African Drumming & Dance
This year our concert focuses on the idea of competing modernities across the globe; how modern traditions based in the African continent are continually adapting to the present, allowing for reinterpretation here, in our own lived moment. We will perform dance/drumming/songs rooted in Centrafrique (BaAka) and Ghana/Togo (Ewe), melding traditional material with our own sensibilities. Our guest artist is Yawo Attivor, electric bassist and band leader who plays dance music steeped in traditional rhythms, and we will play with the intersections of ideas of old and new, ancestral communions and progressive movements. Come dance and celebrate the present!
A native of Togo, West Africa, Yawo started his musical career at the "Ecole Experimentale de musique" of Lome where he studied flute, classical guitar, and electric bass. As the leader of the high school band he formed with his brother and sister, Yawo Attivor developed a talent for composing and arranging music that embraces both the traditions of the Ewe tribe and the influences of the western civilization. This multicultural approach to songwriting led to the creation of the MIMI-Togo (International Movement for Innovative music-Togo branch) which Yawo directed until he left Togo in 1992 as a result of political turmoil in his motherland. In 1993, Yawo joined the international organization Up With People, traveling the U.S. and Europe, promoting peace and understanding among the citizens of the world. After Up with People, Yawo, his cousin Ro Attivor(aka Ro Bezz), Sarah Agbeto and guitarist Matt Hupton created Doliho, an afropop project that rocked the Midwest with a unique album in the late 90s. After moving to Minneapolis in 2000, Yawo launched a solo career two years later with the album "Celebrate" (Mia du agbe) followed in October 2004 by "Take out the fences", a "refreshingly upbeat" (Minneapolis Star tribune) album that breaks musical barriers with an explosion of afrobeat, afrofunk and reggae. While pursuing his career as a recording artist, Yawo Attivor has also devoted part of his time to music education, presenting various workshops on his favorite topic: Agbadza, a rhythm (and dance) of the Ewe tribe of Togo and Ghana. In 2005, Yawo Attivor was granted a McKnight Fellowship by the American Composers Forum.
Tickets are $10 general public, $5 students, 5 ARTS$ for UVa students and free for those under 10 years. Tickets and can be purchased at the Old Cabell Hall Box Office (434) 924-3984.
