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| FREE JAZZ AND URBAN MUSIC CONCERTS Jazz at Lincoln Center and the U.S. Department of State announced the dates of free U.S. concerts featuring six jazz and three urban quartets selected to participate in the 2007 The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad program. The program is designed to promote cross-cultural exchange in areas with limited access to American music and culture, including Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. To kick-off their international tours to these regions, each ensemble will be presented in a showcase performance at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola in New York City, as well as at The National Geographic Society in Washington D.C. While on tour the ensembles will perform public concerts and participate in outreach activities including master classes, lecture-recitals, workshops, jam sessions, and media appearances. The group AFAR recently traveled to South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Tanzania as part of this program. The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad Program is co-produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State, and U.S. Embassies abroad. Adam Klipple and Drive-By Leslie skillfully fuse funk, world music allusions, dissonant harmonies and jazzy improvisations in a way that is both expansive and accessible. The band explores many styles of electric jazz from the organ trio to the present. Alvin Atkinson and The Sound Merchants integrate heavy jazz and blues influences with inflections of rhythms and melodies from around the world. The group's mission is to share their spirit and music with audiences worldwide as literal merchants of sound. The members of the Ari Roland Quartet have been performing together for two decades. In addition to a nine-year run at the New York City jazz club Smalls, they have toured internationally and have recorded extensively for Smalls Records. The Charlie Porter Quartet was formed in 2005 and is becoming a steady presence in New York City clubs and performance venues. The group's main focus is to develop new music while also keeping tradition alive with standard jazz repertoire. The Cultures of Rhythm is a New York-based collective of experienced young musicians from a variety of musical backgrounds. With a wide variety of perspectives represented, the players find common ground on a fundamental level, and the resulting musical explorations are a celebration of soulfulness, distilled into exciting new forms. Duene Quartet is devoted to playing Latin jazz in the style of Mongo Santamaria, Cal Tjader and Willie Bobo with a taste of the legendary Blue Note Records sound of the 60s. In a unique small group setting Duende Quartet captures the vibe of the jazz combo, with piano as the lead instrument, while using the rhythms of a Cuban conjunto. AFAR is an instrumental hip-hop band with jazz, R&B and gospel influences. Through its recordings, performances, and educational workshops nationally and abroad, the band seeks to spread the message that in this age of electronic music, live instrumentation remains the source of it all. Opus Akoban is an innovative rhyme-driven hip-hop funk band. The band calls its sound "funk hop" and describes it as "what Sly and the Family Stone would sound like if they did hip hop." T.V.O.A blends classic theme-driven hip-hop with the subtle nuances of R&B, creating music intended to go straight to the heart with lyrics and melodies that resonate with the soul. The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad Program is made possible with the underwriting support from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Jazz News :: home page |