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Photo: Paul Aresu

Pheeroan akLaff (percussion) has performed and recorded compositions for Jazz Quintet, Quartet, Power Trio, and Solo Oratorio. He has also performed and recorded works in Pop, Reggae and Spirituals, as composer and lyricist. His discography as a leader includes House of Spirit: Mirth; 1981, Fits Like A Glove; 1983, Sonogram, 1989, Global Mantras; 1997 and his discography as an accompanist is voluminous.

Pheeroan akLaff’s work continued from his Motown beginnings with Travis Biggs and Dwight Andrews, to relocating East and tempering the music of Wadada Leo Smith, Oliver Lake, Anthony Davis, Michael Gregory, Henry Threadgill, Cecil Taylor, Yosuke Yamashita, and others. This paired him with the New York “Avant-Garde” of the late 1970’s. He articulated a broad range of musical language, in his work with Dewey Redman, Reggie Workman, and the great Andrew Hill. His New York career introduced him to the opportunities to work with several performance artists, of varied disciplines. His drumming is found in the works of Henry Brandt, Don Byron, Marty Ehrlich Sonny Sharrock and many composers who contrast the mainstream. He performed with the Marie Rose Guiraud Dance Company in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire, and studied urban popular music with Frank T. Fairfax, and Fela Anikulapo Kuti of Lagos, Nigeria. Mr. akLaff garners acclaim from his work in Japan of over 20 years with pianist Yosuke Yamashita. They share as a mentor, pianist Cecil Taylor with whom akLaff delivered one of the most historic concerts in New York at Rose Hall last year. (He loves Susana)
www.aklaff.com

Daniel Banks (Director) is on the faculty in the Department of Undergraduate Drama, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University and Co-Founder of DNAWORKS. He has directed and choreographed extensively in the U.S. and abroad, including the African premiere of August Wilson’s Jitney for the National Theatre of Uganda and the Eastern European premiere of Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics for the Belarussian National Drama Theatre. In 2006, he was a Culture Connect Envoy through the U.S. Consulate in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he directed a workshop production of the Hip Hop Theatre play Blurring Shine by U.S. playwright Zakiyyah Alexander at the Market Theatre, where he also led a Hip Hop Theatre Lab. At NYU he has directed numerous productions for UG Drama, including The Cradle Will Rock and Avenue X and he adapted and directed an adaptation of Detained, the prison memoirs of the influential Kenyan dissident and writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o, for the inauguration of the Department of Art and Public Policy. This year he has worked with Kompany Malakhi on their new piece Boxin’ touring the United Kingdom and will soon premiere Tap Into Peace at Playhouse Square in Cleveland.

Banks is also the Founder and Director of the Hip Hop Theatre Initiative. Under his leadership, HHTI has led workshops and programming across the U.S., in Ghana, including in the Buduburam Liberian Refugee camp, at the Sibikwa Community Theatre (East Rand) and in several townships in South Africa, and in three cities in Oaxaca State, Mexico – all dedicated to youth empowerment and leadership through Hip Hop and the arts. He is editing a forthcoming anthology of Hip Hop Theatre plays for University of Michigan Press and had an article published in American Theatre magazine in November 2008 on HHTI’s work in Ghana (“How Hiplife Theatre Was Born in Ghana”). He is a recipient of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors, is a member of the steering committee of Theatre Without Borders, and serves on the Advisory Boards of the Hip Hop Association (H2A) and No Passport Press. He is a consultant on “From Homer to Hip Hop” for “Page and Stage,” the National Endowment of the Humanities/Aquila Theatre Company’s national libraries project and for the Arts Council of England’s Decibel Showcase promoting diversity in the arts.

