Featured on National Public Radio’s “All Songs Considered” and “Afropop Worldwide,” Voice of America’s “Music Time in Africa,” Just Plain Folks Music Award Nominee for Best African Album 2006.
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batambira@aol.com |
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A heartfelt and beautiful collaboration between two percussion masters. There’s a meditative yet unmistakably joyful feel throughout the disc, a symbiotic strength that draws equally from Motherland and Diaspora. To put it simply, it’s fantastic. So beautiful and engaging that it totally captivated me. No further written description will do justice to this stunning music—you simply must hear it for yourself.
~Global Rhythm Magazine~
Shona and Santeria/Orisha traditions may be miles apart geographically, even spiritually, but in the hands of Michaels Spiro and Williams, their musics blend beautifully, woven so tightly and harmoniously it's hard to believe they weren't always played together. ….It's boggling to discover that these sounds, from traditions rooted so deeply in Africa, are emerging from a couple of Euro-Americans. Their playing is as beautiful as it is respectful as they play songs about ancestors, nature, and spirit. Any lover of Afro-Cuban music will delight in this highly recommended album.
~“Spin the Globe,” KAOS Radio, Olympia, WA~
That this album succeeds is a tribute to Williams’ & Spiro’s insight and determination to douse the deep currents that connect human music so far beneath the surface of our contemporary cultures. A wonderful chill passes down my spine when the intertwining Shona and Cuban threads merge in these amazing songs. Lively and danceable in spirit, BataMbira also evokes something ancient and ancestral that leaves me surprised and moved.
~Dandemutande~
You’ve got to hear it to believe it! You can hear the power coming through Michael Spiro and Michael Williams, two American musicians who are not afraid to innovate, to use the fruit of their many years of study to think creatively about the African and Afro-Cuban traditions they so deeply respect.
~The Voice of America~
A vital, expressive music capable of casting a hypnotic spell that is a product of Spiro’s and Williams’ diligence in researching their musical sources and their considerable talents as performers.
~Percussive Notes Magazine~
An amazing collaboration. Few musicians anywhere would have the patience to attempt such a task. Congratulations to Spiro, Williams, and all those involved in the complex, revealing BataMbira project.
~World Discoveries~ |
More reviews and sound clips:
dandemutande.org
cdbaby.com/cd/spirowilliams
myspace.com/batambira
Click to View BataMbira PASIC 2007 Concert
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BataMbira
Michael Spiro is an internationally recognized percussionist, recording artist, and educator, known specifically for his work in the Latin music field. He has performed on hundreds of records, co-produced several instructional videos for Warner Bros. Publications (featuring such renowned artists as David Garibaldi, Changuito, Giovanni Hidalgo, and Ignacio Berroa), and produced seminal recordings in the Latin music genre, including Orquesta Batachanga, Grupo Bata-Ketu, and Grupo Ilu-Aña.
Mr. Spiro's recording and performing credits include such diverse artists as David Byrne, Changuito, Ella Fitzgerald, David Garibaldi, Gilberto Gil, Giovanni Hidalgo, Bobby Hutcherson, Dr. John, Bobby McFerrin, Andy Narell, Eddie Palmieri, Carlos Santana, Clark Terry, McCoy Tyner and Charlie Watts. In addition, he has recorded soundtracks to such major motion pictures as "Soapdish," "Henry and June," "Eddie Macon's Run," and "Dragon-The Life of Bruce Lee," and wrote several arrangements for the Tony Award winning Broadway show "BLAST!," which was released on video by PBS in 2002.
He currently resides in San Francisco, California where he is an integral part of the Bay Area music scene. He records and produces with groups throughout the West Coast, and is touring world-wide with his percussion trio "Talking Drums," which he co-leads with David Garibaldi and Jesus Diaz. In June of 1996, his own recording, "Bata-Ketu," was released to international critical acclaim, and debuted on the stage in 2002 with a performance grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. That same year he performed with his own group, "Ara Meji," at the 2002 Monterey Jazz Festival, where he received the Distinguished Achievement Award in Percussion. Most recently, in 2004 he received a Grammy nomination and a California Music Awards nomination for his work as both producer and artist on Mark Levine's Latin-Jazz release, "Isla."
B. Michael Williams is Professor of Music and Director of Percussion Studies at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Active as a performer and clinician in both symphonic and world music, Williams has performed with the Charlotte (NC) Symphony, Lansing (MI) Symphony, Brevard Music Center Festival Orchestra, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and has appeared at four Percussive Arts Society International Conventions. He has written articles for Accent Magazine, South Carolina Musician, and Percussive Notes, and has made scholarly presentations on the music of John Cage and on African music at meetings of the College Music Society and Percussive Arts Society (PASIC).
Dr. Williams is Associate Editor (world percussion) for Percussive Notes magazine. A composer of innovative works for percussion, his "Four Solos for Frame Drums" was the first published composition for the medium. Additional works to his credit include "Three Shona Songs" and "Shona Celebration" for marimba ensemble, "Recital Suite for Djembe," "Tiriba Kan" for solo djembe, "Bodhran Dance," and "Another New Riq," all published by HoneyRock Publications. His book, Learning Mbira: A Beginning...,also published by HoneyRock, utilizes a unique tablature notation for the Zimbabwean mbira dzavadzimu and has been acclaimed as an effective tutorial method for the instrument. |
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