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Andrew Oliver Kora Band

Andrew Oliver, piano and keyboard
Andrew Oliver is a pianist and composer from Portland, Oregon. He grew up playing classical music but switched to jazz at the beginning of high school, when he began taking lessons from Randy Porter. He lived in New Orleans from 2002 until 2005, where he studied jazz at Loyola University and performed as both a bandleader and sideman. After evacuating from Hurricane Katrina in the summer of 2005, he returned to Portland and finished his studies in music and French at Portland State University. He has studied with Matt Lemmler, Michael Pellera, and Darrell Grant, and performed with many musicians in New Orleans and Portland including Devin Phillips, Irvin Mayfield, and Glen Moore. He is currently active in many groups including his own sextet, the Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble, which he recently co-founded, and Devin Phillips’ group New Orleans Straight Ahead.

Kane Mathis, kora and guitar
At 16 years old, after hearing many African records from all over the continent, Kane felt a strong interest in pursuing West African music and did so by incorporating the styles into his solo acoustic guitar playing. Just before the first year of his education at the Lawrence University Conservatory, Kane procured a 21-string West African harp from an American kora player, David Gilden. After his first year at Lawrence, Kane had the opportunity to travel to the birthplace of Kora, The Gambia, to study with the Jobarteh family, one of the country’s most famous musical families. There, in the same compound that had produced three generations of the Gambia’s most famous musicians, Kane would start his new musical education. Surprisingly, the father of the compound, Malamini Jobarteh, oversaw Kane’s education himself. This study resulted in diplomas and certificates of recognition from Malamini Jobarteh, The Gambian minister of culture, and the President of the Gambia. Kane began to get regular radio play in The Gambia starting in 1999. Subsequent trips have found Kane headlining concerts organized by the American ambassador to The Gambia, performing with his Gambian trio on national television, and performing at the first annual Gambian heritage festival.

Chad McCullough, trumpet
Once again making his home in Seattle, Chad has toured the world playing both trumpet and piano. He has shared the stage with Jay Thomas, Claudio Roditi, Marc Seales, Thomas Marriott, Ingrid Jensen, Bob Florence, Allen Vizzutti, and several others. The 2002 winner of the ‘Outstanding College Trumpet Soloist’ award from the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Moscow, ID, he has toured the Northwest with his own bands for more than a decade. Working as a soloist, lead player, and chamber musican, Chad keeps an active performance schedule in many varieties of music. He is also in high demand as an educator, and frequently speaks about jazz music and the trumpet to students of all ages, giving clinics at high schools and colleges throughout the country. His private students maintain a high level of excellence and have recieved many honors at district, state, and national competitions.

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Seattle Times - Andrew Oliver Kora Band: A Fresh, Old Sound Breaks New Ground

Seattle Times - Andrew Oliver Kora Band: A Fresh, Old Sound Breaks New Ground

Source: Seattle Jazz Scene

CD Release Party at The Jewelbox Theater (Rendevouz Restaurant & Bar, 2322 Second Ave., Seattle; $12 (206-441-5823 or jewelboxtheater.com). Why are there no new musical instruments? It’s as if the electric guitar was the ultimate innovation, the last nail in the coffin of music’s social supremacy. If fresh organic sounds are an endangered species, then Kane Mathis is Greenpeace. Mathis plays the kora, a 21-stringed West African harplike instrument made from a gourd wrapped in cow skin — and the ...

"... one of the better world-music releases to come out of the Northwest all year."
- Seattle Weekly

"...Oliver’s Seattle-based ensemble... transcends mere exoticism"
- Willamette Week

"Modest but mesmerizing, it’s as novel and agreeable a sound as you’ve never heard."
- Seattle Times

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Just 4 U

Self Produced
2009

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Cascades

OA2 Records
0

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Over-Caffeinated and Under-Fed

From: Cascades
By Andrew Oliver Kora Band

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