Doors at 8:00 pm; Show at 8:30 pm
Tickets are $15 Advance / $18 Day of Show
Two of Bay Area’s most phenomenal ensembles of top-notch musicians bring the sounds of Africa and the African Diaspora in one evening. DJ Drew will be spinning between Joseph's Bones' and Orchestra Gold's live sets.
Orchestra Gold: Led by the ferocious Mariam Diakité from Bamako, Orchestra Gold {OG} promotes pre-digital age (OldStyle) music from Mali, West Africa.
OG hypnotizes audiences with danceable, funky, high-energy 1960's orchestra music from Mali. These roots are colored by tinges of 60’s era analog psychedelic rock and funk from West Africa.
The building blocks of OG’s music are folkloric songs, often told in parable. These songs contain inspiration, wisdom, and deep insight into the human condition. They have served to uplift Malians beyond the harsh realities of daily life. Especially in this time of social turbulence, this age-old wisdom brings us a renewed perspective on modern-day existence.
Composer and drummer Jason Levis leads his instrumental dub-reggae orchestra, Joseph’s Bones, in bringing the electronic sound-transformation processes of Jamaican dub to an acoustic setting. The ensemble pulls the thread between visceral groove and abstract sonic suspension.
Featuring 14 of the Bay Area’s best musicians, Joseph's Bones draws inspiration from the roots reggae of Bob Marley and the Wailers, the dub sounds of King Tubby and the soaring horn lines the of Skatalites. This instrumental group is new to the scene, but old in its tradition, bringing an ecstatic spirit to deep appreciation for reggae music’s traditions.
Levis, who holds a PhD in classical composition from UC Berkeley, says “The exploration of experimental techniques in classical music takes place in the concert hall. Jamaican music experiments are brought to the dance floor. Joseph's Bones blends those worlds to create "Avant-Dub Instrumentale" and bring the rich, colorful sound-scape of dub to life.”
In the lineage of experimentation by dub masters Lee "Scratch" Perry and King Tubby, Joseph's Bones reconstructs and re-imagines echo, reverb and delay without the use of electronic effects. The ensemble employs an acoustic language of dub-improvisation to subvert traditional song form and fragment the music's surface texture while never losing the physical impact of dance music. This is real-time live acoustic dub.
Levis has been deeply involved in reggae music for over 30 years, and has performed internationally. In his studies of jazz, improvisation, and modern classical music, he realized that dub is an intersection point where texture and sonic space can be invested with meaning and stand side by side with rhythm, melody, and harmony.
Each of the band’s members is a serious performer in their own right, leading groups from ska to salsa, jazz and blues. The blend of influences is distilled down into a singular sound through their love of reggae.
Joseph's Bones, a member of the Bay Area Reggae Collective, is currently working on the vinyl release their double album "Nomadic Pulse - Pulse in Dub" planned for 2018.
