Banner Image: "Light Drops" by Will Folsom
Sovereign hues presents
Every Monday in december 2019
Where: Icehouse - 2528 Nicollet Ave, S Minneapolis, MN 55404
How Much: $20 - Showtime begins at 9 pm
PreSale Tickets: $15 / $20 at the door through Icehouse
PreSale Start: Friday, November 15th
Late Night Open Arrangement Sessions ( 11pm to close ) - 6 musician spots - List opens at Doors
What you will experience…
Great Black Music Mondays are nodes of sonic spiritual nourishment and freedom - freedom of expression and creation. Freedom of form and story. Freedom within the music as a vehicle*. Freedom and rootedness - a resonance connection to sonic ancestry carving more freedom - in and out and through the mainstream of popular music, of commerce. Crafting life and fluidity to seed and deepen bonds across genres and the globe.
Join Mankwe Ndosi and Sovereign Hues Productions for Great Black Music Mondays for the Month of December at Ice House Minneapolis. Mankwe Ndosi, Curator in Residence for December’s Monday Night Jazz series will tend the deep roots of black classical cosmic sound and practice. These five nights combine the soundtracks of Black Women composers past and present, music from five different ensembles of Twin Cities’ exciting musical innovators, with late-night Open Arrangement Sessions. OAS’s (pronounced Oasisz), Ndosi’s variation of the Open Mic, where she will arrange trios from musicians who show up to play. December 23rd will feature acclaimed international cellist/composer/bandleader Tomeka Reid. Produced by Mankwe Ndosi (SY Productions) and Sovereign Hues.
*nod to Nicole Mitchell's quotation, "Jazz is a Globalized African American Freedom Vehicle.
Monday, December 2nd
The music of Alice Coltrane
Featured Artist Line Up:
The Sankofa Zone
-truth maze
-babatunde lea
-Mankwe Ndosi: Your Host!
Photo by: S. Nixon
Mankwe Ndosi is a Minneapolis based Vocalist and Composer working in live sound and performance. She works at connecting personal and societal patterns, and people to our creative spirits, our neighbors, our ancestors, and our earth. Her work braids the black women’s ritual performance legacies of Laurie Carlos and Ntozake Shange with the improvising / compositional galaxies of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) of which she is a member.. Mankwe uses texture, utterance, harmony, rhythm, word, and gesture to make music with artists of all genres, and living beings human, animal and elemental. She performs nationally and internationally and has appeared with Nicole Mitchell, The Give Get Sistet, Transatlantic Amazon Gods, Dee Alexander, Sharon Bridgforth, George Lewis, Medium Zach, Davu Seru, Tomeka Reid, Ananya Dance Theater, Atmosphere, Duriel Harris, and Douglas R. Ewart. Ms. Ndosi borrows the name of this Great Black Music Mondays series from the AACM who’s motto, “Great Black Music: Ancient to the Future” she draws upon to honor energies of now and the magnificence of Black women’s musical composition and leadership.
Heru Truth Maze Harris
WIlliam Harris, aka “Truth Maze” is a cornerstone of the Twin Cities music scene and a major contributor and pioneer of Minneapolis hip hop culture as a drummer, percussionist, rapper, poet, beatboxer, host and event producer. A native of Minneapolis, he was a founding member of Minnesota hip hop pioneers The Micranots, and the I.R.M. Crew. He has taught music in the Mpls public schools since 1991. Contact him at truthmaze1969@gmail.com
Babatunde Lea
Babatunde Lea began drumming at the age of 11. as an adult he would go on to work with the likes of Pharaoh Sanders, Patrice Rushen, as well as creating the Motéma Music label that he founded with Jana Herzen. Says Lea of his work, "I strive to make my compositions functional, which is an African take on the arts. The purpose I try to imbue my music with is that our growth as human beings should strive toward an anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homophobic, egalitarian, democratic universal society and I don't care how many lifetimes it takes to get there! I consider myself an activist as well as a musician and consider myself an 'agent of change.”
every monday in december 2019
Where: Icehouse - 2528 Nicollet Ave, S Minneapolis, MN 55404
How Much: $20 - Showtime begins at 9 pm
PreSale Tickets: $15 / $20 at the door through Icehouse
PreSale Start: Tickets On sale NOW!
Late Night Open Arrangement Sessions : There will be no late night Open Sessions on this night, as our host venue has a previous obligation, but rest assured we will continue with the Open Sessions throughout the rest of the month!
