Kahil El'Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble (US)
Kahil El'Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble
US
Saturday, 13 July, at 20.30
CD Park
Kahil El’Zabar, percussion, vocals
Corey Wilkes, trumpet
Alex Harding, sax
Ishmael Ali, cello
CD Park + CD Club admission ticket,
13 July: EUR 15 (except for Roots Magic + Gašper Livk Trio)
Kahil El'Zabar is on top form – making it happen both with his quartet and the EHE – stringing together album after album and thrilling the audiences with his amazing live shows. A seasoned veteran of the Chicago music scene, percussionist, multi-instrumentalist, and one-time chair of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), his first outfit, the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, is celebrating the astonishing 50th anniversary this year. Formed in 1974 as a quintet, but was soon paired down to its classic form — a trio. In the early days, the unorthodox line-up of a percussionist and two wind players was greeted with scepticism, an oddity even for the progressive and exploratory AACM standards. But El'Zabar knew what he was doing. He believed that it was this combination or concept that pertains to the history and tradition of “Great Black Music”, the key components of which are a strong rhythmic foundation, innovative harmonies, originality of dissonance, fearlessness and deep spirituality.
The line-up has rotated frequently over the decades, last year releasing a tribute to Don Cherry (Spirit Gatherer) and this year a masterpiece of spiritual Afrofuturism, Open Me, A Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit, with a complement of strings as a new feature.
