CODA FEST: Douglas Ewart & Sonic Medicine

Lester Lashley, His Homemade Instruments
Davu Seru, Drums and Percussion
Darius Savage, Bass and Percussion
Edward Wilkerson, Reeds and Percussion
Douglas R. Ewart Reeds, Percussion and His George Floyd Bunt Staff

Ancient is the Future

Douglas R. Ewart
The polymathic Douglas R. Ewart has been honored for his work as a composer, improvising multi-instrumentalist, conceptual artist, philosopher, writer, sculptor, mask and instrument designer, visual artist, tailor, cultural community builder and more.

From Kingston, Jamaica, Ewart immigrated to Chicago in 1963. There he studied with the master musicians of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians—an organization at which he later served as chairman at different intervals from1979-1987 and into the millennium. He also studied music at
Harold Washington College, VanderCook College of Music, and electronic music at Governors State University.

Ewart is the founder of Arawak Records, is the leader of ensembles such as the Nyahbingi Drum Choir, Quasar, the Clarinet Choir, and Douglas R. Ewart & Inventions. He is a designer and creator of instruments and kinetic sonic sculptures that have been exhibited in venues such as Houston’s Contemporary Arts Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry Chicago. “Crepuscule,” his vast conceptual work is collectively actualized by scores of musicians, dancers, visual artists, poets, capoeirista, puppeteers, martial artists, activists and the honoring of elders and more.

Ewart’s honors include the 2019 Jamaica Musgrave Silver Medal presented by the Institute of Jamaica (IOJ) for outstanding contribution to art and education, 2022 McKnight Distinguished Award as a Multi-Dimensional Artist, 2022 McKnight Fellowships for Community-Engaged Artist, 2022 South Korean Gugak International Workshop Fellow, U.S. Japan Creative Arts Fellowship, a Bush Artists Fellowship, and an Outstanding Artist Award granted by a former Chicago Mayor, Harold Washington. Ewart is a Professor Emeritus at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago IL.
https://douglasewart.com/home

Edward Wilkerson Jr. is an internationally recognized composer, arranger, musician, and educator based in Chicago. As founder and director of the cutting-edge octet 8 Bold Souls, and the 25-member performance ensemble Shadow Vignettes, Wilkerson has toured festivals and concert halls throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, and the Middle East. “Defender”, a large-scale piece for Shadow Vignettes, was commissioned by the Lila Wallace/Reader’s Digest Fund and featured in the 10th Anniversary of New Music America, a presentation of BAM’s Next Wave Festival.

His music can be heard on 30 recordings, including two film soundtracks and the critically acclaimed albums Birth of a Notion, and 8 Bold Souls, both on his own Sessoms Records label.

One of the great saxophone and clarinet players on the Chicago scene, Wilkerson from the 1980s into the new millennium may have become best known as a bandleader and composer, particularly associated with medium- to large-scale projects (somewhat daunting in an era when creative music bandleaders are challenged to keep even small ensembles together). He has also been a major presence in Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), teaching composition at the organization’s music school and serving for a time as AACM president.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Wilkerson

Lester Lashley (Helmar) has been an innovative musician and visual artist since the 1960s. Originally based in Chicago, he was a founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and an early member of African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists (AfriCOBRA). Over his lifetime, he has sought to both explore and celebrate the complexity and beauty of blackness in America. Whether painting, sculpting, or working with found objects, or playing the trombone, double bass, or instruments of his own making, he has always sought to create new paths that have their genesis in the rhythms and spirits in Africa and connect to the experience and soul of the African American diaspora.

Davu Seru is an improvising musician, composer and scholar known primarily for his work on drums. For the past 20+ years he has worked with musicians such as Milo Fine, George Cartwright, Nirmala Rajasekar, Douglas R. Ewart, Michelle Kinney, Dean Magraw, Paul Metzger, Evan Parker, Didier Petit, Babatunde Lea, Nathan Hanson, Mankwe Ndosi, Rafael Toral, David Boykin, Donald Washington, Guillame Seguron, Tony Hymas, David Boykin, Chris Bates, Catherine Delaunay, and Nicole Mitchell Gantt. Davu is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and is Curator of the Givens Collection of African American Literature at University of Minnesota.

Darius Savage – bass

Ticket: $25 (one show) or $60 for all shows tonight (will get a wristband)!