Gareth Farr (Composer, piano, marimba) studied compostion, orchestration and electronic music at Auckland University and was a regular player with the Auckland Philharmonia and the Karlheinz Company. Further study followed at Victoria University, Wellington, where he became known for his exciting compositions, often using the Indonesian gamelan. He played frequently as part of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra before going to the Eastman School in Rochester, New York, where he graduated Master of Music. At 25, Gareth became Chamber Music New Zealand’s youngest composer-in-residence. Since then, his works have been performed by the NZSO, the Auckland Philharmonia, the Wellington Sinfonia, the New Zealand String Quartet and a variety of other professional musicians.

He had four commissioned works performed during the 1994 International Festival of the Arts: “Lilith’s Dream of Ecstasy,” solo pieces for Michael Houstoun (piano) and Alexa Still (Principal Flute, NZSO) respectively, and a ballet for Douglas Wright. His “From the Depths Sound the Great Sea Gongs” was premiered at the NZSO’s 50th Anniversary Gala Concert in March 1997. (Part I of this work was premiered under the baton of Sir Neville Marriner with the NZSO in 1996.) More recently, Gareth has had two CDs of his music released on the Trust label; the NZSO played his “Te Papa” at the opening of the Museum of New Zealand.

Clark Gayton (trombone) was born in Seattle, Washington, January 18th, 1963. He started playing local gigs in Seattle by the time was 13 years old, playing at churches, dances and house parties. Gayton attended High School at the famed Garfield High, and actually started the Big Band Jazz program before master instructor Clarence Acox made the idea into an actual part of the curriculum.

After graduating high school in 1981, Gayton received a scholarship to attend the Berklee School of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, from which he graduated in 1984. Gayton then moved to Oakland briefly before moving to New York in 1987.

Since living in New York, Clark has worked with some of the finest jazz musicians in the world, such as Charles Tolliver, Lionel Hampton, McCoy Tyner, The Duke Ellington Orchestra, the Mingus Big Band, Ted Nash and Odeon, Ben Allison and Medicine Wheel, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra, t he Count Basie Orchestra Nancy Wilson, and Ray Charles. Clark recently toured with Bruce Springsteen as part of the Seeger Sessions band. Clark has recorded or performed with Prince, Rhianna, Brazilian Girls, Steel Pulse, Wyclef Jean, Queen Latifah, Quincy Jones, Sting, Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder, Santana, Maxwell, The Skatalites, and Bad Brains, to name a few. In addition, he is a strong advocate for musicians’ rights and has been a panelist for discussions about the online and independent music industry. His personal projects include three original ensembles (The Epicenter, Explorations in Dub, and The Clark Gayton Little Big Band), and five CD releases under his own label, Ritual LTD.

Toikasin Ghosthorse (Cedarwood Flute), the Lakota musician from Cheyenne River Lakota (Sioux) Nation of South Dakota, storyteller, poet, university lecturer, scholar, essayist and human rights activist, one of the great exponents of the ancient red cedar Lakota flute, plays traditional and contemporary music, using both Indigenous and European instruments. He is a master musician, has played since the age of 3, and is a teacher of magical, ancient and modern sounds. He has been a major figure in preserving and reviving the cedar wood flute tradition and has combined “spoken word” and music in performances since childhood. He has performed world-wide and has been featured at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the United Nations, numerous universities and concerts. He also has a long career in Indigenous rights activism and currently hosts a program on WBAI called “First Voices Indigenous Radio” in New York City. He has currently released a new CD Ksa with the group Ghosthorse.

Peter Kostandelos (Camera, Editor) is a well established executive producer in the New Zealand music scene. Of late he has focused on film and edit. Co-founder and CEO of 2Much Music and 2Much Records, he has made 11 music videos and three albums with the band, Footsouljahs and solo artist Flowz. (You Tube key word: 2muchrecords) He has recently collaborated with film directors Gaylene Preston, Julian Arahanga, and art director Joe Bleakley. The Footsouljahs were founded in1994 and have had a strong influence on the 30 year old Aotearoa/New Zealand hip hop music scene, touring extensively throughout Australasia. They have opened for many international acts including The Fugees, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, The Roots, Black Eyed Peas, Bone Thugs n’Harmony, and Cyprus Hill. Peter has also worked with leading New Zealand artists Mikki Dee, Che Fu, Johnny Chong Nee, Feel Style, Dam Native, Te Kupu, Scribe, 4 Corners, and Fat Freddy’s Drop. Peter established the Adrenalin Youth Performance and Creative Arts Charitable Trust that works with youth at risk in Wellington. He is currently living and working in New York City.

