Bobby Avey Group with Miguel Zenon at The Falcon

Praised by the New Yorker magazine as, “A young pianist of invention and refinement,” Bobby Avey has established himself as an emerging star in the jazz community.

He won the esteemed 2011 Thelonious Monk Competition for composition. This award followed his 2010 debut record as a leader, A New Face, lauded by the NY Times as “A promising debut.”
Avey received the New Jazz Works: Commissioning and Ensemble Development grant from Chamber Music America. The grant enabled Avey to travel to Haiti, record a Vodou Ceremony in the village of Soukri and create an hour-long suite grounded in rhythms of Haitian Vodou drumming....

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Praised by the New Yorker magazine as, “A young pianist of invention and refinement,” Bobby Avey has established himself as an emerging star in the jazz community.

He won the esteemed 2011 Thelonious Monk Competition for composition. This award followed his 2010 debut record as a leader, A New Face, lauded by the NY Times as “A promising debut.”
Avey received the New Jazz Works: Commissioning and Ensemble Development grant from Chamber Music America. The grant enabled Avey to travel to Haiti, record a Vodou Ceremony in the village of Soukri and create an hour-long suite grounded in rhythms of Haitian Vodou drumming.

Avey says "this suite focuses particularly on Haiti's slave revolt--the only successful slave rebellion in recorded history--which led to Haiti's declaration of independence from its colonial master, France, in 1804. On the eve of the slave insurrection in August 1791, leaders of the rebellion conducted a massive Vodou ceremony at Bois Caïman in the northern mountains of the island to declare their intent to take over the Northern part of Haiti (then Saint Domingue).
In addition to a Vodou priest, Vodou drummers facilitate opening the gateway between the two worlds. To play off of the power of this opening between worlds that Haitian Vodou drummers create, I have selected music from two Vodou drumming ensembles: the drummers of the Societe Absolument Guinin from Port au Prince, and the drummers from the community of Soukri, near the town of Gonaïves, whose ceremony I had the honor of attending and documenting in January 2012. Following a period of immersion, careful transcription, and analysis, I composed this suite, utilizing rhythms and concepts found in these two drumming ensembles."

http://bobbyavey.com/pages/About.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_xW60Pxi-U

Miguel Zenón-
Multiple Grammy Nominee and Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow Miguel Zenón represents a select group of musicians who have masterfully balanced and blended the often-contradictory poles of innovation and tradition. Widely considered as one of the most groundbreaking and influential saxophonists of his generation, he has also developed a unique voice as a composer and as a conceptualist, concentrating his efforts on perfecting a fine mix between Latin American Folkloric Music and Jazz.

http://www.miguelzenon.com/

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