Crossroads Music presents:
VENISSA SANTI
Cuban jazz and folkloric song
SONIC LIBERATION FRONT
Afro-Cuban Yoruba roots meet free jazz and electronica
Saturday, November 8 at 7:30 pm
48th St. and Baltimore Ave. in West Philadelphia (in Calvary Church)
http://www.crossroadsconcerts.org or 215-729-1028
Venissa Santi inherited her musical passion from her grandfather,
Jacobo Ros Capablanca, who had been a composer in Cuba and left her
his manuscripts. After moving to Philadelphia from her childhood home
of Ithaca, New York to attend the University of the Arts, she asked an
accomplished pianist to play his compositions for her and determined
to sing his compositions some day. She studied classical and jazz
vocal technique, began an intense listening regimen of early Celia
Cruz, and has made four trips to Cuba (the first member of her family
to return since the revolution) to study ocha (Afro-Cuban religious
music) and rumba with master singers in Havana and Matanzas.
Back in Philadelphia, she has also studied piano with Orlando Fiol and
percussion with Elizabeth Sayre in Philadelphia and teaches at the
Asociación de Músicos Latino Americanos, a community music school in
North Philadelphia. Santí has become an active participant in the
Latin community and the Latin music scene of Philadelphia as a soloist
in many world and jazz group’s concerts and recordings. Her first solo
recording, Bienvenida, is a bilingual album of jazz and Cuban
standards and Afro-Cuban folkloric songs, written and arranged by
Santí. In 2008, she received a prestigious Pew Fellowship in folk and
traditional arts.
Sonic Liberation Front is a band caught between worlds. Known for its
iconoclastic combination of free-jazz passion and Afro- Cuban
percussion excitement, the amorphous Philadelphia unit practically
invents a new genre with each composition. Featuring a deeply talented
pool of musicians trained in a variety of idioms gives the band the
ability to incorporate so many genres while maintaining authenticity.
Led by percussionist Kevin Diehl, a protégé of free-jazz pioneer Sunny
Murray, SLF connects his training in the post-bop tradition to his
dedicated study of traditional Afro-Cuban Yoruba roots music that
informs SLF’s colorful sound. Ambient electronics, innovative
production techniques, and soulful vocals subtly embellish the
compositions, carefully contextualizing the ancient traditional music
into a new brilliant entity. While other musicians have incorporated
bata drumming into jazz, none havedone it with the vigor or passion of
SLF. The band members are true students of the Lukumi tradition under
the guidance of percussionist/omo aña Chuckie Joseph, a lifelong
Yoruba cultural scholar. It’s been said a million times that all music
has its source in West Africa – and by returning the focus to its
origins, SLF achieves a natural eclectism that serves as a fountain of
ingenuity. Ancient to the future, indeed.
SOUND SAMPLES AND MORE INFORMATION
http://www.crossroadsconcerts.org
TICKET PRICING
Standard price: $10
Special Supporters: $15
Discount price: $5 (for students, seniors, or if you can’t afford to
come otherwise)
Children under 12: $5
Crossroads events are priced on a sliding scale. We are a not-for-
profit organization and want as many people as possible to be able to
come. If you’re unable to come otherwise, please pay the discount
price, and, if you can afford it, please consider paying the supporter
price so we can continue this policy.
UPCOMING CONCERTS
Saturday, November 15 (co-sponsored by Mariposa Food Co-op)
OLD GOATS
Traditional music from northeastern Brazil
WEST PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA
West Philly's Eastern European village band
Saturday, November 22, 2008
METROFOLK BAND
Traditional Music from Hungary and Romania.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
APRIL VERCH BAND
Ottawa Valley fiddle and stepdance
Saturday, January 17, 2009
PETER OSTROUSHKO
Heartland Americana (with a Ukranian twist)
with SVITANYA EASTERN EUROPEAN WOMEN'S VOCAL ENSEMBLE
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
INTERNATIONAL GUITAR NIGHT, featuring
PIERRE BENSUSAN (France)
BENJAMIN VERDERY (New York)
CECILIA ZABALA (Argentina)
BRIAN GORE (San Francisco)
