Kahil El’Zabar Ethnic Heritage Ensemble performed at the very first Tampere Jazz Happening in 1982. Now the ensemble returns to the festival for the first time in 42 years!
What’s Happening?
Such a special gift to be free within form to hopefully express something fresh. To come out yourself with a quality statement that says I’m alive, i’m clear about my essence and I’m free to give the best of what I have worked to express. Let it go, be about it, do your thing. You feel me?
Ethnic Heritage Ensemble visited Finland several times from June 1981 to October 1983 and performed at least ten times in clubs, concert halls and festivals. And let’s not forget that Ethnic Heritage Ensemble performed in October 1982 at first-ever Tampere Jazz Happening where you will now return after 42 years! What kind of memories do you have from those visits, about Finland and Finns?
It was in my youth. Ohh, just openness, joy and fun. I met beautiful people. And Finland, it was a new culture. So I learned by checking out and hanging out, I got to meet lots of people at that time. I remember folks really getting into the music which made us feel important. It made us feel what we were doing had a purpose. There was an enthusiasm that was exciting to be around at that time in Finland and other parts of the world for the music. I’m very thankful that in an early development of our band we were hosted by such incredible hosts and the Finnish people. And I’m honored that I was one of the first artists at the original Tampere Happening.
The first three albums of Ethnic Heritage Ensemble were all recorded in Europe – in 1980, 1981 and 1982 – and also released by independent European companies. Were the European audiences especially receptive to your music during those early days of the trio?
We were very excited as young artists to travel in Europe and have dialogue and conversations with people of the community, with many artists, other musicians in the community. Those early recordings are now a part of history. We’ve continued the journey that we began 42 years ago, and I’m so excited to bring this music that I’m doing now based on having such wonderful support for the music early in my career 42 years ago in Finland.
Ethnic Heritage Ensemble’s third album Welcome was recorded in Helsinki on October 1982, just week after your performance at Tampere Jazz Happening, and released later by drummer Edward Vesala on his new label Leo Records. Welcome is rarity since your other saxophonist Light’ Henry Huff was replaced for a while by Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre. Are you still pleased that you managed to record with him, a more experienced musician who had already made a few own albums of his own?
This is all significant history now because it is forty years later and all of the careers of the artists, Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre as well as the great saxophonist and composer Edward Wilkerson Jr. These are very fine musicians, both of them, as well as Light’ Henry Huff. I am thankful of the history I’ve had with such great musicians. I am proud of the music that we have created and the legacy that now has now been recognized for the contributions of that particular music at that particular time.
My belief if to keep moving. So you can see work that I have done 42 years ago that seems to still have relevant significance as well as the work I’m concurrently doing on Spirit Muse Records with much younger musicians. In the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble the journey, the purpose of the music of the compositional sensibilities, the arrangements are all part of a continuum. But I am looking forward to the return to a city and country where one my first recordings was produced.
What’s going to happen? Feel free to improvise!
Improvising is always an exciting quest for me because there is always the possibility of discovery. So in my life I’m constantly looking for discovery.
There are some significant projects. Another live recording is to come out with the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble. I just finished recording and producing a new Ritual Trio recording with saxophonist Ari Brown, Justin Dillard on keyboard and James Saunders on violin. I have recorded many records with the Ritual Trio, so I’m glad after 12 or 13 years to now be coming out with a record with these great musicians. I will be touring a lot in 2025 as I did in 2024. I’m thankful that audiences are recognizing. And asking for me and that I’m actually selling out in cities across the world at this point of my career. And I’m also looking for some times of R&R to relax and breathe so that I can see the opportunities of my performances with greater clarity.
Kahil El’Zabar Ethnic Heritage Ensemble
Sunday 3 November.2024 at 17.30, Pakkahuone
