Description

Joselo Locandro

Joselo Locandro is pianist and composer who believes that original ideas are the the essence of of improvised music.Playing the standard jazz repertoire of the 30s-50 is fine, but to continue to advance in the jazz tradition composers should look to emulate their ancestors and create their own new songs which will serve as standards for future generations.

Locandros early experience of participating in Cecil Taylors Glassboro
University Orquestra gave him the opportunity to form bonds with a number of the musicians in Cecils inner circle. That contact led him to enter into a group with Bobby Zankel, William Parker, Rashid Bakr(Charles Downs) ,Arthur Williams, (and at times Billy Bang) called Kabalah that played concerts in Loft Jazz venues in New York in the early 1970s. During this period he was also a member of the Sunny Murray All Stars Band.

After a lengthy hiatus in Rio de Janeiro, Locandro returned to New York where he was in nearly daily contact for a decade with Ornette Coleman studying Harmolodic theory as well as playing and composing some original unpublished songs together with the great master.

In 2017-18 he performed with Denardo Coleman at Lincoln Center and also at the Havana Jazz Festival for he “Cuba Is Now!” recording project. Recently he has been performing and recording with David Murray in Santo Domingo together with a group of traditional musicians led by Tone Vicioso (Aumbata) and Caridad Severino (Carisalve).A series of concerts scheduled for the David Murray Kiskeya Encounter in the Dominican Republic and Haiti (together with the saxophonist and percussionist Thurgot Theodat from Port Au Prince) were scheduled to take place in April of this year but were canceled because of the coronavirus epidemic.

We are grateful for the opportunity to participate in the Act4Music series to present a preview of the project we are working on to show the syncretism of ryhthms from the Afro Diaspora that the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Brasil share.

Toné Vicioso & Aumbata

Aumbáta is a music group, based in Santo Domingo since 2009 with a passion and commitment to the root traditions of D.R. These traditions are hybrids of many african and taino derived traits mixed with arabic and european traits that came to merge in the last 5 centuries and produce a myriad of musical structures that are meaningful and vital to the people. Toné Vicioso, the band’s leader has come together with a group of younger musicians/thinkers and Julito Figueroa, a great dominican tambora player and singer, and Evaristo Moreno master drummer straight from the roots to create this vehicle of sound expression. From this root foundation the group explores many other influences and delivers a fresh contemporary perspective to the music universe

La Carisalve

CariSalve is a music group directly derived from traditions that exsist in the southcentral part of Dominican Rep. north of the city of Santo Domingo. “Salves” is the name associated with the cultural phenomena that sprung from the catholic colonialism, the name refers to “Salve Regina” a catholic chant that was composed possibly in the year 1000 AC. When the spaniards established the colony, the catholic church established the cult of different aspects of the virgin connected to these chants. Through the 5 centuries + that have passed since, the salve form has expanded throughout the country and has adopted different instrumentations and many songs with a myriad of african and taino traits always enriching the now genre. CariSalve is a salve group built around the singer Caridad Severino/ She is a direct descendant of a grand salve tradition from the area of Sabana Grande De Boya. The musicians are playing closer to the salve traditions of the area of Villa Mella which are played with panderos, balsie, mongo and guira with singers applying call and response.

Thurgot Theodat

Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thurgot Theodat moved to Paris, France at age 14.  He discovered jazz music at age 16, with the help of Tit Pascal in New York. For the next eight years, Thurgot traveled between Paris and New York. With the help of Francis Bebey, he began a residency in Paris at the age of 25. Three years later, he returned to Haiti during a time of great political changes. He joined a new musical movement called RASIN, which advocated the revival of the national culture and Voodoo traditions.  He was a member of the band  FOULA, which played a vital role in the movement. Thurgot later formed the band BADJI which played several international festivals, along with workshops and conferences. He recorded four albums mixing jazz music with Afro-Caribbean culture in Haiti, Cuba, Brazil, Guatemala and France. Thurgot is a member of the David Murray Kiskeya Encounter band, with whom he has recorded and performed in various cities throughout the Dominican Republic.

Johnbern Thomas

Johnbern Thomas was born on August 1st, 1986 in Croix-des-Bouquets, a commune situated north of the capital of Haiti, a corner of the county where music is constantly in the lives of the residents. At a very young age, his father also a drummer gave him his first drumming lessons.
Like many Haitians, after the January 12th, 2010 earthquake Johnbern was left with destruction and desolation. He left for the Dominican Republic where he continued to develop his talents especially in Jazz. Upon returning to Haiti in January 2012, he founded the Johnbern Quintet this time with talented local musicians, Their first appearance was at the International Jazz Day on April 30, 2012. This presented a new generation of young talented Jazz artists. Also, this performance led to other events in the provinces of Haiti as well as, in the neighboring Santo Domingo Jazz Festival in July 2012 and the International Jazz Festival of Port-au-Prince (PAP Jazz) January 2013 reinforced the determination of this young group of artists towards their goal.
Johnbern has performed in Martinique, USA, Asia, Surinam, Europe, Dominican Republic and Haiti. He has always been well received and has created a large following in these different countries.
Presently, John Bern just recorded his first album Johnbern Thomas Trio. He collaborates with several big-name local and international artists such as: Miguel Zenon, Jacques Schwarz-Bart, Sean Jones, Aaron Goldberg, Godwin Louis, Billy Buss, Bennie Wallace, Mike Del Ferro, Pauline Jean.