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Global Mashup: Ghana Meets New Orleans
Aug 19, 2023
In-person tickets: $20 General Admission / $15 Members, Seniors, & Students w/ID
$25 Day of Show
Dance Workshop: 7:00 PM
Concert: 8:00 PM
Flushing Town Hall no longer requires visitors or performers to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19; wearing a mask is optional but recommended. For more details, please visit www.flushingtownhall.org/covid-safety
Can't make it in person? Watch this show from anywhere in the world! Get virtual access with a Culture Stream subscription ($5/month - cancel anytime) to get LIVE and ON-DEMAND access to watch whenever you want!
We’re mashing up two cultures on one stage with an open dance floor. Starting with dance lessons, each band plays a set, then the two meet and jam. Bring your dancing shoes!
Kotoko Brass will provide the classic African and Caribbean styles of highlife, afrobeat, and reggae.
Mona’s Hot Five with Queen Esther’s events have been described by The Wall Street Journal as “...Ground zero for an emerging late-night scene of young swing and traditional jazz players…” and will bring that to the Flushing Town Hall stage.
About the Artists:
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Inspired by the traditional drum rhythms of Ghana, Kotoko Brass has created a unique, joyful, and improvisational style of West African dance music described by the Boston Globe as “propulsive, infectious party music.” The drums provide the heart and soul of Kotoko Brass — merging syncopated African percussion polyrhythms with hard-hitting dance grooves on the drumset. The horns blend traditional sounds of New Orleans with the famous West African brass band sound heard from Ghana to Nigeria. A celebratory and energetic synthesis of music, people, and cultures from around the world, Kotoko Brass features musicians from Ghana, Antigua, Japan, and the United States playing together in unity. Kotoko Brass has shared the stage with Angelique Kidjo, Red Baraat, Femi Kuti, the California Honeydrops, Vieux Farka Toure, Innov Gnawa, Take 6, the Boston Pops, Rubblebucket, and more.
Bio courtesy of https://www.creativeground.org/profile/kotoko-brass.
Mona’s Hot Five with Queen Esther, led by clarinetist Dennis Lichtman, has been the house band since 2007 at the famed Tuesday night jam sessions at Mona’s Bar. The jam session is New York City’s epicenter of New Orleans-style jazz and swing.
After a modest beginning, the session grew to become the central meeting point in town for younger musicians interested in early-era jazz, pros cutting loose after their evening gigs, new musicians in town, touring acts passing through, jazz veterans, Grammy winners, college music students, and a diverse, packed house of onlookers. 2023 marks the 16th anniversary of the weekly East Village happening.
Mona’s Hot Five, with Lichtman at the helm, has appeared in countless concerts and festivals outside of Mona’s, including two appearances on Good Morning America, features on NBC’s The Blacklist and HBO’s The Plot Against America, and a co-hosting role in the “Jam Session of the Millennium” twice at Symphony Space. The 2-disc set Tuesdays At Mona’s (on Triple Treble Music) contains a DVD featuring the documentary of the same title, produced by Hi Tide Films, and a live CD recorded in a single night at Mona’s, featuring Mona’s Hot Four plus twenty guest musicians.
Bio Courtesy of www.dennislichtman.com/monas.
Described as “...the unknown queen of Americana…” (Feedback, Norway), “..a Black Lucinda Williams…” and a “...brutal, original, explosive singer…” (Vanity Fair, Spain), Queen Esther’s creative output musically is the culmination of several critical Southern elements, not the least of which are years of recording and touring internationally as frontwoman for several projects with her mentor, harmolodic guitar icon James “Blood” Ulmer, including a stint in his seminal band Odyssey. Raised in Atlanta, GA and embedded in Charleston, SC’s Lowcountry – a region with African traditions and Black folkways that span centuries and constantly inform her work – Queen Esther uses her Southern roots as a touchstone to explore cultural mores in America, deconstructing well-worn historical narratives while creating a reclamation-driven soundscape.
Queen Esther's pandemic album Rona (released June 2, 2023) is climbing the folk charts while garnering airplay and reviews worldwide as her 2018 TED Talk about the true origins of country and bluegrass steadily reverberates throughout the Americana community.
Coming in 2024: Things Are Looking Up, a jazz album of original songs and Lady Day's lost classics, and the alt-Americana album Blackbirding.
