Kahil El'Zabar Ethnic Heritage Ensemble celebrated their 50th anniversary on the opening night of Le Guess Who? 2024, commemorating half a century of continuously shifting gears and tempos in the jazz-blues continuum. Listen to, and relive, the full performance below.
The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble was founded by El’Zabar in 1974 originally as a quintet, but was soon paired down to its classic form — a trio, featuring El’Zabar on multi-percussion and voice, plus two horns. It was an unusual format, even by the standards of the outward-bound musicians of the AACM.
“Some people literally laughed at our unorthodox instrumentation and approach. We were considered even stranger than most AACM bands at the time. I knew in my heart though that that this band had legs, and that my concept was based on logic as it pertains to the history of Great Black Music, i.e. a strong rhythmic foundation, innovative harmonics and counterpoint, well-balanced interplay and cacophony amongst the players, strong individual soloist, highly developed and studied ensemble dynamics, an in-depth grasp of music history, originality, fearlessness, and deep spirituality.”
Le Guess Who? Recordings
The publication of this recording is part of Le Guess Who?’s ongoing expansion of the festival’s recordings archive, with 100+ recordings from past editions now freely available online.
This archive contains audio and/or video recordings of performances by Kamilya Jubran, Alan Sparhawk, Stereolab, Tom Skinner, Selda Bağcan, clipping., Aldous Harding, Deerhunter, Art Ensemble of Chicago, The Microphones, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Lightning Bolt, Neneh Cherry, Arooj Aftab, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, and many more.
Captured at TivoliVredenburg's Grote Zaal on Thursday, 7 November 2024.
Audio recording by Lucas Broer; mix by Marc Broer
Photography by Lisanne Lentink
