Streams From Africa with Serious Productions, Cultural Connections Africa [CCA], and Songlines UK
Az alábbi levelet kaptam tegnap David Greenberg-től Londonból. - A szerk.
Entertainment producers, Serious and pan-African network, Cultural Connections Africa, with Songlines Magazine, have teamed up to present STREAMS FROM AFRICA, an online streaming event presenting the young and emerging voices from several countries within the continent. The series, premiering on May 24th, focuses on contemporary and fresh sounds. A truly global project, the series comprises of six new showcases co-curated with Cultural Connections Africa and Serious, and a selection of shows from the INDIBA IS take-over produced in Joburg Theatre in South Africa
Earlier this month, London Jazz News was discussing Cultural Connections Africa with one of the prime movers behind the project, Music Works International's own, Katherine McVicker. Katherine told them how CCA, which aims to support African music and culture across the globe, has developed momentum in their quest to pave the way creating an environment in African countries where touring will be more viable for both local and international touring musicians. The network in which members share knowledge, resources, and experience, currently includes over 30 stakeholders across 15 countries in Africa, and the website invites more people to join it. As McVicker noted ‘We started this in 2019 – pre-pandemic, but the pandemic has provided us more time to develop this cooperation. We started this network, CCA, to connect professionals on a macro-level, in order to pave the way to sustainable live-music touring on the continent for the first time.”
Songlines magazine is delighted to support Streams from Africa and to offer viewers exclusive free digital access to their 20+ year archive of over 165 issues. For more details visit: bit.ly/StreamsFromAfrica-Songlines
All times noted are British Summer Time (BST) 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
Monday 24 May - Elida Almeida, 8 pm
https://serious.org.uk/events/elida-almeida
Tuesday 25 May - Yugen Blakrok, 8 pm
https://serious.org.uk/events/yugen-blakrok
Wednesday 26 May - Thandi Ntuli, 8 pm
https://serious.org.uk/events/thandi-ntuli
Wednesday 26 May - The Brother Moves On, 9 pm
https://serious.org.uk/events/the-brother-moves-on
Thursday 27 May - Amosi Just a Label, 8 pm
https://serious.org.uk/events/amosi-just-a-label
Friday 28 May - Umlilo & LaliBoi // Double Bill, 8 pm
https://serious.org.uk/events/umlilo-laliboi
Friday 28 May - Azu Tiwaline, 9 pm
https://serious.org.uk/events/azu-tiwaline
These streams will first be broadcast at the times listed above. After the premiere of these shows, the Thandi Ntuli and The Brother Moves on concerts will be available seven days after the premiere. After that, the remaining videos will be available to watch on serious.org.uk/StreamsFromAfrica for 12 months.
Elida Almeida
Powerful songs and rhythms from Cabo Verde
Elida Almeida already stands out at 27, with her honeyed smile and solar energy, as youthful as she is mature, as the muse of Cape Verde’s new musical generation. Together with her fellow musicians, Elida, whose roots lie on the island of Santiago, is helping to explode the codes of Cape Verdean music: a tradition illuminated by the guardian figure of Cesaria Evora.
The wandering songs on her new album, Gerasonobu, were composed worldwide, during tours, in the semi-awakened dream of an airplane trip to Lisbon where she lives, or to Abidjan… “Each time, my creations, in the heart of Cape Verde, were impregnated with the vibrations and music of the territories in which I wrote them,” she smiles.
Yugen Blakrok
Female hip-hop revelation!
Influenced by the political/militant and spiritual aspects of hip-hop, her music is firmly rooted in the mindset of the ’90s, a deeply lyrical and audio odyssey into the world around us, both seen and unseen. Her sound is a mix of sci-fi soundscapes, hard drums, and meditative melodies, over which Blakrok’s words command vivid attention. She has performed alongside names such as Public Enemy, Pete Rock, and CL Smooth, and Jeru the Damaja.
Thandi Ntuli & The Brother Moves On
Two inspiring artists from the New School of Jazz in South Africa.
Streams from Africa brings two inspiring sets from the INDABA IS take-over produced in Joburg Theatre.
With this concert, we also celebrate the release of the ‘Indaba Is’ album – a compilation of current South African improvised music and jazz – released by Brownswood Records. The project is a collaboration with two luminaries of the South African music scene; pianist and songwriter Thandi Ntuli and The Brother Moves On’s Siyabonga Mthembu, who act as musical directors on the project.
Thandi Ntuli is a multi-award-winning pianist, singer-songwriter and composer, who hails from a lineage of rich musical heritage. With her first two albums, she’s made an imprint on the global jazz community as one of the leading voices of modern South African music and jazz. Her latest project involvement with Brownswood Recordings as both artistic contributor and co-curator for their release ‘Indaba Is’ (2021) highlights another of the many hats Ntuli wears in the arts.