What you will experience…
Great Black Music Mondays are nodes of sonic spiritual nourishment and freedom - freedom of expression and creation. Freedom of form and story. Freedom within the music as a vehicle*. Freedom and rootedness - a resonance connection to sonic ancestry carving more freedom - in and out and through the mainstream of popular music, of commerce. Crafting life and fluidity to seed and deepen bonds across genres and the globe.
Join Mankwe Ndosi and Sovereign Hues Productions for Great Black Music Mondays for the Month of December at Ice House Minneapolis. Mankwe Ndosi, Curator in Residence for December’s Monday Night Jazz series will tend the deep roots of black classical cosmic sound and practice. These five nights combine the soundtracks of Black Women composers past and present, music from five different ensembles of Twin Cities’ exciting musical innovators, with late-night Open Arrangement Sessions. OAS’s (pronounced Oasisz), Ndosi’s variation of the Open Mic, where she will arrange trios from musicians who show up to play. December 23rd will feature acclaimed international cellist/composer/bandleader Tomeka Reid. Produced by Mankwe Ndosi (SY Productions) and Sovereign Hues.
*nod to Nicole Mitchell's quotation, "Jazz is a Globalized African American Freedom Vehicle.
Monday, December 9th
The music of Geri Allen
Featured Artist Line Up:
M4D
-douglas kearney
-douglas r. ewart
-donald washington
-davu seru
-Mankwe Ndosi
Douglas Kearney
Poet/Performer/Librettist Douglas Kearney has published six books, including Buck Studies (Fence Books, 2016), winner of the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Award, the CLMP Firecracker Award for Poetry, and California Book Award silver medalist (Poetry). M. NourbeSe Philip calls Kearney’s collection of libretti, Someone Took They Tongues. (Subito, 2016), “a seismic, polyphonic mash-up.” Kearney’s Mess and Mess and (Noemi Press, 2015), was a Small Press Distribution Handpicked Selection that Publisher’s Weekly called “an extraordinary book.” He has received a Whiting Writer’s Award, a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Cy Twombly Award for Poetry, residencies/fellowships from Cave Canem, The Rauschenberg Foundation, and others. Kearney teaches Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities and lives in St. Paul with his family.
Douglas R Ewart
The polymathic Douglas R. Ewart has been honored for his work as a composer, improvising multi-instrumentalist, conceptual artist, sculptor, mask and instrument designer, builder and more. As an educator, Ewart bridges his kaleidoscopic activities with a vision that opposes today’s divided world by culture-fusing works that aim to restore the wholeness of communities and their members, and to emphasize the reality of the world’s interdependence.
From Kingston, Jamaica, Ewart immigrated to Chicago in 1963. There he studied with the master musicians of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians—an organization he later served as chairman, at different intervals from1979-1987 and into the millennium. He also studied music at VanderCook College of Music, and electronic music at Governors State University.
Ewart is the founder of Arawak Records, is the leader of ensembles such as the Nyahbingi Drum Choir, Quasar, Clarinet Choir, and Douglas R. Ewart & Inventions. He is a designer and creator of instruments and kinetic sonic sculptures that have been exhibited in venues such as Houston’s Contemporary Arts Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry Chicago. “Crepuscule,” his vast periodic conceptual work, is collectively actualized by scores of musicians, dancers, visual artists, poets, capoeira, puppeteers, martial artists, activists, the honoring of elders and more. Ewart’s honors include a U.S. Japan Creative Arts Fellowship, a Bush Artists Fellowship, and an Outstanding Artist Award granted by a former Chicago Mayor, Harold Washington. He is a Professor Emeritus at the School of the Arts Institute of Chicago.
Donald Washington
Reeds player, Musical Director, Composer Donald Washington has music in his blood and Detroit in his soul. He’s led groups including the New Day Blues Band and Bird-Trane-Sco-Now!. He’s brightened stages and Jazz Festivals through Minnesota, Michigan, New York, and around the world. He’s been a dedicated music educator for students of all ages in school and one on one. He’s a member of Imp Ork, AM AM Trio, and has played with artists including Marcus Belgrave, Donald Byrd, Don Cherry, Malachi Favors, Julius Hemphill, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Ernie Watts, Douglas Ewart, J. Otis Powell!, James Carter. He’s also known as Master of Ceremonies with North Minnesapolis’s Capri Big Band.
