fun gigs in Portland and Seattle We’re gearing up for our big shows at Jimmy Maks in Portland on Oct. 9 and Cafe Solstice in Seattle on Oct. 10. After a great show at Mississippi Pizza on Saturday the 5th, we played at the Art in the Pearl World Music Stage on Sunday the 5th, but were plagued by freak fall winds which almost sent this seemingly sturdy tent crashing down upon our heads!
The following week, I headed up to Seattle and we played at Egan’s Ballard Jam House, which was the same venue where we debuted the band last June. It’s a great listetning room, very very small, but always a pleasure to play. We sold it out in with advance reservations (which is admittedly easy with a capacity of something like 50) but it still was a good feeling!
Anyway I’m really pleased with the way the band is coming together, Chad McCullough has really stepped up to the plate since he joined the band in May, and everyone has begun to memorize the book, a task we hope to have complete by the Oct. 9 gig!
Over at the Audio page, I’ve posted 3 tracks from each gig for your listening pleasure (and to generate excitement for our upcoming gigs! Don’t forget to mark your calendars for Oct 9 in PDX and 10th in Seattle!). There are 2 “electric” tracks, “Segu” and “Za Ayi Neyi”, the former of which features Mark on calabash gourd, which he’s becoming quite solid at, and the latter of which is a tricky Bikutsi-style number from Cameroonian pop stars Les Tetes Brulees that we’ve been trying to nail for a year and finally almost did!
Also of note, the “Mamadou Bitiki-Kaira” medley that I discussed in my Piano and Kora post a couple of weeks ago has now been adapted for the full band, and you can hear us performing it from the Egan’s show. In addition to the feel and tune change, I also added a few more traditional vocal lines into the trumpet part which you can hear right after the transition to the faster tempo. I think this is a much improved version than the original Kaira arrangment. Although I rarely go back and change charts this significantly, I think it was the right decision in this case for sure!
And, to top it off, here’s a video from the Egan’s gig of “Jarabi”, a traditional Malian tune that Kane arranged, with a modern-style Malian groove leading into a racous section utilizing Sabar rhythms from Senegal. It’s consistently one of our favorite songs to play, and we hope you enjoy it, even without multiple camera angles:
Next up is a continuation of the “Jazz Pioneers” series featuring James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, and Art Tatum!
Comments
One Response to “New Audio and Video”
Leave a Reply
September 26th, 2009 @ 10:10 pm
Sounds GREAT Andrew! Wish I could’ve been there. I’ll catch you next time your up our way.
Jason
http://oneworkingmusician.com