Miya Masaoka – Koto
Larry Ochs – Saxophones
Xu Fengxia – Guzheng, Voice
Sylvain Kassap – Clarinets
Didier Petit – Cello
The EAST-WEST COLLECTIVE will commence its première tour of North America on June 14 at the Vision Festival in New York. Sponsored in part by a generous grant from the French American Jazz Exchange, the Collective’s tour continues to Chicago, San Francisco Bay Area (including a recording session), Seattle and Vancouver where it will end at the prestigious Vancouver Jazz Festival on June 23.** We feel that the music we are beginning to develop seeks to retain the integrity of each player’s sound and background while integrating the various qualities of the instruments into a special collective sound-world. The particular sounds of Eastern instruments, and particular traditions of Japan and China, and the European classical instruments of the cello and clarinets, and the tradition of the saxophone in the United States: each has a rich palette of its own. But with the decades of performer-experience in this band, The East-West Collective is already delivering music at a high level, and we look forward to further developing this music on tour in 2013. The East-West Collective was created by cellist Didier Petit during the French May Festival in Hong Kong in 2005, but as a trio, expanding to the current quintet in France in April 2012.
** Please note that this will be the only concert where the quintet performs together. The five musicians will also take part in the “Garden of Memory” event at Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland on June 21st, but there as individuals, not as quintet.
