Ursula Rucker

Monday - July 18
Xxodus Café @ The Providence Black Repertory Company
10:30 pm

Ursula Rucker redefines spoken word with her trademark socio-political urgency and sweet “song-speak,” kicking knowledge on everything from womanhood to slavery, love, sexism, politics and more. Her two acclaimed albums, Supa Sista and Silver or Lead feature melodic, hypnotic, and head-bobbing poetry. Rucker has also been featured in the album-ending slot on The Roots first three studio LP’s. Drawing on influences from Black Arts Movement activist poet and icon Sonia Sanchez, to Frida Kahlo, Zora Neale Hurston, and even Prince, the Temple University Journalism graduate balances motherhood, activism and artistry with aplomb. With her rhythmic stories of struggle, she’s never preachy. She’s transfixed audiences from Tokyo to Capetown alongside the likes of Gil Scott-Heron, Mos Def, Macy Gray and even the late great Nina Simone. When Ursula – timid at first – grips the microphone tightly, all ears hone in.  Her words are power.

Listen to Ursula Rucker

www.ursula-rucker.com

Noble Society

Tuesday - July 19
Xxodus Café @ The Providence Black Repertory Company
9:30 pm

The group blends the sounds of Hip-Hop with the hypnotic vocal delivery of dancehall reggae and the spectacular showmanship of a live ensemble. Formed in 1999, the group consists of a unique musical union between two vocalists and three instrumentalists. Each member’s diversity, and New York’s genre-defying melting pot, has helped forge this truly original and untamed sound. The band has toured in Europe and has brought their explosive stage show to packed venues in New York City, including regular shows at west-village mainstay the Lion’s Den, world music mecca S.O.B’s and Brooklyn’s Five Spot. Noble Society’s EP “Word to the Wise” on O+ Recordings, is currently in stores.

Listen to Noble Society

www.oplus.net/noblesocietyhome.html

Osmany Paredes

Wednesday - July 20
Xxodus Café @ The Providence Black Repertory Company
8:30 pm

Though a new addition to the U.S. music scene, Osmany Paredes has been an internationally active and acclaimed pianist and composer for a number of years. Originally from Santa Clara, Cuba, the artist recently called Mexico home while accumulating an impressive portfolio of performances and recordings. A graduate of the esteemed National School of Music in Havana, he has appeared at the renowned Havana Jazz Plaza Festival, and worked or recorded with a number of Latin American music legends. Osmany Paredes has performed in numerous music festivals in Mexico as well as the Caracas and Trujillo Jazz Festivals in Venezuela. Paredes has also made appearances in Austria, Germany, and Colombia. Since moving to the Boston area, Osmany Paredes has been featured in many well-known clubs in Boston and Providence, performing with David Murray and Grupo Chekere. Recently, he also appeared with the Yosvany Terry Quintet at the Zinc Bar in New York City.

www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=4817

Edwin Pabon

Wednesday - July 20
Xxodus Café @ The Providence Black Repertory Company
10:30 pm

Edwin Pabon & Orchestra consists of twelve members. Fronting the orchestra is Edwin and the Salsa Mix Dancers. Edwin performs all the lead vocals of the band, while the Salsa Mix Dancers and members of the percussion section provide chorus vocals. The Orchestra is divided into three sections: the brass section (two trombones and two trumpets); the percussion section (congas, timbales, bongos, and piano); and the string section (electric and baby bass). Edwin Pabon & Orchestra perform a wide range of music. While audiences usually demand salsa and merengue, the Orchestra also plays mambos, cha-cha, and boleros. In the last decade, Edwin and the Orchestra have performed throughout the East Coast, as far north as Canada, at concerts, festivals and other community events, dances, weddings, nightclubs, colleges, and on television programs.

