Bourgie Hall presents

Jazz and Mandinka Music

Double bassist Ira Coleman is joined by other compelling musicians in a performance of both jazz compositions and traditional Mandinka themes, in which improvisation highlights each genre’s common elements.

Artists
Salif “Lasso” Sanou, flute

Salif Sanou, was born in 1980 in West Africa and is a versatile high calibre musician. He was born in a Bwaba village named Konkuy-Boho in the Kossi province of northwestern Burkina Faso. His family had a long history of producing griots, and he grew up in a world where music and speech were the core of life. That’s how he discovered at a young age his gifts for several traditional instruments—djembe, tamani, balafon, singing, and the Fula flute (tambin or sereendu).

Rare are today’s musicians who can play this ancestral mystical flute. Lasso is one. He dared pick up the flute one day, and it spoke. He makes his own flutes. He knows how to choose the tree he will transform into an incredibly well-tuned sound stick.

Mamadou Koita, balafon

Born in Africa in Burkina Faso, he is a Griot virtuoso of the Balafon, a cheerful percussionist, a wild djembe player, an amazing Tama player, Barra, N’Goni, and much more…

He was born in the musical universe of the Bwaba ethnic group. From an early age, he learned to play the balafon with his father, who was himself a balafon maker and great player.

Jean-Michel Pilc, piano

Born in 1960 in Paris, now an American citizen, self-taught pianist and composer Jean-Michel Pilc has performed with numerous jazz giants: Roy Haynes, Michael Brecker, Dave Liebman, Jean Toussaint, Rick Margitza, Martial Solal, Michel Portal, Daniel Humair, Marcus Miller, Kenny Garrett, Lenny White, Chris Potter, John Abercrombie, Mingus Dynasty & Big Band, Lew Soloff, Richard Bona etc. He has also worked with Harry Belafonte, as his musical director and pianist, and has performed a duet with the legendary opera singer Jessye Norman.

Ira Coleman, double bass

Ira Coleman was born in Stockholm, Sweden. Raised in Southern France, Ira thereafter lived in Germany for fourteen years. While in Germany, Ira Coleman studied double bass at Cologne’s “Hochschule für Musik”  and subsequently came a move to the US to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston.

“The bass fits my character,” says Ira, who graduated from Berklee College of Music in 1985.  “In most musical genres the bass is the pivotal center piece, the instrument which provides a discrete and clear foundation, and I enjoy the many challenges its function poses.”

Thursday, January 26, 2023 at 6:00pm
To purchase your tickets visit: www.mbam.qc.ca/en/bourgie-hall/
This concert is available as part of a subscription, allowing you to save up to 30% on all concerts in our Jazz 5 à 7 series.

In connection with the exhibition Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music