KORA CONCERTO
TUNDE JEGEDE
SONGWRITER: TUNDE JUGEDE
COUNTRY: NIGERIA
ALBUM: STILL MOMENT
LABEL: AFRICAN GUILD RECORDS (???)
GENRE: AFRICAN CLASSICAL MUSIC
YEAR: 2014(???)
The Kora Concerto was written during my time
living in Nigeria. It is in three movements and is influenced by various
musical traditions of West Africa as well as Rodrigo's celebrated guitar
concerto. It loosely follows the structure of that concerto with a medium-tempo
first movement, slow second movement and lively up-tempo finale. Somehow in
this kora concerto I wanted to capture the musical worlds of West Africa and
particularly the Kora whilst remaining true to the classical tradition in much
the same way as Rodrigo was able to do with the Spanish folk influences in his
concerto.
It is a fine balance to maintain integrity in
two traditions at once and I hope this piece has managed to do this
successfully. Creating a kora concerto that can also be played by a traditional
kora player is something that I have wanted to do for many years.
Tunde Jegede (born 28 January 1972) is a composer
and multi-instrumentalist in contemporary classical, African and pop music, who
is of Nigerian descent and born in England
and as a child travelled to Africa to learn the art of the kora. He is a
producer-songwriter and has worked across several genres both as a performer
(cello, kora, piano and percussion) and producer. He is a master kora
player, and specializes in the West African classical music tradition which
dates from the period of Sundiata.
His sister is Sona Jobarteh, who is
the first female kora virtuoso to come from a griot
family. His father is Nigerian artist Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede.
Tunde Jegede was born in London
in 1972 to a Nigerian father and English mother (of Irish descent - the
painter/filmmaker Galina Chester). His father Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede was
artist-in-residence at North London's Keskidee
Centre, Britain's first Black Arts Centre, where Tunde's
appreciation of African diasporic culture was initiated and nurtured. From an
early age he was exposed to resident and visiting artists who worked in a
multi-disciplinary mode, including Bob
Marley, Walter
Rodney, Edward
Brathwaite, Angela
Davis and Linton Kwesi Johnson.
It was here that his path as an artist began.
Jegede's apprenticeship in African music
began in 1978 and was further developed in 1982 when he first went to The
Gambia to study the ancient griot tradition of West Africa,
with Amadu Bansang Jobarteh, Master of the Kora (West African harp-lute). The
Jobarteh family are one of five principal musician families within this
hereditary oral tradition, which dates back to at least the 13th century. Jegede's
appreciation of Western Classical music began with his grandfather's love of Bach
and by observing his work as a church organist.
Tunde also studied cello from the age of
eight, and over the years was taught by people from the Classical world,
including Alfia Bekova, Elma de Bruyne, Joan
Dickson and Raphael
Wallfisch at the Purcell
School and later the Guildhall School of Music.
In 1988 Jegede became fascinated with jazz
and worked and toured with ex-members of the Jazz
Warriors founded by Courtney
Pine and Cleveland
Watkiss. Jegede formed his own jazz ensemble, The Jazz
Griots, with the purpose of exploring the connections between African and
African diasporic forms of music.
In 1995, a BBC TV documentary called Africa I
Remember was done on Tunde Jegede's music and focused on his orchestral work.
In this programme, he performed new compositions alongside the London Sinfonietta,
which was conducted by Markus
Stenz.
Over the years, Jegede has kept his creative
diversity intact by working closely with singers, vocalists, and spoken-word
artists from a wide range of traditions, including opera, pop, R'n'B, reggae,
hip hop, and jazz. In 2002, he started ACM Productions with the primary goal of
creating accessible quality productions across a small spectrum of genres,
namely: Urban, Pop, Classical and jazz.
The Kora Concerto was written during my time
living in Nigeria. It is in three movements and is influenced by various
musical traditions of West Africa as well as Rodrigo's celebrated guitar
concerto. It loosely follows the structure of that concerto with a medium-tempo
first movement, slow second movement and lively up-tempo finale.
Somehow in this kora concerto I wanted to
capture the musical worlds of West Africa and particularly the Kora whilst
remaining true to the classical tradition in much the same way as Rodrigo was
able to do with the Spanish folk influences in his concerto.
It is a fine balance to maintain integrity in
two traditions at once and I hope this piece has managed to do this
successfully. Creating a kora concerto that can also be played by a traditional
kora player is something that I have wanted to do for many years.
- Tunde Jegede - Kora soloist Renu - tabla
& congas PSAPPHA ENSEMBLE Conrad Marshall - flute Rachael Clegg - oboe Dov
Goldberg - clarinet Sarah Nixon - bassoon Andrew Budden - French horn Tracey
Redfern - trumpet Gemma Beeson - piano Tim Williams - percussion Benedict
Holland - violin Simon Gilks - violin Rose Redgrave - viola Jennifer Langridge
- cello James Manson - double bass Tunde Jegede - Profile Tunde Jegede is a
composer and musician who has been steeped in the traditions of European and
African classical music for the last 30 years. His music has been performed all
over the world in concert halls such as Carnegie Hall (New York), the Royal
Albert Hall (London) and the Basilique (Paris) by international orchestras and
artists including; the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the
London Sinfonietta, the Brodsky Quartet, the Smith Quartet and by the
percussion soloist, Evelyn Glennie. Tunde is also a pioneer of African
Classical Music and has a deep knowledge of traditional music and culture. As
the founder of the African Classical Music Ensemble, Tunde has performed and
recorded with some of Africa's finest artists including Toumani Diabaté, Oumou
Sangaré, Juldeh Camara, Bodé Lawal and the Pan African Orchestra . From an
early age, Tunde was uniquely schooled in both Western and African Classical
Music. He attended the Purcell School of Music, UK's first specialist music
school conservatoire and also studied the music of the Kora (African Harp-Lute)
and the Griot tradition under the Gambian Master of the Kora, Amadu Bansang
Jobarteh, in a hereditary tradition that dates back over 700 years. From this
unusual parallel education, Tunde gained a deep understanding and appreciation
of both forms of music and their distinct legacies, and all these strands and
influences have since informed his music and work as an instrumentalist,
teacher, and international classical composer. His music has since taken him
all over the world and he has written three full-scale operas, twenty symphonic
works and he has worked with over a hundred orchestras and chamber groups.
Tunde has recorded four solo albums including his seminal debut album,
'Lamentation' and 'Still Moment' a meditative album of solo Kora. His new solo
kora and solo cello albums, 'Heritage' and ‘Testimony’ were both released in
2014. In that same year he was appointed Artistic Director of the MUSON
(Musical Society of Nigeria) Centre and School of Music in Lagos, Nigeria where
he is now based and has since established his own concert series, New Horizons.
Postagens
