Contemporary World Jazz
Concerts in Germany May 23 -28!
Ursel Schlicht (Kassel/New York) Piano, musikalische Leitung
Jamie Baum (New York) Flöten und Elektronik
Vladiswar Nadishana (Russland/Berlin) Ethnische Instrumente aus aller Welt
Thomson Kneeland (New York) Kontrabass
Ravish Momin (Indien/USA) Tabla, Schlagzeug
David Kuckhermann (Berlin) Perkussion
Gabriele Hasler (Köln) Stimme, Elektronik
Salamat Schiftah (Afghanistan/Altenkirchen)Stimme, Rubab
Tadios Tesfu (Eritrea/Dresden) Stimme
Nach dem Publikumserfolg von Ursel Schlicht’s interkultureller Konzertwoche ex tempore 2 zur documenta 2002 setzte Ex Tempore 3 neue Schwerpunkte:
Neun Musikerinnen und Musiker aus unterschiedlichen kulturellen und musikalischen Bereichen – darunter Folklore und Lieder aus Afghanistan und Russland, Perkussion aus Indien, Jazz, Improvisation und Elektronik - kommen zusammen, um gemeinsam Musik zu erarbeiten, in der die jeweilige Komposition oder Spielidee von allen Beteiligen neu gedeutet und interpretiert wird.
So entsteht eine aktuelle Form von interkultureller Musik, in der die Originalidee respektiert und dennoch kollektiv neu gestaltet wird.
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After the success of Ursel Schlicht's intercultural residency "ex tempore 2" at the documenta 2002, this year the upcoming "ex tempore 3" had a new focus:
Nine musicians from different cultural and musical spheres - folklore and songs from Afghanistan and Russia, music from India, jazz, improvisation and electronics - will meet to collectively work on music, i.e. the composition or idea will be shaped by all participants.
A current form of intercultural music emerges, where the original idea will be respected yet collectively given a new interpretation.
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Concerts – Workshops – Community Outreach
“Their integrated music had uplifting appeal, bringing together a complicity of rhythms, improvisation, and ensemble unity” (Cadence)
“Ursel Schlicht has never wanted for interesting projects, but with Ex Tempore, she may well have outdone herself. Her diverse multinational crew responds to divisive times with unity and understanding” (Time
Out New York)
Ex Tempore engages in an intercultural
musical process by incorporating musical languages ranging from
classical Indian and West-African music to jazz, electronics and
free improvisation. Musicians from India, Mali, Japan, Germany, and the US create a contemporary sound, based on the members’ strong
individual voices as composers and improvisers.
Ex Tempore has appeared in
Germany (documenta Kassel), Canada (Guelph Jazz Festival), New
York (Satalla, Location One, Makor, CUNY Graduate Center, Goethe
Institut, Quyeens Museum of Art, etc). In 2005, the ensemble received a grant through Chamber Music America’s Residency Program for a series of concerts, workshops, and lecture-demonstrations in the Mahwah (NJ) community at Ramapo College, Mahwah High School, the Mahwah Public Library and the Mahwah Senior Activity Center. Funds
for this residency have been provided by Chamber Music America
with support from the JPMorgan Chase Residency Re-Grant Program,
a program of the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, and The Chamber Music
America Residency Endowment Fund.
Contact and booking:
Ursel Schlicht, ursel@urselschlicht.com, (718)-243-2174
Barbara Kalina, b.kalina@att.net, (201)232-8427
Background
Ursel Schlicht
initiated Ex Tempore as an attempt to find a meaningful artistic
response to the backlash in the political and cultural climate
since September 2001. In the current no less polarized and aggressive
cultural-political climate, Ex Tempore functions a microcosm where
a critical exchange can take place musically. The power of music as a means of communication and open-mindedness towards “otherness”, different cultural, political, philosophical, religious-spiritual points of view is brought into focus. Commissioned by the city of Kassel, Ex Tempore was to take place simultaneously with the Documenta 11 in September 2002. This largest avant garde event worldwide in the visual arts focused on a global dialogue of artists, scholars and philosophers from all continents, and was inspired by this vision. Eight musicians from Afghanistan, Eritrea, India, Germany and the US came together for a seven-day collaboration. Each day, the musicians worked on each others’s
music and presented a concert each evening.
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Ex Tempore - Artist Biographies
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German-born pianist-composer Ursel Schlicht plays
improvised music, jazz, new music and world music. She has collaborated
with European, Australian, American, African, Indian, Russian & Mexican
artists at festivals around the world.
She has written compositions and arrangements for small and large jazz ensembles, new music ensembles, improvisational scores for silent films and music for dance theater. Ursel Schlicht has recorded six CDs as a leader or co-leader. She has been an artist-in-residence at Harvestworks, New York, to create an experimental film score for Murnau's classic silent film Faust, premiered in May 2004. Ursel Schlicht holds a doctorate in music. Fostering intercultural exchange and collaborations has become an important focus of her work. In September 2002, during the documenta 11, she produced and performed in Ex Tempore, a week-long international collaboration featuring artists from Germany, the US, India, Eritrea and Afghanistan.