In-person tickets: $20 General Admission / $15 Members, Seniors, & Students w/ID
$25 Day of Show
Dance Workshop: 7:00 PM
Concert: 8:00 PM
Flushing Town Hall no longer requires visitors or performers to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19; wearing a mask is optional but recommended. For more details, please visit www.flushingtownhall.org/covid-safety
Can't make it in person? Watch this show from anywhere in the world! Get virtual access with a Culture Stream subscription ($5/month - cancel anytime) to get LIVE and ON-DEMAND access to watch whenever you want!
We’re mashing up two cultures on one stage with an open dance floor. Starting with dance lessons, each band plays a set, then the two meet and jam. Bring your dancing shoes!
Kotoko Brass will provide the classic African and Caribbean styles of highlife, afrobeat, and reggae.
Mona’s Hot Five with Queen Esther’s events have been described by The Wall Street Journal as “...Ground zero for an emerging late-night scene of young swing and traditional jazz players…” and will bring that to the Flushing Town Hall stage.
About the Artists:
Inspired by the traditional drum rhythms of Ghana, Kotoko Brass has created a unique, joyful, and improvisational style of West African dance music described by the Boston Globe as “propulsive, infectious party music.” The drums provide the heart and soul of Kotoko Brass — merging syncopated African percussion polyrhythms with hard-hitting dance grooves on the drumset. The horns blend traditional sounds of New Orleans with the famous West African brass band sound heard from Ghana to Nigeria. A celebratory and energetic synthesis of music, people, and cultures from around the world, Kotoko Brass features musicians from Ghana, Antigua, Japan, and the United States playing together in unity. Kotoko Brass has shared the stage with Angelique Kidjo, Red Baraat, Femi Kuti, the California Honeydrops, Vieux Farka Toure, Innov Gnawa, Take 6, the Boston Pops, Rubblebucket, and more.
Bio courtesy of https://www.creativeground.org/profile/kotoko-brass.
Mona’s Hot Five with Queen Esther, led by clarinetist Dennis Lichtman, has been the house band since 2007 at the famed Tuesday night jam sessions at Mona’s Bar. The jam session is New York City’s epicenter of New Orleans-style jazz and swing.
After a modest beginning, the session grew to become the central meeting point in town for younger musicians interested in early-era jazz, pros cutting loose after their evening gigs, new musicians in town, touring acts passing through, jazz veterans, Grammy winners, college music students, and a diverse, packed house of onlookers. 2023 marks the 16th anniversary of the weekly East Village happening.
Mona’s Hot Five, with Lichtman at the helm, has appeared in countless concerts and festivals outside of Mona’s, including two appearances on Good Morning America, features on NBC’s The Blacklist and HBO’s The Plot Against America, and a co-hosting role in the “Jam Session of the Millennium” twice at Symphony Space. The 2-disc set Tuesdays At Mona’s (on Triple Treble Music) contains a DVD featuring the documentary of the same title, produced by Hi Tide Films, and a live CD recorded in a single night at Mona’s, featuring Mona’s Hot Four plus twenty guest musicians.
Bio Courtesy of www.dennislichtman.com/monas.
Described as “...the unknown queen of Americana…” (Feedback, Norway), “..a Black Lucinda Williams…” and a “...brutal, original, explosive singer…” (Vanity Fair, Spain), Queen Esther’s creative output musically is the culmination of several critical Southern elements, not the least of which are years of recording and touring internationally as frontwoman for several projects with her mentor, harmolodic guitar icon James “Blood” Ulmer, including a stint in his seminal band Odyssey. Raised in Atlanta, GA and embedded in Charleston, SC’s Lowcountry – a region with African traditions and Black folkways that span centuries and constantly inform her work – Queen Esther uses her Southern roots as a touchstone to explore cultural mores in America, deconstructing well-worn historical narratives while creating a reclamation-driven soundscape.
Queen Esther's pandemic album Rona (released June 2, 2023) is climbing the folk charts while garnering airplay and reviews worldwide as her 2018 TED Talk about the true origins of country and bluegrass steadily reverberates throughout the Americana community.
Coming in 2024: Things Are Looking Up, a jazz album of original songs and Lady Day's lost classics, and the alt-Americana album Blackbirding.