Davu Seru
Davu Seru is a drummer, improviser and composer. He has worked throughout the United States and France. He is composer and bandleader for the ensembles Motherless Dollar Quarter and No Territory Band and a member of Trio SDS with French musicians Guilluame Seguron and Catherine Delaunay and Black Praxis Band with Chicago-based musicians David Boykin and Eliel Sherman Storey. For the year 2017-2018 he served as the first-ever composer-in-residence at Studio Z in Saint Paul. Davu has also received awards from the Jerome Foundation (2017-18 Composer/Sound Artist Fellow), American Composers Forum (Minnesota Emerging Composer Award), the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (Next Step Fund) and has received commissions from the Zeitgeist Ensemble and Walker Art Center. In addition to his musical pursuits, Davu is a published author and a professor of English and African American literature and culture at Hamline University."
We sincerely hope you will join us on this enlightening journey!
Every monday in december 2019
Where: Icehouse - 2528 Nicollet Ave, S Minneapolis, MN 55404
How Much: $20 - Showtime begins at 8pm
PreSale Tickets: $15 / $20 at the door through Icehouse
PreSale Start: Friday, November 15th
Late Night Open Arrangement Sessions ( 10:30pm to close ) - 6 musician spots - List opens at Doors
What you will experience…
Great Black Music Mondays are nodes of sonic spiritual nourishment and freedom - freedom of expression and creation. Freedom of form and story. Freedom within the music as a vehicle*. Freedom and rootedness - a resonance connection to sonic ancestry carving more freedom - in and out and through the mainstream of popular music, of commerce. Crafting life and fluidity to seed and deepen bonds across genres and the globe.
Join Mankwe Ndosi and Sovereign Hues Productions for Great Black Music Mondays for the Month of December at Ice House Minneapolis. Mankwe Ndosi, Curator in Residence for December’s Monday Night Jazz series will tend the deep roots of black classical cosmic sound and practice. These five nights combine the soundtracks of Black Women composers past and present, music from five different ensembles of Twin Cities’ exciting musical innovators, with late-night Open Arrangement Sessions. OAS’s (pronounced Oasisz), Ndosi’s variation of the Open Mic, where she will arrange trios from musicians who show up to play. December 23rd will feature acclaimed international cellist/composer/bandleader Tomeka Reid. Produced by Mankwe Ndosi (SY Productions) and Sovereign Hues.
*nod to Nicole Mitchell's quotation, "Jazz is a Globalized African American Freedom Vehicle.
Monday, December 16th
The music of Nicole mitchell
Featured Artist Line Up:
solar SISTERS
-Michelle kinney
-faye washington
-laura larada
-mankwe ndosi
Michelle Kinny
Cellist and Composer Michelle Kinney is a lifelong improviser inspired by collaborative cross-genre work and non-traditional contexts for the cello. Improvising with her cello and looping device for daily dance classes as Musician in Residence at the U of MN’s Dance Program, Michelle rides impulse, gesture and gut response, rhythm and light/wave energy.
Michelle’s current projects include Maithree – The Music of Friendship, a collaboration led by South Indian Veena virtuoso Nirmala Rajasekar. Michelle also leads her own band What We Have Here, performing her original compositions; and co-leads the two cellos and tabla/drum quartet Jelloslave which has made two critically acclaimed recordings. A new trio The Styliteswith Chris Cunningham and Nick Gaudette just debuted.
Other Twin Cities music artists requesting Michelle’s cello contributions include Queen Drea, Chastity Brown, George Cartwright, Noah Ophoven Baldwin, Adam Zhaller, Cody McKinney, among many others. She also composes and performs regularly for theater and dance.
Michelle’s work has been recognized and supported by the The McKnight Foundation, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, The Bush Foundation, The Jerome Foundation, MN State Arts Board, NEA/Rockefeller, Harvestworks/Studio Pass, and the American Composers Forum.
While living in NYC for 13 years, Michelle was lucky enough to work with some of the most respected innovators in new music, including the unforgettable Butch Morris, Henry Threadgill, Jason Hwang, Brandon Ross, Stomu Takeishi, Myra Melford, Bun Ching Lam & Shi-Zheng Chen.
