OFJS Friday Special! Sahba Sizdahkhani/ Chuck Johnson/ DunkelpeK
Join us for a special Friday Night installment of Oakland Freedom Jazz Society! An extension of our weekly Monday night live music series!
On September 29th we will host a special showcase at Studio Grand for touring composer/instrumentalist, Sahba Sizdahkhani, with support from Oakland based Chuck Johnson and Dunkelpek.
Sahba Sizdahkhani
--------------------------------------------------
Iranian multi-instrumentalist Sahba Sizdahkhani serves as a unique crossroad of East meets West. Inspired heavily by 1960’s free-jazz and Persian Traditional Music, he constantly channels the fire-energy and longing for connectivity that these two stormy histories represent.
Sahba has recorded with artists on the imprints of Dischord Records, Southern Lord, and Drag City, and has appeared live with Peter Brotzmann, Devendra Banhart, Miho Hatori (Cibo Matto), Marc Ribot, Eli Keszler, and Mary Halvorson. He completed a Bachelor of Arts at The University of Maryland in Art History and Archeology as well as in Jazz Performance at Berklee College of Music.
For this performance of 104-string santour and percussion, he will be channeling slow, long-form compositions coupled with primeval pulse-rhythms, based on the ancient spiritual ceremony of Sama: a ritual used by the Persian Sufi Dervishes to achieve a state of spiritual trance and numbness. Recent studies of the Sufis by scientists have found that, while under the influence of these rhythms, the chemistry of the brain changes causing a shift from anger to sadness to kindness to joy.
http://sahbasizdahkhani.com/
Chuck Johnson
--------------------------------------------------
Chuck Johnson is a composer and musician residing in Oakland, CA. He approaches his work with an ear towards finding faults and instabilities that might reveal latent beauty, with a focus on guitar, experimental electronics, minimalism and soundtrack composition. Recordings of his work have been published by VDSQ, Trouble in Mind, Scissor Tail, Merge, and Three Lobed, among others.
Balsams, Johnson’s first album dedicated solely to the pedal steel guitar, is an immersive collection of meditations that highlights the instrument’s underutilized capacity for subtlety and beauty. The music is at once ambient and dramatic, swelling with unexpected melodies that emerge from the tonal ether.
DunkelpeK
--------------------------------------------------
DunkelpeK is Japanese born percussionist
Nava Dunkelman and Canadian American guitarist
Jakob Pek. This iconoclastic duo creates an experimental improvised music for the new century. Visceral, cathartic and contemplative, DunkelpeK’s sound transfigures and hybridizes many musics of the world, offering listeners a holistic exploration into the very essence of musical experience.
https://dunkelpek.bandcamp.com/
Doors 9:00PM / Show 9:30PM
$10 - $20 Suggested Donation
Videos featuring musicians playing at this event
Fred Frith and Nava Dunkelman