Thandi’s set is followed by a performance by The Brother Moves On. Taking a cue from that other “Brother From Another Planet,” Sun Ra, they embrace a multi-genre, multimedia aesthetic, re-challenging hip-hop’s five pillars (MCing, DJing, B-boying, and graffiti writing) into a performance art project that incorporates historical, political, and sociological perspectives.
These concerts were premiered for limited screening at PDX Jazz Festival in February 2021, and Streams from Africa offers a special rerun of these shows.
A’mosi Just a Label
Konono Soul, a journey from tradition to avant-garde
A’Mosi Just A Label thrives with a powerful connection with tradition, nature , and innovation. His intuitive trust in nature, the source of his mother tongue Kikongo, together with English and Portuguese, creates Konono Soul, a set of rhythms, melodies , and harmonies, inspired from Konono and other contemporary urban influences, creating an avant-garde sound with texts and poetry based on human intuition, emphasizing the general and essential goodness of nature.
LaliBoi
A unique blend of hip-hop and South African tribal music
LaliBoi is a multi-talented vocalist and multi-instrumentalist who recently released Siyangaph – one of the most exciting hip-hop releases of recent years. In collaboration with renowned producer Spoek Mathambo, the album fuses his rural Xhosa roots with streetwise township flavour to create a unique and vital blend of hip-hop, jazz, and traditional South African tribal music. A highly skilled and technical MC, LaliBoi’s bouncy raps launch you into the full beauty of the Xhosa language. Whether as a first-time hearer or language connoisseur, you are sure to adore his highly musical, vocal approach. As well as playing guitar and trumpet, LaliBoi uses his lyrics and voice as one more instrument to add to Mathambo’s diverse array of beats.
Umlilo
Genre and gender-bending alt-pop
Umlilo is a genre and gender-bending multi-disciplinary artist. The queer performer/music producer’s signature sound dubbed ‘future kwaai’ explores and pushes the boundaries of electronic kwaito, alt-pop music in contemporary South Africa and has been a regular fixture in the international music community. Umlilo merges an avant-garde aesthetic with technology, visual art, dance, film, and fashion design and has given two TED talks titled “Technology resuscitates art.”
Azu Tiwaline
Electronic sounds of the Tunisian Sahara
Azu Tiwaline is a producer inspired by the need to explore her origins, rooted in the Tunisian Sahara. Hence, the call to a different sound, organic and raw, vibrating in the great spaces of the African desert where trance music resonates, as an ecstatic ritual.
Uniting the bonds that connect Berber music, dub culture, and techno hypnosis, Azu Tiwaline invites us to refocus on our senses and our Nature. She knows how to use contrasts between light and the invisible, exploring the complexity of our emotions and the mystery that emanates from them in a polyrhythmic chiaroscuro that runs through each of her tracks. In this concert, Azu will be performing with Paris-based Iranian percussionist and sound artist Cinna Peyghmamy.
About Serious
Serious are producers of outstanding live cultural experiences, including festivals, concerts, tours, creative engagement projects, and talent development schemes. We are a team of passionate and committed professionals, from a variety of creative disciplines, working toward the common goal of bringing and making music that matters to the people and communities of our country. Our annual flagship project is the EFG London Jazz Festival. This critically and culturally acclaimed event inspires everything that Serious does throughout the year nationally, internationally, and within London. The Festival celebrates the unifying nature of music, taking jazz - a music of black origin - to its heart. It represents a place where exceptional musicians of all ages, nationalities, and backgrounds can come together to create, support, and acknowledge one another.
About CCA
Launched in April 2019, Cultural Connections Africa (CCA) is a pan-African non-profit organization that supports African music and culture across the globe. CCA Members include over 30 cultural stakeholders across 15 countries in Africa. The network connects its experienced members to share resources, experience, and knowledge with the African arts community to find innovative solutions to the many mutual challenges faced by those in the cultural arts industry.
Cultural Connections Africa
About Music Works International
Music Works International is an industry leader in the development of jazz, world, blues, and roots touring artists. Founded by a leader in the international touring industry, Katherine McVicker, MWI collaborates with the world’s finest musicians, promoters, and venues to develop tours that expand audiences, artists, and markets through continued expansion into new territories, and cultural partnerships. MWI’s roster of global touring artists includes Antonio Sanchez, Taj Mahal, Terence Blanchard, Christian McBride, Lizz Wright, Dianne Reeves, Vijay Iyer, Stacey Kent, Ambrose Akinmusire, Charlie Hunter & Lucy Woodward, Linda May Han Oh, Peter Cincotti, and Bokanté.
