Members

Royal Hartigan: percussionist and jazz pianist

David Bindman: saxophonist and composer

Art Hirahara: jazz pianist and composer

Wes Brown: bassist

African American jazz is an international music in its ability to encompass elements of other traditions. Blood Drum Spirit is an effort to adapt the deep structures of Asian, African, and Native American traditions into the African American sound, a life force creating a space for the gods to descend, a positive alternative for what we see as a corrupt and parasitic status quo on plantation earth.

Royal hartigan is a percussionist who has studied and performed the musics of Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas, including indigenous West African drumming, dance, song, and highlife; Turkish bendir frame drum; Japanese taiko drumming; Philippine kulintang gong and drum ensemble; Chinese Beijing, Cantonese, and Kunqu opera percussion; South Indian solkattu rhythms; Korean Nong ak drum and gong ensemble; Javanese and Sumatran gamelan; Gaelic bodhran; Native American drumming; Dominican merengue; Brazilian samba; Cambodian sampho drums and Vietnamese clapper percussion, European symphony; and African American blues, gospel, funk, hip-hop, and jazz traditions.

David Bindman, saxophonist and composer, creates works that combine many elements: that draw on the motion of dance, that explore the complexity of melody and time unbound yet relating to tradition, and that have improvisation at the core. His multi-movement compositions cross genres and media, and incorporate ideas from West Africa, India, and around the globe. In addition to leading his ensemble and co-leading the Brooklyn Sax Quartet, Bindman has performed or recorded with Wadada Leo Smith, Royal Hartigan, Kevin Norton, Ehran Elisha, Adam Lane, Bill Lowe, Anthony Braxton, Fred Ho, Talking Drums, JUBA, and many others. He has collaborated with poet Tyrone Henderson and visual artist Quimetta Perle, creating the multimedia pieces "The Madman" and "Strawman Dance", and recording the CD Strawman Dance (Konnex). His work with the Brooklyn Sax Quartet has been released on two critically acclaimed recordings, The Way of the Saxophone (Innova) and Far Side of Here (Omnitone).

Art Hirahara is a jazz pianist/composer, originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, now living in Brooklyn, NY. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree in jazz piano performance at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA and a Bachelor of Music degree in Electronic and Computer Music from the Oberlin College Conservatory in Oberlin, OH. Art has performed at major festivals including the Earshot Jazz Festival in Seattle and the Jazz Ost-West Festival in Nuremburg, Germany. He performed with his sextet at the Monterey Jazz Festival in September 2001. He has also appeared at many festivals in the Bay Area including the Stanford Jazz Festival, the San Jose Jazz Festival, Healdsburg Jazz Festival, Jazz on the River (Russian River) and Jazz on the Hill (San Mateo). Art has also played in Japan and China.

Wes Brown (bass) has performed and toured with a wide range of musical personalities. Wes plays acoustic and electric bass, keyboard, percussion and African flute. His current interests include African-American/jazz, Afro-pop/worldbeat, reggae and traditional African styles. Wes has appeared on over two dozen records with various artists and has extensive international touring experience with such artists as Earl "Fatha" Hines and Anthony Braxton.

VIP Price: RMB5580

Remarks: Tickets for American Jazz by Blood Drum Spirit will be available soon!