Tortured Soul

Thursday - July 21
Xxodus Café @ The Providence Black Repertory Company
10:30 pm

Tortured Soul was conceived in May 2001 by drummer, singer, and songwriter Christian Urich - known in the world of house and R&B as founder and leader of the band Cooly's Hot Box.  Included in the group are Ethan White and bassist Jason Kriveloff. White's style is rhythmic and soulful, blending his background in jazz with Brazilian pop, African rhythms, and 70's R&B. Conservatory-trained bassist Kriveloff lays down Tortured Soul's tight and jazzy bottom end. Tortured Soul is music that will move you. It's a new concept in the world of house music: it's live – no DJ’s, no loops, no sequencers. The instrumentation is simple and organic - drums, electric bass, vintage keys, and soulful vocals. Tortured Soul filters club sounds like Afro Beat and Samba through a lens of jazzy House and American Soul to reflect intense grooves evocative of Jamiroquai, Stevie Wonder, The New Deal, and Fela Kuti.

Listen to Tortured Soul

www.torturedsoulmusic.com

Roy Ayers

Friday - July 22
Waterplace Park
7:30 pm

Roy Ayers is an influential jazz musician who has been recording and performing around the world for over four decades. He has released more than forty albums and has had several songs on the British Charts. He has been called the father of acid jazz and neo-soul.  Ayers has been sampled on the albums of many of today’s well-known musicians. These include artists such as Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu, The Notorious BIG, Puff Daddy, A Tribe Called Quest, Big Daddy Kana, X-Clan, and Brand Nubian. Over the years Roy Ayers has won numerous awards for his contributions to music, has been given keys to U.S. cities for his service to local communities, and is constantly striving to help the youth, particularly within the black sector.

 www.royayers.com

Thomas Mapfumo

Friday - July 22
Waterplace Park
9 pm

Honored with a Master's Degree in Music from the University of Zimbabwe, Artist of the Year from the American World Music Awards in 1999, a PhD in Music from Ohio University and Zimbabwe's Person of the Century in the Art's Award in 2000, Thomas' achievements continue to grow.  His powerful and outspoken Afropop has won the hearts and souls of thousands of Zimbabweans, as well as earning him a renegade status with Zimbabwe’s government.  His words are vibrant and spirited, commanding messages of freedom and social protest, and making him better known than the country’s president.  Mapfumo gives his audience the chance to speak, sing, and move freely.  This new millennium finds Thomas Mapfumo an international force in World Music, still composing, recording, performing and touring unceasingly, and destined to live in every African Music Hall of Fame worldwide.

Bahamadia

Friday - July 22
Xxodus Café @ The Providence Black Repertory Company
10:30 pm

Bahamadia rose to prominence on the hip-hop scene as the female protégée of Gang Starr's Guru, and lent her smooth-flowing raps to a variety of projects during the late '90s, including several electronica and acid jazz artists. She made her first recordings with producer/radio personality DJ Ran, who helmed her independent 1993 single "Funk Vibe". "Funk Vibe" caught the attention of Gang Starr MC Guru, who took an interest in Bahamadia's career and helped her get a record deal. Her first singles, 1994's "Total Wreck" and 1995's "Uknowhowwedu," were well received in the underground for their jazzy flavor and laid-back raps. The full-length LP Kollage followed in 1996, and featured production by Guru and DJ Premier of Gang Starr, as well as fellow Philly natives the Roots. She has made a string of musically adventurous guest appearances that solidified her underground reputation, including the Roots "Push up Ya Lighter.” In 2000, she signed with the L.A.-based indie Goodvibe and released the chilled-out seven-track EP BB Queen (as in "beautiful black"), which received excellent reviews.

Listen to Bahamadia

www.vh1.com/artists/az/bahamadia/bio.jhtml

Othello Molineaux

Saturday - July 23
Waterplace Park
5 pm

In 1988, OthelloMolineaux was acclaimed "Trinidad's greatest musical ambassador" by a leading newspaper from Trinidad and Tobago. This professional steel-drummer began playing the steel drums when he was ten years old. He organized his steel band "The Wonder Harps" at age 15, and has been an arranger of steel band music for more than 30 years.

Listen to Othello Molineaux

Emeline Michel

Saturday - July 23
Waterplace Park
6 pm

She has earned the title of “Reigning Queen of Haitian song” as a captivating performer, versatile vocalist, accomplished dancer, songwriter, and a producer. She combines traditional rhythms with social, political and inspirational content. Having worked with several record labels in France, Canada, and the U.S., she currently runs her own production company, Production Cheval du Feu. Emeline’s record released in 2000, Cordes etAme, became the fastest selling recording in Haiti and received Haiti’s “Musique En Folie” awards for Best Haitian Album and Best Production for the year 2000.

