The Kora Band

Cafe Solstice Saturday 2/11

andrew — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:33:16 +0000

We’ll be back with the whole band on Saturday, February 11th at Cafe Solstice in the University District of Seattle. We’re really pleased to be gearing up for a bunch of shows this spring with new material and after our several-month hiatus this fall and winter. This is our only February show and we hope you can come down to this great cafe. We had a blast playing there last year, it’s a nice atmosphere and relaxed setting for your favorite jazz-meets-west-African band (!?) Details at the SHOWS page.

Also if you’re not on our mailing list and want to be, you can sign up here, just check the “Kora Band” box in the lower section!

Olympia, Portland next weekend!

andrew — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 20:00:33 +0000

We have two shows coming up in some smaller configurations as Chad is off being busy in Belgium. We’ll be returning to Traditions Fair Trade Cafe in Olympia where we had a really nice “acoustic” show last year on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 8 PM. This is a wonderful little spot with great organic food and an ongoing concert series in downtown Olympia.

The following day, Kane and Andrew’s duo (with Mark accompanying on calabash) will be at the Ninkasi Presents Sunday Night Jazz series at the Blue Monk in Portland. This great ongoing series is entering its second year of presenting the best in Northwest jazz each Sunday night at 7:30 PM presented by Mary-Sue Tobin. We’ll be playing some of our original tunes from the Kora Band repertoire as well as some traditional tunes.

Hope to see the Olympia-ites and Portlanders next weekend!

Kora Band Returns: House Concert in Burien 12/17

andrew — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 23:53:00 +0000

Hello friends and fans of the Kora Band! We’ve been on somewhat of a hiatus this fall as Kane was traveling in Europe and spent some time at his teacher’s compound in Brikama, Gambia, West Africa, recording oral histories for future publication (see photo of Kane with Malamini Jobarteh, his teacher of 15 years!) So you see, our absence was not in vain! However we are excited to be returning to performing with an intimate house concert at Lance and Laurie’s in Burien on Saturday, December 17. These fine folks have an ongoing house concert series and it promises to be a great evening with food, drink, music, and even a nice grand piano! The concert is at 7:30 PM, doors open at 7:00. Cover is $15.

If you’re interested in coming (and we hope you are) please send off an email to Lance at llh@lanceandlaurie.net and he’ll get back to you with directions, particulars, etc.

We’ll be ramping up our activities in the new year as well with shows at Traditions in Olympia Jan. 14, the Blue Monk in Portland Jan. 15, Cafe Solstice in Seattle, Feb. 11, Tula’s in Seattle March 8, and a West Coast tour in April. We’ll keep you posted here as always!

Fall

andrew — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 00:01:52 +0000

Hello Kora Band fans! Just a post to say thanks to everyone who came out to Jimmy Mak’s in Portland and Tula’s in Seattle in the past couple of weeks, we had a fantastic time at both shows and hope you did too.

Kane is heading off for some travels in Europe and West Africa this fall but we will have some shows in October and December, dates will be posted very soon. Meanwhile you can check out Kane’s exciting and ambitious Mandinka History and Language project at his site here.

As always our new album “Cascades” is available at from OA2 Records and iTunes and there are some live downloads at our Bandcamp site too.

If you’re not signed up you can join our mailing list here (select “Kora Band” from the list) to find out about upcoming shows. It’s city-specific too, to prevent unnecessary spamming!

Thanks everyone and see you very soon we hope!

Jimmy Mak’s Friday!

andrew — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 18:12:18 +0000

We’re very happy to be returning to Jimmy Mak’s in Portland alongside the Ben Darwish Trio for another go around at a double-bill that we did a couple of years ago and was a great success. Reservations can be made at 503-295-6542, hope to see you there!

Juan de Fuca Festival Video

andrew — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 23:14:28 +0000

Thanks to everyone who came out to our recent run of gigs in Port Angeles at the Juan de Fuca festival, in Bellevue at the Bellevue Jazz Festival, and in Seattle at the Art of Jazz Series at the Art Museum! We had a nice time playing for y’all and look forward to seeing everyone again later in the summer!

Meanwhile, we’ve just received some great video shot at the Juan de Fuca festival in Port Angeles. Enjoy:

The Kora Band in Port Angeles from Christopher Wright on Vimeo.

Also recordings from the Art of Jazz gig last week will be featured on Jim Wilke’s Jazz Northwest show on KPLU in Seattle in the next few weeks, we’ll keep you posted when we have the date!

Juan de Fuca!

andrew — Sun, 29 May 2011 01:46:12 +0000

We’re happy to be performing for the first time at this year’s Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts in Port Angeles, WA. We’ll be appearing twice at the festival tomorrow (Sunday 5/29), at 2:30 PM on the main stage and at 5:30 PM on the Elks Stage. Full details at http://www.jffa.org. Olympic Peninsula here we come!

2010 NW Jazz Recording of the Year!

andrew — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:44:01 +0000

We here at the Kora Band are very excited to announce that we have recently won “2010 NW Jazz Recording of the Year” at this year’s Earshot Jazz Golden Ear Awards in Seattle for our album “Cascades.” We are very honored and would like to thank everyone involved in the production of this album as well as everyone at Earshot Jazz.

We have a number of regional shows coming up, just in time to celebrate! We’ll be playing Wednesday the 30th at the Upstage in lovely Port Townsend, Thursday the 31st at Tula’s in Seattle, and the following Tuesday, April 5, at the excellent “Notes from the Underground” series at the Mission Theater in Portland, curated by local pianist and man-about-town Ben Darwish. Details on these and other shows are all over at the “shows” page.

If you don’t have a copy of “Cascades,” you can pick one up at Amazon, iTunes, or from the OA2 Records site! We’re quite proud of the album and hope you enjoy it as well.

Portland Jazz Festival + Golden Ear Award

andrew — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 21:43:49 +0000

We’re happy to be a part of this year’s Portland Jazz Festival for the first time! We’ll be performing on Saturday, February 26 at the Mission Theater after a screening of the film “Icons Among Us” which is going on for four consecutive nights at the Mission. We’ll be sharing the bill with the Devin Phillips Quartet, so it will be a nice diverse evening of music and a fun reunion of sorts as well, since it was on tour with Devin that Mark and I discovered the kora in Senegal.

There’s some information on the film being screened here, and ticket information here.

We’re also very happy to have been nominated for a Golden Ear Award this year by Earshot Jazz in Seattle. We’re up for “2010 NW Recording of the Year!” It’s not quite a Grammy but we do need your support, voting is taking place now through March 15 at the Earshot Jazz site. You can find the ballot here, and thanks for your support!

Winter Break…

andrew — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 23:27:35 +0000

Hello all,

Thanks to everyone who came out to see us in November and December in Portland, Corvallis, and Seattle, we had a nice little run of shows!

We’re taking a couple of months off of gigging to work up a bunch of great new material and get ready for lots of spring and summer activity including an appearance at the Portland Jazz Festival in February and a regional tour in March/April in Seattle, Portland, Salem, and Port Townsend, among other nearby cities.

Meanwhile you can still find our new album “Cascades” for purchase and download in numerous locations, which we will humbly re-link to below. There’s some samples from it over at the “Listen” page and be sure to stay tuned for our updated gig schedule as we emerge from the winter!