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Jamie Baum , New York flutist/composer/recording & touring artist/ clinician, has worked with several renowned musicians as a leader and/or sidewoman ranging from George Russell, Mick Goodrick, Randy Brecker, Donald Brown, Kenny Barron, and Tom Harrell to Dave Douglas, Uri Caine, Paul Motian, Ursel Schlicht, V. M. Bhatt and Karaikudi Mani. Receiving critical praise for three CDs as a leader, Sight Unheard on Gunther Schuller's GM Recordings, and Moving Forward, Standing Still (OmniTone) received four stars from DownBeat Nominated by the Jazz journal Association in 2005 as “Flutist of the Year” she’s also been in the DownBeat Critics Polls every year since ’98. Baum won the '99 Julius Hemphill International Jazz Composers Alliance Award and most recently the 2003 New Works: Creation and Presentation Award, a component of the Doris Duke/Chamber Music America Jazz Ensembles Project. With a cooperative group including Jerome Harris, Ken Wessel and Jeff Hirshfield, she toured for the DOS/Kennedy Center Jazz Ambassador program throughout South Asia, And South America from '99 to ’03.
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Born in New York City, Kyoko Kitamura has spent much time in the U.S., Japan, and in France. Her musical journey started with her first piano lesson at the age of 3, and she continued on to study piano at the Juilliard School of Music Pre-College division. She left the musical world during her stint as a full-time journalist in Tokyo and in Paris, but returned to New York City in 1997 to pursue her creative instincts, this time as a vocalist.
She is with the improvising chamber trio OK|OK (Mike McGinnis on clarinet, Khabu Doug Young on guitar, Kyoko on voice and laptop), and is also currently working with pianist/composer Kirk Nurock on a duo voice/piano project. She has been a sideperson-vocalist for many musicians including bassist Reggie Workman and saxophonist Steve Coleman and appears regularly downtown NYC venues like the 55 Bar, the Roulette series, Downtown Music Gallery, Jazz Gallery, CBGBs Downstairs.
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Balla Kouyate is
one of the greatest balafon players from the jeli tradition in
Mali. Balla was born into a griot family - the Kouyate were the
first griots in the Manden Empire. The balafon (the ancestor
of the xylophone) was given to Balla's ancestors by nobles and
has remained in his family ever since. Balla seemed destined
to play this instrument, learning at the age of six and giving
his first performance in Bamako, Mali at "Palais de la Culture" with
Malian singer Sanignai Kouyate. In 1994, he was a member of the
National Percussion of Mali. By 1997 he was granted the opportunity
to play with singer Ami Koita at the O.I.A. conference, which
brings together all the presidents in Africa. Balla became a
member of the National Percussion of Mali in 1994. He has been
featured on 23 albums in Mali.
He first came to the US touring with his sister, renowned vocalist
Kanibaoule Kouyate. They played at Victoria 5th in Harlem and in
Philadelphia. Shortly thereafter, he began working with kora master
Mamadou Diabate and has been in his ensemble ever since, playing
venues such as Lincoln Center Outdoor Festival, Symphony Space, and
festivals around the country. They both are part of Rowell Rudd's "Malicool" ensemble.
In 2004, Balla played with Sidiki Condi at Carnegie Hall for a month long residency for children, and has been engaged by many African artists to tour in the United States. He joined Ursel Schlicht's Ex Tempore in 2004. While playing with Ex Tempore, he felt the need to expand the tonal possibilities of the balafon and created a chromatic instrument, to his knowledge the first chromatic balafon ever.
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Percussionist Ravish Momin has studied drumset with Andrew Cyrille, and has also studied North Indian Classical tabla with Jim DiSpirito, a disciple of Master Zakir Hussain. His stylistic eclecticism has lead him to perform in musical situations as diverse as North Indian Classical, Funk, Bebop, Rock, Brazilian Samba and Moroccan Gnawa Music. He has worked with a wide-range of musicians, including percussionist Susie Ibarra, bassists Wilber Morris and William Parker, violinists Billy Bang and Jason Kao Hwang, saxophonists Kalaparusha and Sabir Mateen, trumpeter Roy Campbell, pianist Ursel Schlicht, and up-and-coming hip-hoppers Dalek. He has recently performed at Era Jazzu (Poland), the Kerava Jazz Festival (Finland), the Chicago Jazz Festival, The Vision Festival (New York), The Kala Ghoda Festival (India) and also has toured Europe and the US extensively. Momin will debut a recording as a leader for the Portugal-based Clean Feed Records in September 2004. He has also recorded for Delmark, CIMP, Bleu Regard (France), and NotTwo Records (Poland.)
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Acoustic bassist and composer Thomson Kneeland performs as a leader and a sideman throughout the US and internationally. He leads Kakalla, an ensemble devoted to the fusion of improvisation with composition, utilizing influences such as Balkan folk music, rock, tango, chamber music, and the avant-garde. Other projects of his are Ars Modernitas, a quintet exploring ambient textures, electronics, and techno grooves within the context of improvisational performance, and Ensemble Aletheia, a four horn wind ensemble with acoustic bass that melds chamber music and improvisation. He has appeared on over 22 recordings to date, and in early 2001 formed the his own label, Weltschmerz Records. He has had the opportunity to perform with such notables as Jerry Bergonzi, George Garzone, Mark Turner, Sheila Jordan, Scott Wendholt, Donny McCaslin, Joe Maneri, Phil Grenadier, Bob Moses, and Rick Margitza as well as poet Lawson Inada and composers George Russell and Gunther Schuller.