Faye Washington
Detroit native, classical and jazz multi-instrumentalist Faye Washington has classed up stages nationally and internationally as a vocalist, flutist, and cellist. She’s worked with Operas, Orchestras, Symphonies, and Theaters in Michigan, Minnesota, New York, DC, and Russia. She’s worked as a soloist, with bands such as Imp Ork, New Day Band, and with artists including Women of the Calabash, Don Cherry, Julius Hemphill, James Newton, Jon Jang, James Carter, and David Murray. Washington is also known throughout the Twin Cities and beyond as a consummate Bandleader, for her commitment to music education, and as the current Director of the Capri Big Band out of North Minneapolis.
Laura Harada
Violinist Laura Harada is an eclectic musician, performing with groups spanning music from western to eastern classical, free jazz, Brazilian forro and choro, folk music from around the world, and the not easily categorizable. She appears with the National Arab Orchestra in Detroit and locally with Amwaaj , Samba Meu, and new trio Ottie the Mink.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Every monday in december 2019
Where: Icehouse - 2528 Nicollet Ave, S Minneapolis, MN 55404
How Much: $20 - Showtime begins at 8 pm
PreSale Tickets: $15 / $20 at the door through Icehouse
PreSale Start: Friday, November 15th
Late Night Open Arrangement Sessions ( 10:30pm to close ) - 6 musician spots - List opens at Doors
What you will experience…
Great Black Music Mondays are nodes of sonic spiritual nourishment and freedom - freedom of expression and creation. Freedom of form and story. Freedom within the music as a vehicle*. Freedom and rootedness - a resonance connection to sonic ancestry carving more freedom - in and out and through the mainstream of popular music, of commerce. Crafting life and fluidity to seed and deepen bonds across genres and the globe.
Join Mankwe Ndosi and Sovereign Hues Productions for Great Black Music Mondays for the Month of December at Ice House Minneapolis. Mankwe Ndosi, Curator in Residence for December’s Monday Night Jazz series will tend the deep roots of black classical cosmic sound and practice. These five nights combine the soundtracks of Black Women composers past and present, music from five different ensembles of Twin Cities’ exciting musical innovators, with late-night Open Arrangement Sessions. OAS’s (pronounced Oasisz), Ndosi’s variation of the Open Mic, where she will arrange trios from musicians who show up to play. December 23rd will feature acclaimed international cellist/composer/bandleader Tomeka Reid. Produced by Mankwe Ndosi (SY Productions) and Sovereign Hues.
*nod to Nicole Mitchell's quotation, "Jazz is a Globalized African American Freedom Vehicle.
Monday, December 23rd
The music of Betty Carter
Featured Artist Line Up:
Ocean bottom journeys
-tomeka reid
-tish jones
-douglas R. ewart
-mankwe ndosi
Tomeka Reid
Recently described as a “New Jazz Power Source” by the New York Times, cellist and composer TOMEKA REID has emerged as one of the most original, versatile, and curious musicians in Chicago’s bustling jazz and improvised music community over the last decade. Her distinctive melodic sensibility, usually braided to a strong sense of groove, has been featured in many distinguished ensembles over the years.
Reid has been a key member of ensembles led by legendary reedists like Anthony Braxton (ZIM SEXTET) and Roscoe Mitchell (ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO), as well as a younger generation of visionaries including flutist Nicole Mitchell (BLACK EARTH ENSEMBLE), singer Dee Alexander, and drummer Mike Reed. She is also a co- leader of the adventurous string trio called HEAR IN NOW, with violinist Mazz Swift and bassist Silvia Bolognesi.
Reid released her debut recording as a bandleader in 2015, with the eponymous recording by the Tomeka Reid Quartet, a lively yet charged debutalbum that is a vibrant showcase not only for the cellist’s improvisational acumen, but also her knack for dynamic arrangements and her compositional ability. Reid, grew up outside of Washington D.C., and her musical career kicked into gear after moving to Chicago in 2000. Her work with Nicole Mitchell and various Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians- related groups have proved influential.
By focusing on developing her craft primarily as a side person and working in countless improvisational contexts, Reid has achieved a stunning musical maturity. Reid is a Foundation of the Arts (2019) and 3Arts Awardee (2016), and received her doctorate in music from the University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign in 2017.
