#Mankwe Ndosi

[burlveneer-music]

Nicole Mitchell and Ballaké Sissoko - Bamako*Chicago Sound System

Nicole Mitchell and Ballaké Sissoko, bandleaders Nicole Mitchell, flute Ballaké Sissoko, kora Fatim Kouyate, voice Mankwe Ndosi, voice Jeff Parker, guitar Fassery Diabaté, balafon Joshua Abrams, bass JoVia Armstrong, percussion Recorded at Strobe Recording, Chicago, July 2017 Recording engineer Caleb Willitz Mixed by Matt Wyatt, Tree and Booms Studio Mastered by Heba Kadry, NYC Produced by Nicole Mitchell Liner Notes by Jamika Ajalon Lyrics translation by Jimmy Berthe Cover artwork “Taama fitini” by Dramane Toloba Design by Al Brandtner

[dreams-in-blk]

*Maybe once or twice in your life, you meet a guy and you think, "This is probably the coolest dude I'm ever going to meet in my life." And then you're all bromantically googly-eyed for like a month. That's what happened when I met beat master Makaya McCraven in Chicago.

The Divine Mankwe Ndosi, (a straight GENIUS improvisational vocalist that the Goddesses allowed me to be with for a number of years. 🙏🏾) Facilitated the mtg. She was doing a gig with Makaya in Chicago and and I got to hang out with Makaya and just talk.

Raised by French musicians. He's basically Jazz royalty. Born with drumsticks in his hand. He thinks it and he plays it. Period. Amazing performer. Also a very good human.

Makaya is best known for his critically acclaimed rework of Gil Scott-Heron's last release.

As an artist, Makaya offers an entry point to some of the most exciting improvisational music (AKA Jazz) being made today and a group of creators based (check out TOMEKA REED) out of Chicago who are all peerless master technicians and fearless improvisors.

They are dynamically reinventing and restoring a contemporary approach to improvisational music.

Their approach is deeply rooted in the AACM/Free Jazz tradition in Chicago. This can give the music an openness and unpredictability that is different from popular genre music which is predictably structured.

This is an aspect that can take getting used to, but once you get it can really open you to the immediacy and presence of the players. Who work without scores and structure and discover and create the music as they are playing it.

Makaya McCraven is avant garde but approachable. So he's a great artist to begin exploring what can be challenging and at times difficult music. He incorporates the comforting and deeply necessary rim shot groove, the head boom clap rhythms, while deftly weaving and exploring complex time signatures and other technical aspects. I'm more about groove, swing and feel. But trained musicians will find layer upon layer of complexity to feast their geeky ears on, while the rest of us can bliss out on the beats. Until the unexpected change up. Like Life, the music keeps on evolving, confusing and surprising, throwing up something to work through and grow into. - rp

[jkestonmcad]

Sound / Simulacra: Mankwe Ndosi Recordings #soundsimulacra On Wednesday April 25th, 2018 Sound / Simulacra featured Mankwe Ndosi at Jazz Central Studios. Mankwe is a fearless performer and vocalist who filled the room with her extraordinary presence, captivating movement, and distinctive extended vocal techniques. This recording is from the last set of the evening when me and Cody McKinney joined Mankwe to form a trio.

[venusinorbit]

By the end of 2020, Minneapolis will have seen, heard and experienced 10 artist-led projects that promote community healing, something sorely needed after the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and the uprisings that followed. Some will be as simple as a haircut; others will feature first-person stories, or provide information anyone can use to live a healthier life.

The projects are sharing $100,000 in grant money, with each receiving $10,000. Support comes from the Creative CityMaking Creative Response Fund and the Kresge Foundation.

Creative CityMaking is a program of the city’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy that partners artists with staff in City of Minneapolis departments to help address economic and racial disparities. The projects supported by the Creative Response Fund will be out in the community and accessible to anyone. All are being led by current and former Creative CityMaking artists.

[yawsmusic]

Work on the Sabbath featuring The Bridge & Gira Dahnee Stony Island Arts Bank 11.12 | 430p - 7p • Join us for an evening of improvisation and exploration with The Bridge, a musical exchange between France and Chicago instigated by clarinetist, Sylvain Kassap. The ninth installation of this collaboration, Epiphany, lands itself at the Stony Island Arts Bank this Sunday with special guest Gira Dahnee @giradahnee • Mike Ladd – improvised poetry/lyrics, EMS Synthi Mankwe Ndosi – voice, poetry, story, texture Sylvain Kassap – clarinets, electronics Dana Hall – drums, cymbals • @thedjyomamaluv - groove captain *we will begin at 430p #improvised #improvisation #jazz #music #life #chicago #france #bridge #exchange #poetry #clarinet #synthesizer #drums #cymbals #stonyislandartsbank #rebuildfoundation #giradahnee #yaw #workonthesabbath #collaboration #epiphany #sunday 📸 @rj.eldridge

[puppyrickets]

six cheers for mankwe ndosi!!

let's go lesbians let's go!!!