Listen to Emeline Michel

www.emeline-michel.com

Ron Carter

Saturday - July 23
Waterplace Park
7:30 pm

Carter is among the most original, prolific, and influential bassists in jazz. With more than 2,500 albums to his credit, he has recorded with many of music's greats: Tommy Flanagan, Gil Evans, Lena Horne, Bill Evans, B.B. King, the Kronos Quartet, Dexter Gordon, Wes Montgomery, and Bobby Timmons. He has performed throughout the United States in concert halls and nightclubs with Jaki Byard and Eric Dolphy, and in Europe with Cannonball Adderley. For several years, he was a member of the classic and acclaimed Miles Davis Quintet, has been named Outstanding Bassist of the Decade by the Detroit News, Jazz Bassist of the Year by Downbeat magazine, and Most Valuable Player by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. In 1993 Ron Carter earned a Grammy award for Best Jazz Instrumental Group, the Miles Davis Tribute Band and another Grammy in 1998 for Call 'Sheet Blues', an instrumental composition from the film 'Round Midnight. In addition to scoring and arranging music for many films, including some projects for Public Broadcasting System, Carter has composed music for A Gathering of Old Men, The Passion of Beatrice, and Blind Faith. Carter shares his expertise in the series of books, among which are Building Jazz Bass Lines and The Music of Ron Carter.

www.roncarter.net

Yerba Buena

Saturday - July 23
Waterplace Park
9 pm

Yerba Buena is an exciting band that presents a unique New York fusion of African-rooted Latin music (Cuban rumba, Colombian cumbia, Pan-Caribbean solca, and Nuyorican boogaloo) with hip-hop, Motown soul, Nigerian Afrobeat and a dash of Middle Eastern themes.  Yerba Buena is led by acclaimed producer Andres Levin and includes principal vocalist Xiomara Laugart, Percussionist Pedrito Martinez, the St. Thomas-born horn duo of Ron Blake (Saxophone, Flute) & Rashawn Ross (Trumpet, Vocals) and vocalists CuCu Diamantes & “El Chino”.

www.yerbabuenamusic.com

Utopia Pan Soul

Saturday - July 23
The PEDP Westminster Encore Stage
10 pm

Utopia Pan Soul The Next Generation is committed to the promotion,
development and further research of the steel pan and its music. Within
Utopia?s family we are blessed with a unique group of musicians (both male
and female) which allows us to introduce different genres of music and
poetry to our more traditional style of calypso and soca music. We also
see the extreme need and importance of passing on this very intelligent art
form with whomever comes in contact with our group in the form of music
theory; steel pan history, tuning and other areas as it applies to this art
form.

Presently our performing group consist of 13 musicians which allows us to
be very flexible at times. From a soloist duet performance to a quintet
etc.

The sky is the limit for Utopia. It gives us great pleasure to be a part of
this show for a second year and we hope that our musical presence which
transcend a special kind of tonality that is soothing to ones mind is
appreciated and accepted by all.

Ogans

Saturday - July 23
Xxodus Café @ The Providence Black Repertory Company
10 pm

Ogans, an eleven-piece Brazilian band based in NYC, is made up of world-class musicians playing Afro-Brazilian rhythms and a mix of Brazilian pop and samba, funk, hip-hop, reggae, salsa, and merengue. The band consists of percussion, drums, guitars, bass, keyboard and vocals. Ogans brings to the stage the rhythms of the ecstatic Carnaval of Bahia, playing an impressive variety of music. They perform the music of Brazilian icons like Carlinhos Brown, Caetano and Gil, Olodum and Timbalada, in addition to their own compositions. Ogans was founded by Marivaldo dos Santos and Davi Vieira, two experienced performers who have traveled the world with several Brazilian groups, dancing, playing percussion, and performing Capoeira. They also perform with the hit off-Broadway percussion sensation STOMP. They play regularly at the SOB’s, a top world music club in New York City and in national and international festivals. The group has released a Brazilian hip-hop CD and music video under the name MD MCs (EMI), and appears on the Tommy Boy compilation CD Planet Rap.

Listen to Ogans

ganzae.com/3.html