Griot will screen at WOMEX: The World Music Expo on Thursday, October 27

Copenhagen
Denmark
26-29 October
www.womex.com

WOMEX has a three-year partnership with World Music Fair Copenhagen, an organization created by several key cultural players from Denmark to host WOMEX from 2009 to 2011: First and foremost Roskilde Festival, Copenhagen Jazz Festival and Wonderful Copenhagen. The other principal members comprise the Danish Center for Culture and Development (CKU/DCCD), Global Copenhagen and World Music Denmark in cooperation with Welcome Meeting Management.

Film Screenings selected by the International Music + Media Centre in Austria
Screening Schedule

“WOMEX is an annual highlight and a center of my curatorial process. It’s a great opportunity to discover new artists, connect with colleagues from all over the globe and from home, too.”
Bill Bragin (USA), Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

“The most important international professional market of world music of every kind. This international fair brings together professionals from the worlds of folk, roots, ethnic and traditional music and also includes concerts, conferences and documentary films. It contributes to networking as an effective means of promoting music and culture of all kinds across frontiers.”
UNESCO Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity

MANDE SYMPHONY
An interactive multimedia performance for voice, African harp (kora), string quartet, film and superDraw.

Musicians:

Volker Goetze – Composer, Producer

Ablaye Cissoko – Voice and African-harp

Carolin Pook – violin

Filip Pogady – violin

Andrea Hemmenway – viola

Brian Sanders – cello

Richie Barshay – drums

Jonathan Singer – marimba

Visualist:

Joshue Ott – superDraw

October 13 / 8PM

47 Great Jones Street/3rd Floor

New York/New York 10012

The MANDE SYMPHONY, an interactive multimedia performance for voice, African harp (kora), string quartet, film and superDraw, tells the legendary story of a Mande griot, Kimintang Cissoko, from the time he prayed that he could help alleviate the suffering of the Mande people; through his encounters with African spirits and genies that ultimately led him to create the very first kora – Africa’s lute-harp.

Mandinka is a tonal language, which is ideal for musical adaption. The tonal sound provides a base for a notated, rhythmic sound that provokes improvisational passages from the orchestra.

During the performance, sampled speech and music are sent to a computer where a computer artist modulates their effect on stunning visuals from West Africa – all in real- time. With superDraw, visualist Joshue Ott creates a carefully crafted dialectic between the aural and visual experience and the artistic intention is to evoke some sense of the powerful African spirit underlying the Kimintang story in a way that makes it accessible and powerful to a Western audience.

The event will be LIVE-STREAMED online.

Mande Symphony was commissioned by the New York State Council on the Arts and is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Sponsorship was provided by the New York Foundation for the Arts.

This film follows Abalye Cissoko, a Senegalese master singer, kora player, and Jali on his journey towards tomorrow.

GRIOT the documentary will be participating in SONIC TRUTH Robert Flaherty Film Seminar

SONIC TRUTH
June 18 – 24, 2011
Colgate University, Hamilton, NY

The audio dimension of documentary operates in several ways: as an element to confirm the fidelity of visual evidence (synch sound), as the conveyor of narrative (the voice-over), as evidentiary recording (the interview), and as a creative tool to counterpoint images. Sound recording and design can help capture a cultural environment, sculpt a sense of place, or evoke a historical period. But add music to the mix and contradictions arise – either moments of truth are powerfully underscored or the truth claims of documentary fall into question.

“Sonic Truth” will bring together a diverse group of filmmakers working in nonfiction and hybrid media to examine the sound and musical elements of their work. Sounds to be heard include city symphonies and country silences, animated documentary musicals, electronica of the 1920s, roots music, telephonic voices, a Senegalese griot, window washing in Shanghai as well as excerpts from Flaherty Seminar discussion recordings dating back to 1958.

more info

History can be perplexing for modern bandleaders. Breaking new ground while retaining traditional beauty isn’t exactly easy. But on NY 10027 Volker Goetze has come up with a win-win approach that does exactly that. The trumpeter-composer has lots of skills when it comes to balancing craft and experimentation, and they give his orchestra debut a sturdy feel that boasts plenty of personal perspective.

A German native who has been living in New York for the past several years, Goetze is an award-winning arranger and forward-thinking improviser. His broad global perspective earned him critical kudos for 2008’s Sira, a collaboration with Senegalese kora master Ablaye Cissoko. The rich big band charts Goetze wrote for his NY 10027 group are almost the opposite of the spare interactions found on Sira, but they do share one trait. These elaborate new tracks have an unmistakable brio driving their every move.

You can hear it on “Tree,” a swirling piece that was nominated for a BMI Charlie Parker Composition Award. Its heady patterns shift from intricate and challenging to lush and pleasurable. And you can hear it on “Snow Crystal,” a luminous excursion that moves quickly but offers the beauty of a ballad. “I want the pieces to be full of vitality,” explains the 39-year-old Goetze, “and I also want them to avoid set formulas. My goal is to stress the essence of the individual songs. I use my experience to find something new each time out.”