[arthurwrightart]

The Bridge Transatlantic Amazon Gods at the Logan Center for the Arts Mankwe Ndosi and Mike Ladd PEN, 8.5" x 11" Available One In a Million No. 2050 contact Wrightdesigninc@aol.com #thelogan #chicagoartist #thebridge #transatlanticamazongods (at Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts)

[giradahnee]

#Repost @thursdayboy (@get_repost) ・・・ Work on the Sabbath featuring The Bridge & Gira Dahnee Stony Island Arts Bank 11.12 | 430p - 7p • Join us for an evening of improvisation and exploration with The Bridge, a musical exchange between France and Chicago instigated by clarinetist, Sylvain Kassap. The ninth installation of this collaboration, Epiphany, lands itself at the Stony Island Arts Bank this Sunday with special guest Gira Dahnee @giradahnee • Mike Ladd – improvised poetry/lyrics, EMS Synthi Mankwe Ndosi – voice, poetry, story, texture Sylvain Kassap – clarinets, electronics Dana Hall – drums, cymbals • @thedjyomamaluv - groove captain *we will begin at 430p #improvised #improvisation #jazz #music #life #chicago #france #bridge #exchange #poetry #clarinet #synthesizer #drums #cymbals #stonyislandartsbank #rebuildfoundation #giradahnee #yaw #workonthesabbath #collaboration #epiphany #sunday (at Stony Island Arts Bank)

[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: Basking in the Legacy of Merce Cunningham at His Retrospective

Merce Cunningham Dance Company performing “Event for the Garden” Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, Minneapolis 1998 (photo courtesy the Walker Art Center Archives)

MINNEAPOLIS — I have a confession: for most of my life, I haven’t liked Merce Cunningham’s choreography very much. I always found his work to be quite cold and emotionless. Like ballet, his work is often defined by form and shape, but unlike the majority of ballet, there’s no narrative to allow the audience in. I found his dances inaccessible, and rather boring.

And yet, I’ve seen his work quite a bit — due to the Walker Art Center’s close relationship with the artist and the fact that I’ve spent most of my life in Minnesota. I saw his company perform in the sculpture garden in 1998, and then, at a quarry in Mankato for “Ocean” in 2008, a performance presented by the Walker. I saw the company perform its final tour following Cunningham’s death in 2009. I’ve also seen multiple exhibitions at the Walker that featured his work, both before and after it acquired his archives as part of the artist’s legacy plan.

Installation view of the galleries in Merce Cunningham: Common Time at the Walker Art Center

So I looked toward the opening of Merce Cunningham: Common Time at the Walker Art Center with a kind of dread. “Why now?” I thought, given the calamity happening around us with Muslim bans, a probable dismantling of the Affordable Care Act, and the like, knowing the answer, of course, is that the exhibition had been in the works for several years — since the museum acquired the archive of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

Installation view of the galleries in Merce Cunningham: Common Time at the Walker Art Center

And yet, something unexpected happened as I began to watch the public performances of his choreography that have occurred in conjunction with the exhibition. Finally, after all these years, Cunningham is starting to grow on me.

Installation view of the galleries in Merce Cunningham: Common Time at the Walker Art Center

But let me back up for a moment. Common Time, which the Walker presents in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, explores the trajectory of Cunningham’s career, with an emphasis on the incredible collaborations the choreographer had over the course of his life. “This is a kind of interesting model that provides a different way of looking at art, that looks at the critical importance of networking, of collaborating, of putting many minds together on a project,” says independent curator Joan Rothfuss, who helped organize the exhibition along with Fionn Meade and Philip Bither of the Walker and Mary Coyne of the MCA. “It’s a different way of thinking about art than the idea of a solitary artist working alone in a studio, that is, the product of one mind, one ego, one imagination.”

The high caliber of the objects and sounds created as part of Cunningham’s performances elevates the exhibition to something more than an encyclopedic view of ephemera. Many of the individual elements can be appreciated in their own right.

