A leading figure in the world jazz movement, and one who helped shape the Bay Area scene, Peter Apfelbaum forged a dynamic group concept built upon extended improvisational techniques, West African forms and Afro-Caribbean grooves. His viscerally exhilarating ten piece Hieroglyphics band, now 30 years strong, is “positively fire-spitting” (Guardian, UK).

This performance is funded in part by the Doris Duke Foundation/Chamber Music America New Works: Creation and Presentation Program.

The New Groove Lounge, an informal nightclub at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum, offers a bar, limited seating, and the best new music.

Assuming his traditional role as a griot within a nontraditional context, Abdoulaye Diabate sings a narrative which interweaves aspects of the different band members’ lives. Singing in the traditional Malian language of Wolof, he reflects on the musicians’ individual characteristics as they take turns improvising over an ever-unfolding tapestry which draws upon each player’s musical background. As the piece evolves, he tells of how their lives came to intersect with one another and about their particular role as part of the musical family that is Hieroglyphics—which, although protean in nature, has endured in one form or another for the last 30 years. —Peter Apfelbaum

Originally from Berkeley, California, multi-instrumentalist/ composer Apfelbaum has been an influential figure in new jazz for two decades. He is best known as the leader of the Hieroglyphics Ensemble, which received a Grammy nomination in 1991 for the album Signs Of Life and helped launch the careers of Joshua Redman, Benny Green, Craig Handy and Steven Bernstein. The current version of the ensemble, the New York Hieroglyphics, released their debut album, It Is Written.

This performance is funded in part by the Doris Duke Foundation/Chamber Music America New Works: Creation and Presentation Program.

Close program notes