On the gorgeous opening number, that meant making space for Lenny Pickett’s unique clarinet approach. The Saturday Night Live bandleader is known for his wailing tenor sax. “Solace,” which was presented at the 2008 Jazz Composer’s Symposium (directed by Chuck Owen) lets Pickett showcase another side. Tonguing the instrument, and soloing in a lower register, he brings an idiosyncratic sound to the proceedings. “He’s unbelievable,” says Goetze. “I love his Tower of Power playing, but people should know he has much more to offer, especially as a clarinet virtuoso. I heard him using a small clarinet to render an unusual approach, and I wanted to find a spot for it. Most composers write up high for the E-flat clarinet. But when you play in a lower range, it sounds even more beautiful.”

Another unusual instrumental deployment comes on “Cissokos Kora.” The radiant plinks of the African strings are the prelude to full band’s entry. The piece perpetually morphs, developing its percussive melody lines through a trombone excursion and then back to more strings – only this time it’s a fuzzed guitar romp by Sebastian Noelle. Somewhere along the way it becomes a seductive examination of textures driven by a deep rhythmic undertow. “I like to find uses for different cultures,” says Goetze. “We also incorporate some Afro-Cuban bata playing in there. It’s smart to learn from a variety of places.”
That sounds like a description of the changes taking place on “Inside the Outside World.” While working on a trio album together, Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos told Goetze that walking from the east side to the west side of Manhattan, you could come across all the cultures in the world. For this track thetrumpeter recorded the sidewalk and subway sounds on a trip from Queens College to his Harlem home. The snippets of urban ambiance enhance the flavor of the chart, acting as cues for certain motifs.

“A rapper, a ghetto blaster, the voices on the train – it’s all part of New York’s beauty. I saw [my teacher] Markus Stockhausen doing a solo piece with a tape playing behind him. It’s an interesting approach, and I’d like to explore it more. But players need to be open to it. An ensemble is a like a city that a soloist cuts through.” John Beaty’s careening alto sax maneuvers develop quite a trajectory as they spill forward.
Goetze’s own path has been a bit more direct. He says he’s always known he wanted to be a musician, and he always had a dream to come to the United States. As a teen in his rural hometown, he played in a church brass choir. A mentor told him he needed a wider perspective and voila, they were in Cologne seeing Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time. From there he investigated Don Cherry’s work. The floodgates soon opened. We Want Miles, Dizzy Gillespie albums, the Gil Evans Big Band – he absorbed it all. He came to Vermont to study in 1988, and while visiting a New York-based aunt, he discovered Cherry was a friend of her. They hung out a bit together in the East Village. “It took a long time to become confident enough to convince my family to let me study music here,” he says, “but I ultimately got a grant, and stayed.”

He found that he had talent for arranging, and after writing horn charts for a Brazilian musician, others asked him for advice as well. “They encouraged me! At my graduation concert I wrote pieces for big band. I was fast. I remember writing an arrangement for ‘Well, You Needn’t’ in a day. Of course, these days I take much more time with things like that.”

His interests in African music go beyond playing. Goetze is currently producing a documentary on the griot storytelling traditions. He’s also at work on an interactive multimedia presentation recounting the mythical creation story of the kora – the African harp – with visualist Joshue Ott, creator of Superdraw. It features musicians from Senegal and New York. But it’s the large ensemble that he’s focusing on at the moment. He wants to make sure that his music is always conveying passion.

“You know, bringing character out of the music, like the elders did,” he says. “Randy Weston can play a blues, and it seems simple, yet it’s so colorful, full of surprise and complexity. Johnny Hodges plays a melody and it’s beyond beautiful. Yes, this is a time when anything can be incorporated into a chart, but I don’t want to lose that essence they had. I try to write from the heart.”

Wednesday, June 22nd, 9:30 pm, showtime 10 pm

Volker Goetze Orchestra
CD Release Party & Concert
with special guest Richie Barshay

LIVE AT THE DROM

85 Avenue A (beween 5th & 6th)
http://www.dromnyc.com/

Trumpets:



Sam Hoyt

Bruce Harris

Kenny Warren

Dan Blankenship



Trombones:



Alan Ferber

Joe Beaty

Rick Parker

Max Seigel



Woodwinds:



Aaron Iwrin

Kurt Bacher

Chris Torkewitz

Sam Taylor

Geoff Countryman



Rhythm Section and guests:



Sebastian Noelle

Alexis Cuadrado

Richie Bashay

Rohin Khemani

John Beaty

History can be perplexing for modern bandleaders. Breaking new ground while retaining traditional beauty isn’t exactly easy. But on NY 10027 Volker Goetze has come up with a win-win approach that does exactly that. The trumpeter-composer has lots of skills when it comes to balancing craft and experimentation, and they give his orchestra debut a sturdy feel that boasts plenty of personal perspective.