Robert Rauschenberg, “Trophy II (for Teeny and Marcel Duchamp)” (1960) oil, charcoal, paper, fabric, metal on canvas, drinking glass, metal chain, spoon, necktie Walker Art Center, (1970 ©Robert Rauschenberg Foundation)

With collaborators who include contemporary art giants such as Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Nam June Paik, and the great John Cage, many of the pieces look very much at home within the context of a contemporary art museum. Rauschenberg’s set dressings, in particular, might be mistaken for works created autonomously. The mixed media decor created for Cunningham’s 1954 “Minutiae”, for example, as well as his piece “Trophy II (for Teeny and Marcel Duchamp)” in 1960, pop with whirling colors, drawing the viewer in without necessitating a performer to enliven them. His giant enamel on canvas, made for “Summerspace” in 1958, towers over the gallery in which it’s presented, even in its subtly muted pastels.

Even costumes, posed on mannequins, get their due attention, perhaps more than they would within the context of performance. Remy Charlip’s multicolor leotards for “Minutiae” (1954) and Sonja Sekula’s costume for “Dromenon” (1947) allow the viewer to marvel at their artistry and boldness.

In certain cases, while the visual object was compelling, looking at it made me yearn to see it in the performance context. Such is the case of seeing Andy Warhol’s metallic balloons, which he made in 1966 for an installation called “Silver Clouds” and was later picked up by Cunningham for a performance of “Rain Forest” in 1968. There’s an interactive element to their presentation in the Walker’s galleries, where visitors can play with the balloons, but one can only imagine how incredible they were in the context of a performance.

CCN-Ballet de Lorraine performing “Sounddance” at Northrup Auditorium (photo by Laurent Phillipe)

One piece, Marc Lancaster’s decor for “Sounddance” (1975) didn’t do much for me when I saw it in the galleries. “So what?” I thought. “It’s a gold curtain. That’s not very exciting.” It wasn’t until I saw CCN-Ballet de Lorraine perform with another copy of the curtain live on stage at Northrop Auditorium, with contorted bodies dancing as if in a science fiction dystopia, that I appreciated the grandeur of the object.

The least successful aspect of the exhibition are the videos of Cunningham’s work, which don’t come close to approximating the experience of performance and don’t stand on their own in the same way as some of the performance accoutrements. There’s a whole room of dance for the camera created by Charles Atlas that, at best, fails to capture the magic of live performance, and, at worst, is quite gimmicky in their experimentation with tawdry special effects.

Robert Rauschenberg, “décor for Minutiae” (1954/1976) (photo courtesy the Walker Art Center, Merce Cunningham Dance Company Collection)

To the Walker’s credit, the live performances they’ve lined up in conjunction with the exhibition, really help round it out. On opening night, I watched one of four half-hour pieces performed by four former company members. Performed against the backdrop of a giant, multi-colored abstract decor, designed by Robert Rauschenberg, the dancers realized what Cunningham used to call “Events”, which were drawn from a variety of Cunningham’s works. Arranged and staged by Andrea Weber, the “Event” I saw was accompanied by local musicians Nick Gaudette, a bassist, and vocalist Mankwe Ndosi.

As expected, the staging was precise, intricate, with the performers like perfectly crafted sculptures that moved in and out of each other. The virtuosity of the dancers, the specificity of each living movement dazzled me, but what really struck me was the sense of improvisation. Even with each dancer’s meticulous form, each moment was surprising.

Most stunning of all was the relationship between the movement and the accompanying music. For the most part, the two elements went in different directions, but met at certain moments, where Ndosi’s guttural vocalizations seemed in perfect accord with what was happening with the bodies of the dancers. As Ndosi’s improvisational sounds reached a fever pitch, so did the energy of the dancers, and vice versa; they also found the lulls of quieter moments together.

In addition to the performances featuring Warhol’s choreography, I also watched the durational in-gallery performances created by Maria Hassabi: a group of dancers, dressed in plaid, stripes and other loud prints, languorously move at glacial speed from one lounging position to the next.

The Walker’s Performing Arts Curator Philip Bither says the museum didn’t want to lose sight of Cunningham’s primary form of expression, the body. By commissioning additional dance makers: Maria Hassabi, Beth Gill, and the duo Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener who, “like Cunningham, were cutting new paths, making abstract, formal artistic expression, using the body and using choreography,” Bither says.

Both the newly commissioned “Events” by former MCDC company members, and the presence of the Maria Hassabi dancers throughout the galleries served as reminders of why Merce Cunningham is important. It’s his work as a choreographer that earned him a place in history. Even though some wonderful and luminous objects from his collaborations remain, part of what he created can never fully be realized again.