Tish Jones
Founder & Executive Director of TruArtSpeaks, Tish Jones is a poet, performer, educator and organizer from Saint Paul, Minnesota. She has performed at CBGB in New York, Kaplan Theater, The Walker Art Center, Intermedia Arts, The Cedar Cultural Center and more. Her work can be found in the Minnesota Humanities Center's anthology entitled, Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2015), the 2011 and 2013 Saint Paul Almanac, and the Loft Literary Center's Nation of Immigrants audio CD.
One of Springboard for the Arts’ 20/20 Artist Fellows and graduate fellow of the inaugural Intercultural Leadership Institute, Jones has always had a passion for bridging arts & culture, civic engagement and youth development. Former Director of the Brave New Voices international youth poetry slam festival, her work explores the ways in which art can function as a tool for social transformation, liberation and education. For more on her personal praxis in this arena, see Jones’ TEDxMinneapolis Talk on Spoken Word as a Radical Practice of Freedom.
Douglas R Ewart
The polymathic Douglas R. Ewart has been honored for his work as a composer, improvising multi-instrumentalist, conceptual artist, sculptor, mask and instrument designer, builder and more. As an educator, Ewart bridges his kaleidoscopic activities with a vision that opposes today’s divided world by culture-fusing works that aim to restore the wholeness of communities and their members, and to emphasize the reality of the world’s interdependence.
From Kingston, Jamaica, Ewart immigrated to Chicago in 1963. There he studied with the master musicians of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians—an organization he later served as chairman, at different intervals from1979-1987 and into the millennium. He also studied music at VanderCook College of Music, and electronic music at Governors State University.
Ewart is the founder of Arawak Records, is the leader of ensembles such as the Nyahbingi Drum Choir, Quasar, Clarinet Choir, and Douglas R. Ewart & Inventions. He is a designer and creator of instruments and kinetic sonic sculptures that have been exhibited in venues such as Houston’s Contemporary Arts Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry Chicago. “Crepuscule,” his vast periodic conceptual work, is collectively actualized by scores of musicians, dancers, visual artists, poets, capoeira, puppeteers, martial artists, activists, the honoring of elders and more. Ewart’s honors include a U.S. Japan Creative Arts Fellowship, a Bush Artists Fellowship, and an Outstanding Artist Award granted by a former Chicago Mayor, Harold Washington. He is a Professor Emeritus at the School of the Arts Institute of Chicago.
Please join us for this very special show!
Every monday in december 2019
Where: Icehouse - 2528 Nicollet Ave, S Minneapolis, MN 55404
How Much: $20 - Showtime begins at 8 pm
PreSale Tickets: $15 / $20 at the door through Icehouse
PreSale Start: Friday, November 15th
Late Night Open Arrangement Sessions ( 10:30pm to close ) - 6 musician spots - List opens at Doors
What you will experience…
Great Black Music Mondays are nodes of sonic spiritual nourishment and freedom - freedom of expression and creation. Freedom of form and story. Freedom within the music as a vehicle*. Freedom and rootedness - a resonance connection to sonic ancestry carving more freedom - in and out and through the mainstream of popular music, of commerce. Crafting life and fluidity to seed and deepen bonds across genres and the globe.
Join Mankwe Ndosi and Sovereign Hues Productions for Great Black Music Mondays for the Month of December at Ice House Minneapolis. Mankwe Ndosi, Curator in Residence for December’s Monday Night Jazz series will tend the deep roots of black classical cosmic sound and practice. These five nights combine the soundtracks of Black Women composers past and present, music from five different ensembles of Twin Cities’ exciting musical innovators, with late-night Open Arrangement Sessions. OAS’s (pronounced Oasisz), Ndosi’s variation of the Open Mic, where she will arrange trios from musicians who show up to play. December 23rd will feature acclaimed international cellist/composer/bandleader Tomeka Reid. Produced by Mankwe Ndosi (SY Productions) and Sovereign Hues.
*nod to Nicole Mitchell's quotation, "Jazz is a Globalized African American Freedom Vehicle.
Monday, December 30th
The music of abbey lincoln
Featured Artist Line Up:
give get sistet
-sarah m. greer
-jayanthi rajasa
-alicia steele
-mankwe ndosi
The Give Get Sistet
The Give Get Sistet is an expandable improvisational chorus of women based in the Twin Cities with ties around the world. As women of African descent, the members of the Give Get Sistet have a visceral understanding of the power of music to engage, empower, heal, and transform. www.givegetsistet.com
This is all vocal show will truly be stupendous! Don’t miss our big close out of the year show!