ArtsWestchester to Host Three Live Concerts for Jazz Fest in Downtown White Plains: Sept. 23-25

Source International African Jazz Band & Gary Smulyan Organ Quartet to Bring Global Jazz Music to Historic White Plains Venue

 

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (September 13, 2016) – Three live jazz performances will take place in the intimate setting of ArtsWestchester’s downtown art gallery for the 5^th Annual White Plains Jazz Fest this year as part of the six-day festival. A collaboration between ArtsWestchester, The City of White Plains and the White Plains BID, Jazz Fest will take place Tuesday, September 20 through Sunday, September 25 featuring a lineup of established jazz and blues musicians like Source International Africa Jazz Band and Gary Smulyan’s Organ Quartet.

“This year’s Jazz Fest showcases a range of international styles with a spotlight on African and Latin jazz music,” explains Janet T. Langsam, ArtsWestchester CEO.  She continues, “Westchester audiences are in for a treat with the diversity and quality of live music coming to Jazz Fest venues throughout the City of White Plains.”

The following performances will take place at ArtsWestchester’s intimate venue, located at 31 Mamaroneck Avenue in White Plains, during the 2016 White Plains Jazz Fest:

 

Gary Smulyan Organ Quartet

Friday, September 23, 8:00 p.m. (Admission: $25)

Featuring Mike Ledonne (organ), Peter Bernstein (guitar) and Joe Farnsworth (drums)

Gary Smulyan (baritone saxophone) started learning the alto sax as a teenager. While still in high school, he sat in with major jazz artists such as legendary trumpeter Chet Baker, saxophonist Lee Konitz, trombonist Jimmy Knepper and violinist Ray Nance. In 1978, he joined Woody Herman’s Young Thundering Herd, with saxophonist Joe Lovano, bassist Marc Johnson and drummer John Riley, young musicians who would be at the forefront of present-day jazz.  He then joined the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra and worked with the Mingus Big Band and Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra.  He also performed and recorded with Freddie Hubbard, Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Tito Puente, Ray Charles, B.B. King and Diana Ross, and has over 10 recordings under his own name.  Gary is a four-time winner of the Down Beat Critic and Reader’s Poll, and is a multiple winner of numerous other official polls, including the Jazz Journalists Award for Baritone Saxophonist of the Year. He is also a six-time Grammy Award winner for his work with King, Lovano, Holland and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.  Tickets are available online at artsw.org/jazzfest

 

Source International African Jazz Band

Saturday, September 24, 8:00 p.m. (Admission: $25)

Featuring Sylvain Leroux (saxophone and tambin), Abdoulaye Diabate (guitar and lead vocal), Emi Yabuno (piano and keyboards), Mamadou Ba (bass) and Robert Bonhomme (drums)

Source International African Jazz Band performs original music, inspired by the traditional sounds of Guinea and Mali, that will get audiences out of their seats. The group was founded as an improvisational group by Quebecois flutist Sylvain Leroux, with a standard formation of bass, drums, keyboards and winds, but was soon transformed into an explorative African Jazz unit when Malian singer Abdoulaye Diabate joined the group.

Sylvain Leroux (flute, tambin, alto sax, leader) was born in Montréal in 1956. He studied classical music at Vincent d’Indy School of Music and at the University of Montreal. He attended the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, NY, and participated in workshops led by world-class artists. In Montréal, he worked with Yaya Diallo in performances and a recording of the LP “Nangapè,” founded and led Mysterioso, a group dedicated to the music of Thelonious Monk, and performed at the Montréal International Jazz Festival (1983). Concurrently, he was a member of Bantamba a group that broke new ground in the meeting of traditional and modern African music. Since then, in New York, he has been freelancing for many groups and dance companies in the Afro-Brazilian, African and African-American fields. In 1995, he travelled to Conakry, Guinea (West Africa) to study the tambin (the flute of the Fulani people). He has become one of the rare outsiders to master this instrument. He has recorded with Nego Gato, Naby Camara, Mohamed Diaby, Magbana, Martino Atangana, Abdoulaye Diabate, Lucia Hwong, Emeline Michel, with Takadja on the Juno-nominated album “Diye,” and on the 2005 World Music masterpiece BataMbira by Michael Spiro and Michael Williams. He also leads the Fula Flute Ensemble.

Abdoulaye Diabaté (guitar, vocal) was born in Kela, Mali, to the Diabaté family, a clan renowned as battlefield djialilu (griots), who would accompany the warriors in battle to recount what took place and became reputed as powerful vocalists. Raised in the heart of the Mande tradition, Abdoulaye has also spent three decades performing contemporary and traditional music. His career led him to a fusion of these styles. In 1973, he joined the world famous Ballets Koteba as a singer and guitarist and toured the world playing guitar with Les Go de Koteba and singing with Ballets, particularly in Waramba, known as the African Opera.  In New York, he has become a key exponent of the Malian music and vocal tradition, collaborating often across genres and cultures. In 2002, was a featured artist of the Smithsonian Folkways compilation Badenya: Manden Jaliya in New York City.

Since then, he has collaborated with jazzmen Don Byron and Peter Apfelbaum, and with guitarist-journalist Banning Eyre.  In 2005 he released his first American album: Haklima, followed by Sara (2009), a tribute to the great djali tradition from which he emerged. Tickets are available online at artsw.org/jazzfest.

 

Sunday, September 25, Noon-5:30 p.m. (Admission: Free)

White Plains Jazz and Food Festival

The 2016 Jazz Fest culminates with a free day of jazz on Mamaroneck Avenue with the White Plains Jazz and Food Festival. The festival will feature performances by Baby Soda, Joe Boykin & Friends, Mayra Casales, Bob Baldwin & Friends, Wali Ali and headliner Awa Sangho.

Awa Sangho, “The Golden Voice of Mali,” brings the sound of the Sahara to the White Plains Jazz and Food Festival on Sunday, September 25^th.  The festival headliner was raised near Timbuktu, Mali, a region noted for a diversity of world-class musicians and singers.  Later, she moved to Abdijan, the capital of Ivory Coast, where she quickly became immersed in its music and dance scene.  She was recruited into the acclaimed L’Ensemble Koteba D’Abidjan, noted for a blend of theatre, music and dance.  Sangho joined Les Go De Koteba, a vocal trio that recorded five albums and performed worldwide. Sangho’s lyrics are socially conscious, often communicating reverence for the people who have touched her life, conveying controversial habits of culture and directing her message to the youth. Her music percolates with the rhythms and resonance of Africa.

For the full schedule of free and affordable Jazz Fest concerts or to purchase tickets, visit artsw.org/jazzfest