International Grooves World Music Series! June 2012

 

What: The Summer 2012 International Grooves Series

Who: Paul Klemperer’s MY Exotic Other
Amie Maciszewski
& Sangeet Millennium
DJ Heavy Jakes and DJ Chill Akilas

When: Friday June 29, 2012: Gates and Djs at 7:00pm, Live Music at 8:00pm

Where: Kenny Dorham’s Backyard, 1106 East 11th St, Austin, TX 78702

Cost: $5 suggested donation, Kids free

Contact: Harold McMillan Director@diversearts.org

 Enjoy organic and locally grown food from Sun Farm Kitchen. B.Y.O.B (cans and plastic only). Bring your own lawn chairs and blankets.


 

DiverseArts continues the roll-out of the 2012 Season of special live music and cultural events slated for Kenny Dorham’s Backyard, DiverseArts’ East 11th Street Arts Park.

Our mission to produce and present stellar cultural programs within the East Austin African American Cultural Heritage District. The International Grooves Series is our latest foray into celebrating the rich, multicultural mix of musical traditions found here in Austin.  The Series strives to bring together a melding of transcontinental musical styles in such a way that Austin’s various cultural communities are showcased through programming that honors tradition, and at the same time, encourages cross-cultural collaboration. Our goal for the Series is to provide opportunities for a wide range of culture-based musical styles to come together in performance, build community around collaboration and exposure/learning, and explore cross-cultural improvisation linking these cultural/ethnic communities through music. We’re bringing World Beat to East 11th Street! But are doing so with the notion that most of the music we will showcase is really transcontinental jazz.

We are honored to offer the first installment of the Series this Friday. The line-up truly fits the mission of the Series, and features sets by Paul Klemperer’s My Exotic Other, Amie Maciszewski & Sangeet Millennium, and world groove mix sessions from two of Austin’s best international music Djs, DJ Heavy Jakes, and DJ Chill Akilas.

We hope you will join us, tell your friends, and share in the great night of music!

 
 

Amie Maciszewski & Sangeet Millennium

Amie Maciszewski is a sitarist who has devoted her adult life to studying, performing, teaching, and promoting North Indian classical music. Amie's performances in North America, India, Europe, and Japan over two decades have received critical acclaim, as have her teaching and research. She directs the Austin, Texas-based Sangeet Millennium Ensemble, selected among the Top Ten World Music bands in the 2010-11 Austin Chronicle Readers' Poll. Passionate about women's rights and creativity, she has co-produced and directed four documentary films about marginalized female musicians from the courtesan lineages of India, two of which won awards at film festivals. Amie's training in North Indian music includes both formal academic training in India and the U.S. and ongoing traditional study with two leading gurus: Grammy-nominated sarode Maestro Aashish Khan and Hindustani vocal diva Padmabhushan Girija Devi. She received her basic training from the late sitarist Prof. Suresh Misra.  Although her performance focus is on sitar playing, she is also an accomplished vocalist and includes singing in some of her presentations.

 

Paul Klemperer’s My Exotic Other

Born in Boston, Paul discovered jazz at an early age, sneaking into smoky clubs by age 13. He studied with jazz legends Archie Shepp, Max Roach and Ray Copeland before moving to Austin in 1982 where he worked with such blues greats as Marcia Ball and members of the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Paul earned his master’s degree in Ethnomusicology at the University of Texas in 1991. He teaches private and group classes in clarinet & saxophone, jazz history & theory, and issues in music & culture.

 

MEO explores the musical meeting point between the fire and the dark… Paul Klemperer blends musics of the world in his original compositions.  It is a potent mix of complex melodies, infectious rhythms, and combinations of instruments.  World music is more than a radio genre, it is a reflection of the social and historical relationships we have with each other.  In some ways we are familiar, in some ways we are unknowable.  My Exotic Other takes on this challenge, creating sounds to make you think, feel and dance.

 

DJ Heavy Jakes

Jakes Srinivasan is the founder, chief executive, and chief editor of Wobeon WorldBeatOnline (Wobeon.com), a new online resource and social network for world music aficionados and stakeholders globally. A business consultant and entrepreneur by day, Jakes fills his remaining waking hours performing as a multi-instrumental percussionist (his kit comprises Latin, African, Middle-Eastern and Indian elements) and as a World Music DJ (channeling his Elektronika alter-ego HeavyJake). Jakes has performed with World Music and Fusion bands in NYC (Alms for Shanti) and Austin (My Exotic Other, Naga Valli, Sangeet Millennium, Oliver Rajamani, Kiko Villamizar and Bamako Airlines).

 

DJ Chill Akilas

Akilas is a long time aficionado and practitioner of the arts with a diverse background. Born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for half of his life, Akilas now has been living in Austin, TX for over 12 years. Since being in Austin and also having traveled around for school studies, he picked up the craft of mixing and dj'ing at a young age and has been mastering the science and art of mix sessions ever since. He is bringing to Kenny Dorham's Backyard a summer of mix sessions that are to fuse the sounds of all corners of the world with one another and with the vibes of Austin as well. The time is ripe for new conductions and Chill Akilas is the conductor for a great summer mix session.

 



 

Friday, June 29, 2012 - 7:00pm