News:
A Night of African Music Dec. 3 @ Columbia City Theater!
The Kora Band will be teaming up with the Seattle African All-Stars for a diverse night of African music Thursday, December 3 at the Columbia City Theater in Seattle. The Kora Band will play first, presenting our trademark mix of jazz and west African music, followed by the African All-Stars. It will be a great evening with a great diversity of styles from all over the continent, and the intimate Columbia City Theater will provide a great atmosphere, and the styles of the two bands will compliment each other providing plenty of great music for both listening and dancing!
We’re really excited about this big show and hope to see everyone out for a great night of African music! Full details on the “Shows” page
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Jimmy Maks Audio!
As promised, the audio from our Oct. 9 Jimmy Maks gig is now available for streaming and download right here (and at our “Listen/Download” page as well). We really enjoyed playing this show and are happy to share it with you. It features many of the songs on our album in newer versions as well as our new arrangement of Mamadou Bitiki-Kaira, and Kane’s excellent solo kora piece, Mali Sadjo. It also features special guest Reed Wallsmith of the Blue Cranes, who played a great opening set, sitting in on “Bina Na Ngai Na Respect.”
The show is downloadable for free, but if you enjoy it and want to / are able to contribute to the band, we’d greatly appreciate it – you can set your own price when you click on the download link, or type “0″ to download it for free. You can also stream the whole thing right here, or on the BandCamp site (click on the album cover to get there). Enjoy!
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Facebook Page
We’re moving up in the world (at least the online one) with a Facebook page for the band, which you can find here. It’s an easy way to keep track of what we’re up to, so become a fan!
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About:
Pianist, composer, and bandleader Andrew Oliver is a rising young musician on the Northwest jazz scene, directing a number of diverse groups in Portland and Seattle including the Andrew Oliver Sextet and the 14-piece Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble. After growing up in Portland, he relocated to New Orleans to study jazz, but was flooded out by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and returned home. He began playing with New Orleans native saxophonist Devin Phillips, who had also relocated to Portland after the storm. In 2007 Devin’s quartet was one of ten groups selected from a pool of 200 bands to particpate in the U.S. State Department’s Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad program. They toured five West African countries performing and teaching workshops as cultural ambassadors of the U.S.
After this unique experience, Andrew was inspired to dive deeper into the relationship between jazz and West African music. His exploration eventually led to the founding of the Kora Band, featuring atypical instrumentation that highlights Kane Mathis on the 21-string Kora, a traditional harp from West Africa. Kane is one of the most accomplished American Kora players, having studied with the famous Jobarteh (Diabate) family in Gambia, in the same compound that had produced three generations of the country’s most famous musicians. This study resulted in diplomas and certificates of recognition from Malamini Jobarteh, The Gambian minister of culture, and the President of the Gambia.
Also featured are accomplished Seattle musicians Chad McCullough on trumpet, Brady Millard-Kish on bass, and Mark DiFlorio on drums. The talented ensemble performs both original compositions designed to explore the many possibilities of its unique timbre as well as traditional and modern songs from West Africa arranged specifically for the band. They have recently released their debut album, “Just 4 U”, which Portland’s Willamette Week calls “a gorgeous, moving record” and which the Seattle Weekly says is “one of the better world-music releases to come out of the Northwest all year.”
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The Band:
Andrew Oliver – piano, keyboard
Kane Mathis – kora, guitar, vocals
Chad McCullough – trumpet
Brady Millard-Kish - acoustic bass, electric bass
Mark DiFlorio – drums, percussion
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Elsewhere on the Web:
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Contact:
Andrew Oliver
andrew@andrewoliver.net
503-453-9070
header photo by Brandy Kayzakian-Rowe
