Prince Moussa Cissokho

Prince Moussa Cissokho is one of the great Kora players and singers from Senegal. Born and raised in an influential Griot family, he was taught early by his father, traveled with him and played at traditional ceremonies in Senegal, Guinea Conakry and Guinea Bissau. Moussa Cissokho belongs to the Mandinka family, the people of medieval Mali, the largest West African empire in history. According to his tradition, he learned to play the Kora and the dances and chants from childhood. Moussa Cissokho was a member of the Ballet National de Senegal for 6 years. Today he lives in Austria and plays with musicians from Europe and Africa.

www.princemoussacissokho.com

Aly Keita

Aly Keita has earned worldwide recognition for his mastery of the balafon. While rooted in tradition, Keita’s Afro-pop, funk-fueled rhythm section and taste for complex jazz-oriented arrangements set him far apart from most balafon players.
The way he plays is just spectacular. The sticks in his hands seem to dance on the wooden keys of the instrument. He has played alongside artists like Joe Zawinul, Amadou & Mariam, Pharoah Sanders and Rhoda Scott. Aly Keita lives in Berlin today, where he met the Dutch drummer Marcel van Cleef and the Italian Bass player Roberto Badoglio. The Trio combines the West African rhythms with elements of jazz and creates a fantastic soundscape. 

www.alykeita.org

Stefan Bauer

Stefan Bauer, vibraphonist, marimba player and composer, is active in a wide-ranging field of music between tradition and avant-garde. Inspirational journeys and memorable collaborations with many fantastic musicians resulted in his nine CD releases to date under his own name. Bauer sees himself as a musical narrator who uses various stylistic means and the “voices” of a large group of individualistic musicians for his compositions. Stefan Bauer has performed at festivals from Abidjan to Zurich over decades and is an established jazz musician in Germany, Canada and in his home town of Brooklyn, NY.

“Bauer is a player of no uncertain gifts, strong in the technique and introspective feeling, whose instincts suggest a Euro-Canadian jazz connection.” Josef Woodard, Jazziz

 

Photo Stefan Bauer by Volker Beushausen

http://www.stefanbauer.net/

Rhani Krija

Drummer Rhani Krija was born in 1971 in Essaouira, Morocco, in the heart of Gnawa culture. As a teenager he began to listen to traditional musical styles from North Africa, the ones that form the basis of his music today. Known for his knowledge and ability to play authentic Andalusian, Arabic, African and Latin American rhythms, Rhani has become a sought-after international drummer. Rhani, who lives in Germany, has recorded some fine percussion samplers for major record labels in recent years and performs all over the world. Rhani has recorded, toured and shared the stage with: Sting, Dominic Miller, Herbie Hancock, Al Di Meola, Placido Domingo, Peter Gabriel, the WDR Bigband, the SWR-Bigband, et. al.

Photo Rhani Krija by Jürgen Bindrim

http://www.rhanikrija.com

Jarry Singla

“Mystic reflection and the modern urge to progress are being reconciled … We are captivated: This is how cultures successfully melt together.”
Neue Zürcher Zeitung

The Indo-German pianist and composer Jarry Singla has always been crossing borders between the most diverse musical worlds. Several years of stays in Mexico City, New York, Mumbai and La Paz opened his heart and mind, intensive musical collaborations in Buenos Aires, Katowice and Kiev promoted his successful search for a way past all dogmas, for a fresh, refined and exciting sound between jazz and ethnic inspiration.

Pianist Jarry Singla

Photo Jarry Singla by Volker Beushausen

In his current ensembles, the influence of Indian music is particularly pronounced: The trio JARRY SINGLA EASTERN FLOWERS with the South Indian percussionist Ramesh Shotham appeared at renowned festivals such as “Jazz Utsav New Delhi”, “Buenos Aires Jazz” or “Festijazz Bolivia” in recent years.

THE MUMBAI PROJECT – created in 2013 during a residency grant of the Arts Foundation of North Rhine-Westphalia – performed in major Indian and German cities, most recently as part of a production with the FRANKFURT RADIO BIGBAND.

Jarry Singla’s individualistic work in the wide-ranging field of European jazz includes compositions for his quartet with the outstanding British saxophonist JULIAN ARGÜELLES and for the German-Polish-French TRIO WEI3.

In 2017, Jarry worked in an internationally cast ensemble of the trumpeter MARKUS STOCKHAUSEN. Since 2016, as a founding member of the music collective SONIQ, he has been initiating visionary projects including renowned artists such as MAJID BEKKAS, RHANI KRIJA ALY KEITA or KARL SEGLEM.


www.jarrysingla.com

Ramesh Shotham

‘All music is, in some sense, a journey, but some musicians travel further than others. Percussionist Ramesh Shotham is one such. Originally a rock drummer with one of India¹s most successful bands Human Bondage, he underwent something of a conversion in the mid 1970s and was drawn back towards the music of his homeland. He has been steadily clocking up yet more miles in this musical journey, collaborating in the 1990s with jazz visionaries like saxophonists Steve Coleman and Charlie Mariano, composer Carla Bley and oud player Rabih Abou Khalil. Then came his own group, Madras Special, which may be a summation of all that he has learnt and discovered along the way.’ (Cormac Larkin in the Irish Sunday Tribune, 23.07.06)

Based in Germany, since the early 1980s, Shotham chose to live permanently in the city of Cologne around 1990, and became a German citizen in the year 2000. Nowadays, Shotham’s arsenal includes a bewildering array of percussion Instruments, ranging from diverse Indian traditional drums to selected pieces of the modern drum kit. He has been, over the years, working closely with companies such as Meinl Percussion, Wahan Drums and Anatolian Cymbals in developing, enhancing and endorsing their products.

Musician Ramesh Shotham

Photo Ramesh Shotham by Volker Beushausen

Shotham’s use of traditional Indian drums in Orchestral and Big Band settings is quite unique. His work with the Carla Bley Big Band (Escalator Over The Hill), the WDR Big Band (Sketches of Bangalore/Karnataka College of Percussion, Niedecken’s ‘Deutschlandlieder’), BujazzO (Tour of India during the German Cultural Year 2011) and Phoenix Foundation (Indian Tour 2013), is well documented. He has been closely associated with the Renga project of the LPO (London Philharmonic Orchestra), playing original ‘World Music’ compositions with some of the finest classical musicians from London. His forays into the Western Classical world also saw him playing percussion in Nationaltheater Mannheim’s production of the Baroque Opera ‘Alessandro’, directed by the famous Günter Krämer.

Besides fulfilling his busy touring and studio schedules, Shotham has been active in the field of music education. He has created special concepts for teaching rhythms to musicians (as well as to lay people), based on the unique drum language and mathematics of the music of South India. ‘GlobalTala’ and ‘Talking Rhythm’ Workshops represent these concepts.
Shotham has conducted workshops at music conservatories in Weimar, Cologne, Nürnberg, and Rostock. During the last 3 years, Shotham has been involved in ‘Kultur und Schule’ projects, working with children. He is currently a regular member of the World Percussion Academy’s annual meetings at the Landesmusikakademie in Heek.

www.shotham.org