A performance of “Not a Moment Too Soon” created by Trevor Carlson and Ferran Carvajal (photo by Yoana Miguel)

Along with the Cunningham exhibit, the Cowles Center for Dance and Performing Arts gave “Not a Moment Too Soon,” (2017) its North American debut. The piece was created by Trevor Carlson (Cunningham’s companion for the last 15 years of his life and the executive director of MCDC), in collaboration with Spanish Director Ferran Carvajal. The work focused on Cunningham’s impulses as an artist, when as his body declined and he was no longer to choreograph by creating dances with his own body, he came to rely on technology. Cunningham thereby discovered that he could create video footage as an artistic outlet, some of which is shown in the piece. While not great art itself, the footage demonstrates Cunningham’s intense need to create art with whatever tools were at his disposal. (There’s a poignant cat video that serves as the highlight of the show.)

In the work, Carlson said that Cunningham wanted MCDC to shutter after his death because he had no interest in it becoming a “museum company.” So, what would Cunningham think of Common Time, and its many recreations of his work and dance? Perhaps he would be grumpy about it, but the homage demonstrates the impact Cunningham has had on artists that followed him, creating a legacy of abstract expression of the body.

CCN-Ballet de Lorraine performing “Fabrications” (photo by Bernard Prudhomme)

Meanwhile, at Northrop Auditorium, the Walker and Northrop co-presented CCN-Ballet de Lorraine performance of two Cunningham works, including “Fabrications,” which Cunningham originally performed in at Northrop in 1987, and “Sounddance”, from 1975. With both pieces, I was again impressed with the unexpected movement, the inspiring nature of Cunningham’s work, but was also moved by something I never thought I’d feel watching a Cunningham dance: emotion.

Portrait of Merce Cunningham at the Walker Art Center 2008 (photo by Cameron Wittig, courtesy Walker Art Center)

You see, Cunningham was in fact responding to the world, though his methods of abstraction and spontaneity don’t create obvious messages. It was a realization I could only have by watching the performances live.

Unlike a painting or sculpture — which lives far beyond the moment of its creation or even beyond the life of the artist — performance is momentary. The ephemerality of performance is part of its electric embrace. Whether it’s dance, theater, or live music, performance lives and dies in the exchange between performer and audience. Vestiges might be left behind: a score, a script, a costume, a recording, but all of those things are simply pieces that only realize their full potential in the life of the performance event.

Thus building an exhibition around the visual objects and sounds created for the performance of Merce Cunningham’s choreography, along with photographs, recordings, and ephemera that capture the work of the great 20th-century dance innovator, will never achieve the experience of being there.

Merce Cunningham: Common Time is a retrospective exhibition organized by the Walker Art Center that is appearing concurrently at the Walker (725 Vineland Place, Minneapolis, MN) through July 30, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (220 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL) through April 30.

The post Basking in the Legacy of Merce Cunningham at His Retrospective appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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[beatrice-otter]

I know there are a fair number of Dessa fans in fandom, seeing how many fanvids use her music to vid to.  However, there’s a piece of hers that I really like that people may not know, because it was only available in the limited-edition version of Parts of Speech that you got if you pre-ordered the actual CD, or if you have since bought the CD at one of her live shows.  However, I love it, and so I wanted to share it.  The album version is here:

The music version at the top is a version that was performed on a Minnesota Public TV special that Dessa did--it’s expanded, with another artist joining her, and I liked it so much I downloaded the concert off youtube and cut it down so I could have that version of it.

Normally, i would never post such a thing--I firmly believe in paying artists for their work--but there’s no way to buy this song unless you happen to see Dessa in concert before she runs out of copies.  Anyway, hope you enjoy.

[jkestonmcad]

Sound / Simulacra: Mankwe Ndosi On Wednesday April 25th, 2018, 8:30pm at Jazz Central Studios Sound / Simulacra will commence featuring…

[rscspokenword]

Sometimes my smile it hides me. Sometimes my smile it frees me. Sometimes my smile is my WEAPON.

Mankwe Ndosi

[tcdailyplanet]

On Thursday, January 10, Caroline Smith & the Goodnight Sleeps played at The Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis with Mankwe Ndosi opening. 

[yawsmusic]

Work on the Sabbath featuring The Bridge & Gira Dahnee Stony Island Arts Bank 11.12 | 430p - 7p • Join us for an evening of improvisation and exploration with The Bridge, a musical exchange between France and Chicago instigated by clarinetist, Sylvain Kassap. The ninth installation of this collaboration, Epiphany, lands itself at the Stony Island Arts Bank this Sunday with special guest Gira Dahnee @giradahnee • Mike Ladd – improvised poetry/lyrics, EMS Synthi Mankwe Ndosi – voice, poetry, story, texture Sylvain Kassap – clarinets, electronics Dana Hall – drums, cymbals • @thedjyomamaluv - groove captain *we will begin at 430p (at Stony Island Arts Bank)