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BOLO

Saturday February 28 -Two shows-4pm and 8pm

Acoustic Global Groove

    • BOLO is an all-star line up of musicians from acclaimed bands Hamsa Lila, Eliyahu & The Qadim Ensemble, Stellamara, and Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers. The stellar trio's music transports and inspires. With a fresh improvisational approach, BOLO's global sound brings together entrancing rhythms with acoustic instruments that move the body and uplift the soul. Bolo has been gigging around the Bay Area for the past couple years. Their inaugural album will be recorded at 25th Street Studios in Oakland, CA.
    • "We are really looking forward to sharing our music with you and hope that you will become a part of this project by supporting us in our financial campaign. Thank you so much!!!"
    • ABOUT THE INSTRUMENTS:
    • UPRIGHT BASS - The double bass originated in Europe in the 15th century as part of the violin family. With the advent of Jazz in America, it was played in a percussive-style using pizzicato(plucking). Eliyahu's upright bass is over 100 years old and has a very warm, deep and rich sound.HARMONIUM - This small and portable pump organ was first brought to India by European missionaries. Today it is used in Pakistani Sufi Qawwali music and Kirtan devotional singing traditions.

      NEY - One of the most ancient melodic instruments on Earth, the Ney is made from a single reed that grows in river beds. It's mourning sound is said to be an expression of its separation from the river bed.

      KAMALE NGONI - An African harp made of gourd, wood, animal skin, and fishing line, the hunter's harp, or youth harp comes from Mali and Burkina Faso, West Africa.

      KALIMBA - An African thumb piano found in almost all Sub-Saharan African countries.

      DRUM KIT - Masterfully played by Surya, the drum set first came together in New Orleans over 100 years ago with the creation of foot pedals by Ludwig & Co. that were added to an array of European drums and other percussion.

      BANSURI - Bamboo flute from the Indian Classical tradition.

      OUD - The nylon string, pear shaped ancestor of the guitar from the Middle East and North Africa.

    • ABOUT THE GROUP:
    • EVAN FRASER is a multi-instrumentalist, performer, teacher, and recording artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He holds a BFA degree in World Music from California Institute of the Arts.
His teachers include: John Bergamo, Randy Gloss, Alfred & Kobla Ladzekpo, Sulley Imoro, Nyomen Wenton, Jim Santi Owen, Mark Growden, Mamadou Sidibe & Yacouba Diarra. Originally from Orcas Island WA, Evan learned to play music at an early age in Waldorf school and studied the piano. By exploring his parent's vinyl collection, Evan gained an understanding of the many different musical sounds around the globe. Through his love of music and the outdoors, he discovered the smaller, more portable instruments and has been exploring the vast diversity of instruments, music cultures, their histories, and how they relate to each other ever since. One of his teachers revealed to him that once you have music in your body, and you know how to listen, you will start to discover music and musical instruments everywhere, including your own body as an instrument. Today Evan has a collection of over 200 instruments. Each one is a unique tool, a special sound in his palate of musical expression. Keyboards, kalimbas (thumb pianos) kamale ngonis (African harps), winds, slide guitars, jaw harps, drums & global percussion. In addition to being a part of Bolo, Evan Fraser is a live-looping solo performer and is also a member of several other bands, Dirtwire, Hamsa Lila, Stellamara, and the Dogon Lights.

