Jazz at the Chimes - Mo' Rockin Project October 21, 2007

MARY D’ORAZI
EMAIL: mdorazi@lifemarkgroup.com
4499 Piedmont Ave. - Oakland , CA 94611 - Ph: 510/ 228-3218

For immediate release

NORTH AFRICAN AND AMERICAN MUSICIANS EXCHANGING CULTURES AND CREATIVITY.

WHAT: “JAZZ AT THE CHIMES”
Featuring The Mo’ Rockin Project

WHEN: OCTOBER 21 - Sunday 2 pm

WHERE: Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave. Oakland

TICKETS: $10 general admission for concert and reception.

Limited seating.

Purchase tickets at the door. Cash only.

Ticket sales begin at 12:30 pm.

Info/Reservations: 510/ 228-3218

Website: http://www.lifemarkgroup.com/oakland/special_events.asp

*This location is wheelchair accessible.

Oakland - San Francisco – Oakland-based jazz trumpeter, composer, recording artist, educator and bandleader Khalil Shaheed and Moroccan multi-instrumentalist, composer and vocalist Yassir Chadly have combined their extraordinary talents and engaged their musical spirits to create the

Mo’ Rockin Project. The group presents an exotic mix of North African melodies, jazz, hip-hop, cultures and faith. Also featured will be Ron Belcher on bass, Glen Pearson on piano, Richard Howell on sax/vocals, Bouchaib Abdelhadi on percussion/vocals and Deszon Claiborne on drums.

The concert will be followed by an artist reception where the public is invited to meet the musicians, enjoy refreshments and purchase CDs.

“Jazz at the Chimes” is a monthly series sponsored by the Lifemark Group Arts program that features Bay Area talent. Concerts are held at the Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland – a designated City of Oakland Landmark designed by Julia Morgan. The Chapel provides a wonderful visual backdrop and acoustic listening venue for live music in a setting like no other.

Review quotes of “Sahaba” (2006 CD release)

“Chicago-born trumpeter Khalil Shaheed and Casablanca-born oud player and vocalist Yassir Chadly -- both longtime Oakland residents and adherents of Islam -- create a seamless, rhythmically riveting fusion of American jazz and funk and traditional Moroccan music on the debut disc by their Mo'Rockin Project. Shaheed's horn lines, which have a clarity and warmth that recall the work of Hugh Masekela, nicely complement Chadly's microtonal Arabic wails and fast-fingered picking on the lute-like oud.” -- Lee Hildebrand (San Francisco Chronicle)

“This music was handcrafted from traditional Moroccan melodies, and with striking musicianship, salient vision, and immeasurable spirit, celebrates the creative confluence that is Mo’Rockin Project,” according to liner notes. And it’s all good.” – Julia Park (CD Scene)

“A brief description of this music, a synthesis of the sounds and instruments of Moroccan music with the sounds and instruments of American jazz, is almost laughably inadequate. It sounds like so many attempts by decades of music with labels like “fusion,” “exotica,” and “world,” attempts linked by banality, cliche, elitism, and a fast track to becoming The Next Big Thing and its accompanying cash flow by learning a few indigenous licks and working them into indifferent songs. I have contributed to the racks of used record stores with plenty of those recordings. Sahaba is not going to be one of them.” – Dave Tilton (A Different World)
For more press & information: http://www.morockinproject.com