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Past Members
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Drummer and percussionist Take Toriyama, born in Chiba, Japan, was a much sought-after musician in the New York area. He has performed at jazz festivals in Japan, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Germany, Turkey, Israel, and Urguay with artists such as Hal Crook, Dave Liebman, Jerry Bergonzi, Ravi Coltrane, Mick Goodrick, Bob Brookmeyer, George Garzone, Oliver Lake, Paquito D'Rivera, Donny McCaslin, Andrew D'Angelo, Chris Speed, Matt Moran, Drew Gress, and Ben Monder.
In 1993, he came to Boston to study at Berklee College of Music and pursue a career as a jazz musician. Take moved to Brooklyn in 2000 and has quickly established himself on the New York scene. He joined Ex Tempore in 2005.
Take passed away in May, 2007. We will all remember him with love and friendship. |
| Brandon Terzic - oud |
Multi-instrumentalist and composer Brandon Terzic has been active on the NYC music scene both as a sidemusician and bandleader. His instruments include guitar, fretless guitar, Oud, Saz and Cumbus. Born in Akron, Ohio in 1976, Brandon began playing the guitar at the age of 15. His early musical influences included Jimi Hendrix, Beethoven, John Coltrane , and old delta blues musicians. Brandon relocated to NYC, and traveled throughout Europe and the Middle East. He studied guitar with masters Mordy Ferber and David 'Fuze' Fiucynzski, as well as traditional Arabic and Turkish music with Bassam Saba and Najib Shaheen. Brandon has led his band the Howling Makams, an avant-garde world band, for the last 4 years. He has also been active in playing for peace benefit concerts and tries to help promote social understanding through music.
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| Gabriele Hasler - voice, electronics |
Acclaimed vocalist Gabriele Hasler, called "one of the most creative European voices today" is currently one of the most innovative musicians among European composer-improvisers. Rooted initially in classical song, and rock, she immersed herself in jazz and improvised music since the early 1980s. An award-winning jazz vocalist in the 1980s, she received the renowned Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik twice in 1984 and 1986. She then focused on composition blending jazz and 20th century music, reflected in her impressive discography. She founded her label Foolish Music in 1986 where she has continuously released her work. In her composition, she has developed a unique personal language and carefully selects poetry: an accomplished lyricist herself, she incorporates poetry from Oscar Pastior - on her CD sonetburger - and, most recently, Gertrude Stein on - Go in Green. She has received numerous commissions, has toured worldwide and appeared at Eureopan festivals since 1984.
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Hakim Ludin - percussion |
Ex Tempore
Press:
“Their integrated music had uplifting appeal, bringing together a complicity of rhythms, improvisation, and ensemble unity”
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Cadence
“Ursel Schlicht has never wanted for interesting projects, but with Ex Tempore, she may well have outdone herself. Her diverse multinational crew responds to divisive times with unity and understanding”
-Time Out New York
“Concerts like this which communicate moving and fascinating experiences are rather rare in today’s musical landscapes, where the dominating mainstream creates a high level of distance and superficiality. If one happens to be present at a concert of the former category, one might be surprised by the projected strength of the music. This happened to listeners attending the opening concert of ‘Ex Tempore’ witnessing a boundless joy of playing and creativity.”
-Hessisch-Niedersächsische Allgemeine
“I caught Ms. Baum playing with Ursel Schlicht's incredible Ex Tempore ensemble up at the Guelph Fest a few months back, both Jamie's soloing and Ursel's fine group were one the festivals highlights.”
-Downtown Music Gallery
“Three years later, Ex Tempore's live performance sounds like everything a 9/11 memorial should be. It's a calming celebration of our freedom to determine our own lives and affect the world around us.”
-www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2004-09-09/music
“You really push “the envelope” and I love it! Students and adults in the USA must learn about other cultures, if we are to survive peacefully in this ever-shrinking world.”
-Audience member in Mahwah, NJ (Residency 2005)
“Ursel Schlicht, in the context of Ex Tempore 2, offers answers to the question what cutting-edge music can mean today.”
-Hessisch-Niedersächsische Allgemeine
“Ex Tempore is the title of the ambitious concert series where a fascinating multitude of styles, represented by high-caliber artists, will come together. The organizers announce a ‘creative exploration of music as a symbol of intense communication and openness towards other points of view, cultures and thoughts’, and names such as Ursel Schlicht and Hakim Ludin guarantee that this won´t remain a shallow formula.”
-Kulturmagazin
“In each of her concerts, Schlicht accentuates a different aspect of new music – the explosive power of Implicate Order, the palette of world-jazz sounds of Ex Tempore, or this time the nuanced sound techniques that characterize her duo with Robert Dick”
-M. Krum, Profile of Ursel Schlicht |