      ELIYAHU SILLS has been performing music for over 20 years on many instruments, including upright bass, bansuri, the bamboo flute of India, and the ney, the reed flute of the middle east. He has performed and recorded traditional spiritual music of the Middle East with Za'atar, West African folk music with the Palm Wine Boys, soul roots reggae with the Original Intentions, acoustic soul with Sparlha Swa and conscious Hip-hop with Rebels Advocate. He has collaborated with Ethiopian born jazz/soul vocalist Meklit Hadero, devotional musician Shimshai. Some other highlights of Eliyahu's musical career include touring with Rupa & the April Fishes, performing with oudist/composer Yuval Ron, legendary Iraqi Israeli oud maestro and composer Yair Dalal, as well as Palestinian American oudist and composer Naser Musa. In the early 1990s, he studied the upright bass at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City. Deeply influenced by teachers Makanda Ken McIntyre, Arnie Lawrence and Reggie Workman (bassist who played with John Coltrane and Art Blakey), Eliyahu began performing as a sideman and bandleader in renowned jazz clubs such as The Village Gate and Small's. In the years that followed, Eliyahu fell in love with the flute and applied the musical theory that he learned through his jazz studies to teach himself this most ancient of instruments. After falling under the spell of the Sufi music of Turkey, he became a devoted student of both the ney and the bansuri. He has since continued to study and perform these ancient instruments under the guidance of his teacher G.S. Sachdev, to whom he is a devoted student. In 2006, Eliyahu went on a journey to Turkey to study the traditions and nuances of the nay. During his journey, he fell in love with Istanbul and had the opportunity to study under masters Neyzen Omer Erdogdular and Neyzen Ahmet Kaya. He returned two years later to further his studies. Most recently he went to Morocco to study Arabic style of the ney, as well as the melodies and deep rhythms of Gnawa and Saharan music. Eliyahu also works with young people, primarily mentoring teenage young men. He has taught at The Mosaic Project, an educational program that helps children from all backgrounds celebrate diversity as well as Omega Teen Camp, and teaches a class guiding young men, at WCCHS a high school in Richmond, CA, and for the rites of passage program at Stepping Stones Project. He is now leading his own groups for young men with Young Men Coming of Age, MenComingofAge.com an organization he founded.

      SURYA PRAKASHA grew up in the San Francisco bay area, and went to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Surya first heard African drumming in high school, took a world music class with music educator Tim Price, and fell in love with music from around the world. At the Oberlin Conservatory, he studied with jazz drummer Greg Bandy(Pharoah Sanders, Gary Bartz, Olu Dara), as well as formative lessons with Michael Carvin and Joe Morello. Surya also studied african diaspora drumming with Adetobi Greg Jackson and dancer Adenike Sharpley, including west african drumming, bata drumming, and styles from Haiti, Brazil and Cuba. He studied classical snare drum with Michael Rosen and African-American music history, composing and arranging with Dr. Wendell Logan. Since Oberlin, Surya has been teaching and performing in the bay area. He performed brazilian street drumming (batucada) for several years with the group Samba do Coracao. Surya toured with singer Pyeng Threadgill, with performer Joe Orrach and with the Dave Scott Quartet and performed at venues such as the Montreux Jazz Festival, Birdland in NYC, the Triple Door in Seattle and the Kuumba Jazz Center in Santa Cruz. He taught for 7 years at the San Francisco Community Music Center and now teaches drumset privately from his studio in San Pablo. He continued his exploration of the voice with Julia Uhlehla and Rita Sahai from 2005-08. In 2010, Surya began taking lessons with Jai Uttal, studying vocals and harmonium. Surya now leads kirtans at Yoga Tree with Jason Parmar accompanying on tabla. In 2012, Surya took the sound, voice and music healing certification program at C.I.I.S. He has expanded his teaching practice to include teaching music to disabled and special needs populations, and believes that music can be a powerful tool to be in service to others. He currently performs with Dave Scott, Terry Disley, Lavay Smith, Melanie O'Reilly, Masha Campagne, Brian Moran, Kelly Park, Gary Schwantes, and Bolo, as well as other projects.

    • HOW BOLO CAME TOGETHER Surya and Eliyahu met at Oberlin College in Ohio in 1998. They played in a free jazz group together, and reconnected quickly when they were both on the west coast in 2002. They formed a band called the Original Intentions with QB Williams, in which they explored carribean and gospel music styles, with three part harmony vocals. Surya met Evan Fraser at a rehearsal of Eliyahu's qadim ensemble, and the two played again together at Eliyahu's wedding. Evan Fraser first met Eliyahu Sills at Burning Man 2006 when Eliyahu sat in with Hamsa Lila. They played together in each other's projects; Eliyahu & the Qadim Ensemble and the Dogon Lights.originated in Europe in the 15th century In September 2013, Surya was approached by the Garden Gate Create Center about putting together a show of original music. Surya immediately thought of Evan and Eliyahu, and decided to entitle the project Bolo. After the three performed together for the first time, it was clear that a very special collaborative musical project had been born.
    • Taste some sound and videos on the websites below
    • BOLO

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