Nov 2, 2011 – Ablaye Cissoko & Volker Goetze with Bodek Janke, Bix, Stuttgart, Germany
Nov 3, 2011 – Ablaye Cissoko & Volker Goetze, Cologne, Germany TBA
Nov 4-6, 2011 – Ablaye Cissoko & Volker Goetze, Toulouse and Banyuls, France

PAST DATES

USA TOUR:

Oct 16, 2011 – Ashkenaz, Berkely, CA, USA
Oct 15, 2011 – Cafe Culture, Chico, CA, USA
Oct 14, 2011 – AWorld Festival of Sacred Music, Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz, Los Angeles, USA
Oct 13, 2011 – MANDE SYMPHONY, Culturehub, New York, NY, USA
Oct 10, 2011 – Beehive, Boston, MA, USA
Oct 1, 2011 – Unison Arts Center, New Paltz, NY, USA
June 22, 2011 – The Drom, New York, NY, USA 8:00 PM Tickets.
June 2011 – Benefit Concert for UNICEF and Tostan at UNIS (United Nation International School, New York)
June 3, 2011 – Ablaye Cissoko & Volker Goetze, Via Vanti, Mount Kisco, NY, USA
June 1, 2011 – Ablaye Cissoko & Volker Goetze, D.C. Jazz Festival Twins Jazz, Washington D.C., USA
May 31, 2011 – Ablaye Cissoko & Volker Goetze, Beehive, Boston, MA, USA
May 30, 2011 – VOLKER GOETZE ORCHESTRA, Tea Lounge, Brooklyn, NY, USA
May 28, 2011 – Ablaye Cissoko & Volker Goetze, Modern Formations, Pittsburgh
May 26, 2011 – Ablaye Cissoko & Volker Goetze + SuperDraw, CultureHub, New York
Ablaye & Volker will be accompanied by the spontaneous electronic drawings of Joshue Ott and his visual instrument, superDraw. Using telepresence technology, the performance will be shared with a live audience at the Seoul Institute of the Arts in Korea.

EUROPEAN TOUR:

Feb 3, 2011 – Topos – 20:00 – Leverkusen, Germany
Feb 17, 2011 – Pause Musicale – Toulouse, France – 12:30
Feb 17, 2011 – House Concert – Pibrac, France – 16:30
Feb 18, 2011 – Gallery Durante – France
Feb 19, 2011 – La Meson – Marseille, France – 20:00
Feb 20, 2011 – Banyuls – France – 16:00
Feb 22, 2011 – Cafeteatret – Oslo, Norway – 19:30
Feb 25, 2011 – Jazzhouse – Copenhagen, Denmark – 20:00
Feb 26, 2011 – Seduced by Harps – Lomel, Belgium – 20:00
Mar 6, 2011 – Førde, Norway – 21:00
Mar 7, 2011 – Bergen, Norway- 20:30
Mar 10, 2011 – Im Ort – guest artist: Bodek Janke – Wuppertal, Germany – 20:00
Apr 30, 2011 – WDR 3 Creole-Nacht der Musikkulturen – Cologne, Germany – 18:05 – 24:00
May 4, 2011 – VOLKER GOETZE ORCHESTRA, Cologne, TBA, Germany – 20:00
July 2, 2011 – Jazz à Oloron, France
July 7, 2011 – Opera Festival Munich, Munich, Germany

“He comes from the griot tradition. My grandfathers were highly respected spiritual leaders,” says Goetze. “I learn from him and he learns from me. Our music is very much created in the moment, but we understand each other on a much deeper level.”

It was their willingness to absorb new ideas that attracted them to each other. Although Cissoko is wellversed in the traditional music of West Africa, passed along from generation to generation, he has always been a seeker, keeping his ears open for new experiences. Despite his ties to West African traditional music, Cissoko is also a huge fan of jazz, and worked with pianist/composer Randy Weston and others prior to the project with Goetze. “My early influences,” he says, “come from Keith Jarrett, French saxophonist François Jeanneau, Asian and Senegalese music and, of course, Mandingue music, the music of my ancestors.”

His immersion in jazz, and Goetze’s fascination with African music, made them natural candidates for collaboration. “I was fortunate to have experienced some of the greatest innovators of jazz live in concert,” says Goetze, “like Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Wayne Shorter, the Gil Evans Big Band and Joe Henderson. They touched and moved me. That is what I am looking for in music, which is one reason I had to go to Africa. I also am a huge fan of Youssou N’Dour.”

Goetze, who has collaborated with some of the most important figures of the contemporary music scene, including Naná Vasconcelos, Craig Handy and Lenny Pickett, sees similarities between Cissoko’s griot tradition and that of jazz: “[Griot music] is not written; it changes with the epoch and the performance, which is similar to jazz and improvisation.”

“It is our differences that become real strength,” adds Cissoko, who has released two previous solo albums, 2000’s Diam and 2006’s Le Griot Rouge, prior to the duo album Sira. “I adapt myself to the context. I have in myself this ancient tradition of communication. It’s like the branches of a baobob tree, which can touch those of another tree. I’m one of these branches. Volker and I are two musicians of the same generation with different sensibilities, who become one indivisible entity by speaking with our
instruments.”

Legendary music photographer Youri Lenquette (Keith Richards, Kurt Cobain, Lou Reed, Prince, Leonard Cohen, Bob Marley) captured Cissoko and Goetze in Senegal in an extraordinary photo-shoot during the recording of the album. The most striking images will be included in Sira’s album packaging and the iTunes digital booklet. Music videos, selected photos and audio snippets will be available for exploration on obliqSound