Susana Lei‘ataua (Original Concept, Writer, Camera, vocals) is an actor and a writer. She is the recipient of the New Zealand Fulbright Senior Scholar Award for 2008. Born inWellington, New Zealand Susana is from generations of orators and story-tellers. She is part of the Lei‘ataua and Taupa‘u families of Manono, Samoa and her mother’s family has been in the Pacific for 200 years sailing from England, Ireland and Scotland. She was Rossignol in Marat Sade at the Tribeca Lab, Lysistrata in Lysistrata in Washington Square Park; and under the banner Musumusu performed musical collaborations in downtown theaters and lofts including Lost in the Apple with members of the Groove Collective. Her solo dramatic poem through windows was produced by the A/P/A Institute in 2003 and as part of the New York Pacifika Film Festival in 2004. A recording of it is archived at Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa - the National Library of New Zealand. Lei‘ataua was in the Aotearoa/New Zealand delegation at the 9th Pacific Arts Festival in Palau in 2004. She has been a journalist, radio newsreader, talk show host, television presenter, producer, editor; a communications consultant for New Zealand government agencies and the Royal New Zealand Ballet, and project manager of the Ngai Tahu Leadership Programme.

Edward A. Malave (viola) was born on Long Island, New York where he began his musical training on the viola under Irene Stitt. He has won many awards and competitions, participated in various summer music festivals such as Meadowmount (NYS), Bowdoin (Maine), Killington (VT), Hart Summer School of Music (CT), The International Music Festival of Costa Rica, (San Jose, Costa Rica) and the International Music Festival of Evian (France), studied privately and coached with renowned teachers such as Robert Mann, Lillian Fuchs, Felix Galamir, Roland Vamos, Margaret Pardee, Albert Fuller, Patinka Kopec and Arnold Steinhardt as well as performed with orchestras, chamber music and in recitals extensively throughout the USA, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Canada, the South Pacific, as well as Central and South Americas. He holds both Bachelors and Masters degrees in viola performance from The Juilliard School receiving the William Gluck fellowship, where he studied under the late William Lincer.

Malave has performed on numerous Broadway and off-Broadway productions and has performed for President Bill Clinton (Israel Forum Policy, Mideast Peace Talks) as well as other dignitaries worldwide and at the United Nations. He has recently performed at St. Patricks Cathedral and at Yankee Stadium in the historic visit to the United States of Pope Benedict the 16th. He has also performed with Placido Domingo, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, and Maestro Kurt Masur just to name a few. He was a founding member of the Arethusa String Quartet, has done 3 tours with the Juilliard Strings on board the Q E 2 and can be heard on cd with the young virtuoso group, The Se Jong Soloists (1995). He has also added to performing and recording regularly with popular artists such as U2’s Bono (Net. Aid at Giants Stadium, N.J.), Sting and Billy Joel at Carnegie Hall (Rainforest Foundation) Barry White, Sir Elton John at Radio City Music Hall (with The Juilliard and Royal Academy of Music Orchestras), Clay Aiken, Barbara Cook, Chantel, Michael Bolton, Vanessa Williams Craig Anderson (Wake Up in New York MTV video), A.R. Rahman (tour of U.S.A. and Canada), Patti LuPone (Songs From the Heart in Lincoln Center and tour of U.S.A.), dj/producer Victor Calderone (Caligula and Provacature ) Ted Mason of Modern English, Bryin Dale, Derek Rush and with Bryan Adams on MTV’s: “unplugged.”