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Charles Neville & Youssoupha Sidibe with The Mystic Rhythms Band have been astonishing audiences with amazing performances combining New Orleans and West African music with drums and bass creating a new kind of high energy music like nothing before. They released their groundbreaking first album “TREE OF LIFE” in early Nov 2010 coinciding with a West Coast USA Tour.
The touring project is high energy with African/reggae style drums and bass while the CD was a duet and instrumental.
These are quotes about the CD “The project connects jazz and traditional African music, and the result is as stunning as it is soothing… It’s both a brave departure and completely natural. The CD is worth a listen when you are in the mood for quiet contemplation and simple beauty.” – Register Guard (Portland)
"The rippling, and at times percussive, arrangements with the kora are like rocks in a stream, with Neville's fluid and melodic saxophone like water flowing over and around the rocks. The music is meant to be a healing force that binds the past with the present. " - Beth Peerless - The Monterey County Herald
Grammy winning Charles Neville is a virtuoso Saxophone player with an astounding variety of styles most well know as a front man for the world famous Neville Brothers (“The Kings of New Orleans” - Conan Obrien). He has performed with the Neville Brothers for more than 30 years. Still so highly in demand, Charles and the Neville’s recently played Late Night with Conan Obrien, Late night with Jay Leno, they have performed on David Letterman , as well as performed on Saturday Night Live twice. In 2010 they headlined a show at the world famous amphitheater the Hollywood Bowl in LA to a full house. In addition to Charles’s stellar career with The Neville Brothers he has performed with some of the world’s most legendary musicians including: Ray Charles, James Brown, B.B. King, Santana, The Grateful Dead, Herbie Hancock, and many, many more. His brothers affectionately refer to him as "The Horn Man". His saxophone solo won him a Grammy in 1989 for his haunting rendition of Healing Chant on the Yellow Moon CD.
Youssoupha Sidibe is a Senegalese West African Kora (African Harp) player. Throw out all your ideas of what a harpist is, Youssoupha breaks out of traditional Kora styles many hundreds of years old, still predominant in Kora players, to create a new style blending aspects of Reggae, and western music creating a new style that has never been heard before.
“Yousoupha is great. I have performed with him many times -- almost always without any rehearsal or even speaking much -- and we find ourselves on stage together sharing very deep and moving musical improvisations. His melodies are beautiful, his rhythm is engaging, and he is a spiritual man transmitting roots music. I am a fan of Yousoupha and his music.”
-MATISYAHU - Multi-Platinum Selling, Grammy Nominated Musician
Youssoupha was Grammy nominated for his collaboration with Matisyahu on multiple tracks, including a duet he wrote with Matisyahu on Youth, the 2007 Grammy-nominated "Best Reggae Album" for which Youssoupha received a gold record. Through this and many other collaborations, as well as countless performances over the course of 20 years, Youssoupha has developed thousands of fans all over the world. Youssoupha has performed and recorded with many exceptional musicians. Grammy nominated for his collaboration with Matisyahu (Youth), he has released albums with Charles Neville (Tree of Life), Midnite (For All), Steve Kimock (TBA) a duet with Michael Franti (What I be), and collaborated live with India Arie, , Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Michael Kang of String Cheese Incident, Chris Berry Trio, Shimshai, and many more.
Youssoupha has performed at some of the most famous festivals and venues in the world including :The Hammerstein Ballroom NYC, The Warfield Theatre SF CA, The African Festival of the Arts Chicago, Reggae on the River CA, Stanford University, Salmon Arm Roots and Blues British Columbia, to name a few.
PLUS MICHAEL LANDAU
Musician and composer Michael Landau was born and raised in Los Angeles. He grew up with the music of The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Cream and The Band. His grandfather arranged and played woodwinds during the swing era with the Dorsey Brothers and Benny Goodman. In his early teens, Michael quickly became very interested in jazz and electric jazz music. Weather Report, Pat Martino and Jaco Pastorius were some of his early obsessions. From this diverse blend of influence, his sound and path began to take shape. His current group focuses on the improvisation and spontaneity of live shows. I live for those live moments when the sound and emotion becomes this monstrous force bigger than the individual musicians, it becomes a unique creation and feel, exciting and calming at the same time, difficult to describe but I'm addicted to it.
His most recent album, The Michael Landau Group Live was released in October '06 on Tone Center Records. Here's a quote from a review by John Kelman: The Real Question, when a studio ace comes out of hiding and releases two hours of visceral material, is this: who is Michael landau when he's in total control of the situation? While his stylistic breadth elsewhere would suggest that this is only one part of the answer, Live posits him, amongst other things, as a powerful torchbearer for Jimi Hendrix, While the late Stevie Ray Vaughan was most often saddled with that accolade, Landau's broader language more accurately represents where Hendrix might be today, since the late guitar icon was clearly moving towards his own view of jazz in the final days before his tragic passing in 1970.
Michael currently tours and performs with his own group and a new project with Robben Ford, Jimmy Haslip and Gary Novak called Renegade Creation. He can also be seen live with: Hazey Jane, Kirk Fletcher, The Jazz Ministry, Stolen Fish, Michelle Branch and James Taylor. He has produced and or mixed some selected artists and side projects including: Scott Henderson, The Jazz Ministry, Kirk Fletcher, Hazey Jane, The Dusty Meadows Band and Stolen Fish. |
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