W.E.B. Du Bois Jazz Celebration
Take part in this one of a kind Black History Month Celebration honoring W. E. B. Du Bois (born February 23, 1868). He was an African American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, and editor. Du Bois, was the first African-American to earn a doctorate at Harvard, he became a professor of history, sociology and economics at Atlanta University. DuBois was one of the co-founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.
Welcome To Harlem, Arts & Education Continuum and Harlem Jazz Boxx are proud to present for one night only Kahil El’Zabar’s New Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, on their Super Healing Tour 2016. The powerhouse trio features legendary multi-percussionist Kahil El’Zabar, baritone sax legend Hamiet Bluiett, and trombone master Craig Harris. Celebrating the birth of noted scholar, activist, and educator W.E.B. DuBois, this extraordinary evening is not to be missed!
“Now is the time when these great players from this particular community of creative improvisers are in their heyday, and there’ll never be artists with this particular experience making music again.” Kahil El’Zabar
Internationally renowned percussionist and composer Kahil El’Zabar is considered one of the most prolific jazz innovators of his generation. Indeed, El’Zabar is a true “Renaissance Man,” with a musical style and content that flows from ancient Africa to the modern world. In his own words, “The spirit of one’s approach comes first before the technical. All the facility in the world with nothing that comes from the heart doesn’t make good music.
Hamiet Bluiett is widely regarded as one of the most talented baritone saxophone players in all of jazz music. Bluiett has continued to record and perform as a bandleader into the twenty-first century, and he has consciously resisted the advanced technological techniques of the new century in favor of a more stripped-down sound. “I’m dealing with being more healthful, more soulful, more human. Not letting the computer and tricknology and special effects overcome me,” he told the Santa Cruz Sentinel. “I’m downsizing to maximize the creative part. Working on being more spiritual, so that the music has power … power where the note is still going after I stop playing.
When Craig Harris exploded onto the jazz scene in 1976, he brought the entire history of the jazz trombone with him. From the growling gutbucket intensity of early New Orleans music through the refined, articulate improvisation of the modern era set forth by J.J. Johnson, into the confrontational expressionism of the ’60s avant-garde, Craig handled the total vernacular the way a skilled orator utilizes the spoken word. He has performed with a veritable Who’s Who of progressive jazz’s most important figures and his own projects display both a unique sense of concept and a total command of the sweeping expanse of musical expression.
February 23, 2016 – 7 PM
Rendall Memorial Presbyterian Church
59 West 137th Street
New York, NY 10037