$15 advance / $20 at the door
9pm showtime
Program:
9pm Soundtrack: Music of Alice Coltrane
9:30pm Sankofa Zone - Heru Truth Maze Harris; Babatunde Lea; Mankwe Ndosi; (and friends)
11:30pm Open Arrangement Session
About:
Great Black Music Mondays are nodes of sonic spiritual nourishment and freedom - freedom of expression and creation. Freedom of form and story. Freedom within the music as a vehicle*. Freedom and rootedness - a resonance connection to sonic ancestry carving more freedom - in and out and through the mainstream of popular music, of commerce. Crafting life and fluidity to seed and deepen bonds across genres and the globe.
Join Mankwe Ndosi and Sovereign Hues Productions for Great Black Music Mondays for the Month of December at Icehouse Minneapolis. Mankwe Ndosi, Curator in Residence for December’s Monday Night Jazz series will tend the deep roots of black classical cosmic sound and practice. These five nights combine the soundtracks of Black Women composers past and present, music from five different ensembles of Twin Cities’ exciting musical innovators, with late-night Open Arrangement Sessions. OAS’s (pronounced Oasisz), Ndosi’s variation of the Open Mic, where she will arrange trios from musicians who show up to play. December 23rd will feature acclaimed international cellist/composer/bandleader Tomeka Reid. Produced by Mankwe Ndosi (SY Productions) and Sovereign Hues.
*nod to Nicole Mitchell's quotation, "Jazz is a Globalized African American Freedom Vehicle.
Featured Performers:
Mankwe Ndosi
Mankwe Ndosi is a Minneapolis based Vocalist and Composer working in live sound and performance. She works at connecting personal and societal patterns, to our creative spirits, our neighbors, our ancestors, and our earth. Mankwe uses texture, utterance, harmony, rhythm, word, and gesture to make music with artists from all genres. She performs nationally and internationally and has appeared with Nicole Mitchell, The Give Get Sistet, Transatlantic Amazon Gods, Dee Alexander, Sharon Bridgforth, George Lewis, Medium Zach, Davu Seru, Tomeka Reid, Ananya Dance Theater, Atmosphere, Duriel Harris, and Douglas R. Ewart.
As a member of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Ms. Ndosi borrows the name of this Great Black Music Mondays series from the AACM who embody the proverb, “Great Black Music: Ancient to the Future”. She draws upon this motto for this residency, to honor energies of now and the magnificence of Black women’s musical composition and leadership.
Heru Truth Maze Harris
WIlliam Harris, aka “Truth Maze” is a cornerstone of the Twin Cities music scene and a major contributor and pioneer of Minneapolis hip hop culture as a drummer, percussionist, rapper, poet, beatboxer, host and event producer. A native of Minneapolis, he was a founding member of Minnesota hip hop pioneers The Micranots, and the I.R.M. Crew. He has taught music in the Mpls public schools since 1991. Contact him at truthmaze1969@gmail.com
Babatunde Lea
Babatunde Lea began drumming at the age of 11. as an adult he would go on to work with the likes of Pharaoh Sanders, Patrice Rushen, as well as creating the Motéma Music label that he founded with Jana Herzen. Says Lea of his work, "I strive to make my compositions functional, which is an African take on the arts. The purpose I try to imbue my music with is that our growth as human beings should strive toward an anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homophobic, egalitarian, democratic universal society and I don't care how many lifetimes it takes to get there! I consider myself an activist as well as a musician and consider myself an 'agent of change.”